Notes
This isn't exactly a photograph, but they do have great stationery. And it's relevant to earlier discussions about the paving of our downtown streets. George Lawrence was a businessman from Portland who owned a large saddlery with a prominent building on the Portland riverfront. As you can see by his letter he also owned a house in Hood River, and had some very strong opinions on the paving of Hood River's business district.
This letter was apparently forwarded to "Pete" for review. Unfortunately we have no record of what sort of reception it received at the City Council. Paving of the business district proceeded over the next few years. As we no longer see teams of horses making deliveries downtown, perhaps Mr. Lawrence's warnings had merit.
You might expect a saddlery company to have faded away with the automobile age, but with some changes in focus the George Lawrence Company hung on through the 1980's, when its line of leather products was acquired by another company.
Category: [Downtown Hood River]
Tags: 1910s construction Lawrence letter
Comments
Very interesting letter. They are just as valuable historic wise to the area as the great old photos. Keep it all coming........
Charlott on 15th June 2011 @ 4:59am
Wow. That is fascinating. I love it. This would be a great primary source for students to read when studying industrialization and technological change.
Casey on 18th June 2011 @ 3:51pm