841 History

I have not been able to find a definitive construction date., but I have been able to narrow it down to say that 841 Pioneer has been around since the early to mid 1930's.

In 1929, the Sanborn company made a map of downtown Oak Harbor for fire insurance purposes. The 1929 Sanborn map clear indicates that there is no building located where 841 Pioneer is now. In the image carousel below, the fire map shows an empty area right beside the "Oak Harbor" stamp on the drawing. The same map shows where 841 Pioneer is located with a green box. Modern satellite photos show the current location.

Other interesting tidbits from the Sanborn map are:

• Modern day Hathaway St. was previously known as Ely

• Modern day Dock St. was previously known as Bank

• Modern day Pioneer Way itself was previously known as Main. Main got renamed "Pioneer Way" in 1949 when it finally got paved for the first time.

The takeaway from all that is that the building at 841 Pioneer must have been built after 1929.

To help pin down the other end of the date scale, we use a postcard photo taken of the Oak Harbor street scene taken by a traveling photographer named Ellis. He spent his life traveling all over Washington taking picture of street scenes like this and then selling the postcards to the people and businesses that appeared in them.

Zooming into that photo, it is clear that It shows that 841 Pioneer exists, as marked with the red arrow:

The other interesting thing as that the sign hanging from the front of the building says "Dodge Plymouth Approved Service." Perhaps it started out as a car shop. You can also see giant sliding doors to let the cars in and out.

Finally, if you look in the lower left foreground of the original photo, you will see this car sporting a "Swift's Premium" sticker on the side. It is the most modern car in the photo:

That car can be positively dated as a 1937 Plymouth. A 1936 Plymouth 5-window couple had only two door hinges, one at the top and one at the bottom. The 1937 Plymouth added a third hinge mid-way between the top and bottom hinges, as per the photo. The 1938 model changed the horizontal trim along the side of the hood to be a slightly different shape. The presence of a 1937 model year car indicates that the photo could not have been taken before late 1936. That brackets when the building could have been constructed from about 1930 to late 1936.

If I had to guess, I would bet on the early to mid 1930's, or right at the worst of the Great Depression. It must have taken some courage at that time to spend the money to construct a building and start a business. Things turned out OK though since the building is still standing over 80 years later, right in the heart of Oldtown Oak Harbor.

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