May 2011 Historic Preservationindex
Lady in a dryer 2 Sucker Creek 3 did you know?3
Book That Built 2 The Gas House 3 Glorified Dogs 4
Who Was Hilgard?2 From Bricks to Bats 3 Place to Park 4
The Last Belluschi 2 Storrs, Houses, School 3 Poor, Little Rich Girl 4
SPeCiaL THankS
Special thanks to Marylou
Colver for researching and
writing this publication to
celebrate National Historic
Preservation Month.
Additional research by Erin
O’Rourke-Meadors.
Copyright by Marylou Colver.
COnTaCT uS
City of Lake Oswego
PO Box 369
380 a avenue
Lake Oswego, Oregon, 97034
bhirshberger@ci.oswego.or.us
503-675-3992
www.ci.oswego.or.us
Sunday, May 1, 2011
History snippets
naTiOnaL HiSTORiC PReSeRvaTiOn MOnTH
Unless otherwise noted, the photos used in this publication are from the Lake Oswego
Public Library collection online at www.ci.oswego.or.us/library/special/History.htm.
PHOTOS
Honk if you’re enlisted
the war ended in 1945, the
subscriber list had reached one
hundred.
A hand-drawn cartoon of a duck
in flight served as the masthead.
The newsletter was reproduced
on an antiquated hectograph,
a form of duplication that
preceded photocopying
machines. Hectographs were
also known as “jellygraphs”
because they used gelatin in
the print process and are still
used today to make temporary
tattoos.
The homespun content was
written entirely by Truchot.
News tidbits included the
opening of a new shoe shop,
the progress of Oregon war
bond sales, births, marriages,
and names of soldiers home
on leave. These glimpses of
hometown life hopefully
transported local soldiers away
from the realities of war for a
brief “visit” back home. The
subject matter and the hand-
drawn cartoons, however,
prompted one soldier to note,
“Iowa isn’t the only place one
finds corn.”
Amid gas rationing, the
blackout ordinance, drives for
paper, aluminum, and tin cans,
Theresa Truchot, an Oswego
art and music teacher who
later became a local historian,
aided the war effort in her
own unique way. In the 1940s
she published a newsletter
for servicemen from the Lake
Oswego area humorously
entitled, The Oswego Honk.
Truchot recalled, “When I
sent this newsletter about
Oswego, I thought that the most
appropriate name for it would
be The Honk. We were blessed
with many ducks and mallards
and little ones down on the
Duck Pond [Lakewood Bay].”
The first issue is dated
September 29, 1942 and it states
that it will be “Published when
convenient.” Instructions to the
recipients include, “When you
receive this, read it if possible,
then mail it to the next victim
on the list.” The wartime
postage for soldiers in combat
zones was free so Truchot relied
on this to encourage round-
robin circulation. Before
We Can do it!
When the photo above was taken
in 1916, the area around the
abandoned iron furnace had not
yet become a dumping ground.
It’s difficult to see, but there are
Snider’s pork ears and catsup
advertisements affixed to either
side of the arch.
A British patent was issued for
the tin can in 1810. This was an
innovation in food preservation,
but empty cans subsequently
posed a problem. In 1936, a
headline in The Lake Oswego
Review noted: “Old tin cans a
menace to health.” The article
states, “The City of Oswego
does not have a dumping
ground and we have heard
that the old furnace down by
the river is being used for that
purpose. We are also informed
by the Ladd Estate Company
that the above mentioned
place should not be used in
this manner. There is a garbage
collector who will call at your
door.” Officers of the law were
on the alert for those who
tossed tin cans on Oswego’s
highways and byways.
