Kelso-Longview, Washington - Places by Robert D. West

Kelso and Longview may be the most historic cities in Washington. There is history all over these two cities, if you only know where to look.

Americans settled in Cowlitz County even before settling in Seattle. The first local settler was a Scotsman named Peter W. Crawford, who arrived in the 1840s. It was here that early settlers met at a settlement called Monticello, near what is now Longview, to draft a petition to Congress to create the Washington Territory out of the Oregon Territory, at the Monticello Convention of 1852. The convention was held in the home of Harry Darby Huntington. Local settlers who attended the convention included Peter Crawford and Seth Catlin. The convention was a success; Congress drafted a bill establishing Washington Territory, which President Millard Fillmore signed into law on March 2, 1853. This marked the beginning of the state of Washington. Washington became a state on November 11, 1889.

Monticello became the first county seat of Cowlitz County on April 21, 1854. The county seat moved to a town called Freeport, just upriver from Monticello near today's West Kelso, in 1865. The settlement of Monticello was wiped out in a flood in 1867. In 1872, with an influx of Northern Pacific Railway workers, the county seat moved to Kalama. After decades of trying, Kelso became the county seat in 1923. In January of that year, Freeport was wiped out by flood, clearing the way for a lumber baron to start a new city.

After taking a donation land claim here in 1847, Peter W. Crawford, a surveyor by trade, platted a city here in 1884 and named it Kelso, after his hometown in Scotland.

This small park is located on the site of the first donation land claim. Peter W. Crawford took the land claim on December 18, 1847. Crawford would become one of the signers of the petition to make Washington a state at the Monticello Convention in 1852.

Eventually a bank was built on this corner, and it became a branch of the Seattle-First National Bank. The land was donated by the bank to the city of Kelso on August 28, 1972 for use as a park. Kelso Commons Park was dedicated on September 17, 1975.

Veterans Memorial at Kelso Commons Park, Kelso, Washington

In 1993, Kelso Post #3017 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars installed a memorial to soldiers lost in World War I, World War II, Korea and Vietnam.

Kelso Station from the west side of the Cowlitz River

Rail service first came to Kelso in 1872, when the Northern Pacific Railway built north from a river connection at Kalama, Washington toward Seattle. This brick depot opened on February 12, 1912, replacing an earlier wood-frame depot built in the 1800s. By the early 1990s, the depot was locked up. Amtrak trains still stopped at the station, but there were no personnel at the station and passengers had to wait outside. Tickets had to be purchased in advance, either from a travel agent, or from another station with Amtrak personnel.

In September 1994, after years of neglect, a major renovation and restoration of the depot was started to turn the depot into a multimodal transportation hub for Cowlitz County. The renovation included the addition of a clock tower and putting a full basement under the depot, which had never had one before, to be used for retail space. The renovation was completed and the depot was dedicated as "Kelso Station" on September 23, 1995. Since then, the depot has become a Greyhound bus station in accordance with the multimodal plans, but the basement has never had a tenant and while Amtrak trains continue to stop here, no Amtrak personnel are assigned to the station. For a time it was possible to buy a Greyhound ticket but not an Amtrak ticket, but an automated Amtrak ticket machine has since been installed. NOTE: The clock tower does not have a permanent pointed spire on top of it; in the photo that shows it, it is a temporary holiday decoration (though I think it makes the clock tower look better).

The first Allen Street Bridge washed out in a flood in 1906. It was replaced that same year with a 600-foot bascule bridge of entirely wood construction. The bridge was renovated in 1915, but by 1920 was generally known to be dangerous. In 1922, construction began on a new steel Allen Street Bridge alongside the old bridge.

On the evening of January 3, 1923, the middle span of the old bridge collapsed under the weight of heavy traffic. Although nearby boats in the Cowlitz River rescued people, at least 35 people were killed. To this day, the Allen Street Bridge collapse is Washington's worst bridge disaster.

Amtrak Cascades train at the Kelso Station, the old Allen Street Bridge in the background

Mural in West Kelso, showing the old Allen Street Bridge

The 700-foot steel Allen Street drawbridge opened March 19, 1923, but with only two lanes it was found to be inadequate as traffic increased. Construction of the four-lane Peter Crawford-Cowlitz Way Bridge in 1952 only bought time. The above picture shows the first run of Amtrak's Cascades service, with the steel Allen Street bridge in the background, on January 11, 1999. This bridge is also depicted in its early days in the background of a mural on a building at the west end of the current bridge.

