Historic Hood River
Oak Street, circa 1905
Notes
I’m going to date this view of Oak Street to 1905. Take a look at the Paris Fair Building. The brick Paris Fair building was completed in 1906, but here we seem to have half a brick building stuffed into the space between the old wood Paris Fair building and the Bartmess building. If you look at these buildings today you can see the second story window placements of the brick building match today’s Paris Fair, though there is no third floor and it’s hard to see what is going on at street level. That Google view also shows how the old Bartmess building is enclosed in a newer facade.
You can see the Paris Fair, S.E. Bartmess Furniture, and the Central Market on the south side of the street. I can’t make out any signs on the north side of the street.
l.e.
No livery stable at the end of the street to block the view!
Looks like that intersection was busy even back then on a summer day.
Are the windows in today’s PF building as tall as these? To me they look shorter.
Buzz
Great picture. My first thought: "Yep, that’s where in the mid/late fifties that is where we used to "drag the gut" and meet the girls.
charlott
Couldn’t you see "dragging the gut" in a horse and wagon? Take all evening to make the rounds…..
I think those windows are about the right size. I guess we can come to somewhat of a conclusion that maybe Paris Fair was built in two phases.
Steffen
Arthur, you are close on the year, might be ’04. Old Paris Fair would need to be torn down and the new structure built. The portion of the Bartmess Building with the gable roof was built in 1893. In 1903 the section to the east was built. I am still puzzling on when the gable end was removed, my guess is between 1913 and 1924, can anyone help…
Arlen Sheldrake
I also remember dragging the "gut" Buzz but where were the girls???
Arlen
Arthur
OK, someone has to fill us in: What does "dragging the gut" mean? Was it the Hood River version of cruising? Details, please!
Buzz
Dragging the gut was cruising up and down the main drag in your hot chevy with moon hubcaps and loud pipes until the girls came out and then meet up at Pop’s Place.
charlott
Pop" Place, haven’t thought about that place in years. Spent a lot of time there myself.
For those of you who don’t know, Pop’s Place was a local restaurant where the teens went on the west end of town. It was along there somewhere across from Sunset Motel.
l.e.
From the July 14, 1899 HR Glacier about the Bartmess store: I wonder what part in the photo is the new addition?
"Mr. Bartmess established himself in his present business at Hood River about seven years ago, coming from La Fayette, Ind. It would be next to impossible, within the limits of this article, to enumerate everything kept in stock at his establishment. Suffice it to say that his assortment of goods is full, complete and up to date in every respect. The upper story of his building, which is now with his own property, is occupied by himself and family as a residence, while the entire lower floor is used for business purposes, being stocked to the ceiling with goods. The front part of the room is taken up with furniture, carpets, baby carriages, wall paper, paints, oil, etc., of which he has everything usually found in a first-class store. An addition, 18×30, has been built to the main building, two stories, making the present dimensions 30×74 feet. The middle room is utilized as an undertaking department, where are found handsome coffins and caskets and a general line of undertaking goods. Mr. Bartmess owns a hearse and he makes a specialty of embalming and shipping bodies. As a funeral director he has few peers.
In the rear of his store is kept his supply of building material, consisting chiefly of doors, windows, lumber, lime, hair, cement, molding, etc. Picture frames are made to order. The building is lighted throughout with acetylene gas. The Oregonian has been handled at this store for the past seven years, the daily deliveries ranging from 50 to 100 copies……"
Arlen Sheldrake
Yes, "dragging the gut" or cruising was what some cities like Portland later banned. HR had no restrictions on how many times one could "drag the gut" other than one running out of gas or putting too many miles on the parents odometer…….Pop’s Place, just east of the Lone Pine Motel owned by the parents of deceased classmate Danny Campbell….what was the make of their 12-cylinder limo? The motel is still there.
Patty Gehrig-Householder
Had no idea that Paris Fair had been there that long. It was one of my favorite shopping places in the 1960s!
Jeffrey Bryant
The Hood River Glacier, March 8, 1906, page 7
The building being moved off the Odd Fellows’ corner, occupied by the Paris Fair, to make room for the new brick building, has been purchased by N. J. Devold, who will move it on to his property just south of the hotel and fit it up for hotel purposes.
Jeffrey Bryant
The Hood River Glacier, March 15, 1906, page 2
CONTRACTS LET FOR I.O.O.F. BUILDING
Mr. Devold, who owns the "Ramona" boarding house has bought the wooden structure which stood on the corner opposite his place and has moved it onto a lot he owns back of his present place of business. It is his intention to slightly remodel it and later fit it up as an annex to his boarding house business.
l.e.
There is also history about the Paris Fair and IOOF Hall in this National Register of Historic Places.
Still no answer as to why it was named Paris Fair. It was established in spring of 1901. W.O. Ash and M.E. McCarty arrived from Portland as proprietors.
http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NRHP/Text/90001598.pdf