Fort Vancouver Cultural Landscape Report

Site

General Description

During this period, the predominant influence on the region's landscape, was the construction of the Kaiser shipyards at the southeast end of old Fort Plain. While it had little direct impact on Vancouver Barracks, its construction and operation had a significant impact on the development of the city of Vancouver and on the outlying areas of the old Hudson's Bay Company's Fort Vancouver farm. Vancouver Barracks structures reflected the shift to the motor age, with the addition of garages and demolition of a number of stables; the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads located an equipment yard within the reserve, and old Upper Mill Road became part of the North Bank Highway. The development of Vancouver's municipal airfield during this period, adjacent to the southeast corner of the military reservation, would ultimately have a critical effect on the Hudson's Bay Company stockade site.

Circulation Networks

In the late 1920s, the old Upper Mill Road route through Vancouver Barracks (today East Fifth Street) was part of the North Bank Highway, the principal east-west route along the Columbia River to eastern Washington, connecting to the Pacific Highway (U.S. 99), which ran north-south along the west edge of the reserve. It was upgraded in the 1930s to U.S. 830, and renamed the Evergreen Highway. In the early 1940s. an alternate four lane route to the Evergreen Highway was built just north of and paralleling the Spokane, Portland and Seattle rail line (State Route 14), across the military reservation. Throughout the period, principal access to the edges of the central area of the reserve was via Tenth Street in Vancouver on the west, which became Grant Avenue (now Evergreen Boulevard) at the west reserve edge, following the alignment established in the 1880s, and connecting to Seventh Street on the east; and via the North Bank Highway--later the Evergreen Highway-- connecting to Fifth Street on both sides of the reserve.

Military Reservation on Historic Fort Plain

The former spruce mill site was largely reconverted to pasture, with army air corps activities towards the east, in an area named Pearson Field. In the 1930s, the Civilian Conservation Corps structures were erected towards the west edge of the spruce mill site: during the war, some of the buildings were used to house army-related activities. There was relatively little change to the heart of Vancouver Barracks, north of old Upper Mill Road, during this period.

Historic Hudson's Bay Company Stockade Site

Between 1920 and 1925, some Spruce Mill structures were moved to the east edge of the reservation as support buildings for the army airfield. By 1925, the remaining spruce mill structures and rail spurs over the stockade site had been removed. By 1936 a turf runway from the airfield may have extended over the northeast corner of the stockade, although the termination point of the west end of the runway at that time is not clear from available photographs and maps. [1202]

U.S. Army Garrison/North of Old Upper Mill Road

During this period, the site in the heart of the reserve underwent a few functional organizational changes, along with related demolition of some structures, the realignment of some secondary roads and paths, and the construction of a few new buildings.

The artillery stables at the east end of the reserve, above East Fifth Street, were demolished in the 1920s; remaining horses and mules were moved to the stables in the old Quartermaster's Depot. The artillery guardhouse in that area was either demolished and replaced or converted into use as a radio station by 1928. The network of paths leading to the artillery buildings, and the ones that had led to the old departmental headquarters at the east end of the parade grounds were still in place in 1928. By 1936, however, with the exception of the extension of McClelland Road, and a connecting road to East Fifth Street, the lower paths were gone, and by 1940, the paths breaking the expanse of the east end of the parade grounds had also been removed.

The network of roads within the area bounded by McClelland Road, McLoughlin Road, East Fifth Street and the non-commissioned officers quarters were somewhat reorganized in a more linear fashion, apparently to facilitate movement through the area for motorized vehicles. A motor repair shop, which stands today, was erected on the east side of McLoughlin Road north of the post laundry. Between 1920 and 1946, only a few new buildings were built in this area. They included a new non-commissioned officers' quarters, just west of the earlier line of non-commissioned officers quarters south of McClelland Road (1923), and a small storeroom for the post exchange, just north of it (1929).

West of McLoughlin Road and north of Hathaway Road, some east-west roads were altered to service a few new structures, and parking lots were built. Two of the 1880s barracks and their associated latrines were demolished. To the west of the artillery barracks, the Red Cross opened its first recreational house for convalescent soldiers in the northwest in March of 1919; it was used as a service club in the '30s. The old hospital corps barracks was dismantled, and a small hospital warehouse erected in 1919; it later served as a barracks for the Civilian Conservation Corps. In 1935, a hospital for Civilian Conservation Corps workers was erected south of the 1918 morgue, west of the main hospital. In the 1920s, tennis and handball courts were built just south of the commanding officer's quarters, west of McLoughlin Road.

