Historic Hood River
L. E. Ireland’s, 1920
5-18-2015
Notes
L.E. Ireland was a prominent orchardist in the teens and twenties. The reverse of this image indicates this attractive fruit warehouse was on Cascade Avenue, though advertisements in the Glacier place it on Columbia. I’m a bit perplexed as I can’t find it on the 1916 or 1928 Sanborn maps, yet the hills in the background clearly indicate a location close to downtown.
L.E.
It appears to be a large, well built facility. Seems like it wouldn’t disappear into history.
I am on my ipad so not able to see clearly. Does the building run north/south or east/west?
Just wondering if the drop off in elevation is taking advantage of the railroad.
Charlott
It was located at 6th and Columbia
Arthur
Apparently this was an auto garage in 1916. Ireland bought it, converted to fruit, and sold it in 1921:
The Glacier, June 2, 1921
The Apple Growers Association has just purchased from L. E. Ireland the latter’s two story apple storage and receiving warehouse, a building formerly occupied by the Colombia Garage Co. The consideration was around $9,000, it is said. Mr. Ireland, who has been in the fruit market business here for several years, will enter the restaurant business in Los Angeles, it is announced.
Longshot
The people standing out front appear to be in their teens. Would they have been the packers and sorters of their day?
Jerry Larsen
I’m always amazed at the huge apple and pear industry that developed soon after my great-grandfather Frank Davenport brought irrigation into the lower Hood River Valley in 1895-6. The fruit boxes behind the two groups could well have been manufactured in his box factory at Ruthton.
Arthur
The two key technologies were irrigation and refrigeration. Irrigation opened up much more land for reliable orchard operations, and refrigeration opened up a national market.
L.E.
From The History of Oregon, 1922
LOUIS ELSTON IRELAND
Louis Elston Ireland has since 1910 been a resident of the Hood River valley and in 1918 became actively identified with the purchase and shipment of apples, maintaining an extensive warehouse in the city. He is at the same time a well known orchardist, who has successfully propagated fruit on a ranch of his own. Born in Laporte, Indiana, in 1873, he is a son of A. P. and Eliza (Elston) Ireland. The ancestral line is traced back in America to the Rev. John Ireland, a minister who came to the new world in 1763. The branch of the family of which Louis E. Ireland is a representative was established in Indiana in pioneer times, arriving there in 1830. Louis E. Ireland pursued his education in the schools of Laporte and started out in the business world in connection with the wholesale candy establishment conducted by his father. Ha remained in that line for five years and then accepted a bank position in a small town, in which bank he says he performed every sort of duty save that of president. The bank held him for three years, at the end of which time he became connected with the wholesale implement business of the well known firm of Dean & Company, remaining with that house in several capacities for thirteen years. It was in the year 1910 that Mr. Ireland came to Oregon and purchased land on the east side of Hood river. He has been very successful as an orchardist, propagating his fruit according to the most advanced scientific methods and in 1918 he built along the railroad tracks in Hood river a warehouse with a capacity of forty thousand boxes of fruit and entered the commercial end of the apple business as a buyer and shipper. He ships direct to his own agents in the east and middle west and in 1919 handled nearly two hundred thousand boxes of apples, which is an evidence of the rapid growth of his business and an indication of the progressive and enterprising methods which he has employed, as well as of the high esteem entertained for him by the growers of the valley, who recognize in him a thoroughly reliable and progressive business man. In 1899 Mr. Ireland was married in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Miss Annabelle Dean, a daughter of W. J. Dean of that city, and they have become the parents of six children: Elston L.; Dean L.; Rebecca; Philip A.; Arthur P.; and Corabelle. The eldest son is a student in the University of Oregon and the others are being prepared for college at Pasadena, California, where the family resides during a portion of the year. Mr. Ireland is a most energetic and progressive business man, who, while never neglectful of his civic duties, takes no active part in partisan politics and has never stood for public office. Fraternally he is a Mason and an Elk. He has made for himself a creditable place among the fruit shippers of Oregon and his standing as a business man is very high.
Leah
I’m interested in learning more about the Ireland family and maybe see pictures of their house. We purchased the land about two years ago and are restoring the house.
Larry Laevens
L.E. Ireland Hood River Oregon token is being sold on ebay