The history timeline is a fun and different way to explore the content we have on GardenHomeHistory.com. We hope you’ll stumble across something you haven’t seen before!
Stan Houseman and Tom Shreve, 2023
Prior to 1900
The territory of the Atfalati tribe (aka Tualatins) of the Kalapuya-speaking people included most of Washington County and some of northern Yamhill County. Epidemic diseases spread far ahead of the settlers, and by the time early settlers arrived in the Tualatin Valley in the 1850s, only 60-70 Atfalati survived (source: Pacific University).
See Native American Heritage Month.
See The 1800s, Early Garden Home.
Augustus Fanno, namesake of Fanno Creek, settles in the area in 1847.
See Fanno family biography.
The Oregon Donation Land Act of 1850 provided free land to white or mixed-blood Native American settlers who arrive in the Oregon Territory before December 1855. It was one of the first land acts allowing women to own land in their own name. The grant was limited to 320 acres to unmarried men, and 640 acres to married couples. The largest pioneer migrations to Oregon occurred in 1852-1855, consisting of approximately 26,000 persons and 2,000 wagons. (source: oregon.gov)
The Oregon Constitution was approved by voters in 1857. Notably, it banned both slavery and new black residents in Oregon. It was illegal for blacks to own real estate, make contracts, vote, or use the legal system. (source: oregon.gov)
Garden Home Post Office was opened by Lumen Nichols in 1872.
See Garden Home Post Office.
Fanno Creek Dairy property was purchased by the Feldman family in 1885. Bob shares many humorous stories about growing up in Garden Home, including one anecdote about how the boys were sent next door to the Walter and Gerda Sandberg home for supper. Gerda brought out a jar of canned cherries and skimmed off the top layer of worms and dished up dessert.
See Bob Feldman.
Von Bergen Dairy began operating in the 1890s. The dairy was located on the east side of SW Oleson Rd., south of SW Vermont St.
See Andreas and Magdelana Von Bergen Dairy.
The Shattuck Dairy began operating between 1885 and 1900. It was a large dairy located at 55th and SW Vermont Street operated by John Hoffman and Christ Balmer.
See Early Dairies by Pete Gertsch.
The Meier department store was founded in 1857 by Aaron Meier. In 1873, Sigmund Frank joined as a partner in the Meier & Frank department store. Meier & Frank moved to a building at SW Fifth Avenue and Morrison Street in 1898, and between 1909 and 1915 this original structure was replaced with a structure that filled the entire block [source]. Co-founder Aaron Frank maintained his summer home in Garden Home on the Frank Farm beginning in the early 1920s.
See Aaron Frank Farm.
1900s
If found guilty of the capital murder of Adolph Burkhardt on Halloween night, 1903, Samuel Bauman was to be hanged. Read about the feud between two farmers that precipitated the killing, the uncertainty surrounding where Adolph Burkhardt was killed, and the subsequent unusual capital murder trial proceedings.
See 1903 Halloween night slaying on “the Garden Home road”.
Oregon Electric Railway begins operation through Garden Home in 1908.
See Garden Home Junction of the Oregon Electric Railway.
Baseball teams from Garden Home played in local leagues in the early 1900s through the 1930s.
See Baseball in Garden Home.
1910s
Hunt Club opened their clubhouse and track in 1911. A number of homes were built as part of the Hunt Club development.
See Hunt Club and Riding Academies.
The Hetlesater family moves to Garden Home in 1911. Dr. Reinert Hetlesater moved from South Dakota to Garden Home with his wife, Clara Nash Hetlesater, and two young daughters, Jennie and Marion. The girls had been exposed to tuberculosis, and he wanted them to be able to spend more of the year outside.
See The Hetlesater Family.
Garden Home School opened in 1912.
See The history of Garden Home School, 1912 to 1982.
Jack Steele’s father moves to Metzger in 1912, later building a house in Garden Home in the 1930s.
See Jack Steele.
