Past Times And The Future
The City of Hoquiam and its very proud and well-mannered residents have always valued their past and the memories of those who came before them. No where else is this value for heritage and history present than in the Polson museum of Hoquiam, Washington, this museum was the home of the Polson family until 1976 when it was graciously donated to the city by Mrs. Polson who was widowed in 1968. Since then Polson Museum has kept alive and well the timeless treasures of Grays Harbor and the people of Hoquiam.
The owner or the beautiful mansion was the late Arnold Polson, who got all of the six thousand five hundred square foot property as a very generous wedding gift from his bachelor uncle Robert Polson. The opulent home was erected in 1924 and was only eclipsed in magnificence by Arnold’s childhood home that once in the past stood right beside his own house.
When the Polson mansion was donated to the city it took all of thirty three years of hard work and fundraising to complete the refurbishment and reconstruction needed to bring back the wonderful house to its original opulence. To give visitors a sense of how magnificent it was when it was a private home, pictures of circa 1941 scenes depicting each of the mansions rooms with all its stately decor and furnishings are displayed in each of the very same rooms are displayed.
The Polson museum also houses thousand of pictures and documents that record everyday life in Hoquiam and Grays Harbor in all different eras and periods. These priceless photographs give visitors a sense of time travel to Hoquiam’s vivid past, inadvertently sharing the lives and atmosphere of what was once Hoquiam’s city and harbor life with its people seemingly living on in infinite stillness.
Polson museum uses seventeen rooms to display its exhibits out of the twenty six rooms that the museum occupies. These rooms are used to display countless artifacts, documents, and photographs of the rich and colorful history of the Polson family and the community they belonged to. Among the displays are the Little Hoquiam Railroad in the logging room, historical exhibits inside the sports room, children’s room, a period costume room, and the stairway gallery. A favorite among children is the Polson’s daughters’ childhood doll house.
There is also the museum dining room where native artifacts are displayed, in the other rooms there is an extensive and valuable China exhibit , the Polson family exhibit and a remodeled 1920′s kitchen.
One of the main attractions of the Polson Museum in the near future is the $750,000 dollar Railroad Camp building that measures 80 by 40 feet and is hoped to give visitors a genuine feel of how logging back in the good ole days must have been. The building is intended to house the extensive and very interesting heavy- machinery collection of the museum.
The Railroad Camp building will also have on display a machine that is direct from Hoquiam’s logging and railroad past, a 65 ton Tacoma Steam Donkey that will sit atop a railroad flatcar with a speed track. There will also be pictures of early logging and railroad life giving tourist an emotional as well as genuine experience.
Understand additionally about Wade Entezar.