Welcome to our website about historic Garden Home. In the People and Places pages, you’ll find almost two hundred stories and over fifteen hundred photos of vintage Garden Home and residents attending our events.
Upcoming Events
Monday, October 8, 6:30pm – 40-minute slide presentation on the 1903 Halloween Murder on Garden Home Road. Surprise ending! Garden Home Recreation Center, 7475 SW Oleson Road.
New Stories
Read the memoir by Ward Nelson about growing up in Garden Home in the 1950s and 1960s.
Read our new story about Pat Bonney and her son Ken Woodard. Ken was the head coach of Portland State University’s track and field and cross country programs. Ken’s brother Keith has the same position at Lewis and Clark College.
Jacki Wisher and her mother Letha Lane talk about the fun at Alpenrose, their Shetland ponies, and growing up in Garden Home. Click here to read the story.
Periodically, the Garden Home History Project works with Christina Friedle, Chair of Geography at PCC to facilitate student research in her Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Certificate course in the area of mapping and geographic research. This article is a student research report about the Historic Oregon Electric Railway and Station Locations prepared by Brendon Slattery, 2018.
We have a new story about the development of SW Multnomah Blvd, written by Lowell Swanson, that was first printed in the Multnomah Historical Society’s Winter 2005 newsletter. The story was retrieved for us by Tim Lyman, their Chair, and is printed with his permission. It validates the date and process of discontinuing the railroad through Multnomah and pulling the rail tracks east of the Garden Home Station and Multnomah Boulevard developed. The contract for construction of Multnomah Blvd scheduled completion by August, 1949.
News
We sold ice cream sundae’s and displayed binders describing Garden Home’s historical dairies at the Saturday, August 25 Mini-Market at the Garden Home Recreation Center. Thanks to Darrell MacKay for our new banner, designed by Stan Houseman.
Gerry Frank promotional photo 2018
What to eat, see, and do in Oregon: We recently said hello to one of our favorite people, Gerry Frank, as he was selling his wonderful book, Gerry Frank’s Oregon. Gerry spent many summers in Garden Home and has always been a strong supporter. Gerry was our Senator Mark Hatfield’s Chief of Staff and often called “our third Senator.” Read his amazing story and see the wonderful vintage photos of his home and horses. Pick up his book for your travels! New York? Get that one, too.
Garden Home Community Library: We welcome our new Library Director Molly Carlisle, who previously worked at the Tigard Library. You might enjoy many newly added vintage library photos in our story about the history of the community library. The library started out as a volunteer library once the Garden Home School closed in 1982, assisted by THPRD. It soon became part of WCCLS. Thanks to the many generous donors, we were able to enlarge from one classroom to two classrooms, the current size. Now we are excited about the plans to enlarge to one more classroom. Watch for our display of community history and news on the hallway walls.
Passing of Curtis Tigard. At 109, Curtis was one of the oldest living World War II veterans. To read more about Curtis Tigard, visit the Tigard Historical Association. You can also read about Curtis Tigard on the City of Tigard website (PDF document).
The Garden Home School class of 1958 held a reunion. Organized by Darrel MacKay and Ward Nelson among others. The people pictured are (left to right): Darrell MacKay, Doug Burns, Rita Losli, (Thoreson), Gordy Johnson, Lee Stapleton, Babs Tennent, (Anderson), Mike Sprague, Cheryl Eastman, (Mayhew), Connie Barns, (Anderson), Ward Nelson, Sandy Wood, (Poutala) not in our grade school class, but in our high school class and married Arnie Poutala, Don Stapleton, Arnie Poutala.
Class of 1958 Garden Home School 2018 Reunion
Lightning strike! On Thursday, June 21 at 7:56am, lightning struck and exploded two redwood trees on SW 84th Avenue just north of SW Garden Home Road. A third tree was also damaged on a neighbor’s property. No injuries or major structural damage were sustained. Thanks to Stan Houseman for the photographs of the aftermath.
We rang the historic 100-year old bell hanging in the bell tower of the Garden Home Marketplace (formerly Lamb’s Thriftway) on June 16, 2018. Our ears are still ringing! Thanks to Store Manager Mike Babbitt and all of the store staff for withstanding four hours of bell ringing. Click here to view all the photos of the bell ringing event.
Garden Home Market Place (formerly Lamb’s Thriftway) is changing their signage. Forrest Lamb first built and opened the Garden Home Thriftway in 1957. The store and the mall store buildings were owned by Forrest and Neva Lamb and then by their three sons, Bob, Gary and Colin Lamb. Forrest died in 1986 and Gary Lamb died in 1999. Neva died in 2005 at age 97. Bob Lamb sold the business of the grocery store in June of 2015. Colin Lamb retains ownership of the grocery building and the mall complex.
In 2015, Lamb’s Thriftway store was sold to a local company, Signature Northwest LLC , whose CEO is Mark Miller. This company also purchased three other Lamb grocery businesses and two Bales Thriftway stores, one in Cedar Mill and one in Aloha. Mike Babbitt is the store manager in Garden Home.
The large Lamb’s Thriftway Marketplace sign was removed from the front of the building in June, 2018 for repainting and renaming the store to (probably) be Garden Home Marketplace. The store continues to host the florist, liquor store, the Post Office, Wells Fargo Bank, and the Garden Home Growlers. The Growler section has grown beyond the first assigned space inside the main door and now flows into the former floral department with six tables.
The one-hundred year old bell from the former Garden Home Community Church continues on loan from the Methodist Conference and hangs in the bell tower at the main entrance. The store continues its important role supporting and recognizing community activities. The Garden Home History Project has an annual Bell Ringing event to publicize Garden Home’s unique history. Click here to read the full history of the Lamb family and Lamb’s Thriftway.
Friday, May 18, we held a reception honoring Ginny Mapes, author of Garden Home-the way it was, Traces of the Past and Chakeipi, the story of early Beaverton. Slides of vintage Garden Home, refreshments and a reunion with classmates and teachers in Garden Home School. Click here to read more and view the full gallery of event photos.
This Summer: We’re gathering the unique features of Garden Home that we’ll unfold for you in some manner, wonderful surprises! Stay posted for the details.
Other News
Remembering many of our other stories. These fun excerpts from our stories are just samples of the content you can discover browsing our almost 200 articles. We hope you are writing your story for your family.
Colin Lamb: The electricity was off in the Garden Home area for about a week after the Columbus Day storm in 1962. Of course, many homes had no heat so Dad left the presto logs out in the front of the store with a note to pay for them the next day.
Dan Nebert: Therefore, the church window at all times seemed to remain unlocked, so that we were always able to enjoy our rainy Saturday afternoon ping-pong games.
Plane crash: Lt Strong managed to guide the plane over the town of Metzger to what looked like a wooded area before bailing out and landing in some nearby trees unhurt.
Zora and Sharka Becvar: We sat for a little while and, since we did not understand what the teacher was saying, we just looked at each other, got up and left the room and went home.
Bob Feldman: you might have seen young Bob Feldman riding his bike home from Garden Home School precariously toting a pail of slop from the cafeteria to feed his new baby pigs.
You are invited to our Board meetings which are held the second Monday of most months, 6:30 pm at the Garden Home Recreation Center. We had five thirty-minute slide presentations 2017 from 6:30 to 7 pm. Our Board then meets at 7 pm. We’d love to have anyone interested to work with us.
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.
GardenHomeHistory.com 
Pingback: Ward Nelson – Garden Home memoir | Garden Home History Project