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
Hello Garden Home Friends – Happy New Year! For something really different, please join us as we meet some visitors from long ago! Reenactors from historical groups in Beaverton, Forest Grove, and Garden Home will introduce the Denney family, A.T. “God Almighty” Smith, and Margaret Simmons from Patton Valley (the mother of Polly Philena Oleson). A reenactment and fascinating stories! PatsyVandeVenter and Elaine Shreve will present as Margaret Simmons and her granddaughter Reta Welch.
Join us next Tuesday, January 8 at the Elsie Stuhr Center, 5550 SW Hall Blvd, Beaverton, OR 97005. Tualatin HIlls Park & Recreation District. 7:00-8:30 pm. Doors open at 6:45 pm, $3 donation suggested.
News
Thanks for stopping by our booth at the 34th annual Holiday Bazaar at the Garden Home Recreation Center on Saturday, December 1st. There were over 100 local art and craft vendors, live entertainment, holiday music, pancake breakfast and more!
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. Click here to read more about the event and to view the event photos.
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.
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 