The new Allen Street Bridge, from the west side of the Cowlitz River, Kelso, Washington

The new Allen Street Bridge in Kelso, Washington

In 2000, a new four-lane concrete Allen Street Bridge was built and the old bridge demolished. The new bridge also crossed over the Burlington Northern-Santa Fe Railroad line, eliminating a railroad crossing, and required demolition of many old buildings in downtown Kelso. On Sundays in the summer, the Kelso Bridge Market is held beneath the bridge for local farmers and craft merchants.

Peter Crawford - Cowlitz Way Bridge over the Cowlitz River, Kelso, Washington

The four-lane Peter Crawford-Cowlitz Way Bridge was completed in 1952 to relieve some of the traffic congestion on the nearby Allen Street Bridge. Unlike the Allen Street Bridge, this bridge was designed to clear the traffic on the Cowlitz River without being a drawbridge. As a result, it also passed above the Northern Pacific (now Burlington Northern-Santa Fe) mainline. The bridge's name is a result of Longview and Kelso being unable to agree.

The Hall of Justice was built in 1975 and contains virtually all Cowlitz County offices.

The construction of the new Allen Street Bridge in 2000 required the demolition of Kelso's City Hall, among other buildings. This brand new City Hall was built alongside the new Allen Street Bridge as a replacement.

Robert A. Long

In 1850, a man named Robert Alexander Long was born on a farm in Kentucky. In 1875, at the age of 25, Long opened a lumber yard in Columbus, Kansas. By 1904, over 4,000 employees worked for his Long-Bell Lumber Company. As Chairman of the Board, Long directed the company's expansion into the west.

In 1919 and 1920, the Long-Bell Lumber Company purchased timber holdings in southwest Washington from Weyerhaeuser. In order to harvest this land, Long-Bell needed to build a new lumber mill in the area. In 1921, the decision was made to build a new mill on the Columbia River, near the point where the Cowlitz River emptied into it. Long-Bell acquired 14,000 acres of land, enough to build not only the world's largest lumber mill, but also a city large enough to support all of its employees. The city would be laid out in a classic European pattern, with boulevards stretching from a Civic Center. This design is similar to that of the cities of Paris and Rome. Longview was designed for an ultimate population of 50,000 people.

In May of 1922, a meeting was held at Long's estate, Longview Farm in Missouri, to plan the new city. Most importantly, a name for the city had to be selected. All of the suggested names included the word Long. Some of the suggestions were Long-Bell and Long Port. In the end, the name selected was the name of the very estate at which the meeting was held: Longview. There was only one problem; a small town called Long View already existed on the east side of Washington state, in Benton County, on the Columbia River across from Umatilla, Oregon. The Long-Bell Lumber Company contacted the people of the town to ask what they would like in exchange for changing their town's name. They agreed to change the town's name in exchange for $25 to build a shelter to keep mail bags dry after being dropped off from passing trains. The post office in the new city officially began going by the name Longview, Washington in January of 1923. Long-Bell's Chief Engineer Wesley Vandercook was the first postmaster.

This street scene from 1923 shows early construction along Commerce Avenue looking north from Hudson Street. The Columbia River Mercantile Building is visible in the background. Across from it is the Colonial Building, which served as Longview's first post office. In the foreground are the Title Building on the left and the Mt. Hood Building on the Right.

The city of Longview was dedicated on July 12, 1923, and was incorporated on February 9, 1924. Long-Bell's new lumber mill, at the time the largest in the world, opened at 10:30 AM on July 31, 1924. The mill was capable of producing 1,000,000 board feet of lumber every day. The mill was located on the Columbia River, between where the Weyerhaeuser mill and Longview Fibre stand today, and just east of where the Longview Bridge (now Lewis & Clark Bridge) would be built.

Aerial photograph of the Long-Bell Lumber Mill, with early Longview, Kelso and the Cowlitz River in the background.

In addition to R. A. Long himself, there were many people directly involved in the creation of Longview. Many of them would have streets or buildings in the city named after them. Some of these people included:

Jesse Clyde Nichols: City Planner from St. Louis who led the design of the city

A. Norman Torbitt: Architect who designed many of Longview's first buildings, including the Public Library and the Longview, Portland & Northern Railway Station.

