Prune driers of the Pacific Northwest : a building type comes to fruition
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Date
2012-03
Authors
Steckbeck, Kristine Nicole
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
The historic built environment associated with drying
prunes in Oregon and Washington has been faced with the
problem of a changed agricultural economy that has made
prune driers obsolete and endangered structures on the
Pacific Northwest landscape. There is a need to better
understand how these buildings were influenced by local and
national agricultural trends during the late 19th and early
20th centuries. Extant prune drying structures generally
have been altered and bear little resemblance to their
precursors. The present building stock of prune drying
structures illustrates the decline of a great pomological
industry that peaked in the 1920s. Expansion of the dried
prune industry during the late 19th century is reflected in
agricultural literature which developed in response to the
advent of prune driers. Not only are physical remnants of
the dried prune industry rapidly disappearing, but
documented information about them is also increasingly
scarce.
Description
118 pages