This article examines the grocery and retail stores of early Garden Home:

• Nichols Store and Post Office
• Red Store
• White Store
• Red & White Store
• Feed & Seed Store
• Lamb’s Thriftway

Tom Shreve, 2023.

1936 aerial – heart of Garden Home from the OER Station to the Johnson Texaco

Nichols Store

See Lumen H. Nichols and Ann M. Nichols.
See Memoir of Dorothy Lois Upchurch (1919-2009).

The original store in Garden Home, the Nichols Store was operated by Lumen and Ann Nichols. In 1882, the store gained the original Garden Home Post Office, so the store was constructed some time before 1882. Dorothy Lois Upchurch guessed the store could have been built as early as the 1850s. The single-story Nichols Store was located on or near the location of current-day Dairy Queen, also the site of the White Store.

Ginny Mapes notes in Garden Home: The way it was that “Chris Jager moved the old Nichols building across the road to the Huffaker place” which was located just west of the school property.  He then built the two-story white building on that SE corner of the intersection of what became Garden Home Road and Oleson Road (current-day Dairy Queen).

1890 Post Office and store, Garden Home, Oregon. Mr Lumen Nichols, Postmaster.

Nichols Addition and Blosick Acres map

Tombstone of Lumen H and Ann M Nichols

Tombstone of Nellie Nichols, only daughter of Lumen H and Ann M Nichols

White Store

See Mildred Stevens.
See Memoir of Dorothy Lois Upchurch (1919-2009).
See History of Garden Home written by students in 1962.

The two-story White Store was built by Chris Jager on the site of the single-story Nichols Store. This structure had an exterior porch with steps, upper balcony, and louvered windows. These features are visible in the 1911 Garden Home School student body, but are absent in later pictures of the White Store.

The White Store went by many names and owners over the years, but doesn’t seem to ever have been formally named the White Store. Garden Home residents called it the White Store because it was painted white, in contrast to the Red Store just east down road.

• Nichols Store and Post Office (1850s to 1930s). Owned by Lumen and Ann Nichols. [source]
• Jager’s Store (1930s). Chris Jager provided care to Ann Nichols, including running the store, for a number of years. Ann Nichols adopted Chris Jager, and when Ann Nichols passed away, Chris Jager inherited the store. [source]
• Larsen’s Store (1930s to 1936) [source]
• Upchurch Store (1936 to 1944) [source]
• Throckmorton’s Store (1944 to 1950s) [source]
• Wilson’s Grocery (1950s). We have a photograph from the early 1950s where the sign clearly reads Wilson’s Grocery. [see photo gallery]
• Garden Home Grocery (burned in 1956). The sign now reads Garden Home Grocery.

1911 Garden Home School, all grades. This is the founding year of Garden Home School, held upstairs in the Jager store. Courtesy Ione (Coffey) Owens Parrish. See Hetlesater Family.

White store, circa 1940s

Wilson’s Grocery, later Garden Home Grocery (photo by Dorothy Stevens). Courtesy Mildred Stevens. See Mildred Stevens.

Throckmorton Store fire, looking east.

A 1953 International tanker from the Beaverton Rural Fire Protection District (foreground) helps extinguish a major fire that burned the same grocery store on the corner of Oleson and Garden Home roads in Garden Home. Aiding in the effort was the Portland Fire Bureau, their two engines visible to the right.

1956 Garden Home Grocery (aka White Store) after fire.

1954 Garden Home School from W – Arndt Neg 01. Central Garden Home, Oleson at an angle running left and right. School in foreground with the old original school building still attached in what is now the south parking lot. Garden Home Feed and Seed building has no roof structure. Community Church east of feed store at now 71st. Long 2-story store at the intersection, variously named Upchurch, Throckmortons or generally the White store, burned in 1956. Note the nut orchard NE of intersection where Thriftway is built in 1957.

Late 1950’s or early 1960’s aerial photo of Garden Home. Lamb’s Thriftway exists (opened in 1957), but the site of the demolished Throckmorton store (burned in 1955) has not yet been rebuilt. See post.

Red Store

See Vivian DuPue Bosley.
See Erich and Burnace Porshman / Bryse-Harvey and Nahstoll CENTURY Home.
See Clark Stephens.
See Garden Home Post Office.

The Red Store was located on the south side of SW Garden Home Rd kitty-corner to the cannery (currently the Old Market Pub and Brewery). For a few years, interrupted by Prohibition, a tavern stood adjacent to the Red Store (to the west) [source].

The Red Store was also called the Red and White Store, because it was part of a chain of stores called Red & White Stores. The Red and White Store on Greenburg Rd was also part of the Red & White Stores chain of stores.

