Category — History

What would you suggest if asked how to reuse a 100+-year-old military hospital? The Fort Vancouver National Trust is asking that question about the Post Hospital.

But wait! The question gets even richer. Input is sought on how to reuse the hospital as an arts education center and visual arts museum.

The Post Hospital opened in 1905. It served more than 20,500 victims of the 1918 Spanish Influenza pandemic. More recently, it housed Army offices. It has been vacant since the mid-1990s. The building is owned by the City of Vancouver but is leased by the Trust.

On Tuesday, February 15, artists and other community members are invited to join a Community Conversation about the future use of the hospital. This important meeting will be held at Pearson Air Museum from 6 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. What a great opportunity help shape the future of this landmark building.

Imagine. What would you do with these spaces?

Post Hospital from the SE Corner

West side of the hospital next to I-5

One of the larger rooms

Lots of hallway and small rooms

A vintage ladies room

A view of a few Fort buildings from the hospital

A view to the west of the new Vancouver Community Library

Fir tongue-and-groove floors plus fireplace

Welcome to the past. What will the next sign say?

This is a building that will obviously need much work. But what an opportunity! Officers Row was saved. The Red Cross Building and O.O. Howard House were restored. It’s time to preserve our historical architecture again. To RSVP for the Community Conversation, contact the Trust at 360-992-1804.

How do you do justice to the memory of one of the world’s most important leaders for equality and peace? The life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was remembered with music, poetry, video presentation and an inspiring sermon on Saturday, January 15 at Clark College. The Dream and the Dreamer, a breakfast celebration, also honored Vancouver’s Earl Ford, who received the Mosaic Compass Award.

From Clairece Rosati’s moving performance of Stevie Wonder’s “Visions” to the dramatic poems of Emmett Wheatfall on slavery, civil rights movement and the Constitution, it was a time to reflect on the incredible life and impact of Dr. King.

Dr. Terryl Ross of Oregon State University shared a documentary video “The Door to Equality is Voice Activated,” which interspersed clips of Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement with comments from OSU students on what needs to be done now to achieve equality.

In his impassioned sermon, Pastor Matthew Hennessee of Portland’s Vancouver Avenue First Baptist Church asked: “We have the stories. Do we have the courage and the heart” to make a difference and stand up for justice? “We’re too worried about what the cost will be…The problem is the 18” between our heads and our hearts,” he said. “We have the intellect to understand,” he pointed out. “We need to close the gap.” Pastor Hennessee also honored Coretta Scott King, a personal friend. “I didn’t just marry Martin,” she had said. “I married his cause.”

Event organizer Deena Pierott shared advice that she received from award winner Earl Ford. When she expressed concerns about running her company he told her she could “stay on the porch or run with the big dogs.” She chose to “run with the dogs,” working to expand her business, Mosaic Blueprint, an international job recruitment and placement firm. Vancouver Mayor Tim Leavitt presented Earl with the Mosaic Compass Award for outstanding community service and diversity advocacy. Earl is past president for 10 years of the Vancouver Chapter of the NAACP, among many other achievements.

You cannot remember Dr. King’ courage and actions without being inspired to do more. In his words: “Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just that the first step.”

“O! how Horriable is the day!” Captain William Clark entered those words in his journal on November 22, 1805 after experiencing a nasty day on the Columbia River. “Before day the wind increased to a storm…and blew with violence throwing the water of the river with emence waves out of its banks almost over whelming us I water, O! how Horriable is the day,” he wrote.

Those last six words are now the name of the annual celebration at the Knappton Cove Heritage Center. This year, the event will be held on Saturday, November 13 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in conjunction with the “Ocian in View” Cultural Weekend at the Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum in Ilwaco.

The hospital building at the Knappton Cove Heritage Center

Knappton Cove is “Columbia River’s Ellis Island.” While the East coast immigration center is well known, our own Ellis Island is a quiet, fascinating gem located at 521 Washington SR 401 just three miles east of the Astoria/Megler Bridge bridge.

The property has been a camping and fishing site for Chinook Indians. Early explorers included Captain Robert Gray, who sailed into the Columbia River in 1792 and Lt. William Broughton, who, as part of Captain George Vancouver fleet, moored the HMS Chatham at Knappton Cove later that year. For years, a fish cannery straddled the river with a long wharf and cannery buildings.

