Robert A. Long
In 1850, a man named Robert Alexander Long was born on a farm in Kentucky. In 1875, at the age of 25, Long opened a lumber yard in Columbus, Kansas. By 1904, over 4,000 employees worked for his Long-Bell Lumber Company. As Chairman of the Board, Long directed the company's expansion into the west.
In 1919 and 1920, the Long-Bell Lumber Company purchased timber holdings in southwest Washington from Weyerhaeuser. In order to harvest this land, Long-Bell needed to build a new lumber mill in the area. In 1921, the decision was made to build a new mill on the Columbia River, near the point where the Cowlitz River emptied into it. Long-Bell acquired 14,000 acres of land, enough to build not only the world's largest lumber mill, but also a city large enough to support all of its employees. The city would be laid out in a classic European pattern, with boulevards stretching from a Civic Center. This design is similar to that of the cities of Paris and Rome. Longview was designed for an ultimate population of 50,000 people.
In May of 1922, a meeting was held at Long's estate, Longview Farm in Missouri, to plan the new city. Most importantly, a name for the city had to be selected. All of the suggested names included the word Long. Some of the suggestions were Long-Bell and Long Port. In the end, the name selected was the name of the very estate at which the meeting was held: Longview. There was only one problem; a small town called Long View already existed on the east side of Washington state, in Benton County, on the Columbia River across from Umatilla, Oregon. The Long-Bell Lumber Company contacted the people of the town to ask what they would like in exchange for changing their town's name. They agreed to change the town's name in exchange for $25 to build a shelter to keep mail bags dry after being dropped off from passing trains. The post office in the new city officially began going by the name Longview, Washington in January of 1923. Long-Bell's Chief Engineer Wesley Vandercook was the first postmaster.
This street scene from 1923 shows early construction along Commerce Avenue looking north from Hudson Street. The Columbia River Mercantile Building is in the background. Across from it is the Colonial Building, which served as Longview's first post office. In the foreground are the Title Building on the left and the Mt. Hood Building on the right.
The city of Longview was dedicated on July 12, 1923, and was incorporated on February 9, 1924. Long-Bell's new lumber mill, at the time the largest in the world, opened at 10:30 AM on July 31, 1924. The mill was capable of producing 1,000,000 board feet of lumber every day. The mill was located on the Columbia River, between where the Weyerhaeuser mill and Longview Fibre stand today, and just east of where the Longview Bridge (now Lewis & Clark Bridge) would be built.
Aerial photograph of the Long-Bell Lumber Mill, with early Longview, Kelso and the Cowlitz River in the background.
Historical Photos:
Long-Bell Lumber Mill as it looked in 1924 (UW Library)
Long-Bell Sawmill (R.A. Long Historical Society)
Long-Bell Lumber Mills (R.A. Long Historical Society)
Port, Dock & Long-Bell Mill (R.A. Long Historical Society)
Partial View of Long-Bell Plants (R.A. Long Historical Society)
Aerial View of Long-Bell Mill (R.A. Long Historical Society)
In addition to R. A. Long himself, there were many people directly involved in the creation of Longview. Many of them would have streets or buildings in the city named after them. Some of these people included:
John D. Tennant: Long-Bell's 1st Vice President
Samuel Mark Morris: Long-Bell's 3rd Vice President
Wesley Vandercook: Long-Bell's Chief Engineer
Jesse Clyde Nichols: A City Planner from St. Louis who led the design of the city
George E. Kessler: A City Planner who worked under Nichols designing the city
S. Herbert Hare: Another City Planner who worked with Nichols and Kessler
A. Norman Torbitt: Architect who designed many of Longview's first buildings, including the Public Library and the Longview, Portland & Northern Railway Station.
This photograph shows the men who led the development of the Long-Bell Lumber Company's lumber mill in Longview and the new city alongside it. From left to right, they are W. F. Ryder, for whom the city of Ryderwood, Washington was named, Chief Engineer Wesley Vandercook, Vice President John D. Tennant, Vice President Samuel Mark Morris, Company Traffic Manager R. S. Davis and Founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors Robert A. Long.
 |  |  |
| J. C. Nichols | George E. Kessler | S. Hebert Hare |
By 1930, most of the city was complete, at a cost of $50,000,000. Robert A. Long died in 1934, at the age of 84. International Paper bought out the Long-Bell Lumber Company in 1956. The main Long-Bell mill was shut down in 1960. The Cabinet Division and most other remaining workers were laid off in 1979. International Paper began demolishing the Long-Bell lumber sheds in the 1980s. The last of these sheds were demolished in 1996. Some of the large timbers from these sheds were used in the construction of Microsoft founder Bill Gates' home on Lake Washington. Long-Bell's old 21,000 square foot mill office building, known as the White House and built in 1937, was sold to the Port of Longview in 1998. The port leased it to Longview Fibre in 2004 for administrative use.
Now, lets take a look at R. A. Long's planned city, as it looks today.
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