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.
Fanno Farm House
Fanno Farm House – before renovation
Fanno Farm House
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)
1890 Post Office and store, Garden Home, Oregon. Mr Lumen Nichols, Postmaster.
Looking west down Garden Home Road from the Red Store, 1911.
Wilson’s Grocery (aka Throckmorton’s or Upchurch Store)
Lana Smith, Postmaster of the Garden Home Post Office, 2013.
Garden Home Post Office was opened by Lumen Nichols in 1872.
See Garden Home Post Office.
Bob Feldman beside original milking barn, 2011
Fanno Creek Dairy blotter
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.
Andreas Von Bergen, cousin Caspar Baumgarten, Ida, Frieda, Grandma Magdelana, Elsie and Great Grandmother Von Bergen. Courtesy Richard Roth and Madeline Benner. See
Andreas and Magdelana Von Bergen Dairy.
Von Bergens: Arnold, Madeline, Richard
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.
Shattuck Dairy – barnyard,milk wagons, log road
Peter Gertsch driving a Shattuck Dairy wagon
Shattuck hay wagon, 2 little girls, 3 men
Shattuck Dairy – hay derrick in field
Shattuck Dairy – showing off on windmill used to pump water
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
Front page of the Nov 2, 1903 Oregonian
1903 Halloween Murder
Bauman on trial
Illustration of parties involved
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”.
Garden Home train station
Garden Home train station – rear
Garden Home train station – crowd
Oregon Electric Railway begins operation through Garden Home in 1908.
See Garden Home Junction of the Oregon Electric Railway.
Garden Home baseball team in the Sunset Basebase League. Uncle Duke Scherner (right front), Uncle Carl Rehberg (left rear) and Albert Erickson (center). Courtesy Don Smith. See
Don Smith.
Late 1920s Garden Home baseball team. #1 Duke Scherner in back. Courtesy Don Smith. See
Don Smith.
Baseball teams from Garden Home played in local leagues in the early 1900s through the 1930s.
See Baseball in Garden Home.
1910s
Historic 1910 pillars at the entrance to the Portland Hunt Club, with original resident names, circa 1972
Buggy races at the Hunt Club
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.
1912 Garden Home School
1920s Melvin Replogle and cat near Garden Home School
1951 Garden Home School
1954 Aerial photo of Garden Home School and Gust Johnson’s Texaco station
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.
Garden Home School opened in 1912.
See The history of Garden Home School, 1912 to 1982.
US Army Sgt. 1st Class Steele, center, shaking hands with a General. Courtesy Jack Steele. See
Jack Steele.
Jack Steele, 2011
Jack Steele’s father moves to Metzger in 1912, later building a house in Garden Home in the 1930s.
See Jack Steele.
The Portland Golf Club’s original clubhouse stood about where the 7th hole tee is now.
1957 Portland Golf Club from NW Portland Golf Club fairways in foreground. Hunt Club’s quarter-mile track at mid-photo. Bridle path/Fanno Creek trail at right. School is upper mid-photo to the right.
PGC history – Alva Davis’ homemade car, pictured on his father’s farm.
This picture looks just like the tractor that Virgil used to mow the fairways.
PGC history: Alva and John, moving a tree at the golf course.
The section bounded in orange is the original nine holes. Note Firlock Station hole #15 along the southern edge of the course.
Portland Golf Club opened in 1914.
See Portland Golf Club.
1949 Canfield house. Grandma Mabel Ford Babbitt and Robbie on porch. Courtesy George and Mae Babbitt.
See post. 
Mae and George Babbitt, 2010.
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.
Morris, Fannie and Samuel Pallay.Courtesy Hal Pallay. See
Hal Pallay.
Hal Pallay is the youngest child in the front of the photo. Behind him are children in the family he played with as he grew older. Courtesy Hal Pallay. See
Hal Pallay.
Fannie and Morris Pallay inside the house on Garden Home Road. On the wall behind them the picture of a child wearing the Russian Military uniform tailored by Morris. Courtesy Hal Pallay. See
Hal Pallay.
Fannie and Morris Pallay celebrating their Golden Wedding anniversary. Those seated in the middle of the picture are, from left to right: Clarence?, __________, Leo, Morris, Fannie, Florence and Hal Pallay. Courtesy Hal Pallay. See
Hal Pallay.
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.
Old Community Methodist Church
1954 71st Ave and Garden Home Rd from W Close-up of photographer Otto Arndt’s home and barn on Garden Home Rd. Church, cannery, electric plant. House at far left upper photo probably was Glen and Isolda Steele’s home (Isolda was cook at school).
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 track, stable and indoor riding arena
Aaron Frank with Aloma boarding train
Frank horses
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 N. Stephens
1935 or 1936 Garden Home baseball team of the Sunset League.Front row (L to R): Jim Butler, Walt Niebert, Jim Smith, _________, Cece Daimler, Don Steele, Al Drake. Bat boy in front: Bob Tetrick.Back row: Glenn Steele, Bob Steele, Sid Ralston, Cliff Duval, _______Werschkul, Noble Stephens (Clark Stephens dad, manager), _________, Milt Drake, Stan Hall. Courtesy Clark Stephens. See
Clark Stephens interviewed December 2010.
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
1937 Zora and Sharka Becvar birthday party
Zora and Sharka Becvar
Vlasta Becvar Barber at the Washington County Museum exhibit featuring her life story, 2018
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.
Betty the St. Bernard with (L-R) Cousins Bill Norris, Doc Hickman, Lou Anne Hickman and Eilene Norris. Courtesy Doc Hickman. See
Doc Hickman.
Doc Hickman
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.
