The modest structure is overshadowed by much larger landmarks on the former U.S. Army post, but its heritage has gone global.
On Monday and Tuesday, a crew was wielding paintbrushes and rollers on the single-story building. It is part of a maintenance project at Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, where a contractor has been hired to paint the exteriors of seven buildings.
Identified as a shoppette, it represents the origins of the U.S. military’s PX, or post exchange system, established in 1880 at Vancouver Barracks. The original PX site is long gone; the current shoppette operates in a building constructed more than a century ago as a quartermaster’s storehouse.
It is one of the buildings acquired by the historic site in 2012 when the U.S. Army transferred the east and south portions of Vancouver Barracks to the National Park Service.
There were some fixer-upper aspects to them, and Fort Vancouver has already renovated several buildings.
In this project, “the majority of the work will be on historic buildings that are known to have lead-based paint,” said Alex Patterson, Fort Vancouver’s facility manager, so lead abatement will be part of the project.
This round of maintenance includes a couple of structures fronting streets that get quite a bit of traffic. The auditorium is along Fort Vancouver Way, just south of the Clark County Veterans War Memorial. It was built in 1905 as a gymnasium.
The Parade Ground bandstand is opposite Officers Row, just off Evergreen Boulevard. The bandstand is scheduled to be repainted in time for the annual Veterans Parade at Fort Vancouver, Patterson said.
The bandstand is the newest structure on the list, built in 1980. And while it’s also the smallest of the seven, Fort Vancouver Superintendent Tracy Fortmann described the bandstand as a “central gathering place for numerous community and special events as well as educational programs throughout the year.”
Other former Army facilities on the to-do list are a 1914 mess hall (just north of the auditorium) and a 1919 storehouse (southeast of the auditorium) that were converted into office space.
The East Barracks structure on the list is cataloged as Building 410, constructed in 1935 as a Civilian Conservation Corps auto repair shop; it is next to the entry to the Vancouver Land Bridge Trail.
The seventh structure is in Oregon City, Ore. — the McLoughlin House, which also is part of Fort Vancouver National Historic Site. It was built in 1846 by John McLoughlin after his tenure as the Hudson’s Bay Company’s chief factor at Fort Vancouver.
Fortmann called it “one of the oldest and most significant homes in the Pacific Northwest.”
The work is being done by Saybr Contractors of Tacoma, which entered a bid of $646,906.22. The work is expected to take about two months, but will depend on the weather.
