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Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlours was an iconic restaurant chain that originated in Portland, Oregon. Originally opened by Bob Farrell and Ken McCarthy in 1963, the family-friendly chain would become known for classic ice cream sundaes and birthday party celebrations. The restaurants were designed using a turn-of-the-20th-century theme with a marble-topped soda fountain, Tiffany lamps, and waiters dressed in colorful vests and skimmer hats. While continuing to open new stores in Portland, Farrell and McCarthy developed a franchise program to expand Farrell’s into other cities in Oregon, Washington, and Northern California.

Patrick J. Baker worked at Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlours in Greendale, Wisconsin, from 1981 to 1985 and later became an investor in Farrell’s when the chain was revived from 2003 to 2019. Taken from numerous personal interviews and correspondence with Bob Farrell and Ken McCarthy, Baker shares the history of the chain up to the 1972 sale to the Marriott Corporation. This book uses photographs from the author’s extensive collection of images of the Farrell’s in Oregon, which were commissioned by Farrell and McCarthy in the 1960s.

Discover through historic photographs how a little theater that traveled from pillar to post with costumes, props, and flats became the Lakewood Theatre Company at Lakewood Center for the Arts.

In 1952, a small group gathered at the home of Dorothy Peetz in Lake Oswego, Oregon, and thought it would be fun for the community to have a little theater. They began to organize what was then known as the Oswego Players. Today, the nonprofit theater attracts 40,000 patrons annually. Lakewood Center for the Arts, home of the city's annual Festival of the Arts, coordinates a large multi-exhibit arts education event to inspire and awe 25,000 visitors every year. Generations of people have made the Lakewood Center for the Arts a part of their daily lives through volunteerism or by attending classes, everything from ancestry to Zumba. Young actors that performed on Lakewood Theatre Company's stage later returned to direct their own productions.

Jen Avila-Langford created visual presentations for the Lakewood Theatre Company. In an attempt to make the workshops more engaging, she delved into Lakewood's archives and local history. Photographs, never before published, of the theater founders, the original playwrights, and the classics are brought to light from 70 years of archives.

The Odd Fellows of North Portland were ordinary blue-collar workers who were able to have an extraordinary impact on their community through the tools they learned from organizing as a lodge. Lodges were a safety net for these workers, as they were one of the only sources at that time for insurance and sick pay. William Killingsworth, a charter member of Peninsula Lodge and whom Killingsworth Street is named after, believed this to be true, so he formed an investment company that began connecting the other North Portland communities via rails. As these communities were connected, Odd Fellows lodges sprang up. First was Peninsula Lodge No. 128. Then there were Woodlawn, Laurel Lodge, and Kenton Lodge, which later became Star Lodge, a lodge for police officers. Over the years, other lodges formed as well. Now, they have all closed except for Peninsula, which thrives because it was able to adapt to a modern approach for operating a lodge. 

Author David D. Scheer is a fifth-generation Odd Fellow and has been involved in the fraternity for 43 years. Bruce Haney is the author of two other Oregon history books. Many of the photographs come from the archives of the Museum of Odd History as well as the St. Johns Heritage Association and the Odd Fellows Grand Lodge of Oregon.

Oregon City’s storied past remains embedded in its architecture, where impressions of earlier generations linger beneath bricks and plaster. These structures narrate the city’s growth and are concrete reminders of those who labored in its transition.

Anchored between historical and modern lenses, writer Johna Sans Heintz and photographer Jo Lynn Dow have combined their academic backgrounds in history and education to present time-capsuled snapshots of Oregon City. Their street scenes and anecdotes humanize those whose legacies are interwoven into the city’s fabric. 

Settled in 1868, Prineville was the first community in Central Oregon.  Primarily focused on the livestock industry, the area experienced a period of vigilante action in the 1880s and sheep-and-cattle wars just after the turn of the 20th century. Prineville remained the predominant community in the region until about 1915, when major railroads arrived and passed over it. This book showcases key images of Prineville, beginning with its first-known photograph in 1881 up until the early 2000s. /Steve Lent has authored several books on local history and provides historical perspectives to both the past and present photographs.

Located along the west bank of the Willamette River at the falls in Oregon, the West Linn area offers a vibrant and interesting array of geological history, including ice age floods and the Willamette Meteorite. It is a significant historic site for Native Americans because of fishing and trading at the falls, and it was a settling place for early pioneers at the end of the Oregon Trail. It was known as an important hub of the paper and electric production industry.

The West Linn Historical Society has been sharing “History Without Walls” since 2014.