Grays Harbor Scrapbook
January 16, 2009
Enjoy a small slice of Grays Harbor’s history with photos courtesy of The Polson Museum, 1611 Riverside Avenue, Hoquiam, Washington.
Copalis – Group Eating
Hoquiam amateur photographer Joe Stearns simply, yet aptly, titled a pair of his glass plate negatives “Copalis – Group Eating & Sleeping.” Stearns and his friends regularly picnicked near Copalis as they owned cabins at Pacific Beach in the 1900s and 1910s. Notably, the older bearded man at right-foreground is George Emerson, the man widely regarded as the “father” of Hoquiam. The well-groomed man just left of center resting his hand on the wooden Price Baking Powder crate is almost certainly Robert Polson.
Watermelon, Anyone?
Lunch breaks at Harbor mills were always a treasured time of each day. Here Eureka Lumber & Shingle Company personnel sit on a two-rail fence along the Chehalis River eating watermelon circa 1920. The Eureka was a Polson-owned sawmill located at the foot of Ontario Street in Hoquiam.
German Bakery
Frank Binder and William Siese opened Aberdeen’s German Bakery in 1910 at 109 West Heron. The bakery provided Harborites with a taste of Germany for 45 years, although it underwent several name changes prior to closing in 1955. In 1924 it was renamed Grays Harbor Bakery and then, in 1949, Siese’s Bakery.