Oak Harbor as it was in 1954 Oak Harbor as it was in 1954

Island senior celebrates 90th

Maxine Doman, an Oak Harbor resident since 1954, will celebrate her 90th birthday on Sunday, May 18, from 1:30 to 4 p.m. in the large activity room at the Regency on Whidbey Retirement Community, 1040 SW Kimball Drive. Maxine and her sons, James and Scott, invite all who remember them to attend.

James is a 1960 Oak Harbor High School graduate and a retired Alaska Airline Pilot. Scott graduated in 1964 and is retired from teaching at the Edmonds School District.

When Maxine came to Oak Harbor with her Navy husband, George, and their sons in March 1954, Whidbey Island’s population was about 12,000 with a projected increase to 110,000 by the year 2025.

Downtown Oak Harbor was two blocks of paved street on the waterfront. Buildings on the water side were wooden, and a boardwalk ran in front of them. Businesses, except Rexall Drug, were closed from Saturday at noon until Monday morning.

On the other side of the street was one bank where Jo Balda was the youngest employee, and a meat market run by a very young Dale Johnson.

In the General Merchandise Store, the goods were displayed on tables in the center of a large room. There were a few shelves, but some things were displayed on the walls.

Arend Balster owned a men’s clothing store across the street from the General Merchandise Store. Alice Esterly sold women’s wear in a building at one end of the paved part of the street. Maxine remembers a woman who sold fashionable women’s shoes and made hats. Next to the millinery store was a beauty shop operated by two sisters, Evelyn Alsberg and Betty Palmer.

The water side of the street seemed the most interesting because there also was Hill Barrington’s card and pool. Verelle Jungbluth’s variety store was on the corner of the road that connected with the long wooden dock where the boat to Seattle docked.

The Domans cleared land, hand dug a water well and finished a partially built cement block house on Dugualla Bay Road. The family lived without a telephone for two years before sharing a 10-party line. Their nearest neighbors were Marion and Lorna Christensen, Joe and Mae Schley and Mr. Grimm.

Maxine bought an old typewriter and took lessons at night. She got a job to support her family because her husband retired from the Navy and attended a Denver gunsmith school. She worked as a secretary in Denver and for several years for an Oak Harbor attorney, John Wold. During that time, George worked at the post office and had a gunsmith hobby. He died in 2005.

Maxine was an active member of the Toastmistress Club and the Business and Professional Women’s Club. She served in all offices of the PTA.

Maxine also worked to start the Southern Baptist Church, and she and her family are charter members. She was a charter member of a hospital guild. She and George were members of the first square dancing group with Leroy and Gen Rowand, Hubert and Bea Morgan, and Hal and Glee Ramaley, started by Hal.

Maxine experienced the burning and rebuilding of the Methodist Church, burning of the Oak Harbor Lodge and an old hotel on the Coupeville waterfront where the island County Historical Museum now stands. She remembers the growth of the city library from books on a few shelves in a room at the City Hall run by volunteer Ellen Olson, to the beautiful and efficient city and college library Oak Harbor has today.

Maxine recalls the moving of the city hall, a large wooden structure which today houses the Assembly of God Church. She remembers when Pioneer Way was called Barrington Street.

When Maxine arrived, Oak Harbor had one elementary school and one high school, side by side at Midway Boulevard and Whidbey Avenue, and another elementary school near the Ault Field entrance. Years later, a kindergarten was added. Many new school buildings were built to accommodate the children who arrived during construction of the naval air station.

The first big stores were constructed near the entrance to Ault Field. As the area grew, it became Market Town. There was Rhodes Grocery Store, Carskaden Brothers Hardware, Morton Drug Store, Haddon Furniture, Kahn’s Dry Goods and others which later moved downtown. There was one movie theater, which was closed, and several Protestant churches. Catholics drove to Coupeville to worship.

Babies were delivered at birthing houses in Oak Harbor and Coupeville. Dr. Carskaden was the physician and the dentist was Dr. Heap, an Army retiree. Young physicians and dentists set up practices quickly as the population mushroomed. A rash of young school teachers arrived.

As the population grew, it became imperative the island needed a hospital. Many knew someone who had died while on the way to the hospital in Mount Vernon or whose families were greatly inconvenienced by the long distance to visit a hospitalized loved one. Maxine joined a hospital guild and devoted much time and effort to fundraising for the hospital.

After Maxine’s sons, James and Scott, graduated from high school and left home, she started Welcome Aboard, a business greeting newcomers in Oak Harbor. She ran it for three years and sold it so she could travel. Traveling requires money, so Maxine planted and managed a Christmas tree farm and rented part of her house for many years.

Maxine was a catalyst in getting a senior center for her town and served on its first board of officers. She has been a volunteer docent at the Island County Historical Museum and formerly was active in the Southern Baptist Church. She was formerly a member of the Garden Club, but now gardens in containers. She travels as much as health permits.