Hillsboro Says Farewell To Hometown Boy Earle McClain, Who Loved His Town And Its History

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Editors Note:  I first met Earle a few years ago while I was visiting Jeff and Sandy Nelson at Le’Stuff Antique Mall on Main Street in Hillsboro.  A good friend of the Nelson’s, Earle, had a resale booth in the story where a few of his Hillsboro collectible items are displayed for sale.  It turns out Earle and I are about exactly 20 years apart in age, and both share a distinct affliction- we love Hillsboro History.  My collection has grown a lot in recent years.  But Earle’s is big-time.  He was so kind to share a little bit of it with me and the Hillsboro Historical Society and allowed me to scan about 50 files.  There are many beautiful postcards and some photos that I have not seen.  Earle’s grandfather and dad built homes in Hillsboro, which were very fine homes.  They were also known for the McClain Village and Cedar Mill Park communities in Beaverton.  The Mclain Village Shopping Mall and the family restaurant, The Chuck Wagon, were among the first commercial centers in the suburbs West of Portland.  They were pioneers in their own right.  Earle loved to talk about his Dad and Grandpa and of course, History.  He knew it, too – we had some great talks, and he had a fantastic twinkle in his eye when we banter back and forth.  I think he enjoyed knowing that someone had the history bug like he did and who loved Hillsboro the way he did.  My only regret is that I could never get Earle to set a firm date so I could stop by his home and see his real history collection.  I know I have only seen a fraction. He was a really wonderful guy and he will be missed.

Earle would appreciate me posting this, as it is a window into his family, childhood, and upbringing – Here is an excerpt about McClain Village from another Hillsboro History nut, Tom Rholfs.  Tom spent his childhood in McClain Village- before moving to Hillsboro, just like Earle. This post appeared in the Cedar Mill News in  2018- Courtesy of them and Tom Rholfs- https://cedarmillnews.com/legacy/1018/originsofmarleneandmclain.html

Many of the family names found on the Cedar Mill Donation Land Claims map are familiar: Walker, Cornell, Hall, among others. “Josiah and Mary Hall established a 319-acre claim within the boundaries of what is now Butner, Murray, and Cornell Roads. Their claim included what is now Marlene Village. Village Baptist Church would have bordered their property.”

A man named Fred McLain, a transplant from North Carolina by way of Huntington Beach, California, dreamed of building a community complete with “a shopping center, restaurant, gas station, and a small church in the woods.  After the family moved to Hillsboro in 1938, Fred started a construction company with his son Earle. After having built apartments and other rentals in the Hillsboro area, the Commonwealth Bank granted the McLain Construction Company the right to begin building houses in a new subdivision west of Portland called Cedar Mill Park. The going was extremely tough, there was no electricity in the area, no paved streets, and water had to be brought in to make concrete.5 The builders lacked the essential machinery that would’ve made the construction easier. The project was further hampered by high building costs and the absence of a viable route from Portland out to the subdivisions. To get a perspective on travel times, transporting crops from Hillsboro to Portland would take two days.

Inside the Chuck Wagon Restaurant, early 1950s

Fred encountered many difficulties, not the least of which was financial. “To help from going under, he would work all day and then come back and work into the evening loading excess dirt from the construction site of the Sunset Highway. He would get $10 for each dump truck load of dirt. He would use this dirt for fill in his village.”6 1949 finally saw the completion of Sunset Highway, though due to the lack of an overpass and on and off ramps, the intersection at Murray Road was the sight of many fatal accidents.

You can get anything you want at McLain Village!

Unfortunately, McLain Construction Company ran out of funds and had to abandon the operation. At that point, other investors were jumping into housing projects. One such entrepreneur, a name known to many in the Portland metro area, was Harry Mittleman. Already an established real estate developer and building contractor, Harry saw an opportunity to build his “dream” village on the east side of Murray Road. Tom Rohlffs remembers “Bud and Mary Olson bought the model. We bought the second house next door for $8,500. The homes in McLain Village, west of Murray Rd., were on average $10,500. Marlene Village homes had three designs, all at the same price. He named the streets after his children, and the whole neighborhood was named after his granddaughter Marlene Schnitzer. When we were children, Marlene Village would flood over from Cedar Mill Creek, and some Villagers had to take row boats to their homes. Mittleman was sued five times to clean out our creek.”

Fred McLain’s vision of a community was not yet complete. This would prove to be the key to attracting home buyers to the area. Three years after McLain Village was completed, the McLain Shopping Center was built. “It contained a grocery store, drug store, beauty parlor, variety store, barbershop, dental office, clothing store, and upstairs apartments.”7 The restaurant, built in the pioneer style, was named the Chuck Wagon. “It had prairie schooner wagon wheels around the perimeter… and an authentic covered wagon in the parking lot. The restaurant interior was western style with rifles, guns, yokes, and other pioneer materials decorating the walls.”8 In one photo you can see that Fred repurposed old tractor seats to use as stools around the counter. (The building is now the Greek Village.)