Portland Golf Club opened in 1914.
See Portland Golf Club.
The Canfield House was built in 1915 as a circuit rider’s home for Methodist preachers. George Babbitt dug a partial basement to the Canfield house in the 1960s. George first jacked up the side of the house that was eight inches off level and then placed concrete block under that section and then around the house. He started in with a shovel and a bucket and a kid’s wagon attached to a pulley rope, then building a ramp and using the little wagon to haul dirt out.
See George and Mae Babbitt.
Hal Pallay’s great grandparents, Morris and Fannie Pallay, built their house on the south side of Garden Home Road in 1915. At one time great-grandfather Morris, in association with others, operated some 20 theaters in Portland. My father owned the Cinema 21 theatre in northwest Portland, the Joy Theatre in Tigard and the Star Theatre off of west Burnside.
See Hal Pallay.
Garden Home Community Church opened in 1918. The Garden Home United Methodist Church opened in 1961. The church bell now hangs in the entrance to Trader Joe’s. Today, the church building is the Korean Society of Oregon.
See The “Old” Garden Home Community Church.
1920s
Frank Farm was developed by Aaron Frank in the early 1920s at the current-day site of the Frank Estate Apartments.
See Aaron Frank Farm.
Clark Stephen’s parents moved to Garden Home in 1928. Clark recalls growing up in Garden Home during the 1930s and 1940s.
See Clark Stephens.
1930s
The Becvar sisters were born in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Vlasta was the older sister and Zora and Sharka were the younger twin sisters.
See Vlasta Becvar Barber and Zora and Sharka Becvar.
Doc Hickman was born in the 1930s. Doc was raised in Garden Home and attended Garden Home School. The Hickman farm was located on a parcel of the Von Bergen dairy. The lane they lived on became known as Hickman Lane which is located off of Miles Court. At one time the Ole Oleson family farmed the Hickman property, now Hideaway Park, and other parcels of land.
See Doc Hickman.
Olive Stott Gabriel retires to Garden Home in 1930. Olive Stott Gabriel was a well-known New York City attorney and activist for progressive era feminist causes. She was the granddaughter of early pioneers Samuel Stott and Lucy Denny Stott, and was raised in Washington County.
See Olive Stott Gabriel, suffrage advocate.
Charles and Musetta Adams move to Garden Home in 1930. Nine-year old grandson John and his uncle Leonard, about 7 years old, would sneak out to the barn at night and sit on the big box and shoot the rats and mice with their 22 pistols.
See Charles and Musetta Adams.
Oregon Electric Railway ceases regular passenger service. Freight trains continued to operate until a 1944 train wreck at Firlock station along the southern edge of Portland Golf Club.
See Garden Home Junction of the Oregon Electric Railway.
Fogelbo, the Fogelquist family log-cabin home, was built by renowned log cabin builder Henry Steiner in 1938.
See Fogelbo, home of Ross Fogelquist.
1940s
Alpenrose Dairy operations were moved in 1944 by the Cadonau family to the current-day site on SW Shattuck Rd following a fire at their dairy’s prior location (at SW 45th Ave and SW Vermont Rd).
See History of the Alpenrose Dairy.
A fighter plane crashed in Garden Home after a fuel system problem in 1944.
See 1944 Crash of Lt. Robert Strong’s P-63 Kingcobra fighter plane.
Co-op Cannery was opened in 1944 at the current-day site of Old Market Pub & Brewery.
See The Garden Home Co-op Cannery (early 1940’s-1950).
1950s
Whitney Cannery opens after Mark and Leona Whitney purchased the Co-op Cannery in 1950.
See Mark and Leona Whitney and the Whitney Cannery, 1950-1976.
Dorothy Johnson won Miss Oregon in 1955 and was runner up for Miss America.
See Dorothy Johnson: Garden Home Recollections.
Garden Home chapter of the Extension Study Group began meeting in 1955.
See Garden Home Extension Study Group.
