Historic Hood River
“Big 7” Renovation
Notes
The Port of Hood River acquired downtown Hood River industrial properties from the Diamond Fruit company with the intent of renovating them for new industrial uses. This included buildings all along Wasco, Columbia and Industrial Avenues, from the Waucoma Center to the Union Building. This pair is from more than a dozen images detailing the renovation of the “Big 7” building on Industrial, now the home to Blue Mountain Networks (formerly Gorge Networks) and several other uses.
It’s amazing this modest industrial building survives. According to thew 1988 entry in the Oregon Inventory of Historic Places it was built in 1915 for the Hood River Vinegar Company. We know it was gutted by fire in 1939, leading to the loss of 70,000 gallons of brandy. Yet it was rebuilt, and before its restoration in the 1980s was serving as cold storage for Diamond Fruit. The Port gutted it and reconstructed it, taking care to restore the very faded advertising signage on its facade. This is a classic example of historic preservation/ adaptive reuse. The building still tells the story of its early architecture and uses, but it is economically productive with modern industrial clients.
Rountree Rouse
Port director Jim O’Bannion showed this building to me and one of my partners at Wind Weapons in January of 1987 when we were planning on relocating to Hood River from the Bay Area. It was surrounded with chain link fencing and yellow police tape and cold rain was pouring through the roof. It was a hard no from us 25 year olds. We couldn’t fathom the renovation and revitalization that the Port had planned for that area. Several years later after the Wind Weapon moved on, the Port helped Paige and I get Pageworks started with affordable rent in the newly renovated Columbia building across from what is now Double Mountain Pizza. Truly amazing vision and renovation of that area and the waterfront by the Port and the City in the last almost 40 years.
Arthur Babitz
Rountree, that’s a really great perspective. If you didn’t see the “before” images it would be hard to imagine how much went into creating the business and community environment downtown.