Recently, I walked around Aberdeen with our dog Fergus, as Nancy shopped. In no particular order:
Aberdeen's historic Electric Building at 100 East Heron Street. While not on the National Historic Register, the Electric Building was first lit up on February 1, 1913. Electricity in rural places was rare in 1913 and the Electric Building was a sight to behold. On the street, the The Grays Harbor Electric Railway and Light Company streetcar would pass by. Sadly, with the decline in the timber industry and the onset of the Great Depression, the Electric Building also fell into decline as did all of Aberdeen. Few remember there used to be an Aberdeen streetcar and fewer still remember the glories of the lit-up Electric Building.
- Gray's Harbor Talk has a good article about the Electric Building; here.
- Recently, the building was purchased by a Vietnamese immigrant with plans for a restaurant; story here.
The Veterans of Foreign Wars has been in Aberdeen for many years. The front of the building is at 105 East Heron Street. The back of the building is shown below:
As with the Electric Building, the VFW in Aberdeen have had trials and tribulations in recent years.
- The VFW had major roof problems in 2012 that took until May of 2014 to finish repairs and move back into their building. KBKW had an extensive story about that episode, here.
- After much soul searching, the post decided in 2018 that it needed to sell its downtown building due to continuing decline. That story was reported here.
Closing out the mini-tour, I was heartened to see that at least one building has new life. 105 West Heron was the home of Aberdeen's only shoe store, Harbor Shores until it closed in December 2017 so that the owner could retire. The space was soon the home of a microbrewery; Mount Olympus Brewing, which started up in 2018 and seems to be doing well. Of course, the new outfit doesn't sell shoes, but we can't have everything!
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