Historic Hood River
Davidson Building Construction
Notes
We’ve seen the Davidson Building before, but this image shows its construction circa 1905. You may recall the story that after Horatio Davidson suffered a significant uninsured loss due to a fire in 1904 he told city fathers he would not rebuild unless they formed a fire brigade. The brigade was formed, and Mr. Davidson built this “fire proof” building using a new technique, reinforced concrete. The building is still around, so it must have worked.
Note the blurry man in the foreground carrying a keg. It’s hard to imagine what it would have been like to build a structure that size of concrete without cement trucks and power mixers. We take it for granted that we can make a call to Hood River Sand and Gravel and truck shows up which can put concrete wherever we want it.
Tags: 1900s, agriculture, Cascade Avenue, concrete, construction, Davidson, Davidson Building
l.e.
In the lumber mill photos, instead of wooden hand pushed carts to move the lumber, today we would see little yellow and black bobcats beep beeping and running around loading and unloading. It would probably be the same for this concrete block construction. Instead of packing blocks by hand a bobcat would deliver a load where ever needed.
OSHA would love to see that guy standing on the saw horse.
l.e.
1 on top. 1 in the middle and two on the bottom.
Buzz
Not an expert on building construction, but thought reinforced concrete construction was poured concrete reinforced with rebar. This appears to be concrete blocks, unless I am missing something.
nels
I think you are right Buzz, and then a brick and lathe interface would be used? Or 2 X 4 studs? Interesting would leave the oak tree so close to the building.
Shade value?
spinsur
Well, I don’t know for sure either way, but don’t forget this is before plywood, so forms were 1x material, usually 1×6 or 1×8, then held together w/ verticals and whalers. Note the back walls formed up. It tends to leave horizontal lines that resemble blocks. I believe the columns may have been done in a slip-form style, and by alternating board dimensions, achieved that block "look". Reinforcement would have been substantially different from the rebar of today! But hey, the building still stands!
Arthur
Checked the high-res scan. The N and E walls sure look like poured concrete to me. You can even see the forms, the bracing, even the ramp to get the wheelbarrows of concrete up to the top of the form. Not so clear on the S and W walls.
Checked the State Historic Preservation Office inventory form. It says the building is "concrete" and adds under "decorative features" that there are "raised concrete quoins on corners and around central piasters." The building was designed by local architect P.M. Hall-Lewis who also designed the Paris Fair Building.
Buzz
You are probably right. I certainly claim no special expertise.
Steve r
Looks perhaps like a "block & tackle" device along side of the build- perhaps to lift water and or lime/cement- just a guess.
Is that a long train track like rail in front of the building- ?
I spy 4 workers-
Jeffrey Bryant
The Hood River Glacier, June 14 and 21, 1906 issues mention that street names were going to be changed to uniformly numbered and named streets. Several streets running the full length of town had two or three names. River street would become Cascade. All streets running north and south were to be numbered consecutively commencing with First street.