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