The same year, on Twin Fir
Road in Lake Grove, it was
reported that Mr. Peterson
invented a novel solution
to the problem of disposing
of tin cans; he used them
to build a root cellar. Root
cellars were commonly
constructed completely or
partially underground so the
lower temperature and steady
humidity would help preserve
root vegetables such as potatoes,
carrots, and turnips. Cellars
were typically built of stone,
On February 24, 1935 it
was reported in the Oswego
Review that Harold Pierce
Davidson and his wife, Leona,
moved from one of the oldest
houses in Old Town Oswego,
to their brand-new home
on Lake Front Road. The
home was equipped with all
of the modern conveniences,
including an “electric pig” for
the disposal of garage. For the
time, this was an avant-garde
appliance. Although the first
An Electric Pig in the Kitchen
garbage disposal was invented
in 1927, the invention didn’t
gain widespread popularity in
American homes until the 1970s
and 1980s.
The intent of the building
contractor, Ray Wason, was to
provide unrestricted views from
almost every part of the home.
Wason came from Massachusetts
and his father was prominent
in the field of concrete
construction. The Streamline
Local legend has it that there is a direct connection between the
construction of the Elk Rock Tunnel and an Oswego resident. At
the time the tunnel was built in 1921, Mrs. Lawrence Newlands,
whose full name was “Winewood Machar Fraser Newlands,” was
the wife of the Vice President and Manager of Oswego’s Oregon
Portland Cement Company. The Newlands lived on Furnace Street
in the Old Town neighborhood. Sallie Pettinger, a friend and
neighbor of Mrs. Newlands, recalled that in 1919, “I happened
to be riding to Portland with Mrs. Ella [sic] C. Newlands, wife
of the president [sic] of Oswego Cement Company [sic]. A rock
of considerable size [actually a 500 pound boulder] from the Elk
Rock bluff crashed through the top of the coach, inflicting a cut
on Mrs. Newland’s forehead, a cut requiring several stitches.” An
added detail can be found on several websites that state, “It is said
that she [Mrs. Newlands] had to wear a wig for some time after the
accident.” The source of the latter information remains elusive.
Falling rocks on this section of the trestle were a chronic problem
Moving Heaven and Earth
On Sunday May 18, 1980 Mt. St. Helens, a volcano in southern
Washington, literally blew its top or perhaps that should be blew
“her” top. In Native American legend, the brothers Wy’east and
Klickitat both fell in love with a beautiful maiden named Loowit.
The brothers fought over her and wreaked so much havoc that the
gods punished the trio by turning them into Mount Hood, Mount
Adams, and Mount St. Helens.
When the volcano erupted many townspeople went to the top of
Mountain Park or Skylands to watch the eruption. Ash blanketed
Lake Oswego and, of course, made national news. The Pittsburgh
Press reported, “The southern border of the ash fallout was placed
at Lake Oswego, Ore., 70 miles
southwest of the mountain. It
extended another 55 miles west
of Lake Oswego to Tillamook
on the Oregon coast then to
Astoria, Ore., 65 miles north of
Tillamook.”
Jack Walsdorf, Vice-President
of Sales, at Blackwell North
America in Lake Oswego turned
the event into a marketing
opportunity for the British-
based bookseller. Bags of ash
were distributed at the 1980
American Library Association
summer conference and mailed
to Blackwell’s customers with a
promotional sheet including the
message: “We move the earth
for you.”
Children in Lake Oswego had to
wear masks as protection from ash
so they could play outdoors. Photo
courtesy of Kendall Wilson.
The hand-drawn masthead of The Oswego Honk.
The Streamline Moderne style Davidson House (demolished)
on Lake Front Road. Photo courtesy of Marylou Colver.
continued on page 2
continued on page 3
The Wig of the Bigwig’s Wife?
continued on page 4
A stock certificate for the Oregon Iron & Steel
Company; Villard was a major investor.
Who Was Ferdinand Heinrich Gustav Hilgard?
The Book That Built the Library
Mary Goodall (left) presenting a check for $2,800 for the library building fund
from sales of Oregon’s Iron Dream to Bea Silvander and Isabel Stidd.
The Belluschi designed Sacred Heart School was
renamed Our Lady of the Lake School in 1951.