As the US Public Health Service Quarantine Station (1899-1938), Knappton Cove played a significant role in the history of US immigration. An estimated 100,000 individuals passed through the Quarantine Station from 1899 to 1938.

During that time, cargo and immigrant ships entered the Columbia River at Astoria. Upon inspection, if it was determined that disease or vermin was on board the ship, it was sent to across the river to Knappton Cove, with its deep channel and distance from the good folk of Astoria who didn’t want the facility, on the Washington side of the Columbia.

Imagine you have traveled for weeks by ship from your native country in Europe or Asia. You have survived the crossing and finally reached the shores of America. Now you need to pass health inspection and have your possessions “deloused” in large retorts. Smallpox, cholera, bubonic plague and typhoid were among the communicable concerns. If you didn’t pass the inspection, you were isolated and detained before you could travel on to the Portland naturalization office.

Ships went through a 48 hour fumigation process, which included filling the ships with fumes sulfur pots to kill rats. (Later cyanide gas was used to fumigate the ships.) In her book, The Columbia River’s Ellis Island, The Story of Knappton Cove, Nancy Bell Anderson reported that 97 sailing vessels and 35 steamships were inspected during the first year of operation including ships from such disparate locations as Russia, Peru and Japan.

Nancy Bell Anderson discusses the historic site with visitors

The Knappton Cove Heritage Center documents not only the quarantine station with its hospital (also known as lazaretto or pesthouse) but also the other uses of the property over the years including the sports fishing camp established by Nancy’s parents, who bought the property in 1950. Sans SR 401, their front yard stretched down to the river. Nancy has been involved with the site, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, since she was 12 years old. She is currently President of the Center’s Board of Directors,

The Center is the only place in the world where you will find the 100,000 Clothespin People Project and the “It’s A Small World Clothespin Museum.” Kits are available for making clothespin dolls dressed in native clothing from immigrant homelands.

Each room of the former hospital documents the history of the site and the people who passed through its wards. A small shop has books and other items available for purchase.

One of the hospital room displays

The Knappton Cove Heritage Museum is only open Saturday weekends in summer (or by appointment). So November 13 is a great day to visit no matter how “horriable” the weather.

This November, I’m voting in honor of Emma and May, Frances and Nena, and all the other women who fought for women’s suffrage in Washington State. Emma Smith DeVoe and May Arkwright Hutton were leaders of the state suffrage movement. Frances Axtell and Nena Croake were Washington State’s first women legislators. One hundred years ago, Washington State male voters ratified the vote for women. Washington was the fifth state to do so, after Wyoming, Utah, Colorado and Idaho. The Western U.S. definitely led the way!

Emma and May, Frances and Nena would be proud of the current Clark County Historical Museum exhibit – Road to Equality, the Struggle for Women’s Rights in the Northwest.

Starting with pioneer women and Southwest Washington leaders like Mother Joseph and Dr. Ella Whipple, the exhibit follows the decades of struggle by women to gain the vote and equal rights. From 1854, when women’s right to vote was proposed in the First Washington Territorial Legislature (and lost by one vote) until the successful ratification of the vote in 1910, what we take for granted every election, was hard fought. Washington women actually had the vote from 1883-1887 until the Washington Territorial Supreme Court ruled against it. It’s hard to imagine the anger and frustration caused by that action.

Ultimately, Washington State women permanently re-gained the vote in 1910 (followed by California in 1911 and Oregon in 1912). Following years of organizing, protesting and arrests of suffrage advocates, the federal 19th Amendment became effective in August 1920.

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

According to the National Conference of State Legislators, 32.7 per cent of Washington State legislative seats are held by women. (The national average is 24.5 per cent.) In a state with women in the two U.S. Senate seats and the Governor’s office, it’s easy to forget that for decades women had no voting rights.

The Road to Equality exhibit continues through the decades of struggle for women’s rights including the role of women in World War II and the fight for passage of the Equal Rights Amendment. It also celebrates Clark County trailblazers like Val Ogden, Val Joshua and my “fellow” Rotarians Bev Fogle and Betty Sue Morris.

Modern trailblazers for women's rights. Photo courtesy of the Clark County Historical Museum.

