Exhibits

Featured Exhibit

Destination Seaside - Traveling to Seaside: 1850s - 1950s

Black and White Illustration, Orizaba Ship
Black and white photo, train depot early 1900s

Coming to Seaside in the 19th and early 20th centuries was very different from jumping in your car, setting your GPS and making an easy drive down the Sunset Highway to the coast.

Back in the 1850s it would have been by canoe or small boat down the Columbia River or a multi day trip through the mountains on horseback or wagon. But visitors came, at first for the excellent hunting and fishing, and later to escape the heat of the cities.

 Steamships down the Columbia, the train, ships from San Francisco and improved highways made the trip easier over the years. The Destination Seaside exhibit shares those stories of how visitors came to Seaside; the 111 curves between Seaside and Cannon Beach, the 5 hour train ride and the many switchbacks on the early Columbia River Highway. Stopping at roadside cafes like Staley’s, Oney’s, Elderberry Inn, and the Dew Drop Inn were highlights of the trip for many families. Photos and stories of those travelers of 100+ years ago will make you appreciate the quick way you travelled to the coast and to understand what tourists went through to arrive at Oregon’s First Beach Resort, Seaside.

Black and white photo, Arch Cape Tunnel early 1900s

Currently on display

  • Black and white photo of men in swimsuits

    Natatoriums and More

    The Turnaround Building (1944 - 1967)

    The Natatorium (salt water swimming pool) was purchased by brothers Les and Vern Raw in 1944 for $52,000. It was the place to “Swim, Skate, and Play” with arcades, candy stores, a bicycle shop, taverns, restaurants, and other shops.

    The Turnaround Building was located where the Wyndham now stands.

  • Black and white aerial image of Seaside's prom and turnaround

    Prom Centennial

    In August of 2021, Seaside celebrated the 100th anniversary of the promenade. Seaside is the only coastal city on the west coast with such a structure.

  • colored image of the Seaside Signal exhibit

    Seaside Signal

    This particular Lynotype machine was purchased from the Vancouver Columbian and installed by the Seaside Signal in May of 1953. This machine was used to set the larger sizes of type for headlines and ads. The Signal also had a smaller Intertype brand machine that worked in the same fashion and was mostly used for setting type for columns.

  • Colored photo, man's hand holding sea salt

    Salt Makers

    On December, 28th, 1805, Captain Clark sent five men from the Corps of Discovery to the ocean in search of a suitable place to make salt from sea water. Salt was important not just for flavoring food, but also for preserving meat in preparation for the next leg of their journey.

  • Black and white photo, old truck hauling giant log down broadway

    Logging

    Logging operations continued year-round except for a week over the 4th of July and a week at Christmas.

    Some logging camps had their own schools. Spruce Run Camp near Elsie employed three different teachers during the years it was in use.

  • Colored photo of diorama, miniature building

    ... and More!

    Other exhibits include:

    Seaside in 1899 Diorama

    Working in Seaside

    Seaside Schools

    Seaside Fire of 1912

    Archaeological Digs in Seaside