Historic Hood River
Hood River Meat Market
Notes
We’re revisiting this image as I try to straighten out some details of history. I spend a fair amount of time tracking the changes in the Hood River downtown commercial community. Stores change names and locations continually, which provides a perfect measuring stick for pinning down the dates of photographs. Meet Henry McGuire, who worked the counter at Clyde T. Bonney’s Hood River Meat Market, which appears to have moved and become first “The Emporium” in the summer of 1898, and then “Reciprocity Corner” in September 1898. This photograph was used in their advertising.
You’ve seen this important early image of Oak Street before. It’s one of the first old photos of Hood River I ever saw. In our records one copy is dated from 1890, and another from 1895. The problem is, the Reciprocity Corner seen in the image didn’t exist at those dates. Once again, we see how imprecise our historic record can be, and why it is important to have multiple sources. The Hood River Glacier is a contemporaneous source which puts it far ahead of the later reminiscences on the reverse of many of our images.
My current thinking is Bonney moved his meat market from the site of the Paris Fair Building to the southeast corner of Oak and Second in 1898. The word “reciprocity” was surprisingly common in period newspapers, especially with reference to treaties being negotiated. It looks like he picked up a current word and ran with it.
Tags: 1890s, Bonney, butcher, Hood River Meat Market, market, McGuire, meat
Charlott
It is hard for me to grasp the idea of all that meat just hanging there without refrigeration. I would think the flies would be there in swarms. No doubt the buckets are of lard, which was very popular at that time. My mother always preferred lard for her pie crusts and she was a wonderful baker.
Born in McMinnville in 1875, McGurie did not live to be an old man, dying in Salem in 1917. His wife was Kathryn Entrican and they only had one son, Leslie. He worked for Bonney the entire time he was in Hood River.
Norma
Which corner of Oak and Second?
ArthurB
SE, where the bank is now. I'll add that to the Notes text.