Pop's Cottage at Beverly Beach
Orlando O."Pop"--Voss, born April 21, 1885, in Wausau, Wisconsin, moved at a young age to Forest Grove, Oregon. He married Sarah Jane "Jennie Maude" Collins, born August 16, 1884, in Goshen, Oregon. They spent most of their married life in Portland, raised 2 sons and 5 daughters. Grandchildren remember the place on Johnson Creek Boulevard, the stainless steel bread drawer that kept Grandma’s daily baked sourdough biscuits, and the creek, with crawdads under every other rock.
Pop, a railroad car man by profession, was also an accomplished carpenter. Being ambidextrous helped—he could saw and hammer equally well with both hands. In his 70s, he decided to move to the coast. He and Grandma spent months canvassing the Oregon coastline, finally choosing the lot on the bluff at Beverly Beach. At the age of 75, Pop, with Grandma’s help, built the cottage. They had most of a decade together there. Pop died in 1968. Grandma never learned to drive, but with frequent family visits and the devotion of her dog, Lady, she enjoyed several more years there. At age 89, she moved to a daughter’s home in Portland. She lived to 102.
Grandma and Pop’s daughter and her husband, Eldora and Vern Lowry, purchased the cottage from Grandma. Aside from a short time when their daughter Mary lived there, they rented out the cottage. In 1982, Vern, then residing in Sandpoint, Idaho, lamented the hassles of absentee property management to his son, John, who proposed changing to a vacation rental, thus permitting family use. Vern and Eldora had no interest in such a venture, readily sold the place to John and his wife, Lucy.
Since 1983, our second year, the logs have chronicled the joys of visitors. Many put Beverly Beach on their annual "must do" lists.