Nick Rillakis

Nov. 12, 2019

The McCleary HealthMart Pharmacy currently has a portrait of Nick Rillakis on display.

Rillakis had a store called Rhodes Grocery which basically stood on the very spot his portrait is on display. It was built in the 1920s and heralded as the first concrete structure in town. In the final years of this building it was festooned with murals by James Abbott and served as a storage unit place as it fell into increasing neglect and disrepair. In the 1980s-1990s Abbott's work was all over the place but is now more difficult to locate.

Anyway Nick was part of the Greek wave of workers who came to McCleary when old Henry lured foreign workers here who were not likely to unionize and would be prone to demand to be treated like human beings instead of the slaves they became. Unlike the Italians who came here, the Greeks were economically better off from their point of origin. Those who were not killed in the woods or died from other causes and landed in the McCleary Cemetery just made their wad of dough and went back home. But a few Greeks hung around and the last ones survived into the 1970s.

Some of the Greeks ran a gambling house and bordello in the building that later served as The Pines restaurant and tavern. The Greeks also hosted some of the earliest meetings for the workers to unionize there. The space is now the big empty lot on Main and Maple.

I recall Nick as a rotund, bald, gregarious and bombastic fellow. The most notable part of his store was an old timey giant wheel of cheese close to the entrance where customers could select the size of their slice. Going into his store was sort of like making a trip back in time. But that describes a lot of McCleary in the 1960s.

Every picture tells a story

Oct. 26, 2019

The public restrooms on the left of the photo was about where Henry McCleary had his executive office when his sawmill was in current day Beerbower Park. The kitchen-picnic building behind that was constructed around the late 1980s or early 1990s to replace the original building that had been built in the early days of the McCleary Bear Festival as a place to cook the bear stew.

The current City Hall, constructed in the late 1950s, was originally the site of Henry McCleary's later headquarters. When President Roosevelt came through town in an open car in the 1930s, Henry instructed his employees to turn their backs. After McCleary sold the town to Simpson, he tried living in northern Nevada for a brief time, but that did not work out. In his final year or so even though he resided in Olympia he could occasionally be seen sitting outside of his old headquarters watching the world go by in a town he no longer controlled.

The crosswalk brings to mind this little tale. McCleary has had a long and colorful history of Chiefs of Police. In the 1950s the City hired a young photogenic fellow from Shelton for the job and he was the first person to institute the use of marked crosswalks on the main roads. Most of the residential streets were not paved until much later.

Anyway, after maybe a year the Chief vanished "between two days" as Norman Porter of the McCleary Stimulator put it, with part of the City treasury and someone else's wife. The law finally caught up with him in the Bay Area about a year later. So think of that next time you use a McCleary crosswalk.

Weirdo-shaped parking strip

Oct. 26, 2019

What is with that weirdo-shaped parking strip between City Hall and the VFW Hall? As usual, there's a story there.

On the right hand of the photo is Beerbower Park. In the old days that chunk of land was Henry McCleary's original lumber mill, which was shut down in the 1930s.

On the left hand of the photo is the present Simpson door plant. In 1910 Henry McCleary bought the Chehalis Fir Door Company and moved the whole operation, including most of the workers to this camp. A giant clearing took place and a mountain of wood was burned to make space for his door plant. When it opened it was all electric and one of the largest and most modern door plants in the world. It also produced airplane and automobile parts when those industries used more wood in their product.

The two huge operations, sawmill and doorplant, were connected by a pedestrian skyway. Roughly about where the first tree in the line on the right sits there were two ugly buildings, big hulky two story cubes on either side of the road. A covered walkway on the second floor connected the twin structures.

For people arriving to town from the north, this gave the impression of entering through a Medieval gate during the feudal times, which in fact was not far off from reality This was Henry McCleary's Kingdom-- a one-man principality where you were paid in script, lived in company-owned homes, and God help you if you ever even entertained the very idea of forming a union.

This pedestrian skybridge did not exist for very long. The building on the west side where the door plant now resides was torn down first. The eastern building remained for some reason and just sat there like a wart. After Henry sold the entire town to Simpson on the last day of 1941 and the park was created by local people out of the ruins of the old mill, they had to work around that building and hence we have that elongated triangular parking strip.

When it was finally torn down maybe in the early 1950s a local newspaper commented that in the old days "they didn't build for pretty."

The Clock in City Hall

Feb. 8, 2018

The antique clock in McCleary City Hall originally belonged to Henry McCleary and was part of the Henry McCleary Timber Company headquarters. McCleary's HQ stood on the same spot where City Hall is now located, so the clock has resided in the same area before almost all of us in town were born.

Note the more boring modern clock in the background behind the Seahawk decorations.

Jake Anderson's gate

Sept. 5, 2016. A surly Norwegian bachelor named Jake Anderson owned everything west of current day 4th Street before Henry McCleary arrived. Anderson lived at the top of the "T" at 5th and Oak, and was known to use a boat to get around the cedar swamp that is now the filled-in downtown area. The gate to Anderson's digs was here, on this northernmost block of Main St.

