Historic Hood River
Hood River View
Notes
This Gifford photogravure of Hood River is worth a close look. The road is primitive, but the view should be familiar. My best guess is this is between 12th and 13th Street near State and Oak. You can see by the Google map window embedded below you would need to be a little east of 13th Street for Mt. Adams to line up perfectly, but this is close.
And yes, those are tennis courts. It’s possible they are same tennis courts we saw Harry Dewitt playing in this photo. Unfortunately by the time the Sanborn maps added detail in this part of town, this park was converted to an auto park, so there is no record of the exact location of the tennis courts. There are a few references in The Hood River Glacier to the Benedict’s Club tennis courts on Oak Street, but as everyone knew where they were they didn’t need to mention the cross street.
Tags: 13th Street, Gifford, Hood River, photogravure, sports, State Street, tennis, White Salmon River
JKG
Oh back in the good old days when Mt. Adams used to be covered in snow…
Dan Kleinsmith
Great photo
kmb
Do we know the year the Gifford picture was taken?
Arthur
You’re in luck, kmb. Some of the Gifford photos have copyright dates on them. This one says "Copyright 1910".
L.E.
This is a dandy photo.
But I am surprised this is up high as State and Oak. Seems closer to the river.
Longshot
Wanted to check this out yesterday when I was out and about, but the smoke hadn’t cleared out of the valleys to the north as of then and I couldn’t see Adams because of it.
LMH
Arthur, I found several newspaper references to the tennis court location.
The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, March 11, 1909, Page Seven, Image 7
A tennis club was organized Friday evening at a meeting called for that purpose, and the following officiers elected : J. H. Heilbronner, president; P. S. Davidson, vice president; H. D. W. Pineo, secretary; J. H. Osborn treasurer, it was decided to locate the tennis courts on the lots back of the residence of F. A. Cram, owned by P. S. Davidson, and the
ground there will be put in shape shortly for this purpose. (Franklin Cram built a house at Tenth Street and State Street in 1908)
The Hood River news., April 19, 1911, Image 1
TENNIS CLUB OPENS SEASON
WITH RENEWED INTEREST
More interest is being taken in tennis this year than in any former season and the local club is planning a number of tournaments among its own members this spring. The courts at the corner of Oak and Tenth streets are being remodeled.
The Hood River glacier., May 21, 1914, Image 8
The plans for the all day athletic meet here tomorrow are as follows: Triangular tennis tournament beween the local high, White Salmon and The Dalles, at the Benedict Club courts Tenth and Oak streets, beginning at 8 a.m.
The original
LMH
Darn fumble fingers.
The original club was founded in 1909, with limited membership (25), consisting of young and energetic professionals in town. The Benedict club appears a couple of years later with the same cast of performers. It appears that this group had considerable influence in the Valley. There were at least two or three clubs and courts established to provide competition, not only locally but from other towns and cities in eastern Oregon.
jeremiah jenkins
Looks like it’s actually closer to the water, like on Wasco St between 10-13th st! link
LMH
Arthur,
1. The sizing of this page is huge. Maybe you can scale it down to fit the normal page.
2. I noticed the imagine numbers have disappeared. Having the numbers made it easier (for me) when navigating. among various photos.
Thanks.
L. E.
I agree LMH!!
Great photo but I can’t get it to fit my screen. And the image number is gone.
Arthur Babitz
Thanks to LMH and LE for pointing out the bug, I’ve fixed so the image fits on the page. And thanks to Jeremiah for a better location match– I agree this was probably closer to Wasco Street than Oak.
As for the numbers to keep track of the images: I need to rework the access to the search/ browse views of the images first. I think when I do that you’ll see you don’t miss the numbers. I hope to have some “down time” around Thanksgiving to work on this.