7440 SW 78th Ave Stott Kickbusch house south side
7440 SW 78th Ave Stott Kickbusch house west side
7440 SW 78th Ave Stott Kickbusch house from 78th
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.
John Adams as a child with flowers pinned to his shirt. Courtesy John Adams.
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.
Oregonian Monday Oct 20, 1941 – twisted track of train wreck
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, home of Ross Fogelquist
Fogelbo
Ross Fogelquist inside Fogelbo
Fogelbo tour 2019 interior – Don Dunbar, Ross Fogelquist, Kevin Mistler, Jan Fredrickson
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 (year unkown). Circa 1940s based on the two visible cars. Definitely pre-1952, because a
1952 aerial photo includes a new parking lot in the SE corner of complex.
Alpenrose Dairy from above
1964 Alpenrose Country Fair – page 1
Rusty Nails Alpenrose Wanted Poster 1966
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.
Garden Home plane crash pilot Robert H. Strong
P-63 Kingcobra fighter plane
The Oregonian, June 14, 1944, page 1
1st Lt. C. R. Connely statement about 2nd Lt. Robert H. Strong’s final mission
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.
Garden Home Co-op Cannery – Sunday Oregonian July 15 1945
Oregonian July 13, 1945 page 19 article about the Garden Home Co-Op Cannery
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’s Cannery – Leona Whitney and CHEER UP IT MUST BE COLDER IN ALASKA sign 1969
Whitney’s Cannery – Canning tomatoes 1967
Whitney’s Cannery – Each customer prepared their own produce for canning – 1958
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 and father Gust Johnson
Dorothy Johnson with German Shepard
Dorothy Johnson won Miss Oregon in 1955 and was runner up for Miss America.
See Dorothy Johnson: Garden Home Recollections.
Garden Home Extension Study Group 2011 – Virginia Vanture, Sandy McKiernan, Helen Schisler, Mildred Stevens
Ernilie Storrs, Virginia Bates – Garden Home Extension Study Group
Virginia Bristow, Dorothy MacKay, Betty Hardy, Lillian Perkins – Garden Home Extension Study Group
Ernilie Storrs, _____, Betty Hardy, Dorothy MacKay. Garden Home Extension Study Group.
Garden Home chapter of the Extension Study Group began meeting in 1955.
See Garden Home Extension Study Group.
Wilson’s Grocery, later Garden Home Grocery (photo by Dorothy Stevens). Courtesy Mildred Stevens. See
Mildred Stevens.
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 fire burns Garden Home Grocery (aka the White Store)
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.
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. Courtesy Colin Lamb. See
Colin Lamb.
1957 Lamb’s Thriftway grand opening. Produce aisle. Courtesy Colin Lamb. See
Colin Lamb.
Lamb’s Thriftway was opened by Forrest Lamb in 1957.
See Colin Lamb and the history of Lamb’s Garden Home Thriftway.
1960s
M. Lowell Edwards at his Garden Home laboratory, 1955
Power Plumbing, 2016, the original site of the Edwards laboratory, co-inventor of the artificial heart valve
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.
Wormwood Manor 1962 broken telephone pole and damage from Big Blow on Firlock Ln
Path of the Big Blow storm 1962
The Big Blow of 1962 (aka Columbus Day Storm) left a mark on Garden Home.
See November 2022 News.
Garden Home Road safety path – near SW 84th
Garden Home Road safety path – near SW 78th Ave
Garden Home Road safety path – 1
Garden Home Citizens’ Action for Safety Path report pg 1
The safety path that runs along the north side of SW Garden Home Rd was installed around 1965.
See Garden Home Road Safety Path.
New Garden Home Community Methodist Church
Lamb’s Market Garden Home
Bell plaques at Garden Home Market Place
CPL Lyle S. Tate, USMC, was killed in Vietnam in 1967.
See Lyle “Toad” Tate.
1970s
L to Rt: David Endres (THPRD community affairs director); Terry Moore (THPRD Board 1995-2003); Mark Knudson (THPRD Board) Bob Cynkar (Portland BES public involvement liaison to first pump station project); Bob Bothman (THPRD Trails Advisory Committee Chair); Carl Hosticka (Metro Councilor District 3); Nathalie Darcy (Fanno Creek Trail Committee).
Original train bridge supports over Fanno Creek 2019 by Kevin Mistler
Fanno Creek trail sign – From Track to Trail
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 and Son and Daughter grocery bag
Ad for Comella & Son Produce & Flower Center
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
1982 Final day of Garden Home School – balloon release
1982 Final day of Garden Home School – Final student body assembly
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.
2004 Library expansion photos by Bob Cram – 4
Library 2004
Library 2013 – prisoners unloading bookcases
2004 Library expansion photos by Bob Cram – 1
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 – Book cover
Ginny Mapes, 2012 at GHHP celebration of school centennial
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
The Garden Home History Board of Directors, 2014
July 2019 Board or Directors picnic at Wormwood Manor. Top row: Tom Shreve, Louise Cook Jones, John Pacella. Middle: Kevin Mistler, Patsy VandeVenter, Sharon and Bob Cram. Front row: Jan Fredrickson, Marie Pacella, Susan and Stan Houseman (not pictured: Elaine Shreve)
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.
Lambs Thriftway 2012 – bell visible in bell tower
2018 Lambs Thriftway renaming – removal of Lamb’s branding
2018 Lambs Thriftway renaming – temporary Garden Home Market Place branding
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 exterior with bell hanging in bell tower
Trader Joe’s front entryway
Murals at Trader Joe’s 2021 – train and golf course
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 lifting the roof to peek in
Ole-Bolle and his toes
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.
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