Until recently, the spot where Anderson's gate stood was marked on the sidewalk, but a redo of the area wiped that out. This particular side of the block has been home to some iconic McCleary business establishments in the past: Timbear Cafe, Golden Rule Store, the office of Dr. James Arima, Hankinson Jewelry, Porter Hotel, a movie theater, Pastime Pool Hall, McCleary Pharmacy, just to name a few.

The history of Dink, the locomotive

Dec. 15, 2012. If I'm not mistaken, Dink is one of the oldest locomotives in the State of Washington.

Henry McCleary had a railroad that climbed the hill going south between present 4th and 5th streets, and then turned west, following the present SR8 to Mud Bay. Some of the railroad beds are still visible. The track was built with labor imported from Japan. In the 1930s the track was dismantled and the metal sold to Japan.

The McCleary Mansion

Nov. 17, 2012.

Built in Olympia in the 1920s. The large foyer was designed to accommodate the expected social gatherings due to Ada McCleary's high position within the DAR. Unfortunately, Ada died before construction of this building was complete. The two trees in front are actual cedars of Lebanon. The back yard, where a newer building now resides, was once a beautiful and large garden. The McCleary bedroom, which was basically an enormous apartment, was on the upper floor to the left.

After Henry McCleary's death the building was cut up into apartments, but by the 1960s it was an office building and included an orthodontist. In recent times it has become the headquarters for a lobbyist group.

McCleary Theater

Oct. 10, 2010

This empty lot in 3rd St. is where the McCleary Theater once stood. It burned around 2003.

Too many stories to fit in here. It stopped running movies in the late 1960s, I think, and became an auction hall in the early 1970s. A professional auctioneer named Virgil if I remember was quite a draw. Eventually he moved on and others ran the auction, but none of them had the skill of the first guy in terms of entertainment. By 2003 the old swayback building had become an eyesore.

Built in the 1920s, the building's most historic role was serving as a convention center in 1942 after Henry McCleary sold his company town to Simpson, who in turn insisted the people here incorporate into a municipality. It was here the people divided themselves into two local parties and nominated their first candidates for public office.

So while the young men of McCleary were serving in the military to protect democracy, the folks back home were trying to form one.

 

You are here

Sept. 15, 2013, Rainbow Park.

Rainbow Park was constructed in the early 1980s on a piece of land that once was the northeast corner of Henry McCleary's mill. McCleary's tallest resident, Cecil "Primo" Boling, 1920-2000 (7 ft. 8 in. before his lower legs were amputated), was a resident there in his final years.

At one point in the 1990s the city allowed the residents of Rainbow Park to have a large fenced vegetable garden in the area where there is now a big gravel circle in Beerbower Park. The garden project was a short-lived concept.

Save our window project

Aug. 7, 2011.

Henry McCleary had this Methodist Church constructed and a stained glass window placed in memory of his wife, Ada, in the 1920s. The building was designed by architect Joseph Wohleb. The land was donated by the Briscoe family. The window was apparently in bad repair and needed refurbishing in 2011.

Simpson Door Plant

July 28, 2016

Henry McCleary purchased the Chehalis Fir Door Co. in 1910 and moved the entire operation from Lewis County, including most of the workers, next to his mill (which was in present day Beerbower Park). When the door plant was constructed it was the last word in modern technology. The next 20 years would be a real boom period for the company town. McCleary also owned lumber operations in Shelton and Olympia.

Henry sold his one-man town to the Simpson Co. on the last day of 1941, including the company houses and utilities. The town incorporated in Jan. 1943.

The Union Hall

July 17, 2011

This was the site of the Pastime Pool Hall where Al McKean was killed.

If I am not mistaken, I believe Henry McCleary's desk now resides in this building, a fact that no doubt would've really bugged that old union buster.

Somewhere around this spot was also the gate to the Jake Anderson place before Henry McCleary arrived. Jake, a cranky Norwegian bachelor, lived at what is now the top of the "T" at 5th and Oak.

Al McKean, 1879-1926

July 17, 2011

The crypt of Al McKean, Fern Hill Cemetery, Aberdeen.

McKean was a popular figure in McCleary. He ran the Pastime Pool Hall, where the present Union Hall sits. The original Pastime building was torn down in the summer of 1986.

McKean was shot and killed when he surprised a burglar while returning to the Pool Hall after hours. Henry McCleary spared no expense in helping law enforcement track down the killer.  When they finally arrested the likely killer and threw him in the Grays Harbor County jail, he refused to talk.

The story goes that McKean's twin brother was made up to look like a ghost and would silently stare at the superstitious prisoner through the bars at night. This method extracted the needed confession.

The entire episode earned an article in a sensationalist crime story tabloid, Real Detective in Jan. 1937 entitled "The Jungle Buzzard and the Ghost of Al McKean."

