The Farrell Building
The Farrell building represents the second oldest retail business in the Vancouver area. Much care has been taken in the last two years to restore an old, vacated, and dilapidated building, right in the heart of Camas, to the thriving commercial and residential building it once was.
It is historically significant because it was built for Glenn Ranck and Charlie Farrell who were prominent residents of Camas and are historical legacies in their own right. Also it was designed and built by, John Roffler, who would become well known for his many building accomplishments in the Camas area. The stone used on the outside became significant as it was called “Roffler Rock.”
When this building was purchased two years ago it had been vacant for many years. It was in the heart of the Camas downtown and lagged behind redevelopment in the historic area. For the last two years a careful restoration has taken place to restore the grandeur of the retail/residential building while updating the building to meet present building codes.
Presently the basement and first floor are home to Camas Antiques—a very successful retail store carrying on the retail tradition of the building. Upstairs all of the apartments have been restored to their original design.
On the second floor all of the apartments use original door hardware with rare the Japan finish. All the internal doors are the original 5 panel doors; only the entrance doors were changed to updated fire safe 5 panel doors. The original ceiling height of 9ft. was maintained. They all have picture frame molding and six inch base molding. The original window placements stayed the same and the casings are the original wood casings. The inserts were updated to Thermal pane windows. All apartments except 204 have the original fir flooring refinished. Most of the walls are the original plaster walls. Only a few walls and ceiling sections were replaced with sheetrock. These were finished to match the plaster. The apartments originally had radiant heat from a basement boiler that was decommissioned in the early 70’s. Now they all have separate heating and air-conditioning units.
The rooms were designed with high quality amenities for the time. They have very rare walk-in closets and all interior rooms have skylights. Following the Arts & Crafts movement of the time, the apartments have many built-in furniture items. These include, foldaway ironing boards, in-wall medicine cabinets, fold-up seats, multi-function Hoosier cabinets, and Murphy “In-a-door” beds. The cabinets are the modular Hoosier cabinets that were very popular in the late twenties that include features like, slide out counter tops, flour bins with sifters, bread boxes, cooling trays, cutting boards and spice racks. The unique Murphy beds patented in 1912 freed floor space during daylight hours by folding into the closet. William Lawrence Murphy designed so it could be completely hidden out of sight transforming the one-room apartments into proper parlors so one could have a female caller.
Charles Farrell is recognized as a pioneer businessman who helped Camas grow from a one-horse village to a modern City.
The community of LaCamas, as it was first known, was just eight years old when Farrell, a man of 22, arrived in 1891.
Charlie Farrell came to the village in 1891 and soon found work at the mill as a beater man in the following spring. He had been looking for steady work and at the mill he found it. The men worked 11 to 13 hours per day, seven days a week, with never a day off.
The mill supplied paper by contract for the Portland Oregonian and was the main employer in the village. It was run entirely on waterpower supplied by LaCamas Lake. When the water level was low in the summer, the grinders had to shut down. Then all of the single men were laid off and only the men with Families to support kept working.
Paydays were uncertain and in the early 1890’s and sometimes the mill was two or three months behind. No one would be paid until all were paid.
In 1903, Farrell decided there was brighter future in merchandising than in papermaking. When a small general store became available for purchase. He took off three weeks from work at the mill to investigate. When he decided it would be a sound investment, he went back to the mill to tell the superintendent he was quitting. “You’ll be sorry,” he was told. The mill owner is going to open a store and you will go broke.” (Little did the superintendent know—the store remained open and success for over a hundred years.)
Three years before Camas became a city, C. E. Farrell bought the original store. It was owned by Glenn Ranck who ran the general store built in 1887. The store was opened one year before Washington achieved statehood. Ranck is credited with naming most of the streets in Camas while he worked as city surveyor. After the purchase, Farrell first called it C. E. Farrell General Merchandise. That was in August 1903. CE Farrell Merchandise was a clothing store, to be sure, but it was also a hardware store, a grocer—and just every other kind of store all rolled into one. It soon became the leading mercantile business in Camas.
They sold groceries as well as clothing and hats early in the century. In the teens and early 20’s there used to be logging camps. Because the camps had cook shacks, men would come into the store with long list of groceries in the morning and say they would be back late in the after noon to pick it up. The clerks would pile the stuff high on the 8-foot long counter. An order you would have to haul away in a wagon would be about $37.
Farrell lived above the store, when in the early teens the mill ditch broke and sent a wall of water of 5 feet deep down Dallas Street and then down Fourth Avenue. It cut though the Farrell store, leaving a fine coating of silt over everything. Anything on the bottom of the counter was severely damaged. Although liability insurance was unheard of in that day, the mill repaid the Farrells for the damage done.
Downtown Cams was bustling shopping area in the area. Residence could get most of what they needed right in town thanks to Farrell and other shopkeepers. Their efforts relieved the need to shop across the river in Portland.
The Farrell building played an important role in the commercial life of Camas, housing the first branch of a nation-wide mercantile company and then the business of the town’s leading local merchant, known for it fashionable merchandise. Farrell went on to become one of the most successful businessmen in Camas and his store was open for over 100 years.