The Red Store was the store closest to the Garden Home Junction of the Oregon Electric Railway. Given the location of the Red Store right by the train junction suggests the Red Store opened sometime near or after 1908 when the station opened, but we don’t have a definitive date on the opening of the Red Store other than it was before 1911. From aerial photos by Otto Arndt, we can see the Red Store building still stood in 1957, although the store itself went out of business in the 1930s.

Dorothy Upchurch recalled that [the Red Store] was owned by the Smiths and housed the post office, and Marge Smith was the postmaster.

Looking west down Garden Home Road from the Red Store, 1911.

1936 tight crop on Garden Home junction – annotated

1954 71st Ave and Garden Home Rd from NW Looking south east at Garden Home Rd. Community Church and parsonage across Garden Home Rd from Otto Arndt’s home on Garden Home Rd. Street going south is Royal, now 71st. Church sanctuary moved to Unitarian lot on Oleson in 1961. Whitney’s Cannery on the left across from the Red Store. 1954 before Thriftway built.

1954 Garden Home Rd and 71st from S Garden Home Rd. is horizontal street, find church and Arndt home in middle. Forested area in Frank farm, Hunt Club development, Canby, Hickman Lane area.

1957 Thriftway from S The curved line is the now defunct railroad line south to Tigard, coming from Multnomah intersection with Garden Home Rd. White vertical street at right is 71st. Oleson is angled street upper left, school and Thriftway built.

Advert for the Walton Tavern in Garden Home, 1940’s

1954 Whitney’s Cannery and Red Store building

Red & White Store

See Eickmeyer Red & White store on Greenburg Rd.

The Red & White Store was located on SW Greenburg Rd at a Oregon Electric Railway station.

Red and White Store on Greenburg Rd. Courtesy Larry Dauelsberg. See Eickmeyer Red & White store on Greenburg Rd.

Seed and Feed

See Mildred Stevens.
See Carolyn Ernstrom Welch.

Aerial photography reveals that the Seed & Feed was partially constructed, but missing a roof for the second story in 1954 photos, but the roof was complete by 1957 fly over.

Carolyn Ernstrom Welch recalls the Seed and Feed store:

1949 or 1950 – Roy and Mina Ernstrom bought the Garden Home Feed and Seed Store on the corner of Garden Home Road and 74th Street from Mr. and Mrs. Williams. They kept the store open for only a year or so, and Roy Ernstrom started a Body and Fender shop (car repair shop) in the same building. Within the next six years, Roy built another concrete block one-story building and rented it to a mechanic (Tom). There was also a barber shop around 1957 (I think called Ray’s Barber Shop) on the Garden Home Road side of the main building. The Elks Club bought the main building in the early sixties for their lodge and then eventually sold it to another party. This bright blue building currently houses Scotty’s. I don’t know if Scotty’s owns the building.

The Seed & Feed building now houses the Dugout Sports Bar and Grill and Grove Custom Homes upstairs. Prior tenets include Scotty’s Bar and Grill, Local Leaf Dispensary, and the Elk’s Lodge. George Babbitt recalled: Scotty’s building housed Roy’s auto body shop and Ray Wilson’s barber shop.

1954 Site of the Thriftway lot from SW. View from SW, 74th being the main road visible, beside the Feed store. Oleson to the left. Garden Home Road in front of 2-story, no-roof Feed and Seed store. Nut orchard across road, pre 1957 where Thriftway will develop. Upper right corner shows Whitney’s Cannery, today’s Old Market Pub.

1954 Garden Home School from W – Arndt Neg 01. Central Garden Home, Oleson at an angle running left and right. School in foreground with the old original school building still attached in what is now the south parking lot. Garden Home Feed and Seed building has no roof structure. Community Church east of feed store at now 71st. Long 2-story store at the intersection, variously named Upchurch, Throckmortons or generally the White store, burned in 1956. Note the nut orchard NE of intersection where Thriftway is built in 1957.

1954 Garden Home Rd and 71st from S Garden Home Rd. is horizontal street, find church and Arndt home in middle. Forested area in Frank farm, Hunt Club development, Canby, Hickman Lane area.

1954 Garden Home Rd and Multnomah from W. Looking east onto Garden Home Road just above the intersections of GH Rd and Oleson. The photographer Otto Arndt’s house on left side of GH Rd upper middle, house with barn behind it. Old Community Church across the street from his house. Following down ( west) on GH RD is the church, the parsonage, the Fraley house, the Johnson house (right beside the Feed Store), the no-roof Feed store, then several more buildings. The Krom house sits beside the nut orchard.