The Last Belluschi
Pietro Belluschi, born in
Ancona, Italy and educated in
Rome, was Dean of Architecture
at Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT) School of
Architecture and Planning
from 1951 to 1965. He was also
the renowned architect of the
Julliard School of Music in New
York City, St. Mary’s Cathedral
in San Francisco, the Portland
Art Museum and many other
significant buildings. Belluschi
immigrated to Portland as a
young man and apprenticed at
the firm of A. E. Doyle. In a
career spanning fifty years, he
designed over 1,000 buildings.
Belluschi is credited, along with
John Yeon, with creating the
Northwest Style of architecture.
The world-famous Belluschi
designed at least three buildings
in Lake Oswego -- a school, a
house, and a church. Of the
three, one remains in place,
another is slated for demolition,
and the third, through private
efforts, has been deconstructed
and stored for eventual
relocation. The Sacred Heart
(now Our Lady of the Lake)
School, designed by Belluschi
in 1949, will be demolished
to make way for a new school
building once the funds can
be raised for its replacement.
Current plans do not call for
deconstruction so much of
the salvageable architectural
elements may be trucked to a
landfill.
The Griffith House designed
in 1949 for Arthur and Lucy
Griffith was originally located
on the corner of Pine Valley
Road and Iron Mountain
Boulevard. The house was
a small, residential jewel
sited both to blend in with
and to take advantage of the
wooded setting. Through the
preservation efforts of Tim
Mather, President of MCM
Construction, the house has
been saved and is on track to be
reconstructed on Lake Oswego’s
Marylhurst University campus.
At the age of 91, Belluschi did
the drawings for Our Savior’s
Lutheran Church on Country
Club Road. The church was
built in 1994, the same year
that Belluschi passed away. This
was the last of more than 30
churches Belluschi designed.
The church is soon to be the
only Belluschi building in Lake
Oswego that remains on its
original site.
Usually libraries are built for
books. In the case of Oswego,
it was a book that helped build
the library. Civic leader, Mary
Goodall, donated proceeds from
her 1958 history of Oswego
entitled Oregon’s Iron Dream
to the Friends of the Library
for construction of the Lake
Oswego Public Library on 4th
Street that preceded the current
structure. In addition to her
efforts on behalf of the library,
Mary Goodall:
• Founded the Oswego
Heritage Council in 1970 in
an effort to save the historic
J. R. Irving house
• Saved the giant sequoia at
the corner of 5th Street and
A Avenue that now serves as
the City’s holiday tree
• Helped preserve the historic
Peg Tree in Oswego’s Old
Town
• Served on the Lake Oswego
City Council for eight years
• Planted flowering trees
along the south side of
Country Club Road
• Helped preserve the Iron
Furnace in George Rogers
Park
• Served as honorary trustee
of the Lake Oswego Junior
Historical Society
• Helped found the Lake
Oswego Festival of the Arts
• Sponsored the first
ordinance to protect our
urban forest
On May 6, 1989, two months
before her death, a stroke had
made it difficult for her to write,
but she scrawled a note to the
Lake Oswego Development
Review Commission regarding
an upcoming hearing on the
Pfeifer Pony Farm in the Holly
Orchard neighborhood. The
note reads, “I am writing to ask
you to deny action on the Pfeifer
Pony Farm property for historic
reasons. Wish I could list them
but it’s a terrible effort to write
since my stroke. I now live in a
foster home/small rest home.
Please don’t let our history slip
away.” It is signed Mary Goodall
Ramsey former resident and
member City Council. At the
bottom of the note she scrawled:
“I love L.O.” Unfortunately
the Pfeifer Pony Farm land and
the magnificent clear fir barn
on the historic J. W. and Metta
(Kruse) Stone property were lost
to a housing development. Mary
Goodall, until the very end of
her life, fought to preserve the
history of the city she so dearly
loved.
