Historic Hood River
Paris Fair Interior
12-12-2017
Notes
Here’s another interior from the Paris Fair at the dawn of the twentieth century.
Don’t forget, tomorrow Scott Cook and I will be presenting a “Sense of Place” lecture at the Columbia Center for the Arts. This is an unscripted, “anything can happen” event. Don’t miss it!
Charlott
Something just doesn’t quite make sense here. Paris Fair was much wider than that. Could that wall there, but just like a false wall between that and another side. Then there was the mezzenine (can’t spell it) plus the upstairs. No doubt later additions.
Look at all that fabric. Makes sense having a great array with women making their dresses, etc. than.
Arthur
The Paris Fair Building history is a bit complicated, but I believe this picture is from 1905 when a two story brick addition was built to the east of the original wood building. The next year another floor was added and the brick building extended to the west, which is how we see the building today. Note the break in the shelving which marks a passageway into the older half of Paris Fair (right side)
The hanging electric lights mean this is 1904 or later, but the wall configuration is pre-1906.
cg
I had the same reaction as Charlott about width of store when I saw the Dec. 6 photo. I also remember loving to look at my feet in the the "X-ray" machine near the door, a piece of equipment later determined to be dangerous to health if I remember correctly.
Buzz
Decided to stick with Charburger for lunch at noon tomorrow. Strictly informal. Would enjoy saying hi and chatting with anybody who can make it–old friends, new friends, internet friends, future friends.
Melody Shellman
Those stools are fascinating. Do they fold up and away when not in use?
nels
My folks had a hardware store back in the 40’s. Behind the display shelves was a floor to ceiling stock to use as needed. One side was nuts and screws and bolts and nails of every kind. Downstairs were coils of rope, garden tools, a knife sharpener that operated by pedaling, glass eggs, glass butter churns, 78 rpm records in the back, deLeval milk separators, beautiful Schwinn bikes in the window with horns and lights. But the Sears and Wards and Penney’s catalogs held sway, like 2 – 3" thick.
nels
I remember people coming in to stand and watch the 33 1/3 records go round and round, watch thee first automatic washers through the front glass in the door, and my mother demonstrating mangle irons that operated like the roller in a hospital type iron. She could even iron mens shirts not to count all the cotton sheets and other all cotton clothing.