Historic Hood River
Boyington’s Hatchery
7-23-2020
Notes
This one’s a mystery to me. I’ve never seen this building or a reference to “Boyington’s Hatchery,” but we have met one Gordon Boyington before. Any information?
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Charlott
Possibly this isn’t even Hood River. If it was, beings it is that big of a building, surely someone would know about it. What would they have been hatching?
The only Boyington’s I remember lived there on the opposite side of the street between Anderson’s Tribute Center and the Nazarene Church. It was at one time the location of a paint store or something along those lines.
Dale Nicol
A chicken hatchery?
L.E.
Just so you know it is located in Hood River….In the October 04, 1992 Oregonian is a death notice for Alice Rae Boyington of Portland…age 92. She married Gordon A. Boyington during the 1920’s in Hood River. The couple owned and operated Boyington’s Hatchery in Hood River from the early 1930’s through the 1960’s. Her husband died in 1973 and she moved to Portland.
M.M.
L.E. you beat me to it. An FFA article in the January 14 1948 issue of the Goldendale Sentinel mentions buying New Hampshire Reds from the Boyington hatchery at Hood River. Now we just have to figure out where it was.
L.E.
In the 1930 census they are living on a farm at Market Road, Barrett, Hood River. They are renting, but listed as farmer.
In the 1940 census they are living on 5th St renting house number 107. Not a farm. They lived there in 1935. Occupation is Hatcheryman.
ArthurB
I’ll bet that was Markham Rd. in Barrett, not Market.
I was with Charlott on this not being HR, but I guess we’re always learning something. It looks like the sort of building you would expect to find along the railroad tracks, but I don’t recognize it.
Norma
I think I remember a Boyington’s Paint store on Belmont. Arlen, you lived in that area. Do you know?
Kyle
Looking at the upper left corner, the ~4 story building over there next to it, the only buildings I’ve seen that size are either downtown, or the big packing houses in Odell / Parkdale…?
Susie Irwin
I lived down the road from this hatchery which was on Fairview Road, south side of the road.
Maria Kollas
Wasn’t that Bolinger’s paint store on Belmont?
Norma Curtis
We have a calendar with Boyington’s Gold Nugget New Hampshires U.S.R.O.P, Chicks, Eggs, Stock P.O.Box 576 – Hood River, Ore The year 1953
ArthurB
Looks like the building may still exist at least in part. This is on Hobbs Road, south of Fairview Drive:
https://goo.gl/maps/fYnNfJVVA9N9Eyzy8
Arlen L Sheldrake
Norma….name sure has a familiar ring but I don’t know why….CRS…..Arlen
Beth H
I noticed under the upper right window, it says Hood River Mfg Co.
L.E.
How in the world did you ever see that? I had to squint my eyes and really look, even after you pointed out. That might be a whole new history research in itself.
I found in the "Nathaniel Coe Papers": "Papers of the family of Nathaniel Coe, Oregon pioneer farmer and founder of Hood River, Oregon; his wife Mary White Coe; his sons Henry Clay Coe, Charles Carrol Coe, and Eugene Francis Coe; and relatives Daniel Schenck Dubois and Herbert Earle Barrett. Materials include correspondence, writings, diaries, notebooks, financial records, and legal papers. Also included are farm journals and records, 1852-1907, and accounts of the Hood River Manufacturing Company, 1907-1920."
ArthurB
Good work HHR– for years I didn’t bother sharing this because I didn’t think it was local. Look at all the history this image brought back to us!
cg
Sorry to see this so late. I remember Gordon and Alice Boyington and am quite sure it was in the 1950’s they built the house on Fairview that I remember them living in–and it was on the south side of the road.
L.E.
January 14, 1954 Mt Adams Sun: page 16 tells about the hatchery.
http://mas.stparchive.com/Archive/MAS/MAS01141954P16.php
nels
So if I were to drive down Hobbs Rd. would I see anything similar to this?
And which house is it that they lived in?
ArthurB
There is a structure on Hobbs Rd. which has many features of this building. If it’s the same one it’s been heavily modified, but I think it is a possibility. Or it could have been another hatchery building.
Kay Ruhland
Alice and Gordon Boyington were my aunt and uncle. He was Canadian by birth but came to Hood River post WWI and began his chicken breeding business while Alice (née Pifer) was still in High School. In time (probably post WWII), they moved onto a much bigger property outside town, closer to Parkdale where she had grown up. Her father, Joseph Pifer, settled there in 1911 having moved his family from Pennsylvania. At 88, I am the only family member of this tree still alive. P. S. Thank you to earlier responses who identified the country property as being on Fairview Drive. That name “rang a bell” for me, but I wasn’t certain.
Kay Ruhland
Alice and Gordon Boyington were my aunt and uncle. He was Canadian by birth but came to Hood River post WWI and began his chicken breeding business while Alice (née Pifer) was still in High School. In time (probably post WWII), they moved onto a much bigger property outside town, closer to Parkdale where she had grown up. Her father, Joseph Pifer, settled there in 1911 having moved his family from Pennsylvania. At 88, I am the only family member of this tree still alive. P. S. Thank you to earlier responses who identified the country property as being on Fairview Drive. That name “rang a bell” for me, but I wasn’t certain.