Feared and well-studied, polio gripped the nation in the 1940s and
1950s. Worries caused by this frighteningly random disease were put
to rest thanks to Jonas Salk’s development of the polio vaccine in
1955. Today there are few instances of the infectious poliomyelitis
disease in developed nations. According to Joan Fewless Quigley, it
was quite a different story 70 years ago. In a reminiscence entitled,
Ripples on the Lake, Quigley says, “In 1943 through 1946 the polio
epidemic hit. No more gathering at the park to swim and no more
going to the crowded movie theater in Oswego. Needless to say, our
social lives were definitely curtailed. That was nothing compared to
the deep sadness we felt for the families who were affected by the
epidemic in our Lake Grove area. Frequently, a classmate would be
absent for a few weeks, then return with braces on their legs and
crutches for walking. Some of our classmate’s families suffered the
death of a sibling. [Note: The Oregon State Board of Health records
on infectious diseases for this period do not indicate as high an
incidence of polio as recollected.]” Quigley continues, “As an adult,
I lived in the town of Oswego, on a street where there were five
houses with iron lungs in the front windows. There were generators
on the front lawns, and if the electricity went out in the area, the
volunteer firemen would arrive at assigned locations, and pump the
generators by hand until electricity was restored. My child, on her
way home from kindergarten, came in and told me, ‘There’s a lady
up the street who lives in a dryer’!”
There’s a Lady Living in a Dryer
The first grade class at Lake Grove School in
1948, during the era of the polio epidemic.
In 1882, financiers Henry
Villard and Simeon Reed
purchased the Oswego Iron
Company. The company’s
new name, Oregon Iron &
Steel, reflected the change in
ownership and the addition of
steel products. Villard’s primary
interest was in building the
Northern Pacific Railroad, a
transcontinental line to connect
Chicago with Seattle. The
iron industry could provide
rails for the undertaking and
could subsequently distribute
iron nation wide. Villard’s
detractors did not like his tactic
of buying the competition to
create a monopoly. Villard was
singularly undeterred. In 1883,
Ulysses S. Grant drove the
“golden spike” that completed
the line. This transcontinental
route eventually helped change
the face of the nation, but the
iron industry in Oswego was
shuttered by 1894.
Villard was born in 1835
in Bavaria under the name
Ferdinand Heinrich Gustav
Hilgard. At the age of 18,
without his parent’s consent or
knowledge, he immigrated to
the United States and changed
his name to “Henry Villard.”
In his first career as a journalist
he covered Abraham Lincoln’s
1860 presidential campaign.
As a war correspondent,
he covered the American
Civil War and the Austro-
Prussian War. These first-hand
battle experiences prompted
Villard to become a pacifist.
He married Helen Frances
“Fanny” Garrison, a suffragist
and a founding member of
the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored
People (NAACP), the oldest
civil rights organization in the
United States. Among his other
accomplishments, he owned
the New York Evening Post and
The Nation and he was the
first major benefactor of the
University of Oregon. At the
end of his life Villard wrote his
memoirs with the proviso that
they not be published for 25
years. Villard died in 1900 and
they were published in 1904.
An Electric Pig in the Kitchen ... continued from pg 1
Moderne style house was built of steel, glass, and vibrated concrete. Vibrating was a technique used to
remove air pockets from concrete slabs or units. This building material was appropriate for Davidson,
an employee of the Oregon Portland Cement Company for forty years. The ship-like lines of the house
fit the lakeside setting and it was one of the few examples of this architectural style in Oswego.
On the interior, indirect lighting fixtures were used throughout the house. This is shielded up-lighting
that is bounced off the ceiling, an innovation developed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The stair banister was
made of stainless steel in a modernistic design. The corners of the rooms were rounded for style and
easy cleaning. In fact, the house, it was said, “…would delight any woman who cares for homemaking
and housekeeping.”
2 -- naTiOnaL HiSTORiC PReSeRvaTiOn MOnTH, May 2011
At various times in Oswego’s history it is well known that iron, cement, and pipe had been manufac-
tured, but brick making was also a local industry. In 1957 it was reported that, “Excavating for the Lake
Oswego Village [the shopping center on the northeast corner of State Street and North Shore Road]
now under construction… has turned up remnants of Oswego’s old brickyard.” The article goes on to
say that David Long arrived in Oswego in 1884 and the brickyard was in operation at that time. A man
named William (Billy) E. Wells was reportedly the proprietor, but a fire in 1921 destroyed nearly all of
the 1890 U. S. census records so this cannot be verified.