This photograph shows the men who led the development of the Long-Bell Lumber Company's lumber mill in Longview and the new city alongside it. From left to right, they are W. F. Ryder, for whom the city of Ryderwood, Washington was named, Chief Engineer Wesley Vandercook, Vice President John D. Tennant, Vice President Samuel Mark Morris, Company Traffic Manager R. S. Davis and Founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors Robert A. Long.

J. C. Nichols

George E. Kessler

S. Herbert Hare

The three city planners from Kansas City who designed the city of Longview as a personal favor to Robert A. Long were these three men: George E. Kessler, Jesse Clyde Nichols and S. Herbert Hare.

By 1930, most of the city was complete, at a cost of $50,000,000. Robert A. Long died in 1934, at the age of 84. International Paper bought out the Long-Bell Lumber Company in 1956. The main Long-Bell mill was shut down in 1960. The Cabinet Division and most other remaining workers were laid off in 1979. International Paper began demolishing the Long-Bell lumber sheds in the 1980s. The last of these sheds were demolished in 1996. Some of the large timbers from these sheds were used in the construction of Microsoft founder Bill Gates' home on Lake Washington. Long-Bell's old 21,000 square foot mill office building, known as the White House and built in 1937, was sold to the Port of Longview in 1998. The port leased it to Longview Fibre in 2004 for administrative use.

The Monticello Hotel, opened on July 14, 1923, two days after Longview's dedication, was the first building built in Longview. Robert A. Long knew that he would need a luxurious hotel in order to convince potential business investors to the new city. Originally owned and operated by Long-Bell, the Monticello was sold when the company faced financial problems, and has come close to closing multiple times in the years since.

This was not the first Monticello Hotel in the area. Before the Long-Bell Lumber Company came to Cowlitz County, Harry Darby Huntington owned a Monticello Hotel on the Cowlitz River. This original Monticello Hotel was destroyed in a flood in January 1923.

This photograph shows Jefferson Square (now R. A. Long Park) and downtown Longview from the roof of the Monticello Hotel in 1926. The railroad station can be seen in the background at the far end of Broadway.

Robert A. Long Park, built in the center of the Civic Circle in 1923 in front of the Monticello Hotel, was originally called Jefferson Square and was intended to be the center of the city. The Long-Bell Lumber Company owned Jefferson Square until financial problems forced its sale. A Longview community group, raising money for a statue of Robert A. Long, ended up purchasing the park for the city to keep the park from being destroyed for development. Jefferson Square was rededicated in honor of Long on December 21, 1938. The park was placed on the National Register of Historic Places with the entire Civic Center on December 5, 1985. At each corner of the park is a historic monument tablet. Strangely, the sidewalks in the park all go behind these tablets, which face the street, so the only way to read them is to walk through the landscaping, or stop your car in front of them.

The tablet at the northwest corner of the park bears a bronze relief by Alonzo Victor Lewis depicting oxen pulling covered wagons. It is titled North to Olympia and was placed by the Kiwanis Club of Olympia in July 1926. It bears the following inscription:

The tablet at the northeast corner of the park is a memorial to Seth Catlin, another early settler of the area. This monument is not dated, but is very old, as the engraved letters have become difficult to read. The inscription reads as follows.

The tablet at the southeast corner of the park is a memorial to the Huntington family, more early area settlers. It was placed here in 1949. It reads:

From Plymouth Rock and Battle Creek to Longview

The most recent addition to the park is the monument at the southwest corner. This is a fairly recent addition, placed in August 1980. It includes pieces of stone from Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts and Battle Creek, Michigan, and a copper plaque which reads:

Civic Center Sundial, Longview, Washington

Near the center of the park is a sundial placed by Mary Richardson and the Walker Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1939 in honor of the Monticello Convention. It reads as follows.

