No Nails, All Craft: Historic Cabinet finds home at St. Pete’s

Widge Johnson stands next to the doll house / cabinet handcrafted in the 1870s and later gifted to her alma mater St. Mary’s Academy which once stood on Third Street in The Dalles.

By Tom Peterson

THE DALLES, Ore., Dec. 12, 2025 — A hand-crafted cabinet dating back more than 150 years has returned to Old St. Peter’s Landmark, bringing a tangible piece of The Dalles’ Catholic school history back to its original neighborhood.

The cabinet was constructed by Julius Velarde in the 1870s for his daughter, Delphine Velarde. Former St. Mary’s Academy student Widge Johnson said the piece was originally built as a dollhouse and was handmade.

Everything you’re seeing was shaped through patience, precision and repeat handling of simple tools. Here’s how Velara likely made these shapes:

The pierced panels and repeating patterns were created using hand-cut fretwork. After laying out the design directly on the wood with pencil or chalk, the craftsman would drill small starter holes and thread a thin coping saw or fret saw blade through the openings. Each curve and interior cut was slowly sawn by hand, turning the wood repeatedly to follow the pattern. This is especially evident in the tight interior corners and symmetrical flourishes that show no burn marks or machine chatter.

“It was handmade. No nails,” Johnson said.

Johnson said the cabinet was crafted from mahogany and maple and featured intricate handwork. She said the cabinet originally included carved furniture pieces that were used with the dollhouse.

Delphine Velarde later willed the cabinet to St. Mary’s Academy, a Catholic boarding school that once stood across the street at the current location of Hatt’s Fuel Stop. The cabinet was housed in the parlor of the convent at the school.

Johnson said she first saw the cabinet as an elementary student while visiting the convent with her father, Victor Wolf, a carpenter who was called in to do work at the school.

St. Mary’s Academy on Third Street downtown to the right before it was demolished. St. Peter’s Landmark with its iconic steeple sits across the street and to the east.

St. Mary’s Academy was torn down in the mid-1960s as the Catholic Church worked toward relocating to its current site at the intersection of 10th Street and Cherry Heights Road. Before the school was demolished and the bricks were sold to fund the new school on 10th, the cabinet was moved to the Fort Dalles Museum for safe keeping

Johnson said the cabinet was recently returned as the museum narrows its curation to items more directly connected to the military history of the site.

“We would really like to know more about the builder Velarde,” Johnson said, noting people can reach out to the Landmark if they have more information.

St. Peter’s Landmark volunteer Alan Eagy said the organization quickly agreed to accept the cabinet when the museum contacted them about placing it in a location more closely tied to its original history.

“They moved it here on Oct. 21,” Eagy said, noting great care was taken in handling the fragile piece

Eagy said volunteers carefully transported the approximately 155-year-old cabinet to the sacristy, the room behind the altar at Old St. Peter’s Landmark.

“This is a real treasure,” Johnson said. “It is lovely to have it back in the right neighborhood.”