When was longview wa founded

According to the United States Census Bureau , the city has a total area of It is the only bridge spanning the river between Portland and Astoria, Oregon. Longview is in a small gorge, so its climate varies from its close neighbor, Portland.

Located about 80 miles km inland across a stretch of relatively flat ground, the Longview skies can be overcast due to moisture from the Pacific Coast marine layer.

The Columbia River gorge permits an exchange of air between eastern and western Washington. The direction and speed of air movement through the gorge is determined primarily by the pressure gradient between the eastern and western slopes of the mountains. Fall is usually cooler but foggy; on some days the fog never clears.

By early-to-mid November, rainfall begins in typical Northwest fashion. This is due to extremely warm air coming from the Pineapple Express which can drop 3 to 6 inches 76 to mm of rain in a matter of days. Each year there are one or two snowfalls, typically less than 6 inches 15 cm but up to 1 metre 3 ft in the surrounding foothills.

Spring is warmer, but still a little wet; this is the most common time for the occasional thunderstorms. As of the census of , there were 36, people, 15, households, and 9, families residing in the city. The population density was 2, There were 16, housing units at an average density of 1, The racial makeup of the city was Hispanic or Latino of any race were 9.

There were 15, households of which The average household size was 2. The median age in the city was Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Small Quantity Generators. Transfer Station. Stormwater Division. Rural Stormwater - Chapter Urban Stormwater - Chapter Stormwater Program. Stormwater Reports. Reference Materials. Right-of-Way Research. Assessor's Property Info.

Jury Duty. The city's origins can be traced back to decisions made in a Kansas City, Missouri, boardroom in Morris, among others. By the southern timber holdings of Long-Bell lumber were nearly depleted. In the days before tree farming, logging operations clear-cut all the timber in a given area and then moved on. The board of directors had to decide whether to liquidate the company's sizeable logging operation and concentrate on their line of hardware stores and commercial lumber yards or to look elsewhere for another source of timber.

No one present that day could have imagined that just six years into the future Long-Bell would be responsible for the incorporation of a fully modern city. The decision was made to stay in the timber business. Originally, Long-Bell planned to build only one mill at the site which was to become Longview, and had no intention of ever building a city.

In those days, it was common to build a mill and then let a mill town spring up pell-mell around it. Living conditions for loggers and mill workers alike were usually abysmal and little thought was given to their comfort or to that of their dependents.

As Long-Bell planned to build first one, then two mills at the sight, it became apparent that upwards of 14, workers would be needed at the site. The nearest center of population, Kelso, had less than 2, residents, and it was obvious to even the casual observer that a fraction of the new workers would inundate the existing town's infrastructure.

The result was a highly detailed contour map that filled an entire room. This map could be used by the loggers to plan their cuttings, the location of railroad grades, and even the spar trees to be used in hauling timber up inclines before any operations were begun. Four months later Long-Bell Lumber Company started production in what was declared to be the largest lumber mill in the world.

By , Longview's population had grown to approximately 10, residents, far short of the 30, people the Long-Bell Company expected and the 50, residents the community was planned for. Today, manufacturing wood and paper products is still the city's main industry, employing more than 3, workers.

According to the U. Census Bureau, in the city of Longview, the largest in Cowlitz County, had an estimated population of 35, Robert Alexander Long, one of nine children, was born on December 17, , in Shelbyville, Kentucky. His parents, Samuel and Margaret Long, owned and operated a profitable acre farm there. Robert achieved a high school education and was blessed with a photographic memory, a strong asset for entering the business world.

After a brief, unsuccessful venture running a butcher shop, he went to Columbus, Kansas, where he, along with his cousins, Victor Bell and Robert White, started a lumberyard, which eventually became the hugely successful Long-Bell Lumber Company, incorporated in Over the ensuing years, Long-Bell acquired hundreds of thousands of acres of timberland throughout Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, Michigan, and Wisconsin and established or purchased numerous regional mills, lumber yards, and warehouses to manufacture, sell, and store its wood products.

The classic story beaux arts-style building now the United Missouri Bank Building was the first tall building in Kansas City constructed with an all steel-skeleton frame. By the end of World War I , Long-Bell's holdings were nearly depleted and good timber in the South was becoming scarce. Rather than quit the timber business, the company purchased huge tracts of old-growth forest in northern California, southern Oregon, and southwest Washington.

After acquiring the rights from the Weyerhaeuser Timber Company to log 70, acres of timber in Cowlitz and Lewis counties, Long-Bell executives began searching for a mill site with access to rail and water transportation. The main contenders were Portland and Astoria, Oregon, and a sizable expanse of the flat, swampy farmland at the confluence of the Cowlitz and Columbia rivers, which had once in the s been the small community of Monticello.

In early , Long decided on the Cowlitz River location, with rail access in nearby Kelso, deep water access on the Columbia River, and close to their source of timber. A large, successful milling operation, however, would employ thousands of workers who would have no place to live.

Kelso, a small town of fewer than 2, residents, would be unable to provide the housing, goods, and services necessary to sustain the burgeoning community and permitting a squalid town to spontaneously develop around the new mill was unthinkable.

When Long-Bell applied for a post office, the U. Post Office there. The river delta had a high water table and was prone to periodic flooding, so required the protection of a dike to be suitable for building purposes. In , Long hired Jesse C. Nichols, a successful real-estate developer, George B.

Kessler, a renowned landscape architect, and Sidney Herbert Hare, a city planner from Kansas City, to offer advice and draft plans for the new community. The layout was classic European, with boulevards with esplanades and wide streets, designed for motor vehicles, radiating from a landscaped, six-acre civic center. There would be buses, rather than streetcars, for public transport, bypasses around the city for commercial traffic, and beautiful public parks.

In order to control land use, Longview would use zoning and establish distinct industrial and commercial districts and residential neighborhoods, separated by open land. Rather than a company town, they designed a large-scale city with enough space for a population of 50, In addition to attracting high-caliber workers and their families, Longview would generate money for Long-Bell as a real-estate development. In August , after the various sites had been platted, Long-Bell began the arduous process of grading and paving the streets, installing utilities, and building houses.

Long Park. The hotel, which opened for business on July 23, , was the centerpiece around which Longview was to grow and the gathering place for important events. Once the streets had been graded and paved, developers turned their attention to the principal retail district located mainly on Commerce Avenue, south of Broadway. Several other carefully designed two-story buildings followed, providing retail space on the street level and office space or apartments above.