Figure 22. Southwest area of Vancouver Barracks in 1937, looking northeast. The 1886 Non commissioned Officers' Quarters is in the approximate center, with some of the old Quartermaster's Depot buildings to the left and behind. Tree-lined McLoughlin Road divides the old depot area from the 1905-6 warehouses and 1930s Civilian Conservation Corps temporary buildings to the right. The backs of the 1903-07 barracks are visible at the top of the photo. From oversized print, Vancouver Barracks archives.

South of Hathaway Road, at the west edge of the reserve, a large non-commissioned officers' barracks was built in 1919. Between 1936 and 1938, seven new brick duplexes were built for non-commissioned officers, a result of Congressional appropriations made in 1937. They were located near the west edge of the barracks, on both sides of Hathaway Road, near the 1919 noncommissioned officers barracks. All seven are standing today, although several were moved when Interstate 5 was built in the 1960s. [1203]

In the mid-1930s, the federal Bureau of Public Roads erected two structures just north of the North Bank Highway (East Fifth Street) at the west edge of the military reservation, on the site where the first military blacksmith shop had been built, and where paint workshops and an 1890s blacksmith shop had stood until the late 'teens or early '20s. The Bureau had already established an equipment depot and yard on the reserve, south of East Fifth Street in 1923. After the World War II, when portions of the military reservation were released as surplus property, the complex was expanded to the east to encompass the 1910 artillery stable.

Historic Hudson's Bay Company Garden and Orchard Site

The spruce mill buildings were largely disassembled by 1925. By the late 1920s, the spruce mill's railroad Spur B had been removed from the site, and the varying lines of the northernmost spur, Spur A, had been reduced to three, which serviced the coal and wood sheds running just south of and parallel to the North Bank Highway (East Fifth Street). The spur ran through the Hudson's Bay Company's former orchard and garden site; the coal sheds, and most of the wood sheds ran through the north edge of the orchard site, and the east ends of the two wood sheds extended into the garden site. In 1923 the Bureau of Public Roads and Department of Agriculture built temporary storehouses in an equipment depot on army land, just south of the railroad spur, west of the still standing spruce mill Cut-up Plant, just west of what would have been the west edge of the Hudson's Bay Company garden during its peak period.

After the first world war, a new polo field was built west of the stockade site; in 1929 the post polo club built a clubhouse to the east of the Bureau of Public Roads depot, near what would have been the center of the former Hudson's Bay Company's garden. In the 1930s, some of the Bureau of Public Roads buildings and a portion of its fenced yard were re-used were by the Civilian Conservation Corps camp, and several warehouses were erected in the northeast garden site and to the west, in the orchard area. Among the CCC structures built in the northwest area of the orchard site, north of the rail spur, were a gas pump, a garage, a storehouse, a paint shop, and an auto repair shop, all built in 1935, and a central heating plant servicing the CCC camp, built in 1936.

Historic Hudson's Bay Company Field and Pasture Area

The principal changes to the old Fort Vancouver farm site during this period occurred in the old Hudson's Bay Company's fields and pastures east and southeast of the historic stockade, mostly on land no longer within the military reservation.

Pearson Field: East Edge of Vancouver Barracks

The spruce mill structures were largely demolished or moved between 1924 and 1926 to make way for the airfield planned by air reserve officer Lieutenant Kelly. Most of the grounds were graded in the winter of 1924-25, using equipment borrowed from the Bureau of Public Roads equipment depot on the Vancouver Barracks grounds.

In March of 1925, a new 66 by 140 foot corrugated iron-clad, steel hangar, paid for by the army and erected by a private contractor, was built to the east of the ordnance storehouse for about $13,500.00. It could hold nine planes. Two small gable-roofed wood-frame structures that had been built in 1918 as part of the spruce mill were also moved to the new airfield service site, some time between 1925 and 1928, to serve as an office and storehouse. They were located north of the new hangar. In December of 1925, after the dedication ceremonies, a temporary hangar used in the early '20s was moved to a location just south of the new steel hangar, and remodeled into a warehouse and shop with a concrete floor, although part of it still served as a hangar.

In 1929 a wood-framed office building which had been left standing on the spruce mill site, and had been located just north of the cut-up mill, was moved to the west edge of the airfield's facilities complex. It initially served as a storehouse, but was soon converted to serve as a clubhouse and squadron headquarters for the 321st Observation Squadron. In 1936 an addition was made to the rear of the building.

