Historic Hood River
Henry Coe Strawberry Farm
4-20-2011
Notes
Before Hood River was famous for apples and pears, it was famous for strawberries. This early photo shows the strawberry fields surrounding the Henry Coe residence, just west of downtown.
Henry Coe was one of Hood River’s pioneers, arriving at age 10 in 1854 with his parents, Nathaniel and Mary Coe. This house was built circa 1875 near Ninth Street and Sherman Street. A new house was built on this foundation in 1927, and is now on the National Register of Historic Places as the “Lester and Hazel Murphy House” at 1006 Sherman Street.
The “Coe Flag” which may have flown from that flagpole is one of the History Museum’s prized artifacts.
FYI, I’ve added info on the location of the Buskirk cabin in a comment on that posting from last week.
db
I was told that there were strawberry fields behind (north of) my house on Cascade Ave back at the beginning of the last century. It probably looked something like that picture.
l.e.
Some of the people picking appear to be Native American and Japanese?
Boy, that is a lot of strawberries.
Charlott
How many berries were squished, as it appears that they are not planted in rows.
T. Merritt
My father in law’s mother was a Coe and lived in Oregon. She was Native American. I wonder if some of these people are relatives. So cool to find. Thank you for posting.