The Carlton Grain Elevator
The Carlton Grain Elevator has been a prominent, visual landmark for the community for many decades. It is associated with the economic importance of agriculture to the growth and vitality of Carlton. The current elevator complex is the result of over 100 years of evolution. This evolution has been shaped by fire, technological change, and shifts in local agriculture. It’s location adjacent to the former Southern Pacific Railroad line demonstrates how essential railroads were to the agricultural economy. Product was shipped to distant markets, and feed was brought here from elsewhere to be distributed to local farmers.Several grain elevators predate the existing structure. The first was built in 1883. After a new structure was built at the present site, the 1883 elevator was demolished to accommodate a new railroad depot which wasn’t built until 1923. By 1913, the first elevator was constructed on the present site. A fire in November 1914 leveled the complex. It was rebuilt in 1915. An arson fire in 1917 caused an explosion so strong, the roof blew off. The elevator built in 1918 forms the core of the present complex.In 1938, Clarence Bernards and Myron Madsen purchased the elevator, forming the Bernards-Madsen Grain company. A period of expansion followed the end of World War II. The main tower was improved in 1947. A second tower was built in 1950, southeast of the main structure. In 1958, a third tower was built to the southwest. Myron Madsen purchased Clarence Bernards' interest in the elevator, making him sole-owner in 1954. In 1965, it became the Madsen Grain company, which operated until 2003. The complex was sold to vinter Ken Wright. Wright held onto the property; until a suitable, preservation-minded buyer could be found. Marty Doerschlag purchased the elevator in 2013, with a vision to create an event space and wine tasting destination that honors the heritage of the structure. After an extensive remodeling, Flâneur Wines at the Carlton Grain Elevator opens in 2019.
Carlton Street Scene - Early 1900s
Multiple views looking west in the early 1900s. The bank is on the right. The brick building on the left and warehouse on the right are no longer standing.The last picture shows the other direction in the 1930s
Carlton Farmers Creamery Company
Built: 1915In early 1914, a Southern Pacific Railroad-Oregon Agricultural College demonstration train stopped in Carlton. Inspired to increase agricultural cooperation, local dairymen organized a stock company to raise funds for a creamery at Carlton. Eager to realize the benefits to the community, the city donated the property for the building.The Carlton Farmers Creamery Co. produced butter from local milk. In the 1920s and 1930s, it’s Carlton Cream Rose butter won many awards at the Oregon State Fair. By 1938, The cooperative moved to a new, larger facility in McMinnville. After a short period as a secondhand store, the building was purchased by the Bernards Madsen Grain company in 1950. In use by the Madsen Grain Company until 2003, it served over the years as storage, office space, or retail space. Since 2006, it has been used as a wine tasting room.
W.A. Howe General Store / Log Cabin Tavern
Built: 1904Burned: 1995On this now vacant lot once stood a large two-story brick building. It was built in 1904 as W.A. Howe's General Merchandise store. In this building was Carlton's first bank, a private operation run by W.A. Howe. He continued this private banking until incorporating the Carlton State & Savings Bank in 1910 (Stop 7). Also in this building was jeweler James Robertson, tailor George Robertson and a millinery store run by Effie Smith. The general store in this building carried groceries, dry goods, clothing, furniture, shoes and books. Many businesses operated in this building over the years.After the end of prohibition in 1932, Harold Barks and Bill Buffum converted the Howe building into the Log Cabin, a "beer parlor." This was a busy establishment, catering to the loggers. At times there were as many as three or four hundred people in the building in one night. They served food as well as drink, and "Lockjaw" Neeley, the town marshall served as bouncer. The basement of the building was used as a supper club and live entertainment was brought in from Portland. Dances were held in this room.The Log Cabin served the Carlton community for over 60 years, through decades of economic and social change. Rod and Celeste Atkinson were the last owners. It was destroyed in a spectacular fire on April 18, 1995. The loss of the Log Cabin is still mourned to this day in Carlton.William Addison Howe was one of the most important citizens of Carlton in its early years. Born in Massachusetts in 1859, he moved to Yamhill County in 1883. A graduate of Harvard, he co-invented an early type of baseball catchers mask in 1875. Along with his general store, bank, and hotel, he was a founder of the Carlton Lumber Company. The company built the first major sawmill and dammed the North Yamhill, creating Carlton Lake. He was invested in many other enterprises and served several terms as a state senator. He died in 1935 at age 75.