Clay deposits came from the hillside near Leonard Street and the Duck Pond (Lakewood Bay). The
brick was used to build the second furnace and its charcoal kilns. Karl Faucette remembered, “The coke
[sic] ovens were great half globes built of brick. Some of the finest brickwork I ever saw went into those
things. The man that laid those bricks was an artist.” He added, “There were twenty-four of those
things [An 1888 article in The West Shore magazine notes that there were originally 36 brick beehive
style kilns] and it was a beautiful sight to see all these rows. I counted them and there was an even two
dozen. I never ceased to look at them and admire them.”
When the second furnace and the kilns were demolished some of the bricks were used in 1908 to build
the Christie School. Cornelius DeBauw recalled, “When they [the Sisters of the Holy Names] bought
the farm, they also bought the
brick from the kilns where we
used to make charcoal for the fur-
naces [sic]. They tore that down,
and then they took the brick and
they hauled them up there and
used them on the Christie Home
[sic].” Mrs. George Rogers also
recollected that, “Our house on
Wilbur Street [in the Old Town
neighborhood] is built from brick
from the second old furnace.” By
1900, the brick operation had
shut down and the site had been
turned into a baseball field.
The Gas House
Storrs, Houses, and a School
John Storrs was an accom-
plished and nationally recog-
nized architect who designed
many of Oregon’s iconic
buildings. He began to practice
in Oregon in 1954 and his
work includes Catlin Gabel
School, the Western Forestry
Center, Sokol-Blosser winery,
and the Oregon School of Arts
and Craft. For the developer,
John Gray, Storrs also converted
the former B. P. Johns furniture
factory into Johns Landing and he designed Salishan Lodge and Sunriver Resort. In 1951, prior to
Storrs’ move to Oregon, noted architect, Van Evera Bailey, designed John Gray’s Oswego home at 1345
Chandler Road, which has been demolished.
The “Gas House” isn’t as
ominous as it sounds. It was
one of five model homes
built in Oswego in the 1920s
and 1930s. In 1939, it was
reported that a duplicate of
the prize-winning home in the
American Gas Association and
Architectural Forum magazine
national contest would be
built in Oswego. The Portland
firm of Johnson, Wallwork &
Dukehart, designed the home,
sited on the corner of Iron
Mountain and Country Club
roads. Romaine D. Ware, the
former garden editor for Ladies’
Home Journal, was selected as
the landscape architect. A 1939
newspaper article reported,
“Oswego people, and for that
matter, the people of the entire
Northwest are fortunate in
having such a structure as this
duplicate of the ‘Gas House’
constructed here as all we ever
see or know of these prize
homes is a picture in some big
Eastern magazine.”
Architect Cameron Clark
designed the “Life House” for
Life magazine’s home building
program. It opened May 26,
1940 on Avenue A in the Lake
Bay homes subdivision of the
Lake Oswego Country Club
district. Over 4,000 visitors
toured the house that was
touted as being, “Completely
automatic with the most
modern gas appliances supplying
automatic water heating,
house heating, refrigeration
and cooking, and furnished by
Powers Furniture company, the
home is presented as a modern
dwelling ready to move into.”
In 1937, Richard Sundeleaf
designed the Ladd Estate
Company model home next
door to their real estate sales
office. It exemplified the
type of home desired for the
district. The home, sensitively
enlarged, stands at 432 Country
Club Road. It is on the City’s
Landmark Designation List and
the National Register of Historic
Places.
At 420 Tenth Street, across
Avenue A from the Ladd
Estate model home, stands the
Johns-Manville model home,
also designed by Sundeleaf. It
was built in 1936 for the Ladd
Estate Company. Oswego,
it was reported, “has been
selected for the model house of
triple-insulated construction as
developed by the Johns-Manville
engineers.” The innovative
products that were being
showcased in this model house
included asbestos.
