Tuesday, August 2, 2016
Beerbower Park slide
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.
The stage empties and the Festival packs up for another year
We have to wait another year to strut and fret our hour
Monday, August 1, 2016
Sunday, July 31, 2016
World Trade Center Steel Beams
On display at the McCleary Bear Festival, July 9, 2011
Charlie and Dreamer
Breakfast coffee at Rain Country
In the prehistoric past the Rain Country spot was the town pharmacy and liquor store under Bart Bloom. Then it became a florist shop. Yes, McCleary actually had a florist shop. At some point over two decades ago the slot became a restaurant known as the Rose Garden and has been a food service place under different names ever since although Rain Country has endured for quite awhile.
Mud on the pickup.
If Jackson Pollock lived in present day McCleary, metal and mud would be his medium since the images are so dynamic.
McCleary Hotel
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.
Foxglove in the forest
Fish steps
The Simpson Co. terraced this portion of Wildcat Creek, as I recall, to help the fish get up the creek without a paddle.
Bear nest at the Pig Lot
The Pig Lot
This body of water behind the Simpson Plant has been known as the "Pig Lot" for decades. The water itself is created by a dam and for years some locals used the large pond as a fishing hole. Today the area has a "No Trespassing" sign.
The name "Pig Lot" originated back in the 1920s when John Wesley Porter, the operator of the Porter Hotel, used the area for keeping his pigs before the animals were converted to bacon and ham for the guests. The Porter Hotel stood in the the little strip mall across from City Hall, where the pizza place recently closed. The hotel, which was intended for working people, grew so big it expanded into an annex across 3rd street. When the annex was demolished in the 1950s, much of the recycled lumber went into building the present VFW Hall.
Porter's son, Norman, later became the editor of The McCleary Stimulator in the 1950s and one of the people who started the tradition of serving bear meat on an annual basis since 1959 in McCleary.
Saturday, July 30, 2016
Friday, July 29, 2016
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