Southern Pacific Railroad Depot
Built 1923The town of Carlton is located on the Oregon & California Railroad—later Southern Pacific Railroad—that was constructed in the early 1870s between Portland and St. Joseph. Carlton had a small depot building, constructed around 1887, which served the small farming community as a “Baggage and Ticket Office" for nearly thirty years before it was replaced with the current depot building in 1923.Wilson Carl, on behalf of local farmers, petitioned the Oregon Central to establish a railroad station in the vicinity. In 1875, a location was chosen and named Carlton. This first depot was located on the east side of the tracks. It was a small green building with a pot-belly stove inside. By 1904 there was a good train service with 2 or 3 passenger trains each way every day.In 1913 it was reported that three passenger trains and one freight train passed through Canton daily, and soon citizens were appealing to Southern Pacific for a new depot building. The 1914 mill fire led to a delay, as the SP waited for better business conditions.An exciting new form of travel appeared in 1914, the Red Electric interurban railroad. Bright red, electric powered train cars replaced dirty, noisy steam locomotives. Passengers could travel to nearby communities, such as Yamhill, or Newberg and McMinnville. They could also travel farther away, with Corvallis to the south, and Downtown Portland to the northeast. Their unique round windows at the ends lent them the nickname “Hoot Owl”. In a time when most rural roads were still dirt and mud, the Red Electrics provided comfortable, efficient transportation.Expenses increased throughout the 1920s, as better roads and affordable automobiles reduced ridership, and as population growth in the rural Willamette Valley lagged behind expectations. The last Red Electric passenger train passed through in 1928.In 1923, Southern Pacific promised the town a new depot with modern design and accommodations. While the old depot was sited on the east side of the tracks, the new building is located on the west side, on the former site of agricultural warehouse buildings (hay, hops, and general warehouse buildings). Considered by some to be "the finest depot on the west side" and "a model for the purposes it will serve," the building was only in use as a passenger depot for a few years before Southern Pacific stopped passenger service to Carlton.By 1955, the depot was abandoned by the Southern Pacific and used as storage for the Madsen Grain Company. Truck scales were installed in 1976. Due to declining freight traffic, tracks were removed from Gaston to just north of Carlton in 1985. Tracks from Carlton to St. Joseph were removed in the 1990s. In 1991, The Country Depot store opened in the renovated depot. In 2003, it became the tasting room for Ken Wright Cellars.
Carlton Schoolhouse
Built: 1907Converted to apartments: 1966This two-story building (and basement) was built of brick in 1907 on the same site where a previous schoolhouse burned. Originally the first floor had four large classrooms for the eight elementary grades, and the second floor had four large classrooms for high school. Restroom facilities were initially outhouses. The basement had a large wood-burning furnace and eventually bathrooms were built in the basement in about 1913 when Carlton established a water system.Until the fall of 1912, there was only a two year high school. The first full graduating class in 1914 consisted of eight girls. For the first few years, athletics had to be outdoors. Eventually a playshed with a dirt floor was built. In 1922 flooring was donated by the townspeople and installed by the students.A gymnasium was built in 1926. Facilities were designed to accommodate sporting events and theatrical plays. The playshed was moved and converted into a two-classroom annex. In the 1940s, May Day festivities celebrated eighth grade graduation.By the late 1940s, the School Board realized that the substandard buildings were too small for growing enrollment. The last graduating high school class was in 1949, with eighteen students. Students were then bused to McMinnville on a tuition basis until the High School District merged with Yamhill in 1954. The original belfry of the school burned in 1954.A new grade school opened in 1953. After new school built, first five grades moved in. Grades 6-8 stayed in the old school. The old gymnasium was used for all grades. In 1955, a multi-purpose space was completed. It included a hot lunch cafeteria, students were bused over from the old school to have access to a hot lunch. In order to avoid an additional bond vote, the new school was slowly finished as funds were available. All students moved into the new school by 1958.The old brick school took awhile to be repurposed. A group attempted to set up a college there, the Ambassador College, but failed. In 1966, the old school was converted into the Carlton Apartments. The old gym was used as a Youth Recreation Center, then later for building boats.
