Officers' Mess House, Fort Vancouver - May, 1860

This view of the Officers' Mess Hall is so crisp and clear it's easy to forget it was taken almost 150 years ago. (We missed by five months getting back into the 1850s.) From one of the earliest series of Pacific Northwest photos, this view shows the hall had already been in place long enough to support some flowering vines along the front. Note the two cannons (which you can see today at the restoration of the building), and the boards nailed to the roof to provide access to the chimney. -- This photo is restored and printed by Old Oregon.