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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (June 1, 1883)
June, 1883, 124 THE WEST SHORE. Ihe Occident and Parker House, the Utter having been recently much enlarged and improved. The accommodation and table are excellent. Two theatre buildings n of lnem uuilt for skatinE rink, afford accommodations for entertainments. In the matter of .education Astoria possesses splendid facilities ' in her three public schools, though a ycl 110 oiivale institution or high school exists. There are in the city three hundred and fifty children of school age, divided among three districts, one in the upper and two in the lower town. The lower district in the lower town has commenced the erection ol a commodious school house, lo cost $25,000 exclusive of the lots. The other districts have splendid sites for new build ings and will soon erect houses upon them to suiKTsrile the smaller ones now in use. There are in the city six church edifices belonging to Ihe Episcopal, Catholic, Methodist, Congrega tional, Presbyteiian'and Baptist denominations. Two of these were erected within the past year, the Presbyterian at a cost of $7,000 and the Methodist at $1,000. The Y. M. C. A. alio holds regular services in a rented hall. Astoria is protected from fire by Ihe best volun leer department in the state. There are two engine companies and a hook and ladder com pany, one of them recently declared champion of the stale at the tournament in Salem. Two steamers, an Amoskeag and a Silsby, costing atmiil $5,010 each, a hand engine, hose carts, hook and ladder truck, etc., comprise the ap paiatus. When the new system of water works is completed in August there will be lorty street hydrants for fire puiposes. The company has contracted lo give a piessure nt the elevation of ihe court house thai will throw three streams'friun each hydiant a distance ol eighty feel through a hustle one and one-fourth Inches in diameter. The city government consists of a nnyor and six councilmcn, treasurer, recorder, judge, at tornry, chief of police and four patrolmen Astoria enjoys the distinction of being the farthest west ol any incorporated city in the United Slates, It is also the county scat of Clatsop county, and possesses the court house and jail, both of them fiame structure!, occupyinga whole block near the custom house. Though there is not a boom in the market, real estate is high and (inn, not, however, being held at singulation prices. The transfers are numerous being divided about equally between transfers between residents and investments by outsiders, Real estate generally throughout the city ha advance! one hundred per cent, in value within year and is steadily going up. The valuation city piopeity for assessment purposes in lS8j was Ji.ljn.97 nd for the current year $1,693,677, showing an Increase of forty-nine per cent, in a classes of property. This of course, is about one-half the actual value. Alderbrook is th name of an addition lo Upper Astoria recently made 17 Bergman & Kerry and James K. Kelley, It extends seven blocks along the river and one and one-half miles back. The blocks ate 200x300 Icel, lots $0x100, ami the streets seventy feel wide, Quite a village baa been built there. m.- j . 1 . . - ....1.1-lj 1... t 1- ,. nc I'uui.Miru 11 j y t. nailoian Co., it an excellent daily and weekly, with aupeiior in Oieg.vn except the great Portland dailies. It U an earnest and potent exponent of the resource and interests of Astoria and the turroutvding country. COMMERCE. The commerce of the city consists of foreign shipments of salmon, lumber, flour and wheat, domestic shipments of salmon, lumber, leather and oil, and the importation of material for the canneries and of general merchandise and sup plies. In 1S82 there were shipped 597,000 cases f salmon, valued at $3,000,000; 738,000 centals wheat, $1,192,000; 94,926 bbls. of flour, $440,000; and from 15,000,000 to 20,000,000 feet of lumber. The volume of retail trade is very large. There are in the city twenty-five stores carrying stocks ranging from $5,000 to $35,000 in value, besides numerous smaller estab- ihments. The sales in 1882 approximated ,000,000. There are also two wholesale estab lishments dealing in general supplies, that do a large business. The wholesale trade, now in its fancy, will increase largely upon the completion of the railroad, and other houses will be estab' shed here beyond all question. The city has a Chamber of Commerce, of which J. Q. A. Iiowlby is president, and E. C. Holden, secretary, does good work and has been very active in its efforts to secure improvement of the bar and the construction of a railroad, In its shipping facilities Astoria is especially favored. There are now three miles of continu ous water frontage, occupied by the 0. R. 4 N, a i ... . 