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
Saturday, December 1st (all day) – Join us for the 34th annual Holiday Bazaar! Enjoy shopping with over 100 local art and craft vendors, live entertainment, holiday music, pancake breakfast and more! The Garden Home History Project will have a booth in Room 7. Come by for holiday ornaments, 2019 vintage Garden Home calendars, and suet-laden pine cones for feeding winter birds. For more information, visit the Garden Home Recreation Center’s event page.
Seen in Garden Home
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 held a Veteran’s Day event on Saturday, November 10 at the Garden Home Recreation Center, with photos, interviews, historic displays, pie and coffee. Aloha Post 104, American Legion presented the colors. Sig Unander presented the slide show of Fly Gals, the story of the first American women military pilots in history, the WASPS who flew vital training and flight missions freeing up men for combat.
Visit the spooky and humorous Garden Home Graveyard Halloween display on SW 82nd Ave by Kirstin Lurtz!
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.
Get Involved
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.
Garden Home History Project 