In 1934 the army installed an underground gasoline fueling system for aircraft: the pits were located slightly southwest of the hangars, and were supplied by a 25,000 gallon tank located near the end of the rail spur line west of the facilities. At the same time, the small spruce mill office was designated the "Right Surgeon's Office," and the small storehouse was designated a "Guard House," apparently for the protection of the mail service. In 1936, the ordnance storehouse built in 1905 was remodeled to serve as a air corps storehouse; it was covered with corrugated iron siding at that time.

By 1936, it appears that the air field's principal runway, which was linked to the municipal field, was turf; it was situated near the Columbia River, and most of it was on municipal land. A second turf runway, which ran east-west below East Third Street, ran across the northeast edge of the stockade site, but was only used during high water. [1204] During the war, Pearson air field operations were closed and all civilian and military aircraft flew from Portland's new airport.

Quartermaster's Depot/Historic Hudson's Bay Company Kanaka Village Site

The most apparent changes to this site occurred in the 1930s, when the Civilian Conservation Corps headquarters structures were erected east of McLoughlin Road; until the World War II, very little in the depot area itself was altered, but in the early 1940s it was altered through the addition of new buildings.

In and around 1941, the quartermaster depot residences and most remaining landscape features were demolished, with the exception of an old apple tree which had, according to local legend and historians, long been identified as dating to the Hudson's Bay Company period. [1205] The stable and wagon shed complex was relatively untouched until the 1935 demolition of the old quartermaster's stable. In the early '40s, the area was altered to serve as a motor vehicle complex: the 1909 infantry stable was converted to motor vehicle storage; a motor shop was built to its north, and a machine shop to its south. The turn-of-the-century gun and wagon sheds were converted to motor vehicle storage and warehouses, and a new office for the complex was built on the west edge of McLoughlin Road.

East of McLoughlin Road a new polo field was built in the 1920s, complete with a grandstand, located just north of the military magazine; to the south, a corral was built, nestled in the curve of the railroad tracks. The Civilian Conservation Corps complex was built over part of the polo field; its south end was apparently used for enrollee recreation, and the grandstand still stood on the site, although the field was gone.

Civilian Conservation Corps Headquarters Development

It was not until January of 1935 that a building was built specifically for the Civilian Conservation Corps headquarters, although it had been established at Vancouver Barracks in 1933. The first structure was a garage, at the southeast corner of North Bank Highway (East Fifth Street) and McLoughlin Road. In the fall of 1935, and continuing for about a year, a series of large structures were built to house CCC functions east of McLoughlin Road, at the west end of the former spruce mill site. Eventually the structures incorporated the storehouses built in 1923 by the Bureau of Public Roads. In rapid succession, the army built over a dozen structures, most of them portable and temporary, but a few permanent buildings as well.

The site was organized in four clusters, linked by unpaved roads and boardwalks: towards the end of the '30s, there were a few trees planted in front of some buildings, but generally speaking, the site appeared to be what it was, a temporary camp. As noted previously, just south of the North Bank Highway (East Fifth Street) and north of the rail spur, on the site of the Hudson's Bay Company's former orchard and garden, was a motor pool, with a motor repair shop, garages, and a gas pump. Additional warehouses were built south of the motor pool and rail spur, encompassing the buildings erected by the Bureau of Public Roads. Three large barracks--each capable of housing one hundred men, an office, a mess hall and a recreation building--were erected southwest of the warehouses, and east of McLoughlin Road; in 1938, a large portable building was put up east of the barracks, which served as the CCC District Headquarters building--prior to that, the headquarters had been lodged in a building in Vancouver Barracks proper. The structures were wood frame, with composition shingles and drop wood siding. One CCC building--an office building--appears to have been built in the CCC Barracks Complex--it can be seen on a map there in 1935--and moved sometime during the war to the south side of McClelland Road; the building still stands today. Almost all the buildings were later used during World War II, and most stood until the fall of 1963, when all but a few were razed in a mass demolition.

Historic River Front Area

By the late 1920s, the government dock had been dismantled, and a coast guard dock, depot and pier was situated near its location during World War II. During the war years, a road along the river's edge (now Columbia Way), south of the railroad embankment, was built from the Kaiser Shipyards to the Pacific Highway; it connected to McLoughlin Road via an underpass beneath the railroad.

