Historic Hood River
Gathering Flowers
8-29-2025
Notes
We can make a bunch of guesses about this Ella May Davidson image, but have no hard facts. Her negatives seem to span 1912-1918. She and her father Charles Davidson lived near the Second Street stairs, at Serpentine and Hazel Street. The house to the right looks like one of their houses, and one of the girls looks like Ella May’s cousin (or niece?) Mary Whitehead.
None of this is definitive, but the vegetation in the area today is a very similar mix of oak and pine– with a healthy population of poison oak mixed in. Hopefully the girls knew what to avoid.
William C. Seaton
One time back in the 1950’s, I caught poison oak when I walked through this area.
Cecelia Parker Goodnight
This area also looks similar to a (not so well groomed) path that I would use walking home from Park St. school (now the Children’s Playground) in the late 1940’s. Had to be VERY careful of poison oak! I would use it when I didn’t want to climb the stairs that start 1 block south of playground and Hazel St. is on the north side of the playground/Park St. School block.