Making Light of Sucker Creek
The first white settlers in
Oswego relied on water as a
source of power. Albert Alonzo
Durham located his sawmill on
Sucker Creek in 1850 for this
reason. Almost forty years later,
the first electrical current in
the country was harnessed and
transmitted from Oregon City
to Portland in 1889. Electricity
soon lighted the way out of the
“dark ages” of candles, lanterns,
and gaslights.
The Oregon Iron & Steel
Company owned the water
rights and the dam on Sucker
Creek. To retain these rights,
water needed to be used for
industrial purposes. Iron
production had ceased, so the
company seized on the need
for a local source of electricity
to retain their water rights.
Construction of the cement
structure began in 1909 and was
completed in 1911. Two wooden
penstocks, or enclosed pipes,
five feet in diameter, were built
to carry water to the generator.
Power was needed for Oswego’s
pipe foundry as well as other
commercial and residential
customers.
In 1911, the Oswego Lake Water
Light & Power Company (in
some sources it is erroneously
called the Oswego Power &
Light Company) is named in
tax records, it was incorporated
in 1915, and it was an affiliate
of the Oregon Iron & Steel
Company.
During World War II the
power plant was staffed around
the clock. William (Billy)
Banks served as the night shift
operator. He had a potbelly
stove for heat and a wooden
chair named “Sparky” that was
decorated with glass electrical
insulators on each of the four
legs. When the daytime operator
quit to work in the shipyards,
Billy’s wife, Claire, took over the
shift.
The Lake Oswego Corporation
purchased the power plant
in 1960. Due to the deed
restriction requiring industrial
use to retain water rights, the
historic powerhouse continues
to generate a small amount
of electricity to this day. One
remaining penstock, made of
Douglas fir, carries water to the
plant. The original Pelton wheel
water turbine, first patented in
1889, and the Westinghouse
generator are still in place.
From Bricks to Bats
The power plant on Sucker
Creek (now Oswego Creek).
The penstocks can be seen to
the left of the building.
wood, or cement. Mr. Peterson’s use of tin cans to build the entire
structure was prompted by the high cost of brick and tile plus he
had spare time on his hands that summer. The newspaper article
states, “The mere mention of a structure of any kind being built of
tin cans is usually subject for a joke, but Mr. Peterson says the cellar
is no joke with him and is rather proud of his accomplishment.”
By the 1940s, tin cans were no joking matter. Tin was needed
for armaments during World War II. Oswego, like towns across
America, held tin can drives. Hortense Slocum recalled, “We had a
mountain of tin cans, and what to do with them, we didn’t know.
So we sent out the word that we would have a potluck luncheon
– everybody to come with their old clothes. And I want to tell
you that there was a bunch of us and a lot of women had never
stamped a tin can flat in her life. Mary [S.] Young, one of them,
just hammered away at tin cans. And at the end of the day, we had
enough mashed tin cans to fill a flat [rail] car.”
We Can do it! ... continued from pg 1
It’s difficult to verify, but this turn-of-the-century photo may depict the
Oswego brickyard. Photo courtesy of Marylou Colver.
The Ladd Estate Company model house is also erroneously
known as the White House for Eugene White, an early, but
not the first, owner of the home.
did you know?
In 1962, many townspeople were engaged in a battle to prevent a
freeway from bisecting Lake Oswego. The proposed “Laurelhurst
Freeway” was to connect the Baldock (now Interstate 5) and the
Banfield freeways. One proposed route was North Shore Boulevard
and another was South Shore Boulevard.