The Carlton State & Savings Bank
Built 1910The Carlton State & Savings Bank, was built in 1910 by W.A. Howe. Prior to this, Howe had offered private banking in his General. Howe served as president of the Carlton State and Savings Bank until the 1920s, but the bank carried on thereafter, the only interruption to its continuity occurring briefly in the Great Depression.In order for the bank to obtain a charter under the Federal banking system, which was reorganized as a consequence of the Banking Act of 1933, it affiliated with the First National Bank of Portland. The Carlton branch of the First National was later called the First National of Carlton and, still later, the Yamhill National Bank.On October 16, 1947 the bank was robbed of $11,345 by three masked men. Three suspects were later captured and nearly the entire amount stolen recovered by FBI agents and state police officers.With the opening of the new bank branch across the street in 1952, the building was converted for other commercial uses. In 1988, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places. Jay McDonald opened The Tasting Room here in 1995.
Hotel Brooks
Completed: 1914Construction on the Brooks Hotel began in 1912. The building was finished in 1914. On opening night, February 21,1914, a large crowd gathered and an orchestra signaled the opening of the new accommodations. The building housed businesses on the ground floor and hotel rooms on the second floor. There was a grocery store, dime store and optometrist/jeweler as some of the original businesses in the building. There was also a large hotel dining room. The Brooks family owned the building until the late 1920s. After selling the hotel in the late 1920s it was converted to apartments.A fire in 1942 glutted the interior. By 1945 a remodel added a movie theater, coffee shop and offices. After the theater closed in the 1960s, many businesses have been housed in the Brooks Building up to the present.
John Wennerberg House
The privately owned home is the original homestead of philanthropist John Wennerberg. The Victorian-styled home was part of the land holdings from the Wennerberg Park up to the Wennerberg Barn.
John B. Wennerberg Barn
Built: Ca. 1895Built by John Wennerberg c. 1895, the Wennerberg Barn was first used a part of his commercial farm. The three-aisled, end-opening barn’s design, as well as the remnant notches in the crossbeams and posts of the ground-level aisles convey the Barn’s use for housing livestock and storing grain.Following Wennerberg’s death in 1918, the property was purchased by Adelbert D. Brooks, who along with his brother Frank, owned and operated the Carlton Nursery Company. In 1919, the Carlton Nursery moved its packing and shipping operations from a nearby warehouse on Pine Street to the Wennerberg Barn. The barn was used until 1936 as the Carlton Nursery’s packing and distribution center for the stock grown on the Company’s primary nursery to the east of Carlton near Lafayette. These years were significant to the Carlton Nursery Company as it grew from a state and regional distributor of a variety of agricultural and horticultural products to a company that sold its products to markets nationwide.John B. Wennerberg (b. 1842) emigrated from Helsingborg, Sweden in 1871 and was a significant citizen in the early European history of Carlton. He served as a sponsor to many Swedish families in their emigration from Sweden to the Carlton area. Mr. Wennerberg lent money to families for building their own farming businesses. Wennerberg was a generous benefactor to the city of Carlton and donated the land where Wennerberg Park is today. He shaped the growth and look of Carlton by helping fund the building of the first City Hall and sold a large tract of the west side of Main Street Carlton, and several blocks south, to the city for a very nominal fee.
Wennerberg Park
The Wennerberg Park was acquired by the City of Carlton in two pieces. The first piece was given in July 1912 by John Wennerberg. The second property was sold to the city by Wennerberg in July 1915.The park was popular for picnics and baseball games. Most community events were still held in City Park (Ladd Park). In the 1950s a dirt racetrack was used for occasional auto racing. The park went through a period of disuse, until the early 1970s. The community cleaned it up and staged Fun Days there. Improvements over the years have made Wennerberg Park a crucial facility for the community.John B. Wennerberg (b. 1842) emigrated from Helsingborg, Sweden in 1871 and was a significant citizen in the early history of Carlton. He served as a sponsor to many Swedish families in their emigration from Sweden to the Carlton area. Mr. Wennerberg lent money to families for building their own farming businesses. Wennerberg was a generous benefactor to the city of Carlton and provided land or funding for several community facilities.
