HUDSON’S WAS A CAFÉ (with iconic curved window) ON McMINNVILLE DOWNTOWN THIRD STREET

HUDSON’S WAS A CAFÉ ON McMINNVILLE DOWNTOWN THIRD STREET.

(Doing research, the café is called Hudson’s Café and Hudson Café.

This posting, for the most part, uses Hudson’s.)

From Hillsboro (and a HilHi 1950 grad) Ad Rutschman entered Linfield College in fall of 1950. He was a Linfield student 1950-1954. In 1954, he earned a Linfield bachelor's degree in physical education. In 1958, he earned a Linfield Master of Education degree.

He went on to coaching success and fame at for both the HilHi Spartans (for whom he starred as an athlete) and the Linfield Wildcats (ditto, for whom he starred as an athlete.)

Did you know that while he was a Linfield student – and an outstanding student-athlete for the Linfield Wildcats in football, basketball and baseball -- he worked in downtown McMinnville at Hudson’s Café?

The café was on Third Street near the Mack Theater. “At noon, I peeled potatoes for my lunch. Then, at 10 o'clock at night, I mopped, waxed and buffed the floor for my dinner,” he told Wildcatville in November 2020 and January 2024.

With an iconic curved front window, Hudson’s exists today at 522 NE 3rd St. as Mes Amies, a McMinnville women’s clothing store/boutique. (See photos.)

Asked if he (Ad Rutschman) or his folks ever had a Hudson (no relation to Hudson's Cafe apparently) automobile? No, he said, they owned a Graham. Read more about Graham automobiles here: https://auto.howstuffworks.com/graham-cars.htm

About Hudson’s Café:

=History of the Rotary Club of McMinnville includes this about changes to the club, 1946-1951: World War II was over and the club was “beginning to change. After years of membership hovering between 30 and 35 members, the club started to grow in the 40s, and expanded in size to around 60 members. The old-timers began dropping out of the club. Club officers and directors were now largely from members joining after 1940. The club meeting room changed (Aug. 8, 1947) from the Chamber of Commerce rooms in the Wright Building, to a new meeting room in Hudson’s Cafe, on Third Street. When the club moved its meeting place to Hudson’s Cafe in 1947, it of course, discontinued the practice of buying the groceries and hiring the cooks to prepare meals for the meeting …”

=According to an issue of the McMinnville N-R/News-Register in about October 1953, a luncheon was held in Hudson's Cafe to honor three former Linfield coaches, Henry Lever, Morris Pettit and Wayne Harn. Pettit related that the college gym was in the building that later became the science hall and then an apartment house known as Newby Hall. He also noted that he had ushered the return of football to Linfield in 1922 after it had been dropped about the turn of the century. A lot of games in the '20s were played against area high school teams, he said.

=An article by Starla Pointer in the McMinnville N-R in 1999 said in the 1950s, McMinnville Kiwanis Club had about 100 members - more than twice as many as today. The club met in Hudson's Cafe, then moved to the Palm Cafe, the Westward Ho, the Bayou Golf Club, the top of the 1893 building and Michelbook Country Club before settling in its current location, the McMinnville Community Center. Paul Durham, Linfield College football coach, was the president when Alan Jones became a member in 1953. Durham was one of several Linfield professors in the club then. Business owners frequently joined the club, as did men in all lines of work. Jones was employed by McMinnville Water & Light, later becoming manager of the utility.

=In the Aug 14, 1948, Salem Capital Journal it was reported American Association of University Women was to hold a state board meeting Aug 21 in McMinnville. The meeting was to assemble in the students' lounge of Pioneer Hall on the Linfield College campus, at 9:30 o'clock In the morning. Later a luncheon would be held at Hudson's.

=There will be a formal recognition of Armistice Day on Sunday, Nov. 11. At 8 a.m. on Sunday morning there will be a veterans' breakfast at Hudson's cafe, as announced by Don Jones, commander of the local American Legion post and William Butler, commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, according to the Nov. 5, 1951, Salem Capital Journal.

= ‘Linfield College Fund Raising Under Way’ said a headline in the Feb. 20, 1948, Salem Oregon Statesman. In McMinnville’s Hudson café on Feb. 18 evening was site of campaign to raise $250,000 for Linfield college development.

