India Littler from anemone antiques and cloudberry studio sent us this remarkable photograph (she discovered it and kindly scanned it for us) of a street scene from Flora, Ore. (Click on the photo for the large view.)
Honestly? We’d never heard of Flora. A quick search revealed that:
Flora is an unincorporated community in Wallowa County, Oregon, United States. It is located about 35 miles north of Enterprise, just off Oregon Route 3, and is considered a ghost town.
Check out this blog post of the town nowadays (well, in 2008). The town also has a yearly event in June that celebrates old time skills (weaving, spinning, wood cookstove use and more). Sounds cool.
Lynette Hanson said:
Amazing photo, and the link you’ve provided is priceless because of the chance to see what might have survived, all these years later. Thanks!
sharon said:
Looks like it would have been a very nice place to grow up.
India Littler (@AnemoneAntiques) said:
That’s such a great post- thanks so much for including the cabinet card photo! When I did a quick google search about Flora last week, one of the most frequently-photographed buildings is on Flora’s main street and is shown this old antique photo. These days, the house is falling down, but it’s strange to see it in pristine condition in this old 1916 photo. I also read that Flora was “the most prominent town to fail” in NE Oregon, but I couldn’t find out why.
mike munk said:
A great photo! Looks like the town is having a parade-4th of July?
cmalbrecht said:
The good old days. No tickets for drunk driving, and your buggy didn’t run into a ditch on the way home…unless you allowed your horse to imbibe.
Mike said:
Flora is mostly ruins nowadays. I did a survey of the architecture of Wallowa, County for a professor’s book. I met a lovely lady who runs a non-profit there out of the abandoned school. She nominated the school to the National Register. Photos of the school and the rest of Flora are in the middle of this album:
https://plus.google.com/photos/114247507233318990393/albums/5202292182194113761?banner=pwa
Info on the school
http://www.floraschool.org/