After a rousing day of preparing to tear off a roof, I decided to sit down and procrastinate by adding a bit to the Wikipedia article on the first Vancouver at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanc...Washington
The history section was greatly expanded, and a section on notable buildings added, both below.
HISTORY
Before the Lewis and Clark expedition camped in the area in 1806 , the area was inhabited by various Native American tribes, such as the Chinook and the Klickitat, whose name for the area was Ala Si Kas or "land of the mud-turtles". Lewis wrote that it was "the only desired situation for settlement west of the Rocky Mountains." The first permanent European settlement did not occur until 1824, when Fort Vancouver was established as a fur trading post of the Hudson's Bay Company. From that time on, the area was settled by both the US and Britain under a "joint occupation" agreement. Joint occupation ended on June 15, 1846, with the signing of the Oregon Treaty, which gave the United States full control of the area. The City of Vancouver was incorporated on January 23, 1857.
Based on an act in the 1859-1860 legislature, Vancouver was briefly the capital of the Washington Territory, before being returned to Olympia, Washington by a 2-1 ruling of the territory's supreme court, in accordance with Isaac Stevens' preference and concern that proximity to Oregon might give its southern neighbor undue influence.
U.S. Army Captain (and future President) Ulysses S. Grant served at what was then known as Columbia Barracks for 15 months beginning in September 1852. Soon after leaving Vancouver, he resigned from the army and did not serve again until the outbreak of the American Civil War. Other notable generals to have served in Vancouver include George B. McClellan, Philip Sheridan, Oliver O. Howard and 1953 Nobel Peace Prize recipient George Marshall.
Army presence in Vancouver was very strong, as the Department of the Columbia built and moved to Vancouver Barracks, which would be the largest Army base in the region until surpassed by Fort Lewis, 120 miles to the north. Pearson Army Field (later Pearson Field Airport) was a key facility and the US Army Signal Corps operated the largest spruce cut-up plant in the world to provide much-needed wood for airplanes. Vancouver became the end point for two ultralong flights from Moscow, USSR over the North Pole. The first of these flights was performed by Valery Chkalov in 1937 . Chkalov was originally scheduled to land at an airstrip in nearby Portland, OR, but redirected at the last minute to Vancouver's Pearson Airfield. Today there is a street named for him in Vancouver.
Separated from Oregon until 1917, when the Interstate Bridge began to replace ferries, Vancouver had three shipyards just downstream which produced ships for World War I before World War II brought an enormous economic boom. An Alcoa aluminum plant opened on September 2, 1940, using inexpensive power from nearby Bonneville Dam. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Henry Kaiser opened a shipyard next to the U.S. Army reserve, which employ as many as 36,000 people by 1944. Operating twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week to produce liberty ships, LST's, and "baby flat tops," this influx of shipyard workers to these would boost the population from 18,000 to over 80,000 in just a few months, leading to the creation of the Vancouver Housing Authority and six new cities: Fruit Valley, Fourth Plain Village, Bagley Downs, Ogden Meadows, Burton Homes and McLouglin Heights. Each of these was later incorporated into the city, and are well-known neighborhoods, while the neighboring "shipyard city" of Vanport, Oregon, would be destroyed by the Memorial Day flood of 1948.
In 1956, Willie Nelson moved to Vancouver to begin his musical career, recording "Lumberjack". The single sold fairly well, but did not establish a career. Nelson continued to work as a radio announcer in Vancouver and sing in clubs. He sold a song called "Family Bible" for $50; the song was a hit for Claude Gray in 1960, has been covered widely and is often considered a gospel music classic.
Vancouver has recently experienced conflicts with other Clark County communities because of rapid growth in the area. As a result of urban growth and annexation, Vancouver is often thought of as split between two areas, East and West Vancouver, divided by NE Andresen Road. West Vancouver is home to downtown Vancouver and some of the more historical parts of the city, as well as recent high-density mixed-use development.
More than one-third of the Vancouver urban area's population has spilled into an unincorporated urban area north of its city limits, including the communities of Hazel Dell, Felida, Orchards and Salmon Creek. If county leaders had approved a major annexation plan in 2006, Vancouver would have passed Tacoma and Spokane to become the state's second-largest city.