North of Officers' Row

During this period, the cantonment built for the Spruce Division soldiers just north of Officers' Row was used for Civilian Military Training Camps, which were given statutory authority in the National Defense Act of 1920. The camps, held for two weeks each summer at posts throughout the country, were designed to give civilians grounding in military practice in various branches of the service--for example, cavalry, field artillery, and engineers--and classes were generally conducted by reserve officers. The camps in Washington and Oregon were administered by the Ninety-sixth Division headquarters in Portland. In 1925-26 a group of new structures--primarily mess halls and latrines--were built for the cantonment.

In 1931 a natatorium--enclosed swimming pool--was built, just east of the Victory Theater, using soldier labor and private donations.

Increasing military activity as a result of the outbreak of the war in Europe led to plans to construct a new, 750 bed hospital on the north end of the military reservation at Vancouver Barracks. The facility, Barnes Hospital, was designed to serve military personnel throughout the Pacific Northwest. It was completed in April of 1941. [1206] To accommodate new troops going to and from the Pacific Theater during World War II, temporary barracks were built late in the summer of 1942, at the northwest end of the reserve. In December the barracks were named Camp Hathaway. [1207]

By the mid-1940s. only a few of the pre-World War I structures built north of Officers Row were still standing.

Vancouver Municipal Airport on Historic Fort Plain

In 1925 the Vancouver Chamber of Commerce leased seventy acres of Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railroad land adjacent to the east edge of the military reservation with the intent of establishing a civilian airport; at the time, it was thought the city or port of Vancouver would operate the field, but the Chamber airport boosters were unable to convince the city to assume operation at the time. One reason for establishing a city airport was a 1925 army ruling restricting the use of the army airfield--soon to be Pearson Field--to the military, excluding civilian use. Another was the possibility of securing an air mail contract. A third was Lieutenant Kelly's desire to extend the landing strip at Pearson Field, and his communicable enthusiasm for the future of the civilian air business. Even before the lease was signed, a fence separating the SP &S land from Pearson Field was torn down under Kelly's direction, and the area was graded. [1208]

In 1926 Pacific Air Transport Company, a firm owned by an Oregon bus line operator that had secured the federal contract for the Seattle to Los Angeles route, established its air mail operation at the Chamber's field, and also operated a passenger service. The Company moved its air mail operation to Portland in 1928, a short time after that city's new airfield on Swan Island was completed. Other businesses located at the field included the Rankin Flying Service, which carried passengers and offered aviation instruction. The firm, however, soon moved its operation to another field in Portland. [1209] There were a few additional businesses located on the grounds, operating schools and passenger service in the mid to late 1920s. By 1928 there were four wood-framed hangars on the Chamber field. In November of that year, the City of Vancouver signed a one-year lease with the railroad, and assumed operation of the Chamber of Commerce airfield. [1210] In January of 1930, the City signed a five-year lease with the railroad for the airfield land; at the time there were seven hangars and a shop building on the site, five of which were owned by the city. By the end of April, the local newspaper reported thirteen new hangars had been built, electric lights were installed in the hangars, a gravel road to the field had been installed, and a taxi lane had been graded, rolled and oiled. [1211] On May 25, 1930, the city dedicated the airfield as the Vancouver Municipal Airport, in a dedication ceremony accompanied by an air circus, which drew an estimated crowd of 10,000. The event included a formal flag-raising ceremony and a series of aerial stunts and performances. [1212]

As noted earlier, aviation activity virtually ceased at Pearson Field during World War II. When the U.S. Army announced that Pearson Field would become surplus property in December of 1945, the City of Vancouver proceeded to link the two fields and operate them as one, although the City did not receive title to the field until April of 1949. The combined fields were renamed Pearson Airpark.

Kaiser Shipyard: Southeast Edge of Historic Fort Plain:

In November of 1940, the Allies' need for ships prompted the British to contract with Henry Kaiser, a general contractor with a reputation for handling large projects and completing them ahead of schedule, to provide thirty-one cargo vessels. Henry Kaiser eventually selected Portland, Oregon as the site for the shipyard, where, in 1941, in association with former business partners, he built the Portland Shipbuilding Company-later the Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation--on about ninety acres north of Terminal 4 on the north bank of the Willamette River. The site was later expanded to three hundred acres. With a subsequent contract with the U.S. Maritime Commission, in January of 1942 a four hundred acre Kaiser shipyard was opened in Vancouver, followed in March by Swan Island shipyards. The yards at Vancouver were leased by the United States Government and operated solely by Kaiser Company, Inc. [1213]