1957 Garden Home School from E Note that Thriftway is recently constructed and the Upchurch store has burned down by the time of this photo. Intersection of vertical GH Rd and Oleson Rd. The GH School (original school still attached) middle right. Thriftway, mini-mall and Texaco station just built, 1957, lower middle. Upchurch (White) store has burned in 1956 on SE corner. Service station on SW corner. Community Church lower left middle. Roof now partially covering Feed store.

Scotty’s back mural (now painted over)

Lamb’s Thriftway

See Colin Lamb and the history of Lamb’s Garden Home Thriftway.
See Garden Home Market Place (formerly Lamb’s Thriftway).

Forrest Lamb opened Lamb’s Thriftway in Garden Home in 1957. The two aerials photographs in the gallery below were taken in 1954 and 1957 and much changed in those short three years:

• Lamb’s is constructed (with a new gas station on the corner).
• Gust Johnson’s Texaco station is replaced with a new building.
• The White Store becomes an empty lot (having burned in 1956).

1957 Lamb’s Thriftway grand opening. Forrest Lamb stands at first checkout register. Courtesy Colin Lamb. See Colin Lamb.

1957 Lamb’s Thriftway grand opening. Produce aisle. Courtesy Colin Lamb. See Colin Lamb.

1957 Lamb’s Thriftway grand opening. Courtesy Colin Lamb. See Colin Lamb.

1957 Lamb’s Thriftway grand opening article. Courtesy Colin Lamb. See post.

Stuffed elephant in Lambs Thriftway – Robin Ariss – I am the shorter one my sister is the taller and I think this was taken in 1962 when I was 5

1954 Garden Home School from W – Arndt Neg 01. Central Garden Home, Oleson at an angle running left and right. School in foreground with the old original school building still attached in what is now the south parking lot. Garden Home Feed and Seed building has no roof structure. Community Church east of feed store at now 71st. Long 2-story store at the intersection, variously named Upchurch, Throckmortons or generally the White store, burned in 1956. Note the nut orchard NE of intersection where Thriftway is built in 1957.

1957 – Aerial photo of Lamb’s Thriftway – Newly constructed prior to opening – Arndt Neg 07

The 1957 Thriftway included strip mall and a gas station. Businesses in the strip mall included The Big Tomato, the pharmacy and Post Office, and a hardware store. The photos in the gallery below were taken in 1994 and 1995, just before these structures were demolished to build the current day structure in 1996. In the first photo in the gallery below (with the Big Tomato sign), you can see a white and yellow sign behind the strip mall – that’s where the Lamb’s Thriftway new 1995 grocery store was located (current day building).

1994 Lamb’s Thriftway plaza, prior to remodel. The new grocery store was built behind the pictured plaza building (see yellow and white sign in background). The foreground buildings formerly contained the original grocery store and have since been torn down and replaced with a parking lot and Shari’s restaurant and other businesses. Courtesy Colin Lamb. See post.

Lambs Thriftway 1995, original strip mall – tear down of Big Tomato Pizza, book store, beauty salon

Lambs Thriftway 1995, original strip mall – Uetz’s Cleaners, Book Re-View, Garden Home Pharmacy

Lambs Thriftway 1995, original strip mall – Crazy About Sports, Uetz’s Cleaners, Book Re-View

1994 Lamb’s Thriftway Plaza, Big Tomato Pizza. Courtesy Colin Lamb. See Colin Lamb.

Colin Lamb, 2012. Courtesy Elaine Shreve.

In 1996, Colin Lamb (son of founder Forrest Lamb) built a new, larger building for the grocery store just east of the original building. The original strip mall building was replaced with a larger strip mall.

Lambs Thriftway 2012 – looking SE

Lambs Thriftway 2012 – north view, front entry

Lambs Thriftway 2012 – strip mall

In 2015, Colin sold the grocery store (but not the building or land). The grocery store continued on for several years branded as Garden Home Marketplace, before the parent company went out of business. As of this writing (2023), Lamb’s Thriftway has become Trader Joe’s grocery, Dogtopia pet daycare, MudBay pet supply.

Removal of old Lamb’s Thriftway signage

Garden Home Market Place

Trader Joes construction Oct 2021

Close-up of historic bell – Trader Joes construction Oct 2021

Trader Joe’s front entryway

Trader Joe’s exterior with bell hanging in bell tower

Murals at Trader Joe’s 2021 – train and golf course

Murals at Trader Joe’s 2021 – Portland views

Murals at Trader Joe’s 2021 – horses and Fanno Creek sign

Murals at Trader Joe’s 2021 – dairy farms

Trader Joes entrance

Bell hanging in Trader Joes entrance