Bust of Robert A. Long, Longview, Washington

In the center of the park is a bronze bust of the Longview's founder and the park's namesake, Robert A. Long. A statue of Long was first proposed in 1935, and a community group began raising money for the statue to be placed in Jefferson Square, which at the time was still owned by the Long-Bell Lumber Company. Long-Bell ended up having to sell Jefferson Square due to financial problems, and the community group ended up spending most of the money raised for the statue to purchase Jefferson Square to donate it to the city as a park. Without enough money left for a statue, the group changed its plans to a bronze bust on a concrete pedestal. The pedestal was placed in 1942, but material restrictions on bronze during World War II delayed the bust until after the war. Seattle sculptor Victor Alonzo Lewis' bust of Long was placed on the pedestal in October 1945 and was dedicated August 24, 1946. The pedestal inscription gives no indication of the bust's interesting history.

Longview Public Library, Longview, Washington

The Longview Public Library was the third public building built in Longview (after the Monticello Hotel and the railway station), and was funded by R. A. Long himself as a gift to the city at a cost of $150,000, plus $10,000 for books. The Library was dedicated April 26, 1926. It was designed to complement the Monticello Hotel, and other buildings planned to surround the Civic Center which were never built.

United States Post Office, Longview, Washington

Longview's Main Post Office was built during the Great Depression as a Public Works Administration project to provide work to people without jobs. It's architecture is classically-influenced Art Deco. The Post Office was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 5, 1991.

Nutty Narrows Bridge, Longview, Washington

The Nutty Narrows Bridge was built above Louisiana Street to give squirrels a way to get to and from R. A. Long Park without being run over by traffic around the Civic Circle. It was dedicated on March 19, 1963. Its name alludes to the famous Tacoma Narrows Bridge.

Longview City Hall, Longview, Washington

Longview didn't have a City Hall until 1936 when an Art Deco City Hall was completed on this site from Public Works Administration funds. The current City Hall replaced it in 1976.

Lake Sacajawea was originally Fowler's Slough. The Long-Bell Lumber Company turned it into a lake when Longview was laid out. The lake's name was chosen in 1925 from a contest in The Daily News. Long-Bell originally maintained the lake as a public recreation area until the company ran into financial trouble during the Great Depression. The land was nearly sold to become residential lots, but it ended up being deeded to the City of Longview in 1938. In the 1940s, the lake's indigenous carp were killed off and the lake has been kept stocked with trout for sport fishing since 1950.

Columbia Theatre for the Performing Arts, Longview, Washington

The 1000-seat Columbia Theater opened April 4, 1925. Most of the interior is preserved as it was originally built. Stars including Clark Gable and Ginger Rogers have performed here. For many years, the Columbia was the only operating theater in Longview. It was nearly demolished in 1980 to make room for a multiplex, but bad soils tests and the eruption of Mt. St. Helens allowed it to survive long enough for the Columbia Theatre Task Force to organize to save it. The City of Longview traded the Columbia Theater site for a nearby property the city owned adjacent to the Triangle Mall on December 9, 1982, saving the Columbia while allowing the 4-screen Triangle Mall Cinema to be built in 1983. The Columbia Theater reopened as the Columbia Theatre for the Performing Arts on November 22, 1983 with a Southwest Washington Symphony Performance. The Columbia Theatre was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 5, 1985.

Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Building, Longview, Washington

The Art Deco Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Building was built in 1928, and the exterior remains virtually as built. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 5, 1985.

The Rickles Building was built in 1924 by E. H. Mustola. It is named for Rickles Grocery Store, one of the businesses that has occupied it over the years. It was remodeled in 1986.

Woolworth's Building, Longview, Washington

This building was originally the Longview home of F. W. Woolworth's, and once featured a lunch counter and soda fountain. Today it is the home of Pets, Pawns & Imports.

The Art Deco Longview Theater opened in 1942 with 550 seats. In 1945 it was sold to the Sterling Cinema group, which remodeled it in 1954 with a new sound system and a larger screen. After the summer of 1955, the theater closed and remained closed until Thanksgiving Day 1970 after being

refurbished again. In 1986, the theater was sold to Act III Theatres. Act III put in new seats, a new screen, a new projection system and digital surround sound in 1996. Under Act III, this was a great theater. Among the movies I saw at this theater were Titanic and the special editions of the Star Wars Trilogy. Alas, Regal Cinemas bought out Act III and closed the Longview Theater in July 2001. Regal removed all the seats and theater equipment before selling the building with the requirement that it not be used as a theater for 20 years. The interior of the auditorium was gutted and turned into a skateboard park of all things, with a skate shop in the lobby. Though the store remains, the indoor park has been closed. A community theatre group called Rising Star Productions is working to restore the auditorium and turn the Longview Theater into a performing arts center.