Beerbower Park slide

July 10, 2011

Beerbower Park was named in honor of Mayor Ernie Beerbower (1903-1966) who died in office. The site was originally home to Henry McCleary's lumber mill which existed prior to the door plant. The mill closed and fell into disrepair after the Great Depression while the door plant remained in operation.

McCleary Hotel

July 4, 2011

Built in 1912, this is one of the architectural treasures in town. Henry McCleary had this structure erected in order to entertain the hoity visitors, it was never meant for the working guy.

This neighborhood of Beck and Summit was the power center in McCleary. Henry McCleary lived in a house (now gone) directly across the street from the Hotel. His brother William McCleary lived to the immediate north of the Hotel. Youngest brother Leonard McCleary lived immediately to the south. The trees in front of Leonard's house, which still stand today, were shipped from the McCleary family's home near Cambridge, Ohio (the original McCleary farm is now under an artificial lake in Ohio). Sam Lanning, another family connection from Ohio, lived nearby. 

One of the McCleary sons lived on the hill on Beck Street and had heat from the door plant directly piped to his house.

The McCleary family had a formal dinner here once a week. Ada McCleary, Henry's wife, was a big wheel in the DAR and Henry began construction of a mansion in Olympia with a foyer to accommodate Ada's social standing. Unfortunately she died before the mansion was completed. By all accounts, Ada was a remarkable person who advocated within her power as the First Lady in a company town for the workers and their families.

The McCleary Hotel also served as a training ground for the boxer Jimmy "Kid" Swanson. Frank Fox was his trainer. Swanson might be the first African-American to make his mark in McCleary's history.

The composer Timothy Brock stayed at this hotel about 3 decades ago and wrote a musical piece about his experience entitled "McCleary Hotel."

The Hotel was also the site of the first dwelling in McCleary, where the Andrew Beck family lived. The site of the second dwelling was where Jake Anderson lived, at the top of the "T" at 5th and Oak. Both original structures are gone and their replacements were both built in 1912.

Dead Man's Curve

The William McCleary Road was named after Henry McCleary's brother. Over the years that stretch of road has been renamed simply "McCleary Road" but on this blog I'll refer to it as I have always known it.


The two lane road was formerly State Highway 410 and served as the main route between Olympia and Aberdeen until State Route 9 (later renamed State Route 8) was completed in the late 1950s-early 1960s. In the old 410 days, this pictured part of the road was called "Dead Man's Curve" and was regularly decorated with white crosses.

June 2, 2011

Christ Pappas 1882-1956

"Born in Samos, Greece."

Henry McCleary, who ran this company town, "wished not to tolerate unions" and hired many workers from Italy and Greece and other parts of the Mediterranean in the early part of the 20th century as they were not likely to organize as laborers at that point in history.

Many of the Italians, who mostly arrived from the northern part of Italy, remained in McCleary. Angelo Pellegrini, perhaps McCleary's most famous historical resident, landed in McCleary as a boy in 1913. The neighborhood blocks around First and Mommsen (where the Pellegrinis lived) was known as "Little Italy."

Many of the Greeks who worked here did not settle in McCleary, although a few remained such as grocery store owner Nick Rillakis. The McCleary Cemetery has a small Greek section and a few of the headstones are carved in the Greek alphabet.

May 25, 2012

McCleary, Washington 98557

McCleary Post Office. The story goes like this. Around 1910-1911, when the door plant was moved here, Henry McCleary called in the postmasters of the older and established villages of Sine and Summit and offered them a deal if they agreed to consolidate and establish a McCleary Post Office. The Sine postmaster, a member of the Murray family, was given a job in McCleary's mill. Harry Craft, the Summit postmaster was made the McCleary postmaster.

In later years Henry's brother, Leonard, served as postmaster.

Photo taken Mar. 4, 2012

Saint Valentine's Day on First Street

 

Feb. 14, 2015.

This wetland was once home to the last old growth tree left standing in McCleary. When it was finally cut down in the 1930s, the tree was dubbed "Shakespeare" since the rings indicated it dated back to ca. 1600.

The northern portion of First St., from Mommsen to Beck, once served as most of the eastern border of Henry McCleary's lumber mill.

So far as I know, the first three Euro-settlers in what is now McCleary were all foreign born. The Becks, who lived where the McCleary Hotel now stands, were Danish. The Mommsens, who lived at the end of the road that bears their name, were German. Jake Anderson, was a surly Norwegian bachelor who lived at the top of the T at present 5th and Oak.

A Very Industrious Mole

Summit Road, Jan. 19, 2013

There used to be a boardwalk where the sidewalk now sits, but it was destroyed by the 1949 earthquake. The righthand side of the photo was the northwest corner of Henry McCleary's original lumber mill, which went into ruin during the 1930s, leaving the door plant (on the left side of the photo) as his remaining operation in town.