November 8, 2010 will mark the 100th Anniversary of Washington Women’s Suffrage. A Day of Jubilation will be held in Olympia with a parade and events at the Capitol and Legislative Building.

Regardless of the results of the November 2010 election, it’s time to honor those suffragists who fought so hard for the right to vote and celebrate our 100th anniversary of Washington State women’s suffrage.

With no fewer than 10 museums and interpretive centers, the rich history of Pacific County is on display. Three museums of the Raymond-South Bend area are detailed in ZEST in Cranberry Coast Part I. On the other side of Willapa Bay, even more sites deserve more than just a casual visit.

Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum in downtown Ilwaco is a true community effort. What do you do with a massive telephone utility building? After the Ilwaco utility gave the building to the City, the Ilwaco Heritage Museum was created. The space was renovated in 1991 and renamed the Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum three years ago.

Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum

In 2008, Betsy Dillard, who had moved to the area from Missouri, came out of a five-year retirement to become Executive Director. Previously, director of the Contemporary Art Museum of St. Louis, she brought years of experience to her job. “Museums are my kind of touchstone,” she says.

Big institutions ask, what makes a museum relevant? she says. “It didn’t have to be done here,” she says. “It is relevant because it started from a community base.” The building is used constantly by community groups including “the hookers” (rug makers), quilters, an art group, the American Legion and a bridge club which has been playing at the museum for 25 years. An exhibit of vintage bridge tablecloths chosen from a local private collection of 169 cloths will by on display until mid-July. The 20,000 square foot museum includes special space for rotating exhibits. Upcoming exhibits will include World War I posters and quilts.

The permanent collection, which numbers 15,000+ objects, includes a village by the sea, the 1880s Nahcotta train Pullman Palace car from the Ilwaco Railway & Navigation Company (“The Railroad that Ran by the Tide”), a 26-foot lifesaving surfboat and an Exploration Gallery focusing on the 18 days spent by the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery in present-day Pacific County. The mezzanine houses a research library and model Shumway Railway. Admission fee. Free on Thursdays. There are lots of details at the museum Web site.

The Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center is located high above the mouth of the Columbia and Cape Disappointment State Park. William Clark’s journal sums it up: “Ocian in View.”

Looking Out to Sea from the Interpretive Center

The views from the center are spectacular. Friendly interpretive staff like Aaron Webster are well-versed in the history of the area and the exhibits. A few items were part of the actual expedition including a whiskey flask, hatchet head and wooden box carved by Sacajawea.

Interpreting the Corps of Discovery

The award-winning film “Of Dreams and Discovery” is on view along with permanent and rotating exhibits. Two historic lighthouses—Cape Disappointment and North Head— can be explored. An added feature – the Discovery Trail, 15 miles of biking and walking paths from Ilwaco to Long Beach. Below the Interpretive Center, the waves crash at Waikiki Beach and the Confluence Project site at Cape Disappointment features Maya Lin’s basalt fish cleaning station. The Center is open daily. Admission fee. Details here.

Below the Interpretive Center and Lighthouse

More museums coming up including Fort Columbia State Park, World Kite Museum, the Cranberry Museum, Knappton Cove Heritage Center and Appelo Archives Center.

The year is 1903. Woodland resident Hulda Klager reads about Luther Burbank’s plant propagation work. Tired of peeling small apples for pies, she hybridizes a larger apple. From that work, she moves to lilacs and changes the history of the flowering shrub. After years of creating new varieties, she starts the tradition of annual open houses, sharing her plants with lilac collectors.

Thirty years later disaster strikes. Imagine that your life’s work is washed away. In 1948, a flood destroyed most of Hulda’s collection. At age 83, she started over. Many people who had purchased her many varieties came back with plant starts. She re-planted her collection and continued her spring open houses until her death at age 96 in 1960.

Today, the fragrant collection and the 1889 Klager home are maintained by the Hulda Klager Lilac Society. You can see the results of Hulda’s work, tour the Klager farm house and purchase plants every spring from mid-April through Mother‘s Day during Lilac Days . During the rest of the year, the grounds are open from 10 am to 4 pm, seven days a week. Details here .

Here are a few photos of Hulda Klager’s floral legacy:

City of Gresham

Katherine Havemeyer

Chrystle

Lilac Sunday

Glory