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New Washington County history book

A new book from Arcadia Publishing will be released later this month. Compiled by Art Sommers and Karen Kearns from the Washington County Museum image collection, “Washington County” features people and places in our county from the late 19th century through the mid-20th century.

Sommers moved to Hillsboro in 2016 and began to volunteer at the Museum. He had published five previous Arcadia books about California. He asked fellow Museum volunteer Kearns to assist him in selecting images from the collection and writing captions.

“We started with 400 images, we scanned 300, and from there we narrowed it down to the 200 images required for an Arcadia publication,” said Sommers.

Topics include early pioneers, transportation, business, schools, and service organizations and churches.

Unlike most Arcadia books, this one has a short index. Sommers said that his experience with Arcadia allowed him to work out this and a few other changes to the standard format. Note that there are no images of Cedar Mill in the book.

The book will be released on Monday, March 25, with a book signing at 7 pm at Powell's Books at Cedar Hills Crossing. Another book signing will be held on April 20 at the Washington County Museum.

Cedar Mill History Club enjoys recalling Murray businesses

Around a dozen people enjoyed cookies and beverages at The Ackerly Timberland on February 21, during the latest meeting of the informal Cedar Mill History Club. With the help of a large aerial photo loaned by Bales Findley Property Management, we remembered Joe’s Grocery, originally located in the two-story building that used to be at the southeast corner of Murray and Cornell, later moving to the building that is now Miller Paint. Some recalled that the grocery included a cold-storage room where the butcher let locals store their own meat and game. The butcher later worked at Bales, but nobody could remember his name.

The two-story building also housed Mack’s Auto Parts. Further down Murray, C&H Hardware occupied the building that now contains Haven Coffee and Muttley Crew doggie daycare. Many also recalled HumDinger, a hamburger restaurant that served generations of families and students from Sunset High.

The buildings at the corner, and the HumDinger, were removed to make way for the widening of the Murray Cornell intersection. Later this year Community Partners for Affordable Housing are expected to begin construction of low-income housing on the remaining lot.

The next meeting of the History Club will be sometime in April. Sign up for the mailing list or join the Historical Society Facebook group to get more information.

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