=According to ‘Pasero Says’ sports column in the Sept. 25, 1958, Portland Oregon Journal: Linfield Boosters to Honor Durham “… How time flies … Proud Linfield boosters Saturday will honor Coach Paul Durham, who is starting his 11^th year as Wildcat boss … Durham, in the post war years, coached at Franklin before being lured back to his alma mater where he’s been highly successful. Marv Flitcroft, former Linfield athlete and now coach at Dayton, is in charge of a reception for Durham at Hudson’s café in McMinnville at 4:30 pm Saturday.”

=A story in the Portland Oregon Journal of Dec 12, 1957, says a Dec. 16 meeting of the Yamhill County Association of Insurance Agents will be held in the Dawn Room of Hudson’s Café.

………….

Photos posted here include one found by McMinnville historian Ruben Contreras, Jr., in the Salem Public Library “Oregon Historic Photograph Collections.” (There’s a cropped version of the photo, too.) Taken in 1952, the photo shows Salem Cherrians – a Salem booster group similar to the Portland Royal Roasarians -- posing on McMinnville’s Third Street in 1951 in front of Hudson’s Cafe. On the right hand side, look at the window. You see signage for “Hudson Café.” The Cherrians were in McMinnville to march in the parade launching 1952 McMinnville Shodeo, a horse show and rodeo held from 1943 to 1962. Other photos by Mac News.

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'Mac News' photos and video clips below from August 2023. 

All except one photo taken Aug. 24, 2023.

 

 

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Advertisement below from the 1956 Polk City Directory

 

Linfielder KEN ROGERS, Class of 1951

 

=KENNETH DEAN ROGERS

Ken earned B.S. in education degree from Linfield College in 1951 and a M.Ed. (Master of Education) degree from Linfield in 1953.

Teacher, Scout leader, friend

By Starla Pointer, McMinnville N-R/News-Register May 13, 2014

(Photo taken in 2012 by Wildcatville.)

When a couple of past Man of the Year winners visited Ken Rogers’ house to tell him he’s this year’s recipient of a Distinguished Service Award, he told them they were mistaken. “You must have the wrong house,” the longtime educator said.

Although they convinced him he actually had been named McMinnville’s 59th Man of the Year, he still thinks he doesn’t deserve the honor, at least not all on his own. Anyone who is in a position to affect others’ lives also has been influenced and helped by others, he said.

In his case, he said, many people deserve a share of the honor. Fellow Boy Scout leaders, other educators and especially his family: His late wife, Anita, and his children, Gordon, Gail and Gregg, kept things together at home while he spent many hours and took overnight trips with the Boy Scouts.

“They deserve credit,” he said of his family members. “They didn’t ever complain.”

His family, by the way, includes two previous Distinguished Service Award winners. Anita Rogers was the 1990 Woman of the Year. Gregg Rogers was the Jaycee of the Year during one of the years when the McMinnville Jaycees ran the DSA awards.

A native of Idaho, Rogers has lived in McMinnville since 1948. He served with the Army Air Corps/Air Force as part of the occupation forces in Japan, and then started school at Linfield College.

He earned his education degree in three years, even though he was busy with many activities besides school: working to support his wife and new baby; participating in the Delta Psi Delta fraternity; playing football for the Wildcats until he injured his knee.

He also coached and helped teach health classes at St. James School during his college years. St. James served grades K through 8 at the time, and he coached teams that competed with other small schools from around the county.

Later, he would coach Little League baseball and serve as president of the then-new Babe Ruth group. He taught hunter safety classes, as well.

After he graduated from Linfield, McMinnville School Superintendent Fred Patton hired him to teach and coach at Cook Elementary School. He went on to the junior high, then to McMinnville High School in 1956. He coached wrestling, football, basketball and baseball over the years, and taught with P.E., health, social studies and English.

His name often led to teasing. Students would ask him about “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood,” or, upon finding out his first name, ask him to sing “The Gambler,” “Lucille” or other Kenny Rogers’ songs.

“I’m not musical,” he said. “I played harmonica, and I whistle, but that’s it.”