Carlton Theater (1940s-1960s)
Built: 1945 (In 1914 building)Closed: 1960sThe Carlton Theater was opened in 1945 after a fire in the former Brooks Hotel gutted the upstairs apartments. Operated by Clifford and Hazel Briggs, it cost 25 to 50 cents to see a movie and the theater was open seven days a week. Popcorn and candy bars could be enjoyed for a nickel. The theater could seat an impressive 450 people. The theater eventually closed in the 1960s, as TV became popular and patrons went to theaters in McMinnville and Newberg. The space has held many businesses in the years since. The theater marquee still hangs over the eastern facade of the building.
Downtown Road Work
An 1916 view of a street paving team at the corner of Main Street and S Park Street1899: Wooden sidewalks were built in the commercial district along Main Street. A road tax was later instituted.1901: Crushed rock was added to the previously dirt streets.By 1904, downtown had four foot raised wooden sidewalks. Wooden crosswalks were used, but were difficult to find in the wet winter months. Many citizens ended up in the mud.1905: Streets began to be oiled1919: Main Street was paved. Cement sidewalks were built as new buildings were constructed or old wooden walks burned in fires.
Downtown Buildings
Multiple views of the buildings in downtown Carlton in the late 1800s and very early 1900s
Carlton Pool
First built in 1935, the vision for a community pool was initiated by the Carlton Community Foundation and supported by the Mayor and City Council. The Carlton residents voted overwhelming in favor of a bond to build the pool in 1935. The pool has always been heated. This was highly unusual for a town of its size and remains one of the only in the state of Oregon for a town of this size. It was originally heated by burning wood donated from the local mill and the heat circulated via a logging donkey hitch. The 75’ by 30’ pool contains 76,000 gallons of water. The pool cost $2500 and took over 4500 hours of labor to be completed.In in 1957, a recirculating heating system and chlorination was added. Lighting and bleacher seating in the 1960’s allowed for Red Cross sponsored swimming lessons and water ballet pageants. The pool was rebuilt in 2017 thanks to a community-supported bond and grant. The pool is used extensively today in the summer and hosts a variety of fitness exercise classes.
Ladd Park
Ladd Park, formerly known as City Park or Upper Park, was purchased from the Hoffman family in 1921. Samuel Lancaster, architect of the Columbia River Highway was hired as landscape architect. The Brooks Nursery donated plants, which were planted by Kent McDaniel and Mrs. W.B. Dennis. Mrs. Dennis was the City Park supervisor for many years. Sarah Ladd left $1500 in her estate to build a fountain in honor of Charles Ladd, her husband. The Ladd’s were important citizens of Carlton in the early 1900s. The most suitable location found was in the City Park.Sarah Hall Ladd (1860-1927) was a renowned American landscape photographer of the Pacific NW. Her work was published and exhibited throughout the U.S. She and her friend, photographer Lily White, were both invited into a group of photographers led by the famous Alfred Stieglitz. They promoted American scenic photography known as Photo-Secession. Her lens often captured the Columbia and Willamette Rivers from Lily’s houseboat, the Raysark, complete with working darkroom. Sarah worked on and exhibited at the 1905 Lewis & Clark Centennial Exposition in Portland.In 1910, Sarah and her husband Charles moved to Carlton. She continued her photographic career and started the first Carlton Community Foundation. The foundation was responsible for many community projects including the first pool at the site where the current pool is today in Ladd Park.Charles E. Ladd (1857-1920) was a businessman and son of former Oregon Mayor William S. Ladd. The Ladd family businesses included the first bank in Portland, mills, railroads, ironworks, The Portland Hotel, and liquor. The Ladd District in Portland was built along with the development of new transportation- bridges and railroads. It was an innovative master planned community and just a small part of the land the Ladd’s owned East and West of the Willamette. Charles became president of the Carlton Consolidated Lumber Company and founded The Pacific Monthly magazine, which published many of Sarah’s photographs.
Carlton Fire Department
Built: 1943 (or late 1940s?)The exact origins of the Carlton Fire Department are difficult to discern, as its early records were burned in the 1942 fire that destroyed the combination City Hall-Fire Department. Organized about 1905, the Carlton Fire Department was instrumental in getting the new City Hall built in 1912. They raised funds, and provided labor for its construction. For many years the CVFD received little financial assistance from the city. Firemen raised money by staging plays and dances. After the disastrous fires of 1921, the department bought their first motorized fire truck. The department was housed in the City Hall building from 1912 until the 1942 fire. By the late 1940s, a new brick structure was built. The department continued to grow, adding equipment and serving the nearby rural areas. This structure served the community into the early 21st century. Having outlived its usefulness as a public safety building, a new Carlton Fire Hall was opened in 2010. The old station was sold and converted into a wine tasting venue, now known as the Lonesome Rock Ranch Firehouse.
