Tearing Down a Little Piece of History

Portland lost a little piece of history last month. The state finally tore down my grandfather's old service station, Shell City Garage. This has been a long process that started ten years ago with the proposed widening of Highway 109. And as anyone can imagine, any dealings with the state are difficult and very frustrating. My family has dealt with a lot from the state and the city through this process. But after three years of waiting for this building to be torn down it is close to being over, we hope.

We believe the building was built in the 1930s by Charles and Lloyd Deasey. Several businesses were in the building before my grandfather bought it in 1962. After he bought it, it was 8 years before he actually decided to move his business from the building that used to be next door.  You can see it in the corner of this picture. 

Here are a couple of pictures from 1955 of the first building.

My grandfather started Shell City Garage in 1951. He, along with some of his friends, worked on cars, tractors, trucks, just about anything, as well as sold gas and ran a wrecker service. My grandfather was Howard "Soap" Crafton. I still do not know where the nickname came from, but that is what everyone called him except us.

Shell City is the only place my father has ever worked, first in a building next door, then in this one and now the new one he had to build. He worked alongside his father until Pa became ill in the late 1980's. Following my grandfather's death on March 1, 1988, my father continued to work out of this building.

There are lots of memories in that old building. My mother's nephews worked there while they were in school. We all played there as we were growing up. Most of my grandfather's and my father's friends spent time just loafing. Lots of dart games were thrown in the back and lots of checkers played atop a 5-gallon bucket in the office. This building has been a part of Portland for many years.

It has been very interesting this week to see the people who have stopped by to watch the demolition, tell stories, and help my family salvage what we can. I feel that my family is truly blessed with the wonderful people who understand the importance of this building to Portland's past and my family's history.

The contractors showed up on Monday morning and said they would get started on Tuesday. But when Dad returned from lunch on Monday, they were already working on tearing down the bathrooms and the office.

By the time I got to the station, a group of men were already standing around watching the demolition.

I love that last picture of Dad looking in the door where the office used to be.  He has so many memories in that office. 

After the crew left on Monday evening, we decided to go through once again and see if there was anything else we wanted to try to salvage. When Dad pulled a piece of board off that held old gaskets and such, we discovered a little Federal Mogul man that had been pasted to the wall before Pa bought the building in 1962. We were all quite surprised and pleased with the find.

Jim Donoho also decided he wanted the old bus seats that were in the back for people to sit on. Dad told him to back his Daihatsu farm truck in there and we would load them up. We also loaded up a bunch of little junk just to keep. I think it was very appropriate that Jim's truck will be the last vehicle in the building because his family was one of Shell City Garage's first customers and our families have been friends for many generations.

Tuesday the crew was supposed to return that morning and continue the demolition. When they told Dad early, they meant early. Dad called me at 7:30 am and told me to come on down because one of the sides and the back was already gone.

A group of spectators were already assembled to watch. All of these people were tied together by this building and my grandfather and father.

We collected a nice stack of bricks from the old chimney in the back. I am not sure what I am going to do with them yet but I will find something I am sure.

My cousins also wanted blocks from the wall so we grabbed a few of those.

Jim wanted some of the old tiles from the roof so Barry Wilson and Don Flemming got a ladder and climbed up on the roof and pulled a bunch off.

Joey Collins told Dad to take the cabinet doors where the dart board used to hang, so we stopped the demolition and got those.

The people doing the demolition were getting a little upset but my father told them that it had taken 3 years to get the building torn down, another 15 minutes wouldn't hurt anything.

Most people cleared out for lunch, including the work crew. Work definitely slowed down in the afternoon. People stopped back by expecting to see a huge difference, but there was little progress made.

Around 3:00 pm someone talked to the people doing the demolition and the process sped up. Before it got dark, the rest of the building was leveled. 

There is a funny story about the barrel in the middle of the picture.  Two of these barrels were used to support the end of the oil rack that my dad used to pull cars on to change the oil.  Each barrel was fastened to the ground with an axel and filled with concrete.  When the driver grabbed that barrel he thought he would crush it up, but he was sadly mistaken! 

Here is a picture of the new building.  Believe it or not I didn't have a picture of the old station on my computer so I will have to add one later.  I have several in frames at the station.  You can see a bit of the old station in the left of this picture.

Three Generations of Shell City Garage

(1951-1970)

(1970-2006)

(2006-Present)