An aerial view of the newly constructed Lakeridge High School. Photo
courtesy of Lakeridge High School.
continued on page 4
naTiOnaL HiSTORiC PReSeRvaTiOn MOnTH, May 2011 -- 3
naTiOnaL HiSTORiC PReSeRvaTiOn MOnTH, May 2011 -- 4
History snippets - BrougHt to you By tHe City of Lake oswego
City of Lake Oswego
380 a avenue
Lake Oswego, OR 97034
www.ci.oswego.or.us
503-635-0257
Glorified Dogs and Plain Old Mutts
Posters touted, “Something
new in Lake Grove…A modern
new 4-lane highway [i.e., the
newly widened Boones Ferry
Road].“ An all-day event on
September 28, 1968 celebrated
the occasion. Since the road
was named after a descendant
of Daniel Boone, Dallas
McKennon, who played
Cincinnatus on the “Daniel
Boone” television series, was the
guest of honor. Four skydivers
jumped from an aircraft 7,500
feet above the venue. During
their 2,200 feet free fall they
formed a star shape as red
smoke trailed from their boots.
The foursome opened their
parachutes and floated to the
Lake Grove school playground
with scissors for the ribbon
cutting to officially open the
road.
The celebration included
carnival booths, prancing
horses, unicyclists, square
dancing, historical floats,
bands, and celebrities. Souvenir
wooden nickels were sold for
five cents. Eighty dogs were
entered in the “Mutt Show”
and prizes were awarded for
the longest tail, the longest
nose, and the biggest feet. The
Lake Grove Lions sold buffalo
burgers and “Boone dogs”
(as opposed to boondoggles)
described as “glorified hot
dogs.” The Lake Grove
Albertson’s grocery store held
a buffalo meat sale in honor of
the event. Evidently expecting
a stampede, the advertisement
noted, “This buffalo will be
sold on a first come first serve
basis. Come early and don’t be
disappointed!”
Poor, Little Rich Girl
A 1921 photo of a train passing through the north end of
the newly constructed Elk Rock Tunnel. The soon-to-be-
dismantled trestle can be seen on the left.
Mary Hoadly Scarborough
Young, who once owned the
Twin Points estate on Oswego
Lake, came from a wealthy and
well-connected family. Her
maternal grandfather, George
Hoadly, was Governor of
Ohio. After relocating to New
York City, one of the Hoadly’s
neighbors was Henry Villard
who would, coincidently,
play a part in Oswego’s iron
industry. Young’s fraternal great
grandfather, Jonathan Edwards,
was President of Princeton
and other Scarborough family
members served as Presidents of
Yale University.
Personal wealth and connections
provided no protection from
tragedy. Mary’s father, Theodore
Woolsey Scarborough, died
Finding a Place to Park
The 1867 plat of Oswego filed
by John Corse Trullinger set
aside land between Leonard and
Church Streets [in today’s Old
Town neighborhood] for a park.
The park was never built and the
land was later developed. The
community waited 78 years for
the first official park, George
Rogers Park, to be built. The
area had served as a seasonal
home for Native Americans,
a shantytown for Oswego’s
Chinese laborers, a springtime
gypsy camp, a steamboat landing,
and an unofficial park. Herbert
Yates said, “The presence of
the Chinese laborers need not
surprise us as the Oregon Iron
& Steel Company was booming
in 1890 and the area of George
Rogers Park, now occupied by
the ball fields, was something of
a small Chinatown.” Yates also
mentions that, “The present site
of George Rogers Park made a
perfect spring camping spot for
gypsies who came somewhat
regularly.”
Herbert Letcher Nelson recalled,
“What is called George Rogers
Park now was always thought of
as a park. It was a place where
they had July Fourth celebrations
and so on. It was level enough
for a ball ground.” In 1973,
George Rogers’ wife, Lottie,
recalled that, “He [George
Rogers] first became interested in
parks about twenty years ago or
so. He built the park up, which
at that time was a pretty nice
place, now it’s kind of a weed
patch. Well, he worked on the
park from the time they started it
until the time he died, that was
probably twenty years.” In 1952
the Lake Oswego City Council
voted to name the park in honor
of Rogers. The initial outlay for
the two parcels of land was just
over $28,000.
Women picnicking in the park in 1950.