The Vancouver physical plant sprawled over four hundred acres of land along the Columbia River, south east of the military reservation, on the site of a former dairy farm, which one hundred years earlier had been part of the Hudson's Bay Company's cultivated fields on Fort Plain. Much of the low-lying land, still subject to the inundation that had plagued the Hudson's Bay Company, was raised an average of ten feet with fill. Most of the yard was bounded on the north by U.S. Highway 830, and on the south by the Columbia River. To the west, the parcel narrowed to a point where it intersected the east-west line of the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railroad, which ran along the northern edge of the site. The easternmost boundary was the Vancouver city limits in the early 1940s. A large thirty or forty acre parking area was located north of the railroad tracks. Its topography was basically flat. The main entrance to the yard was via an underpass beneath the railroad berm towards the west end of the site. Construction began on January 15, 1942, with site clearing and fill work. By March, the piles for nine shipways had been driven, and the building ways had been decked; construction was reported as ahead of schedule. At the time, over two thousand workers were already employed on site. The yard was ready for production within eighty days.

The establishment of the Vancouver shipyard brought thousands of workers to the town, and had a significant impact on its development. In 1940, the town of Vancouver and its suburbs had a population of less than twenty-five thousand; it had more than doubled by early 1943, due to the establishment of the Kaiser yard. Initially, Kaiser Company had projected employing eight thousand workers, but by the fall of 1942 there were thirteen thousand workers employed at the yards, and by early 1943 the number had grown to more than twenty-seven thousand, working three shifts. During its peak operation, in December of 1944, the number of employees at the yard reached thirty-eight thousand; twenty-eight percent of them were women. [1214] The workers came from all over the country, many recruited by offices set up by Kaiser in such cities as Minneapolis.

Early in 1942 the mayor of Vancouver established the Housing Authority of the City of Vancouver, which, under the Lanham Act--the defense housing act--of 1938, and under Washington State enabling legislation, authorized federally-funded housing construction to be managed by local housing authorities and rented "without regard for income limits." [1215] During the war years, the Vancouver Housing Authority erected 12,396 housing units, which could shelter around forty-six thousand people. The initial plan had been to erect about four thousand temporary houses and one thousand permanent units--almost as many as already existed with the town of Vancouver--funded by 18.5 million dollars of federal funds. As workers continued to pour into the shipyard, the number of units was increased; nonetheless, waiting lists for shelter were long. The units were primarily built on large sites purchased by the housing authority--the first to be placed under construction were 5,500 temporary houses in a planned development called McLoughlin Heights, built on one thousand acres east of the city. Others included Bagley Downs, built on a former racetrack course, which by the war's end had 2,100 row houses; Burton Homes, 1,500 row houses; Ogden Meadows, 2,000 apartments; Fourth Plain Village, 200 permanent houses. The developments were north and east of the city. Most of the units were prefabricated, and intended as temporary housing; after the war, many were demolished, salvaged, or sold and moved to other locations. Permanent houses were later sold to occupants or veterans. [1216]

The shipyard workers also had a significant impact on the city's infrastructure: police and fire, the public utility district, cultural resources, such as libraries, and schools. The population influx due to the yard also raised social issues--such as integration--health care concerns, and transportation problems. Because transportation was a problem--Kaiser offered bus service to its employees to and from the site, but other needs, such as shopping, health care, and recreation, were not addressed by the Company--recreation centers, gymnasiums, branch libraries, and shopping centers were built near or in the housing developments. One shopping center at McLoughlin Heights, designed by Portland architect Pietro Belluschi, received national recognition from the New York Museum of Modern Art, as a harbinger of the future. Eight new schools were built by the government, and later turned over to the City's public school system; seven day-care centers were established. After the war, the city annexed the federal projects, and began redevelopment on most of the sites, already provided with roads, sewers, power and water service paid for by the federal government.

When the war ended in Europe, workers began to leave the yard; by July of 1945 the number of employees had fallen to twenty-five thousand. By November, after Hiroshima, the number had dropped to ten thousand. Early in 1946 the last two ships from the Vancouver yard were delivered; in the spring, the yard's activities focused on decommissioning U.S. Navy vessels at the outfitting dock. In all, the yard produced ten Liberty ships, thirty LSTs, fifty aircraft carriers, twelve C-4 troopships, thirty-one AP5 troop transports, and eight C-4 cargo vessels. The yard also built two 14,000 ton dry docks, one of which was hauled to Swan Island in Portland, and the other to California. [1217]