NOTABLE BUILDINGS
Because of its relatively long age for the region, Vancouver is home to various notable buildings, including the reconstructed Fort Vancouver at the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site. Many are also on the National Register of Historic Places, and in 2003 the city was named one of the Register's "Dozen Distinctive Destinations".[
Other notable buildings in Vancouver include:
+ The Covington House at 4201 Main Street, a log cabin and boarding school built in approximately 1848
+ Officers Row, including The Grant House (first house on the Columbia Barracks) and the Queen Anne-style 1866 Marshall House
+ Mother Joseph's Providence Academy, constructed in 1874, where Evergreen Boulevard crosses Interstate 5
+ Saint James Church, whose first mass Roman Catholic mass was celebrated August 16, 1885
+ The Carnegie Library at Sixteenth and Main, which opened on New Year's Eve, 1909, to showcase its unusual electric lights
+ The 1914 Chicago-style U.S. National Bank (now the Heritage Building) at Fifth and Main
+ The 1916 U.S. Post Office at 1211 Daniels Street
+ The vertical-lift Interstate Bridge, which opened on Valentine's Day, 1917, Oregon's 58th anniversary
+ The 1935 art deco telephone exchange building at Eleventh and Washington
+ The 1941 Clark County courthouse, designed by prolific local architect Day Hillborn
+ Smith Tower, a round downtown apartment building for the elderly, built in 1965
+ Slocum House, a 19th century Italianate villa style residence originally built one block south of its current location in Esther Short Park. It was moved to its present location at Esther Short Park in 1966 and now houses a community theatre company.
An alternative view of important buildings is available at www.columbian.com/lifehome/architecture/
A terrific timeline may be found at www.cityofvancouver.us/150th.asp
The history section was greatly expanded, and a section on notable buildings added, both below.
HISTORY
Before the Lewis and Clark expedition camped in the area in 1806 , the area was inhabited by various Native American tribes, such as the Chinook and the Klickitat, whose name for the area was Ala Si Kas or "land of the mud-turtles". Lewis wrote that it was "the only desired situation for settlement west of the Rocky Mountains." The first permanent European settlement did not occur until 1824, when Fort Vancouver was established as a fur trading post of the Hudson's Bay Company. From that time on, the area was settled by both the US and Britain under a "joint occupation" agreement. Joint occupation ended on June 15, 1846, with the signing of the Oregon Treaty, which gave the United States full control of the area. The City of Vancouver was incorporated on January 23, 1857.
Based on an act in the 1859-1860 legislature, Vancouver was briefly the capital of the Washington Territory, before being returned to Olympia, Washington by a 2-1 ruling of the territory's supreme court, in accordance with Isaac Stevens' preference and concern that proximity to Oregon might give its southern neighbor undue influence.
U.S. Army Captain (and future President) Ulysses S. Grant served at what was then known as Columbia Barracks for 15 months beginning in September 1852. Soon after leaving Vancouver, he resigned from the army and did not serve again until the outbreak of the American Civil War. Other notable generals to have served in Vancouver include George B. McClellan, Philip Sheridan, Oliver O. Howard and 1953 Nobel Peace Prize recipient George Marshall.
Army presence in Vancouver was very strong, as the Department of the Columbia built and moved to Vancouver Barracks, which would be the largest Army base in the region until surpassed by Fort Lewis, 120 miles to the north. Pearson Army Field (later Pearson Field Airport) was a key facility and the US Army Signal Corps operated the largest spruce cut-up plant in the world to provide much-needed wood for airplanes. Vancouver became the end point for two ultralong flights from Moscow, USSR over the North Pole. The first of these flights was performed by Valery Chkalov in 1937 . Chkalov was originally scheduled to land at an airstrip in nearby Portland, OR, but redirected at the last minute to Vancouver's Pearson Airfield. Today there is a street named for him in Vancouver.
Separated from Oregon until 1917, when the Interstate Bridge began to replace ferries, Vancouver had three shipyards just downstream which produced ships for World War I before World War II brought an enormous economic boom. An Alcoa aluminum plant opened on September 2, 1940, using inexpensive power from nearby Bonneville Dam. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Henry Kaiser opened a shipyard next to the U.S. Army reserve, which employ as many as 36,000 people by 1944. Operating twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week to produce liberty ships, LST's, and "baby flat tops," this influx of shipyard workers to these would boost the population from 18,000 to over 80,000 in just a few months, leading to the creation of the Vancouver Housing Authority and six new cities: Fruit Valley, Fourth Plain Village, Bagley Downs, Ogden Meadows, Burton Homes and McLouglin Heights. Each of these was later incorporated into the city, and are well-known neighborhoods, while the neighboring "shipyard city" of Vanport, Oregon, would be destroyed by the Memorial Day flood of 1948.
