The First Danielson's Oregon City Store (1959-1996)

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StoreLiker2006
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The First Danielson's Oregon City Store (1959-1996)

Post by StoreLiker2006 »

Hi,

Does anyone know the history of the first Danielson's Thriftway store located on Washington Street in Oregon City that used to be Helzer's Market, that the Danielson family (Craig Danielson, father Gil, and uncles Norm and Val) had bought in 1959 (at which point the family business had thrived for half a century)?

This ancient location had been flooded twice: once in 1964 and again in 1996, by which point the Danielsons concluded that following the incident the store would prove too expensive for rebuild, and was subsequently sold to Willamette Falls Hospital, which turned the site into their health and education center.

The patriarch of the family was John Alfred Danielson, a Swedish immigrant who was a cabinetmaker. The younger Danielsons bought the family business from him in 1937.

In 1974, the Danielsons purchased the land that would become Hilltop Mall, which contained what would be their second Thriftway store in Oregon City. By that point, the family ran 11 stores in Oregon and southwestern Washington State.

Other Danielson Thriftway outlets included Westwood (opened 1965) and Gladstone (opened 1970). In 1986, ownership of the family business was split: Norm Danielson ran all the Washington outlets, Gil (the father) running those in Oregon, and Val working alongside both his father and brother. How did you all feel about this at the time?

In 2001, the Danielsons found out with the effects of the dot-com-bubble recession that it was too difficult for them to maintain their stores, which they either closed down or sold to Safeway (which got five of the outlets so far; the Gladstone store was sold to the city's school district, which turned it into the Gladstone Center for Children and Families).

The 1974 Oregon City store will close this March and morph into a Safeway next year.

~Ben
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