Today is My Friday

This two story brick building at the northeast corner of Main Street and 7th Street in downtown Vancouver, Washington currently serves as office space and has had various tenants throughout its life. As can be seen in the historical photo below from the 1940s, the top floor tenant was KVAN, one of the city's earliest radio stations. In its original incarnation, KVAN operated from 1939 to 1959, before relocating to Portland and rebranding as Top 40 station KISN. The KVAN call letters currently belong to a Spanish station in the Tri-Cities area. Photo credit: Vanishing Vancouver by Pat Jollota The station had a country and western format in the 1950s, and one of its DJs was the soon-to-be famous Willie Nelson. He hosted a daily show on the station called "The Western Express" and often played gigs at The Wagon Wheel in Camas. Nelson did not remain in Vancouver long, but he did manage to notch some significant life and career milestones during his time her...

The City of Vancouver is redesigning the stretch of Main Street from 5th Street to 15th Street, and they are seeking feedback from the community. More information on the project can be found here on the Be Heard Vancouver site. The link to the survey can be found here . Here are my answers to the survey questions: What is your hope for the future of Main Street? My hope for the future of Main Street is that it be a community gathering place that is accessible and convenient for people of all levels of mobility and modes of transportation. I do not own a car, so my primary modes of transportation are walking and cycling. While the current Main Street corridor is pedestrian-friendly, there are several improvements that can be made to be more welcoming to walkers, as well as cyclists. In order to make Main Street more welcoming to all, I offer the following suggestions: Replace angled parking spaces with parallel parking. Studies have shown that angled parki...

This is a first draft of a self-guided walking tour brochure that I have put together to highlight the Art Deco & Art Moderne buildings I have discovered in downtown Vancouver, Washington. I am not an architectural expert, so I have relied heavily on information from the Clark County Historic Preservation Commission. They have an excellent searchable map of noted historic and architectural treasures in the county on their website . My hope is that this map will generate interest in local history and architecture and strengthen further preservation efforts in the future. On that note, it has been brough to my attention that there are plans by the county to demolish the Pepsi-Cola Bottling Co. building (#5 on the walking tour) to expand the jail. I am a newcomer to Vancouver, so I am not aware of any preservation efforts that may have occurred with this building. When I see photos of long-gone buildings in the older parts of town, I am saddened by their loss and by the lack o...

There are names of local historical significance that many native Vancouverites instantly recognize, such as Hidden, McLoughlin or Kiggins. However, some important names from the past have been all but forgotten. One such surname is Chumasero. Chumasero-Smith House Alfred Chumasero, a native of Ohio, moved to Vancouver is 1890 and is thought to be the first Filipino-American to settle in the state of Washington. He is perhaps most well known for operating a drug store at the northwest corner of Main Street and 6th Street in the Schofield Building (space most recently occupied by Top Shelf Martinis on Main). He also operated a hardware store, an electric station and was a partner in one of the City's first electric companies. Former location of A.C. Chumasero ~ Druggist at the northwest corner of 6th and Main in downtown Vancouver Screen capture from an expired eBay listing for a bottle from Alfred Chumasero's drug store The Chumasero-Smith h...

I wrote a series of blog posts about local hauntings in Vancouver, Washington during the month of October 2022. I have gathered them in one place for easy navigation. Enjoy! Vancouver Ghost Stories: First Presbyterian Church Vancouver Ghost Stories: Hidden House Vancouver Ghost Stories: Red Lion Hotel Vancouver Ghost Stories: Simply Sweets Vancouver Ghost Stories: Clark County Historical Museum

During this time of year, I always get the hankering to watch a “scary movie.” I seldom have the patience to sit through a two-plus-hour movie, so I tend to be fairly picky about the ones I watch. The hunt for the perfect film for a spooky October night usually ends in frustration as I scroll through endless previews of slasher, jump scare and zombie flicks. However, I have found that the perfect ingredient for a movie that will send a chill down my spine is the child ghost. Maybe it is the tragedy of a life cut short or my curmudgeonly avoidance of small and noisy creatures, but nothing scares the bejeebers out of me like an undead kid. Today’s story deals with such a ghost. The Clark County Historical Museum is housed in a stately red brick building at the southeast corner of Main Street and E 16th Street. It was constructed in 1909 (with Hidden bricks, of course) as the City’s first public library and operated in that capacity until the early 1960s when the museum took ov...

I have a confession to make. When I was planning my fourth installment of Vancouver Ghost Stories, I had a completely different haunting in mind than the one I am writing about this week. I am not proud of it, but I changed my mind because I was craving a cookie. I will explain. The majority of my research for this series has been Pat Jollota’s fun book Haunted Vancouver, Washington which details reports of ghosts within our fair burg and provides possible identities of said spirits based on historical research. Many of the stories involve either buildings that are no longer in existence, like this or this , buildings that are not open to the public or private residences. The one that caught my eye this week involves a bakery. The building at the northwest corner of Columbia and 31st, built in the 1930s, originally served as a grocery store operated by Lucius and Celia Bagley, who also lived on the premises. After her husband’s death in 1944, Celia remained in the house u...

