The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

DAYTON­-The latest Art Event at Wenaha Gallery is a tribute to the late co-owner of the gallery, Ed Harri. His wife Pat continues to as sole owner of the Dayton gallery.

Harri grew up in Dayton and saw a much different Dayton than we see today. One of these differences was Pool's car dealership, located at the corner of Front and Main Streets.

Ed would stop at Pool's to look at cars and talk to the dealers on his way to and from school. All his life, he found going to car dealerships relaxing. When he was a law student in Salem, Pat recalls that he would walk among the cars just to relax and de-stress. He didn't have to buy the cars; he just wanted to be around them. An avid reader and questioner, the young Ed often knew more about the cars than the dealers at Pool's did.

When Harri passed away in March 2020, he left behind an extensive collection of car-related items, including die-cast collector cars, assembled model car kits (as a child, he put together more than 600 model cars), unassembled kits, promotional car brochures from the 1950s and 60s, and an extensive library of coffee-table books on classic cars of the 1950s through the 1970s.

This latter is the focus of the Art Event, which runs from March 29 through April 25, and we are calling it the Ed Harri Classic Car Book Collection. Pat is making available the many, many volumes in Ed's collection with the hope that they will find their way into the homes of enthusiasts who, like Ed, appreciate the design and beauty of Corvettes, Cadillacs, Camaros, Porsches, muscle cars, and more.

The gallery is located at 219 E. Main, Dayton, and is open Monday-Friday from 9-5.