The last 20 years of his career, before he retired in 1990, were spent in the counseling department. He was the career counselor, assisting students in job exploration and work experience programs.

The career programs were important and beneficial, said Rogers, who wishes they hadn’t been phased out. The programs “taught kids how to get along with people, how to work and go to school and still be part of things,” he said. “The students learned money management, interviewing skills, and they were graded like in any class.”

In the mid-1970s, he said, job programs gave way to a push for all students to continue their education beyond high school. He became Mac High’s college counselor and started the annual Yamhill County College Fair.

“My philosophy is that what you do with your education counts,” he said. “The trades are very important. You don’t necessarily have to go to college.”

When Rogers was first hired to teach at Columbus, he discovered the job came with an unofficial extra duty: He was expected to volunteer as leader of the school’s Cub Scout pack.

He readily agreed. “I’ve always been able to get along with youth and kids,” he said.

He continued working with Cub and Boy Scouts as he moved from school to school. He was on the local Boy Scout committee by the time his sons were ready to join the program.

Rogers remained active with scouting for 56 years, as a club leader, board member and representative to the Boy Scouts from his church, First Baptist.

“It’s a very, very valuable program,” he said. “Any kid, even if they don’t go on to become an Eagle, gains something from scouting — responsibility, health benefits, the ability to get along with other people.”

He enjoyed working with the other adults in the program, too, men such as Don Boudon. He worked with many of the other Scoutmasters for 10, 15 or 20 years, he said.

Among the highlights of his Boy Scout years were attending two national jamborees, one on the old Navy base in Farragut, Idaho, in 1967 and the other in Valley Forge, Penn., in 1964.

Attending the latter jamboree was an amazing experience, he said. He was part of a group of more than 200 scouts and leaders leaving Portland for a grand, 30-day train trip across the country, stopping in Salt Lake City, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and other cities along the way.

Rogers, who worked as a substitute counselor for a dozen years after retiring, remains active with education and young people. This month, he is helping at the Yamhill Valley Heritage Center’s Pioneer Days for fourth-graders from around the county.

“I teach them leathercraft,” he said. He joked, “It used to be a hobby, but I’ve forgotten more than I used to know.”

He also spends time with friends. He has coffee six mornings a week with them and frequently sees former students, as well.

And, of course, he enjoys seeing his children, seven grandchildren and 11 great-grandkids.

Linfielder SHELLY SORENSEN SANDERLIN, Class of 1983

SHELLY GWYN SORENSEN SANDERLIN

Shelly earned earned B.A. degree in mass communications from Linfield College in 1983.

(Photo from August 2021 McMinnville FBC “The Tidings”

August 2021 issue of “The Tidings” newsletter of McMinnville First Baptist Church includes about Shelly Sorensen Sanderlin includes:

--She was “born in Oakland, CA where her parents were in the Navy. They decided to move to McMinnville when Shelly was just turning one, and because they didn’t have electricity, they ate tuna fish sandwiches on her first birthday, or so the story goes! In the first few weeks they were in town, Shelly’s mom was visited by Anita Rogers, a Welcome Wagon associate, who introduced them to FBC which they soon decided to join. Shelly was put on what was called the ‘Cradle Roll’ until she was old enough to join the church as a member herself. She attended Newby and Cook elementary schools, the ‘old’ Junior High, and McMinnville High School. Her working career started in third grade when she was picked up in a bus driven by FBCer Nancy Singletary to pick strawberries during the summer. Shelly was involved in the high school theater and music programs. While in high school she also worked at the Thrifty Grill (which was in the building where Pura Vida Restaurant is currently located) and at the Rocket Café which was owned by her dad. As a student at Linfield, Shelly was a Mass Communication major and she had an internship at the News[1]Register at the classified ads desk. She played flute in the concert band, bass guitar in the Jazz band and sang in the choir. “

 

Jan 10, 2008, story McMinnville N-R/News-Register about the “Old Oak” crashing to its death on the Linfield College campus includes:

--“Workers in the (Linfield College President’s Office) heard the crash, momentarily mistaking it for thunder. One floor below, in the basement of Melrose Hall, 1983 graduate Shelley Sanderlin though she was hearing thunder or the rumble of a truck on Highway 99W.”