Welcome to another edition of Vancouver Ghost Stories, where I spotlight local hauntings each week in the month of October. The first two stories, which can be found here and here , involved ghostly appearances by spirits not thought to be associated with tragedies that occurred within the walls of the building. This week’s story is a little different. Photo credit: Haunted Vancouver by Pat Jollota When I arrived in Vancouver earlier this year, demolition of the Red Lion Inn on the waterfront was underway. Much of the structure visible from the street north of the hotel revealed a shabby exterior; it was clearly a building that had seen better days. The hotel opened as the Thunderbird Inn at the Quay in 1960, and I imagine that it was quite the glamorous spot with its expansive view of the Columbia River. The hotel became part of the Thunderbird/Red Lion chain in the early 1970s and was renamed the Red Lion Inn. In 1975, it was the scene of a murder. Marcia Elaine ...

October is National Pedestrian Safety Month, and this is an issue that is very important to me as an avid walker. I live on the north side of downtown Vancouver, and I walk several miles every day. There are some street crossings in the city where I do not feel safe as a pedestrian due to excessive speed and lack of attention by drivers. Typical transportation design in our country is focused on moving cars quickly and efficiently through the roadway network. Driver speed and convenience is often prioritized over pedestrian safety. Vancouver is no different from other American cities in this regard; however, an exception to this is the Uptown Village section of Main Street. Automobile drivers are more likely to travel at high speeds when there are fewer constraints on the road. Conversely, when structural limitations are added to a roadway, drivers will slow down. This article notes a correlation between lane widths and crash fatalities. Taking a look at Main Stre...

It is probably the unseasonably warm weather, but I am not yet feeling the Halloween vibes in this first week of October. I started a series of Vancouver Ghost Stories last week with this post to help me get me in the mood, but I have not yet achieved a sufficient level of spooktasticness. However, I have learned some fascinating local lore. Vancouver is the oldest city in Washington state, and old cities are full of history, old houses and ghosts. Today’s tale focuses on one of the city’s most prominent families and their historic mansion. The Lowell M. Hidden House at 100 W 13th Street was constructed in 1885 by Lowell Mason Hidden, the founder of Vancouver’s successful Hidden Brick Company. Since its founding in 1871 until its closing in 1992, the Hidden Brick Company supplied millions of bricks to several structures around the Vancouver area as well as other buildings in Portland, Astoria and Tacoma. Lowell and his family lived in the house until after his death in 1923....

Today is the first day of October and the unofficial start of spooky season. The greens of summer turn crimson and gold, chill winds blow from lead gray skies, and Halloween decorations are unearthed from dusty attic boxes to hold court on porches and front lawns. There is no better way to kick off the season than with a ghost story, so turn out the lights and gather ‘round. Photo credit: Google, "Streetview", digital images, Google Maps (http://maps.google.com), photograph of 400 W Evergreen Blvd, Vancouver, Washington, taken June 2019. The Gothic Revival building that occupied the northwest corner of Evergreen and Daniels in downtown Vancouver until late 2020 was originally constructed as the First Presbyterian Church in 1912. Over the years, the building was also home to the Columbia Arts Center until 2000, and finally New Heights Church. In each of its incarnations, the building has been the home of a ghostly specter. Many visitors to the building reporte...

The Witness Tree Rooftop Lounge opening in the sparkling new Hotel Indigo on the waterfront will reportedly offer an “elevated” gastronomic experience with artisanal cocktails and a locally-inspired menu. While you are sipping on your Old Fashioned made with pomegranate molasses and Douglas fir infused bourbon and nibbling on your geoduck & chorizo tacos with foraged nettle reduction, you can enjoy views of the majestic Columbia River and take note of the former location of the venerable Witness Tree (may she rest In peace). Although the exact location is not visible from the restaurant, which is in the parking lot of Who Song & Larry’s, I appreciate the nod to an important piece of local history. Photo credit: Vanishing Vancouver (Images of America: Washington) by Pat Jollota According to the City of Vancouver’s Witness Tree Program website , the tree was a black cottonwood located at the south end of Main Street and was known to be an impo...

When I moved to Vancouver several months ago, I noticed the name Harney in several locations. There is the Harney Heights neighborhood and Harney Elementary School located in the central part of town, and Harney Street that runs north from the west side of downtown discontinuously to Northwest Vancouver. The name is a bit unusual, so I was determined to do a little digging to find out the story behind the name. The namesake of these locations is General William Selby Harney, leader of the U.S. Army’s Department of Oregon, which included Washington, from 1858 to 1860. Like myself, he was born in Tennessee; however, the similarities end there. Harney earned a reputation for hotheadedness and brutality in the Army during the Indian Wars and the Mexican-American War. Among his acts of savagery are the beating death of a slave woman in 1834 and massacre of a settlement of Lakota Sioux in the Battle of Ash Hollow in 1855. His career in the Department of Oregon was a bit calmer, ...