Welcome to our website about historic Garden Home. In the People and Places pages, you’ll find over a hundred stories and hundreds of photos of vintage Garden Home and residents attending our events.

Upcoming Event – August 13 Reunion

Garden Home School – Final student body picture 1982

Join us for our REUNION of graduates, attendees and friends of Beaverton High and Garden Home School. August 13, 10:am to 12 noon.  We’ll be out back behind the Garden Home Recreation Center (the former Garden Home School) in the covered area.  Enjoy Refreshments, old friends, displays of Beaverton High and Garden Home School.  Bring any mementoes, photos, albums, or year books that we might copy and return to you promptly.  Celebrating the Centennial of Beaverton High School and 105 years since Garden Home School began!

New stories on website

Century Home plaque on Kaplan Miner home

Lekas Century Home

Lekas Century Home

Pat Dignan beside Century Home plaque

1911 Dignan Century Home in Hunt Club area.

Sasha Kaplan and Matt Miner, current owners of the Bettendorf Century Home

Sasha Kaplan Century Home, SW 76th

See the new stories about the Tom and Catherine Lekas Century Home, the Pat and Andy Dignan Century Home, and the Sasha Kaplan and Matt Miner Century Home. When Century Homes were built more than a century ago, the trains were running, the Hunt Club and Frank Farm were hosting horse events, and the parrot on Chris Jaeger’s porch greeting “Hello girls.”  Five major dairies operated in Garden Home, and most homes had a cow, rabbits, and large vegetable garden at that time.

Hunt Club from NW (Portland Golf Club in foreground)

The Hunt Club, “Memories of Horsing Around Years” by Patti Waitman-Ingebretson provide more insight to the role of the Hunt Club and horses to the community.

1950 Whitney’s Cannery, Mark Whitney in foreground. See Leona Whitney and the Whitney Cannery. Courtesy Colin Lamb.

Mark Whitney at the Co-op Cannery, 1950. See Leona Whitney and the Whitney Cannery. Courtesy Colin Lamb.

Memories of Whitney’s Custom Cannery, Circa 1954-56 by Patti (“The Ransom girl” ) Waitman-Ingebretsen recounts her childhood visits to Whitney’s cannery (today’s Old Market Pub).

Nathalie Darcy, Bob Bothman, Terry Moore

L to Rt: David Endres (THPRD community affairs director); Terry Moore (THPRD Board 1995-2003); Mark Knudson (THPRD Board) Bob Cynkar (Portland BES public involvement liaison to first pump station project); Bob Bothman (THPRD Trails Advisory Committee Chair); Carl Hosticka (Metro Councilor District 3); Nathalie Darcy (Fanno Creek Trail Committee).

The Terry Moore obituary (1949 – 2014) recognizes an important member of our community. Terry was active in the local “Crossing Committee” which first worked on the gardens at the intersection and the baskets at the Garden Home Recreation Center.  With the remodeling of Oleson Road, Terry spearheaded this group, now named the Garden Home Gardeners, into developing and maintaining the gardens along Oleson.

1950 aerial view of Oleson Rd and Garden Home Rd intersection; 4 corners, clockwise 1. Garden Home Grade School 2. Orchard 3. Throckmorton’s store 4. Johnson’s Gas station Courtesy Carolyn Ernstrom Welch. See post.

Wilson’s Grocery (aka Throckmorton’s or Upchurch Store)

Throckmorton Store fire, looking east.

The Memoir of Dorothy Lois Upchurch (1919-2009) story about the Upchurch family was sent to us by Dorinda Troutman, from her home in Hamilton, Montana.  Her mother Dorothy Lois Upchurch Hogue Bates was a teenager and young woman when her parents Theresa Boyd Upchurch and her husband George Louis Upchurch bought the White Store on the southeast corner of the intersection in Garden Home (Dairy Queen now). They bought the store from the Larsens in about 1936.

Other News

THANKS for a wonderful June 4 Garden Home History and Garden Tour! Mike Babbitt, the manager at the Garden Home Market Place (formerly Thriftway), and his staff did a great job selling our tickets. Some 30 volunteers checked in the 170 visitors to the nine beautiful gardens on the hottest day so far, 100° F! A special thanks to the garden owners for sharing their gardens for us. We had an overwhelming positive response to the gardens and to the beauty of Garden Home. The $1,200 proceeds was split between our two sponsors, our History group and the Garden Home Gardeners.

Beaverton High School pre-1949

Beaverton High School Centennial: We want your memoirs! When was the 3rd floor removed?

Stan Marugg remembers the 1949 earthquake that damaged the third floor of the High School.

“I was sitting in one of our milk trucks I’d driven to Beaverton High School and was bouncing up and down during the quake. My dad said he had never seen concrete bend until then. He said it was like a wave moving through the concrete in the dairy barn.”

Colin Lamb, ’62, recalls that there was an unmarked door to the third floor steps.

“A ham radio station was located up there and we operated from that location. Richard Platt was in charge of the ham radio program. We also had access to the roof so we could install antennas. That was in the old days. Our power supply had about 2,000 volts open to whoever was stupid enough to put his hand on it and we did not worry about such minor details.”

The BHS Centennial committee has designated a process to honor certain graduates for their Hall of Achievement. To date, this includes Rod Harman (Harman Pool), and Ross Fogelquist. Lisa Sandmire wants stories and photos of Beaverton High and can be reached at bhscentennial@gmail.com. Click here for a related article by the Portland Tribune.

We are researching the 1949 earthquake that damaged Garden Home School and the third floor of Beaverton High. What do you recall? Leave us a comment.

Kaplan/Miner Century Home (previously Bettendorf home)

We have identified Century Homes in Garden Home that were built before 1916. The program is meant to honor and appreciate the older homes in our community and the role they’ve played in our history. The home owners have been notified that they may participate in this program of a small ceremony of placing a Century Home plaque beside the front door and accepting a nice pamphlet with the history of Garden Home and their home. The two-story house on 76th now owned by Sasha Kaplan and Matt Miner was our first Century home. The owners would like more information on early residents of the home. The attractive plaque notes the age of the house and does not affect the sale or any changes in the property. Virginia Vanture has chaired this committee of Stan Houseman, Nathalie Darcy, Janice Logan and Ginny McCarthy.

Patsy VandeVenter, Virginia Vanture, Elaine Shreve, Carole Vranizan

Get your Historic Garden Home t-shirt now for just $14 for small to XL. Larger XXL and XXXL sizes are $17. There is an additional charge of $9 to mail your shirt. They’re fun! Available at the Garden Home Market Place or by mail from Patsy VandeVenter, 7520 SW Ashdale Ct., Portland, OR 97223. We thank Jan Fredrickson for a very generous donation to cover the cost of printing the shirts.

Historic Garden Home street sign

Historic Garden Home street signs: We currently have about 35 of the Historic Garden Home street sign toppers in our community. Each sign was purchased by a friend or family member to honor their loved one. Click here to view photos of the signs and for information about sponsoring a sign.

Our generous donors permit us to print and mail this newsletter ($140) for our non-e-mail people and for the Garden Home Recreation Center. We also replace the Historic Garden Home street signs once for signs that disappear, current cost for each sign, $60. With our latest order, we’ll have about 35 signs out in our neighborhoods. We also have website costs, printing, paper, plaques and many other costs of an organization. Donor names are listed on our History Bulletin Board at the Recreation Center. Thank you to all of our donors and to all of our volunteers for their time and skills.