Chief Don Lelooska

The intersection of Broadway and Commerce Avenue was intended to be one of the most important intersections in Longview. This totem pole was carved by Chief

Don Lelooska for the Lower Columbia Council of Camp Fire USA, who presented it to the city of Longview and placed it here. It was dedicated on Sunday, March 19, 1961.

Chief Don Lelooska was born Don Smith in 1933. He was of partial Cherokee and Osage decent. He was adopted into the Kwakiutl nation in 1968, and became a leader in Native American heritage. He carved over 100 totem poles and hundreds of ceremonial masks during his lifetime. He passed away September 5, 1996.

The totem pole is over 30 feet tall, nearly 3 feet in diameter at the base, 1 foot in diameter at the top, and weighs about one ton. The 8 symbols on the totem represent different aspects of the Camp Fire Council. Starting from the top, the symbols are:

The totem pole was carved of Western Red Cedar, which was chosen for ease of carving without regard for longevity. Historically, Native American totem poles were carved for ceremonial use, and after their intended purpose were taken down for firewood. This totem suffered from its decades of exposure to the elements. It was repainted as part of Eagle Scout projects by Bill Lotz in 1976 and Todd Partridge in 1989, but by 2005 there had been serious decomposition at the base, as well as a crack running up the back of the pole for its entire length. That fall, for his Eagle Scout project, Devin Hemmert organized a community effort to restore the totem pole. The project included replacing decomposed wood with new red cedar, bleaching and drying the surviving original wood, embedding eight steel plates in the back side of the pole to counteract the crack running the length of the pole, filling surface cracks in the carved figures and priming and painting in authentic Native American colors of driftwood gray, dark red, turquoise and black. Hemmert was awarded the rank of Eagle Scout on July 8, 2006. That same month, the totem pole was placed on the Longview Register of Historic Places.

Across Commerce Avenue from the totem pole is a park bench with this bronze sculpture of Robert A. Long and a young girl. It was sculpted by Jim Demetro and was placed here and dedicated in 2006.

Columbia River Mercantile Building (The Merk), Longview, Washington

The 70,000 square foot Columbia River Mercantile Building, also known as The Merk, was the first commercial building completed in Longview. It cost over $195,000. It opened on July 17, 1923, five days after Longview's dedication, as the Long-Bell offices and company store. In 1951, the Bon Marche moved in, staying until Kelso's Three Rivers Mall opened in 1987. Today, along with various businesses, the building contains the Longview Room containing local memorabilia.

Big Four Building & Lumberman's Bank Clock, Longview, Washington

This building was built in 1923 as the Lumberman's Bank & Trust Company. It originally had more classical architecture. The 12-foot-tall, 4-faced clock was placed in front of the building on August 13, 1926. It was manufactured by the Albany Pedestal Chime Clock System and was purchased through the O. B.

McClintock Company of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Lumberman's Bank failed during the Great Depression, being forced closed by the State Banking Supervisor on July 30, 1931. The Big Four Furniture Company purchased the building on June 19, 1934 and remodeled it into Art Deco styling to disassociate itself from the failed bank, however the clock remained. The Big Four Building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 5, 1985.

"Big Benjamin" Steam Whistle, Longview, Washington

The world's largest steam whistle, "Big Benjamin" was the whistle of the Long-Bell lumber mill, designed, engineered and installed in 1924. The 4-foot tall bronze whistle was powered by a 1,000 horsepower steam plant, supplying 225 pounds of pressure through a 4-inch line to the 14-inch

diameter whistle orifice. "Big Benjamin" was first blown on July 31, 1924 at the dedication of the new Long-Bell lumber mill. The whistle could be heard for 45 miles at every shift change, lunch break, emergency fire call and New Year's Eve. "Big Benjamin" is still operational today, and can be blown if sufficient air pressure is supplied to its base.

The Commerce Building was built in 1924 by A. E. Alexander for his department store. It is currently owned by The Pet Works and has been renovated in 1991 and 1995.