The masthead of the original flyer for the Boones Ferry Festival in 1968.
from the time the line opened in 1887, but it is dubious whether
Mrs. Newlands’ mishap was directly responsible for the construction
of the Elk Rock Tunnel. An account in a 1921 issue of the Southern
Pacific Bulletin states, “After an exhaustive study of some eight
different plans for the betterment of the service and protection of
traffic over the trestle authority was given for the construction of a
tunnel and the removal of the trestle.”
The Southern Pacific Bulletin also relates that the 1,395-foot tunnel
was built from both ends and met at the center with a eighth of
an inch tolerance. Some of the excavated basalt was dumped into
the Willamette River and the interior of the tunnel was lined with
fragrant Port Orford cedar (the wood was destroyed by a fire in
1967). Work forces of 80 to 175 men were employed for six months
from June 1 until the tunnel’s completion on December 5, 1921. It
was noted “The tunnel being situated in a fine suburban residence
section [Dunthorpe] no suitable camp site could be found. The
Hauser Construction Company then secured the one-time palatial
river steamer T. J. Potter and the vessel was moored at the southerly
end of the trestle and used for quarters for the men. It is doubtful if
a tunnel gang ever had such quarters before.”
The Wig of the Bigwig’s Wife?
at age 33 from typhoid fever;
Mary was five years old. Mary’s
mother remarried and the
newlyweds relocated to Portland,
Oregon. Three months after
the wedding, thugs robbed and
murdered Mary’s stepfather,
Doctor Philip Edwards Johnson,
and threw his body off the Ford
Street Bridge (now the Vista
Avenue Bridge).
Mary, married to Thomas Earl
Young, was the first to purchase
a home site when the Ladd
Estate Company opened up a
new tract of land on Oswego
Lake in 1931. The eight-acre
parcel, and hence her estate, was
named “Twin Points.” Young
was an active Oswego Garden
Club member and the gardens
of her estate were a showplace.
Demolition of Mary S. Young’s Twin Points estate in the early 1970s.
According to Young’s friend,
Caroline Strickland, Young was,
“the original earth girl.”
Young funded landscape
improvements in George
Rogers Park as well as working
hands-on on the project. She,
it is said, purchased acreage
on the Willamette River south
of Lake Oswego as a surprise
gift for her husband after he
expressed an interest in raising
cattle. The story continues
that Thomas objected to the
money spent on the parcel and
refused the gift. Young made
alternate plans to build a river
view estate with tennis courts, a
shooting range, and equestrian
trails, but this was never built.
Young was probably driving her
red Thunderbird when a Lake
Oswego policeman gave her a
speeding ticket. This incident
may have ultimately determined
the parcel’s future. Angered
by the ticket, Young decided
to deed the nearly 132 acres to
the State of Oregon instead of
Lake Oswego. When the park
on Highway 43 officially opened
in 1973 it became the second
state park in Clackamas County.
Restrictions stipulated that the
property be kept as nearly as
possible in its natural state. The
park is currently owned by the
City of West Linn.
Storrs, Houses, and a School ... continued from pg 3
Storrs was unabashedly controversial and he was a larger-than-life figure that commanded attention
upon entering a room. Scorn and praise co-existed in both his supporters and his detractors.
In Lake Oswego, Storrs designed Lakeridge High School, which opened in 1971. He took an unconven-
tional approach as a preliminary to designing the school. Storrs invited students to his home and talked
with them about their thoughts about how a school should look and function. The school was remod-
eled extensively and expanded in 2003. Storrs also designed at least two homes in Lake Oswego both
mid-century modern designs dating from 1959 at 245 Chandler Place and 983 Lake Front Road. Storrs
also designed two homes in Skylands at 309 SW Skyland Drive and 1415 S. Skyland Drive.
Storrs was an accomplished chef and his son, Leather Storrs, is currently a celebrated Portland chef and
restaurateur.
did you know?
Some of the stone used to build Portland’s original Morrison Street bridge in 1887 was quarried in Oswego.