In 1956, Willie Nelson moved to Vancouver to begin his musical career, recording "Lumberjack". The single sold fairly well, but did not establish a career. Nelson continued to work as a radio announcer in Vancouver and sing in clubs. He sold a song called "Family Bible" for $50; the song was a hit for Claude Gray in 1960, has been covered widely and is often considered a gospel music classic.
Vancouver has recently experienced conflicts with other Clark County communities because of rapid growth in the area. As a result of urban growth and annexation, Vancouver is often thought of as split between two areas, East and West Vancouver, divided by NE Andresen Road. West Vancouver is home to downtown Vancouver and some of the more historical parts of the city, as well as recent high-density mixed-use development.
More than one-third of the Vancouver urban area's population has spilled into an unincorporated urban area north of its city limits, including the communities of Hazel Dell, Felida, Orchards and Salmon Creek. If county leaders had approved a major annexation plan in 2006, Vancouver would have passed Tacoma and Spokane to become the state's second-largest city.
NOTABLE BUILDINGS
Because of its relatively long age for the region, Vancouver is home to various notable buildings, including the reconstructed Fort Vancouver at the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site. Many are also on the National Register of Historic Places, and in 2003 the city was named one of the Register's "Dozen Distinctive Destinations".[
Other notable buildings in Vancouver include:
+ The Covington House at 4201 Main Street, a log cabin and boarding school built in approximately 1848
+ Officers Row, including The Grant House (first house on the Columbia Barracks) and the Queen Anne-style 1866 Marshall House
+ Mother Joseph's Providence Academy, constructed in 1874, where Evergreen Boulevard crosses Interstate 5
+ Saint James Church, whose first mass Roman Catholic mass was celebrated August 16, 1885
+ The Carnegie Library at Sixteenth and Main, which opened on New Year's Eve, 1909, to showcase its unusual electric lights
+ The 1914 Chicago-style U.S. National Bank (now the Heritage Building) at Fifth and Main
+ The 1916 U.S. Post Office at 1211 Daniels Street
+ The vertical-lift Interstate Bridge, which opened on Valentine's Day, 1917, Oregon's 58th anniversary
+ The 1935 art deco telephone exchange building at Eleventh and Washington
+ The 1941 Clark County courthouse, designed by prolific local architect Day Hillborn
+ Smith Tower, a round downtown apartment building for the elderly, built in 1965
+ Slocum House, a 19th century Italianate villa style residence originally built one block south of its current location in Esther Short Park. It was moved to its present location at Esther Short Park in 1966 and now houses a community theatre company.
An alternative view of important buildings is available at www.columbian.com/lifehome/architecture/
A terrific timeline may be found at www.cityofvancouver.us/150th.asp
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Portland
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Re: Vancouver History
Sat, August 18, 2007 - 12:27 PMInteresting stuff Marc. Thanks for posting. I enjoy history and tend to focus more on the east coast where I grew up where the history starts with the Dutch in the early 1600's. There are still stone homes there from the 1700's with doors only six feet high. History is taught in schools as if it were a punishment.
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Re: Vancouver History
Sat, August 18, 2007 - 3:21 PMThere are some great books about the city/county history available at the main Vancouver library on Mill Plain. The Columbian has published two with some fabulous photographs: "The Columbian Presents Clark County The Early Years 1850-1949" and "The Columbian Presents Clark County Volume Two 1950-1999". For a city that now prides itself on its history, Vancouver destroyed a lot of older, historic buildings during the "urban renewal" days of the early 1960's to mid 1970's. There was a huge uproar when the original Vancouver High School was demolished, and when the old St. Joseph's Hospital was torn down. It is amazing that Providence Academy, next door to the old hospital, was spared. -
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Re: Vancouver History
Sun, August 19, 2007 - 8:36 AMIf you get a chance, I highly recommend checking out the Clark County museum on Main at 17th(?) or so. They have a really cool arial photograph taken from the early 1940's and blown up the size of a wall.
Another historic building most ppl don't know about is on the corner of 33rd and St. John's road, which was a general mercantile built in 1890. At that time, it was the last general store before you left civilization to head out the Burnt Bridge Road (now St. Johns or St. James) toward Indian Country.
One more tiny little fact about Vancouver: The old Fort Vancouver Way and St. John's Road were the main routes for Indians, Settlers, and Soldiers to get in and out of the valley to the North. Burnt Bridge Creek got it's name due to a bridge that (of course) burned down that used to span the creek where SR500 crosses St. John's today.
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