This building was built as an Oriental-themed theater called the Peekin, which opened in 1925. It was built by a contractor called Val Quoidbach, Sr. for a customer who never paid, leaving Quoidbach with a theater, which he and his wife Gay operated until selling it to W. G. Ripley, who also owned the Columbia Theater and the Kelso Theater across the Cowlitz. By that time, the name had been changed to the Roxy Theater in the 1930s. Ripley remodeled the theater to deemphasize the Oriental architecture and continued to operate it until selling it to the Sterling group in 1945. Sterling focused on the newer Longview Theater and the Roxy closed after the summer of 1946. The "Closed for Summer" sign remained in the box office window for years. The theater was used as a church and a live theater until being sold to Darrell and Doreen DeWitt in 1983. The DeWitt's turned the building into Longview Furniture, enclosing the old stage. Longview Furniture closed in 2001, and the building was remodeled into three venues. The first was the South Pacific Restaurant, opening in July 2001 in the front of the building. In August 2002, the Sky Bar cocktail lounge opened in the middle of the building. In December 2003, the Roxy Special Event Venue opened in the back, with the original stage opened back up for use by live bands. In 2004, the owners reinvented the South Pacific Restaurant into Don Renato's Italian Ristorante & Steak House.

St. John Medical Center, Longview, Washington

The original Longview Memorial Hospital building and Sunken Garden, Longview, Washington

St. John Medical Center was Longview's first hospital, beginning life in late 1924 as Longview Memorial Hospital. The three-story building in the foreground is the original hospital building, heavily remodeled but still in use. Longview Memorial Hospital ran into financial trouble and was forced to close on July 1, 1943. J. D. Tennant and other Longview civic leaders asked the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace to reopen the hospital. On December 1, 1943, the hospital reopened as St. John's Hospital.

St. John Medical Center Patient Tower, Longview, Washington

The hospital has been expanded several times over the years, the first time in 1952. The seven story patient tower was dedicated May 11, 1968. Further expansion occurred in 1982. In 1992, St. John's Hospital became a part of the PeaceHealth Medical Group. In September 1999, PeaceHealth completed the hospital's biggest expansion, including a 4-level parking structure, and the hospital was renamed St. John Medical Center.

Sunken Garden, looking south, Longview, Washington

Bench in the Sunken Garden, Longview, Washington

The sunken garden was built with the original Longview Memorial Hospital, as a gift to the city from Robert A. Long. Today, the sunken garden is operated by the city as part of Lake Sacajawea Park, known as The Grotto. It contains a bench dedicated "In loving memory of Barbara Burrell."

The Willard Building was built in 1924. It is the only intact example of Georgian Revival architecture in the business district. Sometime after October 1932, a group of doctors from Longview Memorial Hospital broke away from the hospital to set up a new hospital, the 20-bed Longview General Hospital on the second floor of the Willard Building. Longview General Hospital was renamed Cowlitz General Hospital in June 1935 and moved to the old railroad depot at the east end of Broadway. The Willard Building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 5, 1985.

At the east end of Broadway, opposite the Monticello Hotel, R. A. Long built the second building in Longview: the Longview, Portland & Northern Railway Station. Long knew that the city of Longview would need rail service to move lumber from his new Long-Bell mill, and to serve any other industries that came to his city. The existing major railroads served Kelso, but building into Longview would require a bridge across the Cowlitz River, an expensive proposition for them. Thus, the Long-Bell Lumber Company formed the Longview, Portland & Northern Railway Company to build from a connection with the Northern Pacific Railway at Longview Junction across the Cowlitz River into Longview, and north to Ryderwood, along what is now the West Side Highway. Long also wanted his city to have an impressive passenger station to welcome businessmen who visited his city by train. The passenger station wouldn't make any money for the Long-Bell company itself though, so Long built the station himself in 1925, as a gift to the city, and leased it to the railroad. A plague placed at the station at its completion read as follows.

Long slowly convinced the major railroads like Northern Pacific and Union Pacific to operate trains to his new station. By 1928, four trains a day stopped at the station. In 1931, the Milwaukee Road began serving the Longview station as well. It wouldn't last though; on December 13, 1933, a flood washed out the bridge across the Cowlitz and the tracks north to Ryderwood. By the time the bridge was rebuilt, the major railroads had given up on serving Longview directly, and the station closed. The Longview, Portland & Northern would continue on as a freight only line, connecting the Long-Bell mill and other Longview industries to the major railroads at Longview Junction.