Garden Home Grocery burned down in 1956 (aka White Store, Wilson’s Grocery, Throckmorton’s Store, Upchurch Store, and Jaeger’s Store) at the current-day site of Dairy Queen.
See Darrell MacKay.
Lamb’s Thriftway was opened by Forrest Lamb in 1957.
See Colin Lamb and the history of Lamb’s Garden Home Thriftway.
1960s
The first artificial heart valve was invented in Garden Home in 1960 at the current-day site of Power Plumbing.
See Miles Lowell Edwards, Heart Valve Inventor.
The Peyton-Allan murders occurred in 1960.
See Tragedy: Peyton-Allan Murders and Sally Peyton Ford.
The Big Blow of 1962 (aka Columbus Day Storm) left a mark on Garden Home.
See November 2022 News.
The safety path that runs along the north side of SW Garden Home Rd was installed around 1965.
See Garden Home Road Safety Path.
CPL Lyle S. Tate, USMC, was killed in Vietnam in 1967.
See Lyle “Toad” Tate.
1970s
Fanno Creek Trail planning began in the mid-1970s, but was not completed until 2001. During that quarter century, a freeway was contemplated on the right-of-way, but eventually the freeway idea dropped.
See History of the Historic Oregon Electric Railway Segment of the Fanno Creek Trail.
Comella & Son & Daughter converted Whitney’s Cannery into a fruit, vegetable, and floral stand from 1978 to 1992, when it was sold to the Bigley family who converted the location the Old Market Pub & Brewery.
See The Old Market Pub and Brewery and Mark and Leona Whitney and the Whitney Cannery, 1950-1976.
1980s
Garden Home Elementary School closed in 1982, and later re-opens as the Garden Home Recreation Center.
See The Closing of Garden Home Elementary School and The history of Garden Home School, 1912 to 1982.
Garden Home Community Library opened in 1983, located inside the Garden Home Recreation Center.
See History of Garden Home Community Library and the Garden Home Library’s website.
Garden Home: The Way It Was published in 1980 by Virginia Mapes, Jill McWilliam, and other volunteers. It documents much of the early history of Garden Home.
1990s
Fanno Creek Sewage Pump Station was constructed. The City of Portland’s Bureau of Environmental Services (BES) proposed a sewer station be built near Fanno Creek and SW 84th Ave. Portland’s 1998 permit for the Fanno Creek pump station included a condition that it not be expanded. Subsequently, over the years, the pump station has released raw sewage into Fanno Creek.
2000s
The Chainsaw Massacre of 2007 refers to the widening project of SW Oleson Rd where many many mature trees were removed to make way for the wider roadway.
2010s
Garden Home History Project is founded in 2010, by Elaine Shreve and Virginia Vanture, with the mission to research and share the history of Garden Home.
See Newsletters.
Construction begins on the new Fanno Creek Sewer Pump Station in 2013. The new pump station went online in 2016.
See Portland Bureau of Environmental Services starts construction on second pump station at ‘cursed’ Fanno Basin site.
Lamb’s Thriftway is sold in 2015 and re-branded as Garden Home Marketplace in 2018.
See Garden Home Market Place (formerly Lamb’s Thriftway).
2020s
Trader Joe’s grocery store opens in 2021 in a portion of the space of the Garden Home Marketplace grocery store.
See Grand opening of Trader Joe’s October 29.
ACE Hardware, MudBay pet supply, and Dogtopia dog daycare, spa and boarding open in 2022 and 2023 in the same building as Trader Joe’s.
See August 2023 News.
Ole Bolle the Troll was constructed behind Fogelbo, the home of Ross Fogelquist. Park at the Nordic Northwest’s Nordia House.
See Fogelbo, home of Ross Fogelquist.
GardenHomeHistory.com 
Pingback: Native American Heritage Month | Garden Home History Project
Pingback: October 2023 UPDATE – Garden Home History | Garden Home History Project
Pingback: Bob Feldman | Garden Home History Project