Porter's Foods? (Eugene: attorney, home, neighborhoods)

[irv gullick]

I lived in Eugene decades ago. Recently i told someone that i used to brew beer when i lived there in 69 and 70, i was called a liar because home brewing wasn't legal until Jimmy Carter was president.

I seem to remember buying all the ingredients from a specialty food store called Porter's Foods, i think on 11th street in the downtown area. Does anyone remember this store or a store in that area that sold this? I remember buying Anchor Steam beer there too.

Thanks.

[Cliph]

I thought Porters' was on West 8th. Home brewing and wine making has been popular since at least the time I moved here in Sept 1970. There was a kind of live and let live attitude here then. It was the only town I'd seen that was all middle class. There were no "poor" neighborhoods and no "rich" neighborhoods. As Eugene has grown, so have it's problems. There is more traffic congestion, but it only lasts about 20 minutes, unless you're on the Beltline. tes indeed there was a Porters' and Gray's Garden Center was actully owned by the Grays. The Gray brothers were a fixture and loved to play gentle pranks on the customers. There was also an Army Surplus type store owned by Archie Weinstein in the same building as the Heilig Theater. Archie was an attorney from the days when anyone could practice law and later "grandfathered in". The cross on Skinner Butte is finally gone despite court battles and a successful ballot measure that deemed it a "war memorial" and not a religous symbol in spite of it's being shaped exactly like a nominal Christian Cross.

[Steve Pickering]

The cross is not gone. Just moved. I think Wildish paid for it. It is stil lit. Arche was a real hoot. We need more like him.

[Heavensgaterivercottages]

Yes, my grandparents started that gourmet food store on West 11th....and another location too. Grand Dad had a knack of knowing the upcoming trends. As a kid I loved going to Portes Foods. It was the most Facinating Food Store in the NW' the motta was! Grand Dad made exquisite wines too...he taught wine making, in fact some of the Willamette Valley winemakers learned from him! Most of all...it was health foods...way ahead of its time!
The store was later run by my aunt and uncle, very popular for years, but a changing retail market for big stores put it out of business eventually.

But, where it all began was on the McKenzie where my grandparents ran a resort east of Vida( by Nimrod) called The Hawthorne House. Cabins he built on the river are still there, and acreage across the highway where the cow was milked and the pigs tended too. It was very popular in the 1940s to 1950, when another major flood ( no Cougar nor Blue River dams back then)made Grand Dad sell, and move to Eugene.
Ironically, i own a similar 1940's resort cabin a half mile east of the original location of the family It is on the river rapids...I should say..OVER the river...catch trout from the deck!.., and the most beautiful place on earth, most of all...it is the essence of the Porters of Porters Foods, from the McKenzie to Eugene, back to the McKenzie! Glad you remember brewing beer...with a name of Porter...it was a mandatory thing to promote! Love Anchor Steam fyi...but Nikasi is better! But... I sure miss the Bronner's chips from The Store!
Great Memories!

[JulianSwistak]

I have a picture of a picture on my phone of the side wall of Porters Foods, with a young runner fro Western Massachusetts and Steve Prefontaine. I imagine the younger man had made a pilgrammage out to Oregon to meet "Pre"

[oregonwoodsmoke]

I don't know when it became legal to home brew, but the people who made beer and wine at home didn't care whether it was legal or not and the local governments in Oregon simply weren't going to be bothered with anyone who brewed a few gallons for their own use.