Q – What were some typical Christmas gifts in Montavilla in the early 1900s?
A – With Christmas and Hanukkah just around the corner, the spirit of generosity is in the air, just as it was a hundred or more years ago in Montavilla. But where to find just the right item for the friends and relatives on your gift list? Luckily, Montavilla merchants ran ads in local newspapers with a myriad of suggestions.
In 1906, a shopper could head to Dan McMillan’s dry goods store on SE Stark Street (then Base Line Road) and find a variety of inexpensive gifts for all ages: toys and games for the tots, handkerchiefs, fancy collars, purses, and stationery for the ladies, hats, shirts, ties and suspenders for the gents, and fancy holiday candies and nuts for anyone, just to name a few.
Stark Street was not the only place to shop for gifts. Merchants on NE Glisan Street also advertised a variety of suggestions. Grocery store owner Frank Sperger, of course, stocked food and confectionaries for holiday meals, but in the 1906 ad below, he boldfaced a Perfection Oil Heater as a useful present. Did this new store owner get a deal on heaters?
In the 1920s, Montavilla merchants advertised a wide array of gift suggestions, from the luxurious to the practical, from high prices to low. They were also recommending products of modern technologies, such as cameras, record players, and radios.
The Dickson drugstore at the corner of Stark and 80th was a Montavilla institution run by members of the Dickson family from 1910 until 2004. In 1920, owner Leland V. Dickson ran a Christmas ad in the Oregon Daily Journal with gift suggestions ranging from perfume to flashlights to Kodak cameras and phonograph records.
For a wide array of inexpensive gifts, Montavilla shoppers could head for Gertrude Hamlin’s Montavilla Variety Store on Glisan Street near 80th. Toys, for example, cost only 5 to 98 cents.
In 1926, Louis H. Balsiger, owner of the Jonesmore Pharmacy at Glisan and 71st, ran a short but eclectic list of gift ideas: stationery, toilet sets, candy, and leather goods.
Balsiger ended his gift suggestions with radios, a new technology in the 1920s. Radio broadcasting had only recently arrived in Portland, with radio stations launched by the Oregonian and the Oregon Journal in 1922. (Earlier radio broadcasts had been available by telephone.) With broadcast radio, owners could listen to news and entertainment on radio sets in their own homes. In 1927, a store specializing in radios opened in Montavilla. There was no guessing about its merchandise since the store took the form of a 1927 radio.
Telephones, another newish technology, could make a thoughtful gift, according to the Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company in a 1929 ad.
Frederick L. Howard, owner of The Howard Hardware and Paint Company at the corner of 76th and Glisan, thought an Electrical Christmas was perfect. He recommended electrical utensils, which would “save housewives many hours of work.”
The Montavilla Times reported in its December 22, 1927 edition that money was tight at that moment, yet Christmas shopping was greater than ever before. Why? Well, there was more advertising. But was it also because that year, every store featured beautiful lights and decorations?
For those who could afford expensive gifts following the stock-market crash of October 28, 1929, jeweler Gottlieb Brugger stocked “gifts that last.” He had one-of-a-kind items—like the $50 watch a customer bought for her husband. But he also offered inexpensive New Haven Alarm Clocks.
As the U.S. headed into the Depression, newspaper ads more often highlighted inexpensive gifts, like the items in this 1931 Christmas ad by Leland Dickson. He boldfaced mostly low-cost items and listed “popularly priced” items—such as clocks, watches, and purses—in smaller type at the bottom of the ad.
Should a husband not know what to give his wife, Santa—or rather Amy Bauer, owner of Bauer’s Beauty Shop at Glisan and 78th— had the answer: a permanent wave, which was quite the rage at this time.
If a $3.95 permanent was too expensive, how about a three-pound box of hand-dipped chocolates offered at the Granada Sweet Shop on Glisan for only $1.00? Or hosiery from Herman R. Rothenberger’s Stark Street shoe store for 50 cents to $1.00.
Here ends the story of Montavilla merchants’ suggestions for appropriate gifts between 1906 and 1931. The editions of The Montavilla Times available on the Knight Library microfilm end with the December 25, 1931 publication, even though this newspaper continued until 1937. However, this sampling of Montavilla newspapers’ Christmas ads from 1906 until 1931 shows what local merchants thought would appeal to their customers. By the 1920s, products of recent technologies, like radio, telephone, and electrical kitchen appliances, made it into the Christmas gift mix.
This is an installment of Montavilla History Questions Answered. If you have questions about Montavilla’s past that you’d like answered, local historian Patricia Sanders will investigate your question. Please email your questions to history@montavilla.net and we may feature it alongside Patricia Sanders’ research in a future post.
Promotion: Saturday, December 21st is the Merry Montavilla Soiree with many holiday shopping options and events. There is still time to find your holiday gifts in a Montavilla shop, no shipping required.