In 1952, the city established the Mayor’s Commission on Open Housing. A diverse membership worked diligently to ensure that housing was available to everyone without discrimination. As part of the national highway system, Interstate 5 opened in Vancouver on March 31, 1955, when Governor Arthur Langlie (1900-1966) cut the ribbon. Highway 5 closed Vancouver’s 5th Street, which had been a major arterial and the only road across the military reservation. It also made downtown impossible to access. The city’s core began to decay, and the rise of shopping malls lured many merchants away from the city center. Residents downtown were relocated to other areas during urban renewal in 1965. The population declined, and the downtown withered.
During the 1960s and 1970s, the Army began getting rid of surplus property on the military reserve. Several government entities have taken over the reserve north of the parade grounds, including Clark County, Clark College, the Washington State Department of Transportation, and the Vancouver School District. Planners for those agencies published an ambitious plan called “A Park For the People.”. The plan assured the public that the green expanse of the former military reservation would be used for the public’s benefit without sacrificing its beauty. Officer’s Row was transferred to the city in 1987, and in 2008, the West Barracks, including the hospital and the 1917 Red Cross Building, was also transferred.
Here are some historical photos that show Vancouver, WA in the 1950s and 1960s.
#1 U.S. Post Office-Vancouver, 1950
#2 Clark County Historical Museum, 1964
#3 A Great Northern engine 261 heading southbound on railroad tracks in Vancouver, 1952.
#4 Docks, Vancouver, 1950
#5 St. Joseph Hospital-Vancouver, 1954
#6 Aerial Vancouver, 1950
#7 State School for the Deaf, Vancouver, 1950
#8 Aluminum Co. of America, Vancouver, 1950
#9 J.D. Ross Substation, Clark County, 1950
#10 The westbound Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway train at Vancouver, 1951.
#11 An SP&S diesel shop at a railroad yard with train tracks leading to the shop and a building to the right side of the shop in Vancouver, 1952
#12 Armed Forces Parade, 1950
#13 Bags of beer ingredients sit on crates at the Lucky Lager Brewery in Vancouver, 1953
#14 Base of Columbia Street in Vancouver, 1952
#15 Boxes of Lucky Lager beer sit next to a production line at the Lucky Lager Brewery in Vancouver, 1953
#16 Between 6th Street and 7th Street on Broadway looking south, 1952
#17 Broadway Seat Covers, located at Broadway & 15th (1411 Broadway), Vancouver, 1956
#18 A line of military vehicles move down the street during the Cenaqua Parade on August 6, 1950 in Vancouver, Washington.
#19 Children play in a wading pool outside a building. V.H.A, 1950s
#20 Children play around a pool’s edges, 1950s
Two adults supervise eight young boys as they play around the edge of a pool inside a park. Two more boys stand by themselves at the top of a set of stairs at the far end of the park. A brick pathway surrounds the pool while hedges border the path and lead up to hills of trees.
