Black and white image of a group of men in baseball uniforms. Their uniforms are dark shirts with white sleeves and white pants. One man to the side is in street clothing and appears to be holding an umpire's mask. Another man in a white shirt and dark pants stands at the other end of the back row. A small blonde girl is seated on the lap of one man. Her clothing matches that of the baseball team, consisting of a dark shirt with white sleeves and Peter Pan collar and a white skirt and white cowboy boots. The picture was taken at night, and other people can be seen standing about in the background. This image was part of the Herbert McMullen bequest. McMullen was a local photographer who also collected other images of daily life in the area.
Black and white image of a community. Two, two-story buildings sit across a street from a large field, one is gabled with a false front while the other is a large, square, two-story construction next to smaller, single block building. Several residences can be seen in the background, two of those are large, two-story homes with dormer windows protruding from their rooflines. Orenco was a 'company town,' built for workers in the short-lived Oregon Nursery Company.
Black and white image of six young women and four young men seated on a stage. Streamers and floral arrangements decorate the stage and the wall behind them, with lettering that reads 'Orenco 1953.' All the boys wear suits and boutonnieres while the women wear corsages. Originally a planned company town, Orenco was unincorporated in 1938 and during the 1950s was simply one of many unincorporated semi-rural communities in Washington County.
Black and white image of six young women and four young men standing on a stage. Streamers and floral arrangements decorate the stage and the wall behind them, along with the number '1956.' All the boys wear suits and boutonnieres while the women wear corsages. Originally a planned company town, Orenco was unincorporated in 1938 and during the 1950s was simply one of many unincorporated semi-rural communities in Washington County.
Black and white image of three young women and ten young men standing on a stage. An adult man stands in the middle of the back row. Lettered on the wall behind them are the words 'Orenco 1952.' Streamers and floral arrangements decorate the stage, and all the men wear suits and boutonnieres while the women wear corsages. Originally a planned company town, Orenco was unincorporated in 1938 and during the 1950s was simply one of many unincorporated semi-rural communities in Washington County.
Black and white image of a group of approximately 50 school children gathered in front of their school building. The students are arranged on the stairs leading up to the front door; their ages ranged from two students who were only four up to several nineteen-year-olds who were still in school. Their teacher, Gustus Scrofford, stands at the back right of the image. Washington County records list 93 total students at Orenco School #38 for the school year of 1936-1937, though it is unlikely all were in attendance at any one time. At its peak in the 1910s, this school had over 150 students, however by the mid-1930s, when this picture was taken, the Nursery company had been shut down for a number of years and the population in the area was also declining.
Sepia-toned image of a group of adults and children gathered around a table covered with quarts of strawberries, with almost everyone in the family holding strawberries. John Holmason and his wife, Rosa, are the couple in the center of the picture. Since the clothing worn in this picture is the same as that worn in WCMpic_12008 and WMCpic_012009, it is very likely that this picture was taken at the same time and also at the Holmasons' new, stick-built home. It is not known whether Holmason also acquired the fields which produced the strawberries with the house or the picture was taken because it was working at Oregon Nursery Company which enabled Holmason to afford this home for his family. The Holmason family immigrated from Hungary in 1905 with their two oldest children, part of a large work force recruited by the Oregon Nursery Company. In addition to Magyar (Hungarian) listed as the Holmasons' native tongue, the same page in the census lists neighbors who spoke Japanese, Romanian, and Canadian French. (See WCMpic_012008 and WCMpic_012009 for other images of this family.)
Sepia-toned image of a family on the front steps of a house, the parents seated in chairs and the children standing on the steps in front of them. There are flower boxes on the porch and fresh flowers hang from the eaves of the porch. All appear to be dressed in their best clothes, and Mr. and Mrs. Holmason as well as their oldest child wear corsages. Since the clothing worn in this picture is the same as that worn in WMCpic_012008, it is very likely that these two pictures together form a 'before and after' set of images, showing the family at their 'old' home, the tent, and then at their new, stick-built home. The Holmasons came to Oregon in the early 1900s from Hungary with their two oldest children, August and Josephine, as part of the Hungarian work force recruited by Orenco Nursery. Listed in the 1910 census as owning their home in Orenco and judging by the ages of the children in the image, this picture was very likely taken in celebration of moving into their new house. (See WCMpic_012008 and WCMpic_012007 for other images of this family.)
Black and white image mounted on heavy mat of the interior of a large building, filled with bundled plants, sawhorses for sorting and stacking the plants, and men to do the sorting and stacking. At the time of its construction, this was the largest building of its kind in the nation.
Portrait of Thomas Otchin. He was born in England in 1814, and moved the North America, where he worked for the Hudson's Bay Company. He eventually settled in a Donation Land Claim near Orenco, where he died in 1906.
Sepia-toned image of the town of Orenco. A number of buildings and homes sit in an empty dirt field, connected by plank sidewalks. Some of the buildings are numbered in pen. Trees and hills are visible in the background, and power poles can be seen in the upper right of the image.
Sepia-toned image of a train station with a train sitting on the tracks. A sign reading 'Orenco' sits atop the windows on one facade of the building. Power poles sit on either side of the tracks by the crossing, and a luggage cart sits on the platform. A man is walking on the platform, wearing a hat and dark suit.
Sepia-toned image of a two-story wooden store fronted by a dirt road. The building stands alone and has a boardwalk running in front and down one side. The front story has large display windows, a covered porch which provides a balcony for the second floor. the sign hanging from the porch eaves reads 'Orenco Drug Co.' A woman and child appear to be leaving the store; she wears a full skirt and jacket with lapels and mutton-leg sleeves, with a dark hat and gloves. The child wears a dark jacket and a white skirt or short pants.
Sepia-toned image of a large, shingle-style home in Orenco. Two tall pine trees bracket the home, and a muddy road leads up through the yard to a covered carriage driveway.
Black and white image of the Hotel Orenco, a two-story, Queen Ann style building with a covered front porch and a balcony. Three unidentified people stand on the front porch, a woman in a dress with a ruffled white apron, and two girls. The girls wear matching plaid knee-length dresses, one underneath a coat. A small dog with curly white hair stands on the porch with them.
A men's band poses for a picture outside of a building. Band members wear plain dark suits over white shirts with either bow or straight ties, and all have short hair with newsboy caps, fedoras, bowlers, or other felt, brimmed hats. All instruments other than three drums are brass. The man in the lower right of the picture holds a conductor's baton. The bass drum in the center of the group reads 'Orenco Military Band.'
Looking east over Orenco. The small community is on the right. The train track comes from the bottom right of the photo. The tracks that go off to the upper right head east to Beaverton, while the ones that curve around to the upper left head to the tracks that paralleled Cornelius Pass Road, which no longer exist. The road on the left side of the photo is SW Cornell Road. The big curve from upper right to left side parallels present-day NE 173rd Ave.
