McCleary ca. 1950

Oct. 22, 2019

This photo can be found on one of the pillars near the cash registers at Gordon's. It was taken from the SE corner of Simpson and 4th facing northwest. I estimate it was taken around 1950-1952.

Moving left from right in the photo--

Lumbermen's Mercantile is now the building housing Gordon's, built shortly after WWII I believe.

The buildings housing the next four establishments were constructed close in time about 1950 if I am not mistaken. Interesting that parking was head-in rather than parallel in those days. Simpson  Ave. in 1950 was also Highway 410, the main road to Elma, Montesano, Aberdeen, and the Coast. Washington SR 9 (later renumbered 8) didn't exist yet.

The Olympic Cigar Store Tavern, run by D.I. George and Earl Nobach was already an institution in McCleary before they moved to this location from a block away. Nobach was the person who donated the land upon which Mark E. Reed Memorial Hospital was constructed a few years later. For several decades it operated under a variety of owners and names such as the Waterhole, Rounders, and was it Miss Kitty's or something like that. Today this is the location of the Mexican cuisine Al Carbon restaurant which is the first time that space has been anything other than a tavern.

Next is Billie's Cafe, run by Billie Stilwell. Her Cafe was also an institution before she relocated. I remember it had a big horseshoe shaped counter with booths along the east wall. It was there until sometime in the mid to late 1960s.

The old Billie's Cafe location later became the Bear Claw Bakery in the 1970s, operated by Gene and Muriel Mullin. After that it served as a series of short-lived restaurants with names like The Feed Bag, Bear Buns, Squatty's, and Rounders. The wall between the restaurant and tavern was opened up only some time in the last 20 years or so. In between all the culinary attempts, I do recall something about a worthy try at making the area a "Kid's Club" place so McCleary youth wouldn't go crazy with boredom in this metropolis. 

Although there is no signage, the third storefront was the US Post Office. I'm not sure if the Postmaster at the time would have been Leonard McCleary (Henry's youngest brother who lived in the house next door south of the McCleary Hotel) or Leon "Jinks" Boling. The PO resided there until 1963 when they removed to their present location. That location seems to have had the most economic struggle of these storefronts. In the 1980s it was a real estate management office. In the 1990s when KGY-FM found some radio airspace here in McCleary they briefly had an office there. So far as I know KGY does not send news reporters to cover McCleary government or happenings. In McCleary, the most popular radio station is the police scanner.

Anyway, this third storefront remains sort of a funky and mysterious place. Recently I found the key to the front door lying on the sidewalk and it looked like it had been there for awhile. I flagged down one of our Boys in Blue who just happened to be driving by and handed it to him.

The last storefront was the pharmacy run by Bud Davidson. During the 1920s McCleary lost their drug store, run by a Mr. Baisch, I think. A fellow named Chuck Heslep approached Henry McCleary about opening a new drug store in the early 1930s, since this town at that time was a one-man principality. According to Chuck, Henry's German shepherd did not growl at him durng their initial meeting and Henry took that as sign that Chuck was alright.

Heslep opened his first store on the one of retail outlets that was part of the Porter Hotel Annex, roughly where today's Police Station now resides. He later started an appliance store on Simpson that is now the parking lot of the clinic.

But I digress.

Eventually Heslep's pharmacy morphed into Davidson's outfit. And then, perhaps in the late 1950s or early 1960s, a gentleman named Bart Bloom took it over. The pharmacy also doubled as the State Liquor Store. In later years the storefront became a florist shop, and then a series of restaurants including the Rose Garden, a Mexican restaurant I cannot recall the name of, and presently for over a decade Rain Country, which is apparently for sale right now.

There's a lot of history in that one little photograph. 

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.

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