Getting Back To The Past At Washington's Historic Pomeroy House

YACOLT, Clark County - There's a "remember when" farm here in southwestern Washington's Clark County where kids still jump in a real hay loft and mothers and their daughters go down in the woods for teddy bear picnics.

The place is Pomeroy House, a pioneer homestead by the east fork of the Lewis River that has been turned into an all-seasons attraction.

Travelers are invited to share in activities ranging from hay rides to cider-pressings. Dozens of volunteers, Pomeroy House neighbors, help guide guests through the grounds.

It's the way things used to be when grandma and grandpa lived out in the country and farmed for a living.

There are cows in the meadow and chickens in the coop. There is the sweet scent of hay in the barn, where shafts of sunshine beam through gaps in the old walls.

A tractor-towed hay wagon, loaded with happy passengers, turns a corner on a crooked lane. Crickets chirp, and on the breeze there is the call of a faraway train whistle.

"We've been out on hay rides and had grownups tell us that they've never even been on a farm before," says Lil Freese, the hostess of Pomeroy House.

Freese is a granddaughter of the late E.C. and Adelaide Pomeroy, who founded the 677-acre Lucia Valley farm here in northern Clark County back in 1910.

Pomeroy House still is a family affair. Three generations of Pomeroy descendants are involved in the operation.

But not one takes a penny from the historic section of the farm that is open to the public. The "living history" program is strictly a nonprofit project.

"We're trying to preserve something wonderful from the past," Freese explains."

Pomeroy House, busy as a night-before-the-fair sewing bee, has so many activities that it almost requires a briefing session for visitors:

The calendar calls for five months of Open Farm Weekends for the public - plus such perennial fixtures as a herb festival in springtime, an old-fashioned Fourth of July celebration, Teddy bear picnics in August, hay rides and wiener roasts in fall, and Christmas programs for winter. And, in between, there is an assortment of theme teas and craft classes keyed to the seasons.

Focal point of the farm is the two-story Pomeroy House, built in 1920 by E.C. Pomeroy and his son, Tom - the third home on the property. Two others were lost in fires.

Family members call it the "Log House." It's a museum now, crammed with antiques ranging from hand-crafted furniture to children's dolls with wide-eyed porcelain faces.

The "Log House" is open for tours from June through October during what Pomeroy House calls Open Farm Weekends (such as July 6 and 7).

School groups keep things busy during the off-season.

The farm weekends, sort of country-style socials, are the main events. That's when people may tour the farm, dine on beef stew and corn bread, tap their feet to bluegrass music and load up for festive hay rides. There's no overnight lodging.

The "Log House" also is the setting for frequent English teas, with themes that run the scale from Mothers' Day to Halloween.

Next door to the old house is the former Pomeroy carriage house/cream-separator building - today with a gift shop on the first floor and a year-round tea room for light lunches on the second floor.

Down the lane are the blacksmith shop (the oldest building on the farm, built about 1910 as a one-room school house for the valley), the 1930's-vintage barn with its big hay loft, the granary, gardens and displays of antique farm equipment.

"The whole place is a time machine," says Bob Brink, executive director of the Pomeroy Living History Farm.

The Pomeroy House folks set out china, chairs and goodies in the woods for the storybook picnics. But it's B.Y.O.B. - bring your own bear.

IF YOU GO:

-- Information: Pomeroy House, Route 1, 20902 N.E. Lucia Falls Road, Yacolt, WA 98675; 1-686-3537.

-- Driving: Pomeroy House is on the east fork of the Lewis River, about six miles northwest of Yacolt, in northern Clark County. Distance from Seattle is about 165 miles.

-- Farm weekends: The Pomeroy Living History Farm is open to the public on the first full weekend of each month, June through October. (First full weekends are those that combine a first Saturday and a first Sunday of a month, such as July 6 and 7.)

Hours on farm weekends are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays; 1 to 4 p.m. Sundays. Admission is $3 for adults, $1.50 for children ages 3 through 11. Two meal services are available on farm weekends: an outdoor farm lunch of beef stew and corn bread is $3.50. There also is a "Ploughman's Lunch," with cheeses, bread and pickles, for $4.95.

The Pomeroy Carriage House Tea Room, above the gift shop, is open from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. A tea plate, with assorted tea sandwiches, scones, sweets and tea or coffee, is $4.95. An assortment of tea cakes, with tea or coffee, is $3.50.

-- Year-round: The gift shop is open every day except Thanksgiving and Christmas. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays; 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays. There is no admission charge.

The Pomeroy Carriage House Tea Room is open Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays all year, from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. It also is open Sundays during farm weekends.

-- Hay rides: Hay rides, lasting about 45 minutes, depart frequently during farm weekends in September and October. Fare is $1.50 for adults, $1 for children ages 3 through 11. Groups also can make arrangements for hour-long, private hay rides and for wiener roasts at other times.

-- Bed and breakfast: River's Edge Guest House, a bed-and-breakfast cottage on the east fork of the Lewis River that can accommodate four persons, opened recently about one mile downriver - on N.E. Lucia Falls Road - from Pomeroy House. Proprietors are Denise and Joe Beuselinck. Rates are $60 a night for two persons, $70 for four. Information: River's Edge Guest House, P.O. Box 103, Heisson, WA 98622; phone 1-687-1539.

Stanton H. Patty retired in 1988 as the assistant travel editor of The Seattle Times.