Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum (Ilwaco Telephone Utilities Building 1960s-1980s)

The Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum explores the history of the region where the Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean. Founded in the early 1980s, it holds 23,000 artifacts dating from the time the Chinook people inhabited the area through the 20th century. Museum exhibits cover Chinook life ways, early settlements, natural resource industries, life saving and early railroad history. Here you can visit an intact freight depot as well as an early Pullman passenger coach train car. The museum offers various events such as lectures, concerts and educational programs as well. The Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum is housed in the former Ilwaco Telephone Utilities (TU) building, built in the mid-1960s.

The Founding of TU

The story of the Telephone Utilities begins in 1903 when J.A. 'Andy' Howerton strung a phone line between two crank telephones to help his brother-in-law maintain contact with his fish-buying scow. When the experiment worked, he connected their homes as well. When other community members became interested in telephone service, the Ilwaco Telephone and Telegraph Company was born.

By 1955, customers had grown to 400, and Norm Howerton began expanding. Selective acquisition of small, mostly rural phone companies began. Within a few years, a patchwork of telephone companies in Oregon and Washington had been amassed. In the mid-1960s the company needed a larger building for its headquarters. Architect Donald S. Avery of Olympia was engaged to design the new building, which was constructed by Perrott-Kaufman Steel Building Company, also of Olympia. 

New Building on Lake Street

Inside the building were vacuum-tube main-frame computers, plus air-conditioning to keep them cool and functional. Companies that were overseen from this location when the building was completed included: Ilwaco Telephone Company; Island Empire Telephone Company (Kitsap Co., WA); Evergreen Telephone Company (Lewis Co., WA); Knappa Telephone Company (Knappa, OR); Rose Valley Phone Company (Scappoose, OR); Inland Empire Telephone Company (Spangle, WA); Orting Telephone Company (Orting, WA); Columbia Basin Telephone Company (Eastern WA); Lopez Telephone Company (Lopez Island, WA); Puget Island Telephone Company (Cathlamet, WA); Deschutes Telephone Company (Maupin, OR); and Sound Telephone Company (Lakebay, WA).

Telephone Utilities was sold to Pacific Telecomm who eventually moved operations to Vancouver leaving the building to the City of Ilwaco.

Now a Museum

In the early 1980s the building was leased to the fledgling Ilwaco Heritage Foundation to start a museum. Today’s Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum began with brainstorming sessions headed by City Council member Noreen Robinson. These sessions were held over breakfast at Red’s Café in Ilwaco. A few persistent phone calls to the Smithsonian Institution were made by Noreen. They led her to get an intern from the University of Washington museum studies program, who traveled to Ilwaco to instruct the museum’s all-volunteer staff in the basics of museum management.

In the early days, Noreen literally ran the museum finances out of her purse. When there wasn’t enough money to do what needed to be done, she paid for it herself. She bought tables and chairs. She bought adjoining property. She bought all kinds of things. But, most importantly, she also bought a hot dog cart. Noreen sold hot dogs at high school sports events and town gatherings – anywhere there might be an opportunity to raise a few dollars. Never shy about poking a little fun at propriety, she delighted in calling the cart her “wiener wagon.” Her persistence, sense of humor and community spirit served the Museum well.

http://columnbiapacificheritagemuseum.com/permanent-galleries/

CPHM Research Files

CPHM Murfin/Tribune Photo Collection