Notes
Our records date this photo to 1896, though I suspect it may be a few years older. The scene in this image is very similar to the drawing posted yesterday. The J. H. Middleton Store has become the J. E. Hanna Cheap Cash Store and the E. L. Smith Store on the corner of Oak and Second has been sold to George Crowell, but the landmarks are unchanged.
This is very much the view President Benjamin Harrison would have seen when his train made a brief stop in Hood River the morning of May 7, 1891. I don't know if any photographs were taken at that event, but here is his speech in its entirety:
My Friends—It is very pleasant to see you this morning, and to come out into the sunshine after two or three days of chilly rain. I have been talking so much, and so much in the dampness, that my voice is not very good; but my heart is always fresh and open to these receptions. I thank you very sincerely for your friendliness and wish for you all, and especially for these little ones, every happiness in life. [Cheers.]
Category: [Downtown Hood River]
Tags: 1890s Benjamin_Harrison George_Crowell_Store Hanna JE_Hanna_Store LaFrance Oak_Street
Comments
That is the shortest speech ever! I love how he comments on the sunshine, that's Hood River for ya.
Casey on 31st March 2011 @ 3:43pm
The Middleton store appears the same as in the previous photo, but the Smith store appears to now be a large house.
Harrison must have stopped in HR on his return trip east. He was in Tacoma the day before where the weather was rather nasty and stormy.
l.e. on 1st April 2011 @ 7:06am
Today is President's Day 2015, four years after Arthur posted this photo. I read an August 1891 quote by President Benjamin Harrison.
"I pity the man who wants a coat so cheap that the man or woman who produces the cloth or shapes it into a garment will starve in the process."
He gave the speech in Rutland, Vermont and the newspaper headline says, "Rain Still Follows Him."
It was a rainy day. The paper says the president looked fatigued. In his speech, he comments, "...I was, not long since, at Portland, in Oregon, among all the shipping that was in the river, there was just one American ship. Her presence was regarded with so much interest that she was towed up near the bridge we were to cross and decorated that I might see that there was at least one American ship in the Columbia River....."
I don't know what bridge he is referring to. The train bridge was built in 1908 and the I-5 bridge, in 1915. Perhaps he saw this on the Willamette.
Which leads me to a further question: When Harrison traveled from Seattle to Portland by train, how did he cross the Columbia?
l.e. on 17th February 2015 @ 7:16am
I just took a trip on the "Portland Spirit", down the Willamette and Columbia to Astoria.
I am not sure I saw even ONE American ship. I think they were all from foreign countries.
Wonderful trip, offered twice a year. I highly recommend it.
L.E. on 25th October 2016 @ 11:00am
The JE Hanna store existed with that name from 1891 to 1893, which brackets the date for this image.
ArthurB on 28th July 2020 @ 4:43pm