1 ... v-o . uock, warenouse and coal bunkers of 1,400 leet, Havels dock and warehouse of 400 feet, Brown and Corlwtt's dock and warehouse of wo leet, and the many canneries, mills, etc. These can oe exicmieu lmlelinitely in both directions. The improvement of the bar is a vital question in the luture commerce of the Columbia river. The amount of tonnage that would in a few years sai1 from this port and other points on the river, if the passage of the bar were made safe for vessels of me oeepesi malt, will exceed that now passing the mouth of the Mississippi. The Asiatic trade and the shipment of breadstuffs would compose commercial traffic of immense proportions. It 10 e hoped the general government will take hold ol this matter in earnest. RAILROADS. Heretofore Astoria has depended unon th. product of her own industries and the trade of he neighboring coast for her support, being leprived of railroad communication with the mierior. All ihi, be The Oregon & California road has held dormant for years a grant ol land for the line from Forest Grove to this city. Other projects that called for all the capital and enerr-v "I the ,llard combination have prevented its ,"" ' uul now hat those are nearlv fm, Pleted the Forest Grove road is receiving ..... ion. Two survey, have been made at different t-mes and. corps of engineers i, now in ,he ' "8 ' ,ftoroun 'onnaissanceand comp.e.e survey a, well. Upon the report of the ran, .n ,K " ,0 Va'Ue f lhe VA and the practicability of the roui,. :n "cpend the action of the comn r. , very essential that definite action be taken before Congres, mects, dc, endanger the lent nt:.- l. 7. u "un ore ' cel. . - oeen discovered at Iwiihin easy access of the line. various points T-1 1 "ere seems lo be no reason why so extremely valuahl, . .... 1 am should be sacrificed, and the probabilities are that actual construction will have been commenced before the end of the year. With such a road Astoria will be in a position to assume her nat. ural place as a great shipping, trade and manufae. Hiring point. Wlisat from the Willamette valley will be brought to this city for shipment or con version into flour ; logs will be taken from the Nehalem valley for working at the mills; coal and iron will be brought here for use with the timber ship building and other industries ; wholesale houses will be enabled to supply the valley with goods. In fact the road means the severing ol the chains that have held Astoria so long in bondage, and the building up of large commercial, manufacturing and shipping interests. A road from some point across the river to Shoalwater bay, Gray's harbor and through the Chehalii country to Puget sound, is one of the probabilities of the future. ' -MANUFACTURES. The manufacturing industries of Astoria are greater than those of any city of its . size on the coast, and in its peculiar industry of canning sal mon it has no rival in the world. The majority' of the manufacturing interests may be said to depend upon the canneries for their existence. That is, they either manufacture for' those institu tions direct, or are supported by a population and trade that but for their presence would not exist. In the future, however, this will not be the case, for'manufacturing enterprises will no doubt be at tracted here whose product will not be at all de pendent upon the local demand for a market. The city has three saw mills doing a good business. The West Shore mills, owned by J. C. Trullinger, are working up to their full capacity of 35,000 feet per day, turning out rough and house finishing lumber. The machinery consists of two engines, a trimmer, a double circular saw, two planers, etc. The mill site covers ten acres of ground, with a water frontage of 608 feet antl running back 800 feet, all built upon piling. The Clatsop mills, owned by the Clatsop Mill Co., turn out 25,000 feet per day when working lo their full capacity. They also manufacture 300,000 boxes for the salmon canneries The Astoria Lumber Co. has a mill in the upper town with a daily capacity of 10,000 feet. Salmon boxes to the number of 100,000 are made there annually. The product of these mills is all sold in the local market, which they are unable to keep fully supplied. Rough lumber sells for $14 per Mj rustic and flooring, $25 ; and clear dressed, $30. Logs are purchased at from $7 to $8.50 per M, and are brought in rafts from various points on the river, often a distance of fifty miles. Nearly all the logging for this place is done on Lewis and Clarke, Young's, Walluski, John Day, Bear, Gnat, Gray, Deep and Clatskanie rivers. There are several other mills to a degree tributary to Astoria, one at Knappton, opposite the city, cutting 70,000 feet, chiefly for exports one re cently built at Skamockawa, twenty miles above, with a capacity of 60,000 feet, cutting both for export and the local trade a new mill at Westport twenty-five miles above, cutting 35,000 feet for export; The Columbia River Lumbering Co.. t New Jersey, are preparing to put 200,000 feet of logs into the water daily, at a point fifteen miles