B
Tuesday, June 8, 2021
The Observer & Baker City Herald
BETWEEN
THE ROWS
WENDY SCHMIDT
Make your
garden a
place to
relax and
refresh
After doing all the work of growing
your potted plants, it would be nice to
create a peaceful area to de-stress and
relax.
Being satisfactorily warm weather
this time of year, consider moving your
houseplants to a shady porch, leaving
enough space for a comfortable chair
and perhaps a small table for books or
a beverage to help you relax.
The green coolness is refreshing.
You deserve a place to retreat to collect
your thoughts. Making this space to
help your mental well-being makes
your gardening well worth the effort.
Garden Chores
• Sow seeds of sunfl owers and zin-
nias.
• Set out any pepper, eggplant, and
tomato plants you have left.
• Prune unwanted shoots as they
appear on fruit trees.
• Trellis peas and stake or cage your
tomatoes.
• Pile mulch over the root zone of
your potatoes.
• Early detection is essential for
good control of vegetable pests. Learn
to identify and distinguish between
pests and benefi cial predators.
• Repeat plantings of corn and beans
to extend harvest season.
• Summer fruiting raspberries are
ripening now.
• Trees and shrubs may still be
fertilized before July 4.
• Pruning of spring-fl owering trees
and shrubs should be completed before
month’s end.
• Water turf as needed to prevent
drought stress.
• Mow lawns frequently enough
to remove no more than 1/3 the total
height per mowing.
If you have garden questions or com-
ments, please write to green garden
column@yahoo.com. Thanks for read-
ing!
Steve Mellon/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette-TNS
Margherita pizza that Mike Murphy of Edgeworth prepared and cooked in his outdoor pizza oven on May 17, 2021. Home pizza
ovens proved to be extremely popular during the pandemic because cooks had more time on their hands.
O UTDOOR P IZZA
■ Outdoor cooking, including backyard pizza ovens, is a pandemic trend that could continue
ances, is among local retailers that saw a
rise in outdoor kitchens last year.
PITTSBURGH — If there was a small
“The barbecue business in general was
silver lining to this pandemic year, perhaps crazy,” he said, with many manufacturers
it’s this: We got back in our kitchens.
struggling to keep up with demand.
With restaurants temporarily shuttered,
Specialty items like smokers and pizza
most of us did (and are still doing) a lot
ovens were particularly popular, and Hil-
more cooking. More than a few have used
lebrand said they also sold a lot of outdoor
their time cooped at home to experiment
refrigeration units and burners. “People
with unfamiliar ingredients and/or try dif-
wanted true outdoor kitchens, where in the
ferent cooking methods. (Remember those
past they just bought a grill.”
fl our and yeast shortages caused by the
He expects a repeat performance in 2021,
sourdough bread frenzy?)
and not just among carnivores. Eating
As a masked-up spring stretched into a
Well magazine saw a 51% year-over-year
socially distanced summer and fall, we also increase in views for articles and recipes for
got back to our grills.
grilling vegetables.
Over 14 million grills and smokers were
“Americans are coming back home, which
sold between April 2020 and February 2021, is a good thing because it allows us to slow
according to The NPD Group. That was a
down,” said Kimberly Stuteville, national
39% increase over the same period a year
sales director for grill manufacturer Napo-
before and boy, did we pony up: We spent
leon, which saw a double-digit sales increase
nearly $5 billion on grills, smokers, camping over last year.
stoves and accessories in 2020.
A grill, she added, “brings you to your
Tim Hillebrand, co-owner of Don’s Appli- core, your center, whether it’s with neigh-
Gretchen McKay
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
bors or your nuclear family.”
Grills with infrared cooking technology
are really big, she noted, and smoke contin-
ues to trend in all forms, including pellet
grills. Accessories like pancha skillets, rotis-
serie baskets and charcoal trays — which
allow you to cook with charcoal or wood
chips on a gas grill — are also increasingly
popular.
Doug Satterfi eld, owner of Rollier’s Hard-
ware in Mt. Lebanon, agreed 2021 is shaping
up to be a hot year for grill sales, especially
now through July 4. The most popular price
range is $500-$800.
“People are still spending money to stay at
home instead of vacationing,” he said. “They
want to spend more time in their backyards.”
So far Rollier’s has been able to keep
ahead of the pace. “But some companies are
running short, and inventory is not quick,”
he noted. So if you’re in the market, you
might want to buy sooner rather than later.
See Pizza/Page 3B
INVESTIGATING THE HISTORY OF THE BUILDING AT 1117 ADAMS AVE. IN LA GRANDE
From tobacco shop to chop house to optometrist
By Ginny Mammen
I heard a saying the other
day, “History will fi nd you.”
