Rockaway Studio

Built in 1920

Tour Stop #1

101 S Miller St

NEXT HISTORIC SITE

STEWARD OF YESTERDAY

Rockaway Studio

Frank and Ida Miller and their son Dayle were the first family to settle in Rockaway. Ida Miller Clayton shared this account in a 1959 interview with KTIL radio:

 

… in 1910, when we arrived, Rockaway was just sand. There was an old farm building that stood on today’s Main Street, and that was it at that time. We came on the old Sue Elmore boat to Garibaldi, and then Mr. Miller rented a team and wagon and brought our goods up the beach to Rockaway. The railroad grade was in, but there was no railroad at that time, and we had to carry the food we got from Garibaldi. My son Dayle would go with his dad, carrying his little knapsack and carrying groceries.

On the fourth of July 1910, the first flatcar ran from Tillamook to Mohler and delivered lumber that enabled Rockaway’s development. Ida shared its impact...

In 1911, we built a seven-room house and named it ‘Alpha’, the beginning. And we had a grocery store there. The groceries arrived by boat to Garibaldi, and then we had them sent on the train from there. At that time there were no other residents in Rockaway, until the Ed Best family came, and by 1912 we had many summer people. By then, Mr. Miller sold considerable property off and others moved in.

The Millers also established Rockaway’s first post office; Frank served as Postmaster and Ida became the first Postmistress, holding the position for 25 years. Troxel’s across the street occupies Miller’s original building and Post Office.

  • More on the structure history

    Ed and Blanch Wood built this sturdy little building in 1920, and for years it served as the heart of their photography studio and variety store. When Blanche became Rockaway’s postmistress in the mid-1930s, the post office moved right into the shop, making it a lively gathering place where locals came not only for stamps and letters, but for conversation and news. After the great fire of 1934, barber Newell Olson even set up his shop here for a short time while the Monk building was being rebuilt.

    The Woods continued to run Rockaway’s post office, its third home, until 1950, when Joe Mills took over, followed later by Darrell Fisher, who operated a branch of M. L. Schmidt Realty in the early 1960s.

    In 1962, the building found a new caretaker in Gertrude “Kelley” Schaeffer, who later became Mrs. Floyd Chartier. She opened a laundromat that served the community for more than a decade. After a brief stint of flower shops, her daughter, Clara Absolar, along with Clara’s son Bob Kelley and his wife Carolyn, breathed new life into the space. In the summer of 1982, they opened Kelley’s Korner, and the building once again became a familiar neighborhood stop.

    Through every change and every era, the structure has held fast. Nearly a century after it first opened its doors, the building continues to welcome locals and visitors alike, now as Joe’s Snacks and Beer, owned by Debra Reeves. A testament to Rockaway’s resilience, it continues to stand exactly where it always has, woven into the fabric of the town's everyday life.