PlacesPages: Rainier #5: Ellis Block

102 A Street West

Ellis Block on September 5, 2005.

This large building was actually built in two parts. The part from the street corner to the entry to the second floor (next to the soda machine) is the oldest part. It was built as the M. Ellis building by contractor W. A. Currie and was completed February 10, 1907. M. Ellis & Company, owned by Michael and Thomas Ellis, dealt in general merchandise.

A Street in the 1920s, showing the Ellis Block on the right.
(Michael Clark collection, used with permission)

The addition to the west was built by the Lee’s Dock Company for Thomas and Eli N. Ellis from August to December 1922. The addition was originally occupied by the Ellis & Doumitt Grocery (owned by Eli Ellis and N.S. Doumitt) in the east section and the C. Nassar meat market in the west section. Doumitt sold his interest in the grocery business to Eli Ellis that same month to move to Birkenfeld. The Nassar meat market space at the west end of the Ellis Block was later occupied by a bakery. In April 1928, the Post Office leased the former bakery space, and the post office was operating there by May.

William Proctor, Margaret Lucker & William Reid in front of the Post Office in the Ellis Block.
(Michael Clark collection, used with permission)

Carl Robert Hallberg purchased the E.N. Ellis Grocery in November 1930, and it was renamed Hallberg Market & Grocery on November 10. Hallberg moved to his own building on the highway in November 1934. The space was later occupied by the J & H Feed Store. M. Ellis & Company occupied the original portion of the building until April 30, 1935, when the store closed and the company moved to Bonneville to operate a new store.

Ellis Block on September 24, 2005.

In October 1937, I. B. Lindeman bought the building from Mrs. George Lewis of Portland. The building was renovated by Ed Haugeberg with a new heating system and four apartments on the second floor. The corner storefront was used by Lindeman as a furniture store. The rest of the first floor remained occupied by the J & H Feed Store and the Post Office at the far west end. The feed store soon vacated to make room for a variety store operated by Lindeman. In April 1943, the furniture store switched places with Lindeman’s dry goods store on the other side of A street, putting the dry goods store with the variety store in the Ellis Building. The stores switched back on August 11, 1945, with Lewis K. Wallin (Lindeman’s son-in-law) taking over the furniture and variety stores. On January 1, 1948, the Post Office moved next door to a wooden building that I. B. Lindeman had recently purchased from Hallberg.

Ellis Block on July 13, 2008.

Lewis Wallin died on November 5, 1950 and his widow Dorothy, Lindeman’s daughter, took over the stores. During the summer of 1955, the building was remodeled with the stores switching places, putting the variety store in the corner and the furniture store in the west side. Gene Carpenter did the carpentry and cabinetry work. In late 1955, the building and furniture store were sold to brothers Joe and Bernard Oliva. The Wallin Variety store remained, with a 10-year lease on the space.

Ellis Block on February 25, 2011.

Eventually the building along with the Variety Store and Furniture Store were all owned by Joedy and Joyce Oliva, and that is how most remember it. After the closure of the variety and furniture stores, Rainier True Value Hardware moved into the building in the summer of 2002, after rebuilding the storefronts and opening up the first floor between the two "buildings." The original hardwood floors remain though.

Below are some pictures from a 1999 car show in Rainier. In the background the old storefronts of the Ellis Block can be seen.

1970 Ford Thunderbird in front of the Ellis Block in 1999.