Historic Hood River
110 Years
6-22-2021
Notes
This image is from one of my favorite stereocards in our collection. Frank Patterson took it roughly 110 years old (based on the “modern” depot which was built in 1911) yet almost everything has changed. When this image was captured long distance travel was by rail in steam powered trains, most local travel was horse-drawn, wheels had wood spokes, and long distance communication was by telegraph. You can see all of that in a single frame. Yet just a few years later all of that had changed. Most of the people in this frame lived to see horses and stables disappear from our cities, airplanes and automobiles across the landscape, and telephones in every house.
Category: Downtown Hood River
Tags: 1900s, depot, Gerdes Hotel, hotel, locomotive, Mt Hood Railroad, Patterson, railroad, stereocard
Tags: 1900s, depot, Gerdes Hotel, hotel, locomotive, Mt Hood Railroad, Patterson, railroad, stereocard
L.E.
That would be my mother in law. She was born in 1912. Farming was done with horses, and she rowed a boat across the Columbia River to attend school. By the time I knew her, she loved traveling by plane to different parts of the world. She loved driving and at age 93 had no intentions of giving up her license. While attending college, she would save enough money to attend a movie. She talked about taking the steam boat to Astoria and when a steam powered train made an exhibition run by her house in the 1990’s, she immediately recognized the sound of the whistle.
kalley
The clothing people are wearing is interesting. The lady’s clothing and the young girl to the left of the last cart are typical of those times. Then the men in their suit coats. And no one would go out without a hat. There is a lot going on in this picture to look at.
Arlen L Sheldrake
LOVE this picture…..yes, so much history in one frame……I sure agree that our parents experience/witnessed a LOT of change…..we have also….I well remember 25 cent per gallon gasoline, being amazed at the USAF’s exposing me to punched cards, man on the moon, etc…..some things are repeated….spanish flu – covid-19…..hoovervilles – houseless clogging my sidewalks…..rural electrification – high speed internet to rural locations…..railway express – UPS
Nice to see that the HR depot still survives….Arlen
Arlen L Sheldrake
kailey…..hats….while I admit to being a bit weird, one of my favorite exhibits at the Oregon Rail Heritage Center is a railroad dinning car chair with a platform on the bottom…on the platform is a knob…the platform and knob is for the man’s hat and the knob is to keep the hat on the platform as the train swayed back and forth….as I tell our visitors, wearing a hat to the dining table was a big sin.
Father John was rarely without his hat….
Jeanie
Also notice the Gerdes Boarding House in the upper left corner. That was still there until, I think, the late 1960s, early 70s. It was a cool old building, but probably a real firetrap.