Historic Hood River
Wintery View
1-13-2017
Notes
What a great view of State Street in the winter of 1921-22. You can see the bottom of the Second Street stairs near the far left of the frame.
Those horses are sure working hard. You can see the condensation from their breath. I know from biking that hill is steeper than it looks.
Category: Downtown Hood River
Tags: 1920s, horses, Second Street Stairs, sled, snow, stairs, State Street, wagon
Tags: 1920s, horses, Second Street Stairs, sled, snow, stairs, State Street, wagon
Charlott
That building at the far left was the cleaners when I was growing up. I do recall that lovely old house sitting there. Does anyone know who was the builder/owner of that one?
Nice to see a man who cares about his team and puts blankets on them. But we need to keep in mind that in that era, when they will still using horses some and the generations back horses were the mainstay of lives. There is an old saying "that bread is the staff of life." Well, I think you might go one better than that and say that horses were "the bread of life." Without horses how would the grains that made the bread get harvested, to the mills and then to the kitchen?.I have read numerous articles where if a man/farmer neglected his livestock the neighbors were really down on him as a person.
I am trying to imagine what this man might be either hauling or off to get. My guess with the weather being like it was that he was hauling wood from somewhere.
Would it not be fun, if someone had a working team and a big old sled to go out all snuggled down in a load of hay…………………………no doubt the powers that be would give us a ticket, but still it would be worth it…….
LMH
Arthur, was this photograph taken by Ruth Shafer? Similar to https://www.hoodriverhistorymuseum.org?showimage=1485, just a few feet up the hill.
Arthur
Yes, this is a Ruth Shafer photo. I should have mentioned that.
L.E.
I agree with Charlott. Taking good care of the horses. Horses are going to sweat during this uphill pull. If they have to stop for any length of time, the sweat freezes. Then they have to start out and begin sweating again. The blankets protect them.
A good dry rub down, shelter and some good feed were important. That is why livery stables were so important.
I wonder how many times you had to stop and rest a team when you hauled a load from downtown to the Heights?
And what was the route? I doubt they turned from Oak and went straight up Hospital Hill like we do today. The needed a gradual, switchback route.
Charlott
Maybe there was Serpentine. Not that it wasn’t a steep climb, but don’t think it would have been as bad as straight up by where the hospital is now…..
Arthur
Serpentine was around at least as early as 1902. It appears in the 1902 Sanborn map as "Parkhurst" climbing from the corner of Bridge (State) and Irving (6th). In 1907 Marion Cook published a poem describing climbing "that Serpentine road" in "Where Flows Hood River." I suspect they renamed it based on that poem.
Jeffrey W Bryant
The Golden Stairs were rebuilt in 1917. See:
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn97071110/1917-07-19/ed-1/seq-7/