The North Coast times-eagle., March 21, 1980, Page 6, Image 6

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N'ineteen-Nineteen introduced the convention scene
when July held 500 reservations in Seaside fo r the Elks
Convention.
Which probably inspired plans fo r the new Hotel Sea­
side, which would be 300 feet long, with 300 rooms, b ill­
iards and bowling rooms, an elaborate tea room, conser­
vatory and auditorium for dancing, promenades and a
roof garden, several huge fireplaces, and large windows
with views of the beach.
Those of us fa m iliar with the housing situation in a
summer tourist town can give a cheer for the editor of
the 1918 Seaside Signal who urged Seasiders to rent cot­
tages to workers from the surrounding area. “ Year
round rent is better than holding them for a few months
in the summ er.”
S E A S ID E
C o n t in u e d
fro m
Page
F iv e
Nineteen-Ten was a busy year fo r Seaside. It brought a
cream and soda stand to the end of Shell Hoad; a wrestling
match staged at the Knights of Pythias Hall; the opening of
bit o f a Portland employment agency dumping penniless
men in Seaside to go to Elk Creek (possibly fo r roadwork?)
Shell Road’ s Octagon Pavilion with live orchestra; the stag­
ing of a fo u r-m ile ro lle r skating race; and the annoying ha-
In 1911 Seaside had to build two additional bowling alleys
to accomodate the summer rush and two years later, ap­
parently, the local shooting galleries were getting more
business than they could handle because the city saw fit to
pass an ordinance prohibting ladies from operating shoot­
ing galleries.
■5 $ $
The Twenties were prosperous years fo r tourism and
the little town of Seaside grew rapidly. A description of
the July Fourth Weekend of 1924 sounds uncomfortably
fa m ilia r to any Cannon Beach resident who has exper­
ienced Sand Castle Day. “ Friday morning a continual
stream of cars were a rriv in g at a rate o f a thousand per
hour, plus 10-thousand by train , not to mention boat tra ­
vellers to Astoria who then arrived by stage.” Trains
opened th e ir coaches to provide shelter at night.
Now local businessmen were beginning to look around
again, outside the city lim its . Tillamook Head was a spot
of interest and plans were considered to add to its at­
tractions by propagating a herd o f buffalo there. S till,
prosperity was not fast enough, and an advertising cam­
paign was blessed by the “ Greater Seaside” crowd. In
1925 a series of ads was published by Burlington Rail­
way in national magazines which included a picture of
the Seaside Turnaround. The ads appeared in Saturday
Evening Post, L ite ra ry Digest, National Geographic,
ltedbook, Cosmopolitan, Ladies Home Journal, Good
Housekeeping and Delineator.
The Signal reports that 12-thousand people were in Sea­
side fo r the 1914 Fourth of July.
OLD SEASIDE
In 1914 began one of Seaside’ s most ambitious efforts to
corner and cover every branch of the tourist trade. The
citizens held a mass meeting to discuss a survey of the
land between the Wahanna Itiv e r and Lullaby Lake and then
to Warrenton and Young’ s Bay, with the purpose of cons­
tructing a canal connecting a ll the bodies of water so that
motorboats could go from the Columbia and Willamette
Rivers d ire c tly to Seaside. Behind this was the further con­
sideration that, i f a jetty were also erected near Tillamook
Head, then this small canal would eventually lead to a ship
canal to Young’ s Bay from Seaside “ to avoid the heavy
seas of the Columbia River B a r.” At the meeting, which
was held on December 3, 1914, it was decided that “ the
canal w ill be built i f the citizens have to dig the d itc h .”
Later that December, Engineer F.J. Walsh, of the Port
of Astoria Commission, determined that the best route
would be through Neacoxie and the chain of lakes on Clat­
sop Plains to Warrenton. This would not only be a means
of conveying freight from Seaside to Astoria and along the
Willamette and Columbia Rivers, but “ would bring a large
population to the beaches fo r the summer as w ell.” This
man knew how to please his audience.
The survey route was firm ly established in 1915. The
canal would travel from Seaside up the Neacoxie Creek,
through Smith’ s Lake, Cemetery Lake and the swamp that
feeds Tansy’ s Slough — a ll on the Clatsop Plains — then
through Skipanon Creek and into Young’ s Bay, to Astoria
and on up the Columbia. The last mention made of the
project, however, was in A p ril 1915, and I can only sur­
mise that its momentum was killed by the advent of the
F irs t World War.
Plans fo r the jetty off Tillamook Head held public inter­
est fo r awhile longer. The Signal repotted on December
14, 1916 that the businessmen of Seaside had plans under­
way fo r a jetty to be constructed from the point of T illa ­
mook Head out into the ocean fo r one thousand feet to
form a breakwater fo r fishermen and small coastal c ra ft
This would mean that “ hundreds of fishermen from thro­
ughout the northwest w ill come to Seaside each year for
several weeks of deepsea fishing and that many fishing
boats w ill make this their harbor instead of returning
to Washington and Columbia River ports to discharge
th eir catch of fish.” More tourists. More Industry.
More growth.
glass electric light fixtures; an electric fountain at the
Hotel Moore which could be lighted at night; Tuesday
night movies (two reels of “ The Exploits of Elaine” ) at
the C ritic Theater; the building of the new Grimes Theat­
er, costing $60,000, which meant the charge would be
more than the usual 10 cents; a fish banquet sponsored by
the Anglers’ Club which featured “ as many orders as you
want of cutthroat trout, salmon trout, mountain trout,
spotted trout, rainbow trout — 50 cents, along with crab
cocktail, clam chowder, celery, ripe olives, green olives,
pommes parisienne, steamed potatoes, French peas, crab
salad, mayonnaise, apple pie, cream cheese and coflee.”
And Seaside got its fir s t taste of interstate publicity in
1915 when the Pathe Weekly News Service began showing
the town in th eir movie theater newsreels in California.,
Nineteen-Seventeen greeted the beginning of the bath-
ing beauty scham when the July banner day featured, to
the "d elig ht” of 50-thousand spectators, the bathing
g ir l’s parade, in which eight beauties rode the fronts of
automobiles through the streets clad in wardrobes such
as “ a surf dress of white silk crepe, supplimented by a
jersey of tomato shade, with a beach hat to match the
combination.”
The summer of 1917 was the best in 10 years and re­
servations in all the hotels and boarding houses were
booked through August and September.
In 1918 the promoter crowd tried to top the drawing
power of the bathing beauties with a “ th rillin g fire dive”
made by Pvt. E. H. Ball, who dived from an elevation of
75 feet, saturated in gasoline ignited just before the dive.
$$$
In 1925 building permits h it a new high, totalling half
a m illio n dollars worth of improvements.
r-
$$$
July Fourth of 1914 drew 12-thousand tourists.
In 1914 a shining $175,000 was spent fo r building per­
m its.
$$$
Nineteen-Fifteen brought to Seaside the Lewis and Co.
Soda Fountain, featuring mahogany equipment with Ger­
man s ilv e r trim m ings and a large m irro r with French
SEASIDE BOOSTERS
$ $ $
Nineteen-Eighteen showed an increase in bank deposits
of over 250 percent.
$$$
THE START OF IT ALL
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