Old Grocery Store
Built sometime after 1913, this building has served multiple purposes. At one time it was a Safeway grocery store. Later, it became the site of several bars. From the late 1950s through In the 1970s, Junys Inn operated here. By the late 1990s, it was the Pied Piper Club. After an extensive remodeling in 2017, the Carlton and Coast Tavern opened.More research is necessary to gather the history of this building.
Hotel Carlton (Burned)
Built: 1905Burned: 1907W.A.Howe, of Carlton and W.M. Ladd of Portland, built the Hotel Carlton in 1905 for $40,000. This large, well-appointed hotel was built to accommodate increased demand for lodging brought on by expected economic growth. Sadly, the hotel burned in 1907, never to be rebuilt. Over 60 guests in the hotel narrowly escaped losing their lives. The site would remain empty until 1922, when a gas station was built. The current Carlton Corners restaurant and gas station is located at this site.Last image shown is an aerial of the gas station that was built here in the early 1950s, which still stands today.
Burns Garage / The Glove Factory
Built: 1916George Carl, built this brick structure in 1916, replacing a wooden building. The previous structure housed the first auto repair shop in Carlton, which Carl founded about 1915. He sold the garage to Banrey Burns in 1920. Barney operated it as Burns Garage until 1943. The Harroun Logging Company bought the building in 1943 for their headquarters.In 1950, the Portland Glove Company came to Carlton and opened a factory here. With the closure of the sawmills, the Glove Factory was the largest employer in the city for many years. By the 1990s the company employed over 30 of the town's 1,000 residents. But new owner Wells Lamont, headquartered in Niles, Ill., decided the local operation didn't fit into its long-range strategic plan.The facility operated for over 45 years, closing in 1994.In 1994, Ken Wright opened his first Carlton winery in the former Glove Factory. It was the first winery allowed within the city limits of Carlton, paving the way for future facilities.
Carlton and Coast Railroad Depot
Built: About 1910This unassuming warehouse is one of the last remnants of the Carlton and Coast Railroad. The C&C was a logging railroad, hauling logs from the forests in the Coast Range to the mills on Carlton Lake. Completed in 1911, it went twenty miles up the watershed of the North Yamhill River. Steam locomotives chugged up and down the steep grades.Later owned by the Flora Logging Company, it became the primary source of timber for the mills in Carlton. The Tillamook Burn fires of 1939, destroyed most of the trestles. Much of the equipment was stranded in the woods. The Flora Logging Company went bankrupt, and the railroad was abandoned. WWII scrap drives brought out most of the equipment. By this point, trucks had replaced trains as the preferred method of log transport.After the abandonment of the railroad in 1940, the depot was used for poultry processing. It is presently used for winery storage. The original wooden siding pokes through the tin siding in certain spots. The mainline of the C&C was converted into a county road, known today as Old Railroad Grade Rd.
Carlton Frozen Food Lockers
Built: 1940After the Co-Op Creamery was moved to McMinnville, Carlton still felt the need for a creamery.A Chamber of Commerce committee was formed. They recruited Bill and Opal McGhie of Sheridan to operate the creamery. The building was built by Floyd Eichel and opened on July 1, 1940. Frozen food lockers were also included for meat storage. Food lockers were popular in an era when home freezers were yet to become common. Butter was made here until 1946, when the lockers were expanded, and the facility became a meat processing plant. After 25 years, the McGhies sold the business in 1975.
First Baptist Church
Built: 1915The Carlton Baptist Church was established in May 1870. The Baptists joined with the Christan Church to purchase the current property in 1877. The denominations split costs and usage of the building until 1898. The present structure was built in 1915, using the prior structure to form the west side. John Wennerberg donated half the cost.