Well, with this next building,
at 1117 Adams Ave. in La
Grande, currently the home
of Edward Jones Invest-
ments, I was hoping that was
true. However, with a little
help from a friend and much
patience I was able to gather
more than I ever expected.
The National Register of
Historic Places has this build-
ing constructed in 1892, but
I believe it to have been built
sometime between 1903 and
1910 because that is when
it appeared on the Sanborn
maps. I was not able to fi nd
who constructed the building,
but a photograph from my
friend and fellow historian,
Bob Bull, gave me enough in-
formation to start my search
for its occupants.
As with many of the older
businesses, this building
sometimes had only one
occupant, but for the most
part had two. The earliest
businesses I could locate were
a tobacco shop and a res-
taurant, side by side, which
were shown on the 1910
Bob Bull Collection
A La Grande fi re engine passes the building at 1117 Ad-
ams Ave., around 1914-15.
Sanborn Map. The tobacco
shop was the Union Cigar
store, which was purchased
by Claude Thatcher in 1912
from V. E. Kirk. According to
The Observer in February
1912, Thatcher promised “it
to be run as an up-to-date
cigar store with high class
shining parlor, suitable for
ladies and gentlemen, strictly
American.” Some women in
the early 1900s were looking
for equal rights and although
this might have been edgy
for some, others were ready
to have new experiences and
opportunities. Thatcher was
ready to provide this. The
sign on the store front read
in part “Ladies and Gents
Parlor.” A later newspaper
advertisement indicated
there were “private areas for
the ladies.”
The restaurant in 1912 was
the La Grande restaurant.
I was unable to locate any
other information about this
business. However, we know
that it was no longer in opera-
tion in late 1916 or very early
1917 because that is when
the “Oyster House” came into
being. In my research I found
that a man by the name of
George J. Carres had the La
Grande Chop and Oyster
House at 1117 Adams (actu-
ally 1117 1/2) in 1917 and he
and his family lived over the
restaurant. Advertisements
appeared in the paper for din-
ners of fresh crawfi sh, crabs
and lobster. These ads lasted
only until September of 1917
when the restaurant came
under new ownership and
management of R. A Craw-
ford and was renamed The
Empire Cafe.
So who was George Carres
and what happened to him?
George John Athanssopou-
los was born in Greece in
1885 and arrived in New
York in 1902. Shortly after,
he changed his last name to
Carres. In the early 1900s
he moved to Oregon and
was living in Portland where
he had married Hazel Dell
Glandon. They had two
children, John and Annie.
George was working as a
cook and restaurateur in
Portland, when the new fron-
tier of prosperous growing
La Grande appears to have
called to him. George soon
became the proprietor of the
La Grande Chop and Oyster
House.
It was a rough year for
the business and for George.
Shortly after the restaurant
opened in 1917 there was a
fi re. The Observer reported
that it “was caused by an
attempt of a waiter at 3:40
a.m. to fi ll a burning coffee
urn with gasoline.” I imagine
that George was soon looking
for a new waiter. Then on
July 5 a group of young boys
were playing with fi recrack-
ers in the alley behind the
Foley Hotel. An 11-year-old
had a “giant fi recracker, over
two inches long” explode in
his face, according to The
Observer, and it was George
that took him in and helped
care for him until his mother
could arrive.
Further research found
that in August of that year
Hazel became quite ill and
her mother, Annie Glandon,
came to La Grande to care for
her. As we now know by Sep-
tember, George was no longer
in business at the restaurant.
The family returned to Port-
land and it was there in 1922
they added another son, Paul,
to their family. George Carres
died in Portland in 1956 at
the age of 71.
Various businesses came
and went over the years.
Some of these were La
Grande Electric (1945) which
became Vaughan’s Electric
(1947) selling household ap-
pliances. In 1949 The Craft
Shop was located at 1117 1/2
Adams.
The business located in this
building for the longest period
of time was that of optome-
trist Curtis Clifford Votaw. Dr.
Votaw was born in Tacoma,
Washington, in 1925. He
married Mary Alice Durbin
and served in the Navy before
coming to La Grande in 1957
to practice. Nearly 40 years
later he was still listed as an
occupant of 1117 Adams in
the City Directory.
Some of his neighbors in
the building over the years
were Bertha’s Alterations
and Corset Shop in the 1950s
and ’60s, Bennett’s Studio of
Photography in the 1970s,
Wise Owl Boutique in the
1980s and Sandy’s Fashions
in the 1990s.
Keep looking up! Enjoy!