'Everything I want': 89-year-old has lived most of his life in First Addition home

When asked about whether he would ever leave his home on Eighth Street in the First Addition neighborhood of Lake Oswego, Richard DeChaine quickly said he would not.

The 89-year-old resident was born in that house, has lived there most of his life and he intends to stay there for his remaining days.

“I have everything I want here,” he said. “I would hate to have to move.”

In his time, DeChaine has seen extensive change in Lake Oswego — including an increase in density, development and property values.

He hails from the Vose family, which moved to Lake Oswego from Michigan in the early 20th century and was a key family in the community including within the school system (DeChaine’s mother’s uncle Burget Vose was the principal of Oswego Grade School and Irma Vose taught at Oswego Primary School), local groups and in terms of property development.

DeChaine’s home on Eighth Street was built in 1931 and he and two younger brothers and sisters were born there. Horses were actually used to dig the house’s foundation and mules were brought in to finish the job.

Growing up, DeChaine said there was a gravel road in front of the house where a paved street sits now. He was surrounded by some neighbors but also vacant lots where he and his brothers and friends would play baseball. Sports were a staple of his childhood; his ability to play was hindered — but not diminished — when buckshots lodged into his ankle after a mole trap triggered the firing of a 12-gauge shotgun in his neighbor’s yard.

DeChaine’s grandfather raised cows at the Johnson barn on Fifth Street while his uncle built a building on A Avenue in downtown and DeChaine recalled helping him paint new developments. He also served as a newspaper delivery boy in the neighborhood.

As Lake Oswego High School didn’t open until 1950, DeChaine spent his first couple years of high school at West Linn High School and, once the Lake Oswego school opened, he served as the de facto wrestling coach for the Lakers team and also played for the school’s first football team (he has a fond memory of racing 72 yards for a touchdown after catching an interception).

“I wrestled for West Linn and went to state. I wanted to wrestle (at Lake Oswego High) and was told if I could get a team going they would arrange schedules for us, but I had to coach them,” DeChaine said.

DeChaine went on to become a semi-professional baseball umpire in the Georgia-Florida League and then served as a missionary for the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Vermont and Wyoming for five years and worked at the group’s world headquarters in Brooklyn, New York. He met his wife of 60 years, Joanne DeChaine, at the world headquarters.

The DeChaines moved to First Addition while Joanne was pregnant with their daughter Elise. They made little money as missionaries and needed a place to raise her. They have lived in the home since 1970. Elise and the Deschaines’ three grandchildren also attended, or are going to attend, Lake Oswego High.

“We needed a place to go. We came home and lived in the house next door. Mom still owned (this) house so we ended up buying it back from her,” DeChaine said, adding that they’ve remodeled the place since.

DeChaine became a meter reader and eventually developed and then sold the company Meter Readers. Despite his advanced age, he still manages the Skylands Water Company and is a consultant for the Glenmorrie Cooperative Association. And he is a member of the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses on Southwest Boones Ferry Road.

DeChaine said he loves the snow-capped mountains in Oregon and to be reminded of childhood memories here in Lake Oswego. He said the biggest change from his youth to now is that he doesn’t know his neighbors as well as he used to and there is more turnover in the area.

“You get to know them, but no one seems to stay around that long,” he said. Nevertheless, DeChaine has family close by as his brother, Dean Deschaine, lives on Country Club Road and his cousin also lives in First Addition.

DeChaine noted the increase in real estate values locally but said he wasn’t surprised because it’s such a nice community. For his part, he is comfortable and content in the house he was born in.

“It’s been my home,” he said. “I have had the chance of traveling and I am an Oregonian.”