Monticello Medical Center, Longview, Washington

In 1935, Cowlitz General Hospital moved from the Willard Building into the old station, where there was room for 35 beds. Cowlitz General remained in the old station until the 1960's, when the Health Department declared the building unfit for use as a hospital. Ground was broken for a new Cowlitz General Hospital on August 6, 1966, and the new hospital, later renamed Monticello

Former site of the Longview Railroad Station, Longview, Washington

Medical Center, was completed and dedicated in April 1968. The old railroad station was then demolished, and today there is no sign it was ever there. Eventually, the Monticello Medical Center came full circle, becoming part of PeaceHealth, and being renamed the Broadway Campus of St. John Medical Center, a part of the hospital it originally split off from in the 1930s.

As for the Longview, Portland & Northern Railway, the route to Ryderwood was abandoned in 1953, leaving just the Longview operation. When Long-Bell was absorbed by International Paper, I-P used the name for all of its railroads in the northwest, each a different division. The Longview section was called the Terminal Division. Other divisions included the 8.76 mile Northern Division between Willamina and Grande Ronde, Oregon (1955-1980), the 3.5 mile Southern Division at Gardiner, Oregon (1952-1999) and the 29.5 mile Chelatchie Division from Chelatchie to Rye, Washington (1960-1981). The Longview operation was sold after International Paper shut down the last of the Long-Bell mill. Today, it is known as Longview Switching and is jointly owned by the Union Pacific and Burlington Northern-Santa Fe railroads. Longview Switching has its own employees, but uses equipment from its parent railroads. It serves Longview Fibre, the Port of Longview and other industries along Industrial Way. The rail yard on the south side of today's State Route 432 between Longview and the Harry Morgan Bridge is Longview Switching's (formerly LP&N's) Longview Junction Yard. There are currently no operating divisions of International Paper's Longview, Portland & Northern Railway, though the company undoubtedly still exists on paper, with no equipment, track or employees, in case I-P ever needs it again.

The Y.M.C.A. opened in 1924. It was originally called the Community House. The Community House was built by R. A. Long as a gift to the city.

Sevier & Weed Building, Longview, Washington

The Sevier & Weed Building was built within Longview's first 2 years by J. Sevier and Otis E. Weed. It is an intact example of Classical Revival architecture and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 5, 1985.

Rutherglen Mansion (J.D. Tennant House), Longview, Washington

The Rutherglen Mansion on Mt. Solo was originally built as the home of Long-Bell Vice President John D. Tennant, who moved in on February 1, 1927. The 13,000 square foot house is built almost entirely of Long-Bell products and other local materials. After Tennant's death in 1949, his family sold the house. It was used as a nursing home, a girl's home and a meeting place for a church before becoming a restaurant and bed & breakfast in 1994. The Rutherglen Mansion, also known as the J. D. Tennant House, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 12, 1984.

Washington Gas & Electric Building, Longview, Washington

This building was built in 1928 as the headquarters of the Washington Gas & Electric Company. It is the only building in Longview covered with Terra Cotta tiles. Though it appears to be a three-story building, it is actually only two with a mezzanine. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 5, 1985.

Robert A. Long High School, Longview, Washington

Robert A. Long High School, built in 1928, was not the first school in Longview; that honor goes to nearby Kessler Elementary School on the other side of Lake Sacajawea, which opened on February 26, 1924. However, where Kessler Elementary has been heavily modified and is not very photogenic, R. A. Long High School is a beautiful building with timeless classic architecture. This school was built by R. A. Long as yet another of his gifts to the city. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 5, 1985.

Blackstone Building, Longview, Washington

I don't know anything about this building; I discovered it completely by accident. It seems out of place in a neighborhood of single-family houses. It appears to be from Longview's early years, though I don't know what is was built as. I initially thought it was an old hotel. There was once a Blackstone Clinic in Longview; perhaps there is some connection. Today it appears to be an apartment building.

Longview Fibre's original pulp and paper mill opened in 1927, to create paper from the Douglas Fir waste from Longview's Long-Bell and Weyerhaeuser lumber mills. Today, this mill is one of the area's largest employers, and Longview Fibre has paper mills all over the country.