Historic Hood River

Notes

1924 must have been an extraordinarily busy year for Leslie Butler.  In one year he saw the completion of construction of a grand new building to house his eponymous bank, and he played a central role in promoting and financing the Hood River White Salmon Interstate Bridge across the Columbia.

Butler was born in Indiana in 1847.  He emigrated to The Dalles where he ran a grocery store, before opening the Butler Bank in Hood River in 1900.  You can see the interior of his bank at Second and Oak in this post.  You can see Butler participating in a visit to promote the Columbia River Highway in this post.

He was known to be a staunch Prohibitionist, which was a major movement in Hood River in that era.  The bank grew as Hood River prospered, and by the early 1920s needed a larger building.  He hired well-known Oregon architect A. E. Doyle to design the Egyptian Revival temple we know as the Butler Bank Building.  About the same time Butler played a key role in organizing investors in the Washington-Oregon Bridge Company which financed and constructed the interstate bridge.

Butler was given the honor of driving the last spike in the bridge, as memorialized in this image from December 6, 1924.  This evening you can “meet” Mr. Butler at First Friday down at his bank building.  The History Museum will be hosting a mini- Timewinder Tale performance featuring Mr. Butler and architect A.E. Doyle as an intermission during a free performance by the Jazz Collective.  You’ll have another chance to celebrate Butler’s productive year of 1924 on October 6, when the Port of Hood River hosts a centennial celebration of the bridge.  The bridge will be open to pedestrians and antique cars for a few hours that morning, along with more music and celebration.

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