Sixty Houses in One Season
Newport's 1908 ledger of construction: sixty residences raised or under way, a three-story hotel foundation at Washington and Second, and a lumber mill going up across the river.
Few towns in the Northwest, the size of Newport, can show as many substantial improvements made this season as can our town. Fully sixty residences have been erected or are in process of erection and still others will be started if weather conditions are favorable.
Many fine homes have been constructed which help to give the town an air of prosperity and permanence and attest the faith of the builders in the future of their town.
Several substantial business buildings have been constructed and others are in process of building or planned. The Reidmaier Ihlee building is roofed and will be ready for occupancy in a few weeks.
Dr. Sutherland has completed the excavation for his store building just north of the Gilbert store, the cement blocks are on the ground and an attempt will be made to complete the building this fall.
Messrs. Craig and Martin are putting in the concrete foundation for the three-story hotel at the corner of Washington Ave. and 2d St. They will endeavor to complete the foundation this fall but will not start the superstructure until spring.
Dr. Phillips has about completed the excavation on his lot next to the Opera House but has not disclosed any plans of building.
John Jacobson, the electrical contractor, has purchased of A. M. Harris, the business lot north of the Miner office and will put up a building for his business either this fall or next spring.
Work on the big mill of the Fidelity Lumber Company, across the river from town, is being pushed. The temporary buildings are all completed and the foundation for the mill is going in.
The foundation for the new machine shops for the Newport Iron Works is completed and the laying of cement blocks is now progressing.
“Many fine homes have been constructed which help to give the town an air of prosperity and permanence and attest the faith of the builders in the future of their town.”
In 1908 Newport measured its future in foundations poured before winter: sixty houses, a hotel, a mill, machine shops. It is the same math a small town runs on today — a housing count as a statement of confidence in the town's survival. Note how much of the boom depended on timber money moving in across the river, and how quickly such booms reverse when the mills go quiet.
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