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McNary Dam Newsletter, “The Sage Hen,” description of McNary Townsite and the process of barging wartime housing to the new community  Past Horizons |
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| Where the wind formerly lashed the sage brush with a whip of sand, three miles east of Umatilla, a river-shipped, neat & freshly painted housing project today breaks the brunt of springs’ howling northeasters. Today a new name was added to the annals, the name of its newest community, McNARY.
Guy Rhymens, warehouseman for the Corps of Engineers and his family of four were first of three families to occupy a dwelling in this McNary damsite town. Given number 222 on Lewis street, the Rhymes’ and housing administrator, Robert W. Shick, were the only participants in the quiet ceremony which officially initiated the occupancy program. “It’s just grand,” the tall, grayed and bespectacled wife of Rhymes repeated over and over as she and her two young grandchildren visited each room of their new modern two-bedroom duplex. Equipped with an apartment size range, 61/2 cubic foot refrigerator, wall-type space heaters in every room – a flick of a switch turned the electrically operated appliances in motion and in a matter of minutes, brought the “home-sweet home” atmosphere into the Rhymes residence. Miladay’s lawn newly seeded and aided by the recent heavy rains which firmly packed the sandy loam, showed little buds of clover pushing their heads skyward to the searching Rhymes’ grandchildren Second family to occupy one of the 29 duplex units on “Moving-in-day” at McNary this 18th day of May, 1948, was maintenance carpenter Ralph Dillon and his family of three. Given number 228 Lewis street, which was called “cute” by the pert and nappy Mrs. Dillon who lovingly caressed the gleaming interiors of her new dwelling, said, “it’s heaven after those months spent in a two room cabin.” The furnished contents of 228 were the same as 222 and the remaining 26 two-bedroom and three bedroom duplex units. A range, refrigerator, wall heater and breakfast nook were the entire furnishings throughout, giving no chance for neighbor jealousy to rear as to whom had gotten the cream of the housing crop. Housing administrator Shick said key personnel would be housed at present and would also retain first priority in securing future housing at McNary. Approximately 750 persons will be housed in the present dwellings, with space available for 300 trailer homes, which could boost the eventual total for this damsite community over the 1700 mark, placing it among the top leaders of the surrounding towns. Once again, the amount of the congressional appropriation will play an important factor in the amount of construction for the fiscal year 1948-49. Streets throughout McNary have been name for tributaries of the Columbia River. Main |
housing center, which consists of 12 two bedroom single units 26 x 24, 12 three bedroom single units, lies between colorfully named Walla Walla, Wenatchee and Lewis streets, which is approximately one-half miles east of the Hermiston junction on the new McNary highway. The unique process of moving the present homes at McNary from Vancouver, Wash. housing projects was completed within the 150 day contract limits and without a single mishap.
Lashed three to a barge, load after load was sent upstream, unloaded at a Umatilla dock, whisked by special truck and trailers to their resting place at McNary. The special trailer hauling the dwellings at Vancouver and Umatilla was aided by a series of vibrant knee action devices and sixteen 5 x 5.16 ply tires, each holding up under 65 pounds of pressure and taking the jar out of the tedious process of moving. With the barge firmly lashed, operation one for unloading was begun to two skilled workmen who quickly removed the wooden block foundations on the last barge load of single housing units on May 6. Large jacks were employed by the two man crew to raise the units from their sea going foundations to allow the special five ton truck and trailers to back onto the barge. Within forty-five minutes the first of the final homes to be unloaded was slowly trucked from the barge to McNary , four miles distant, without the aid of a single lashing on the dwelling during the hauling process. At McNary, workmen were busily preparing the pedestal-type foundations, eight in all for each unit, which were six inches square, for the unit now enroute. Painters, carpenters and general laborers were thick as fleas and busier than bees, readying the single units at Walla Walla and Wenatchee sts. as the last of the river-shipped dwellings was settled into place on May 7. Purchased from the federal housing administration by the Corps of Engineers the majority of the family units came from Ogden Meadows and McLoughlin Heights, two of Vancouver’s major war housing centers. The homes were shipped intact, with milady’s porch inside the buildings, minus electrical furnishings which . . . [the] rapidity with which the transformation from the barge to a freshly painted, newly-insulated, modern dwelling is a credit to modern day assembly line methods used by the various contractors in speeding up the readiness of the units for home-hungry Corps personnel. McNary could double its size overnight, its growth tomorrow and for the future, all hinged on the size of the congressional appropriation which will be the measuring yardstick to be used by the Corps of Engineers for the amount of increased construction for the fiscal 1948-49. . . |