Smith/Meadowlake Road Bridge
Known as one of the earliest bridges transversing the North Yamhill River, Smith Bridge became an important crossing point to settlers west of the future community of Carlton. Constructed by Peter Smith on his donation land claim, it accessed a portion of his own claim as well as his son's land to the west. By 1852 the bridge had developed as a major crossroads serving as a thoroughfare to the coastal range and sawmills in the foothills.Repairs to the bridge were made in 1857 when money for planks was requested from the County Commissioners to improve the bridge's surface. Whether the bridge at this time was the original structure is not known. The first request before the county for replacing the bridge occurred in 1876. Two carpenters were employed to complete the project. Later a need for a wagon approach was recognized. N. K. Sitton and others went before the Board of Commissioners and received approval for half the funds needed to complete a 700 foot approach.Several bridges have replaced this early structure: a covered bridge, a steel bridge and two concrete structures, the most recent built in 2006. Recognized as a significant historical site, the Smith Bridge developed into a major link in traversing the North Yamhill River and has continued in that capacity to this date.
Carlton Lake
Note: The lake is on private property. It is visible from Meadowlake Rd and Westside Rd. The former dam site can be viewed from the river access point at Wennerberg Park.In an effort to jumpstart the lumber industry in Carlton, W. A. Howe built a wooden dam across the North Yamhill River in 1904. The first mill opened in 1906, operated by the Carlton Lumber Company. Logs were driven down the river to be stored in the lake. By 1911, the Carlton and Coast Railroad was used to carry logs down from the mountains. The mill, now run by the Consolidated Lumber Company, burned in 1914. The lake was drained in 1915. The mill wasn’t rebuilt until 1922, by the Flora Logging Company. The dam was rebuilt the following year.The lake was a popular source of recreation for the community. During summer events, log rolling contests were held in the middle of the lake (See photo). During occasional winter freezes the lake was also used for ice-skating and hockey.The Great Depression, and a forest fire in 1933 put stress on the Flora Logging Company. The Tillamook Burn of 1939, was the final straw. Much of the company’s timber burnt. The trestles of the Carlton and Coast railroad also burned, stranding locomotives and logging equipment in the woods. The Flora Company went bankrupt, and the mill closed.Several other mills operated on the shores of Carlton Lake. By the 1950s, the timber supply was diminished. The largest mill, the L.H.L. closed in 1957.With the decline of the lumber industry, there was less need for the lake. Maintenance of the dam suffered. An ambitious resort project was proposed in 1965. Plans were made to replace the dam, which was removed. The resort project failed, and the dam was never replaced. Lands in the lakebed reverted back to farmland.
Westerlook House
Built: 1911Note: This house is on private property. Do not disturb. The Westerlook Farm, at 9771 Hwy 47 in Carlton, has a classic American picket fence at the entrance. The Colonial Revival-style estate was designed by renowned architect Ellis Lawrence and built in 1911 for Charles Ladd and Sarah Hall Ladd. The 46-acre parcel, at the north fork of the Yamhill River, also has a carriage house with a guest apartment, two shops, three barns, three greenhouses and a cold room.The Westerlook house has many Old World elements: Cars drive through a porte-cochere. Columns on both sides of the arched front door hoist Georgian-style S-shaped brackets. Another decorative piece, a finial, rises between the scrolls. Inside, there are hardwood floors and French doors, built-in cabinets with leaded glass doors, thick crown molding and a sunroom with a stained glass ceiling.Original owners Charles and Sarah Ladd spent millions to create Westerlook during the pre-World War I years. Architecturally, it was similar to the couple's Portland mansion, Cedarhurst.Banker and businessman Charles Ladd was the son of early developer and Portland mayor William S. Ladd. Charles Ladd also dabbled in landscape design, according to a 1920 story in the Telephone Register of McMinnville. He hired three railroad cars to deliver plants to his estate.His wife was equally as interesting. Sarah Hall Ladd was a well-known landscape photographer who traveled the Columbia River on a houseboat with a darkroom during the summers from 1903 to 1905.Over the next three quarters of a century, the home had several owners: in the ‘20s, shipbuilders Walter and Mary Beebe, who added the carriage entrance on the east side and used Westerlook as their "weekend retreat"; A.T. and Ethel Otis, who built the dairy barn, in the 30s; John and Orbin Beall in the early 40s; E.J. and Christina Linke, also mill owners and major benefactors of Carlton, from 1947 to the early 1980s; Monica Willey from 1982 to 1991; Michael Sheehan until 1995. Peter and Marilyn Shultz lived here for about 20 years.
