If the late Donald Stearns could return to Orchards today, he probably would enjoy a stroll through the tall trees of Orchards park they would be a familiar sight. But most of the rest of the area would be a strange new environment.

Stearns was active in promoting fruit-growing at Orchards in the early 1890s when the community got its first boost to village status. A few years earlier, Stearns had managed the La Camas Townsite Co. at what is now Camas.

Even people who have known Orchards in much more recent years find that some of the changes are startling.

Muriel Pender, who retired as superintendent of the postal station at Orchards in 1969, mentioned the great numbers of cars "buzzing around," the delays in traffic and the community's altered appearance. Pender now lives where there are "a lot of trees and not so many people," at Yacolt.

She is the daughter of Chester Knight, long-time Orchards storekeeper and postmaster. Pender succeeded him as postmaster and, after Vancouver took over the Orchards postal service, she was superintendent of the station.

In the earliest years, the Orchards area was known as Fourth Plain. Grain was grown there, about six miles from Fort Vancouver, in Hudson's Bay Co. times. The Covington House, a pioneer school, was a landmark before being moved to Vancouver.

The Orchards Post Office was established in 1895 in Alba J. Stalnaker's store, about the time a village began developing.

Streetcar arrives
In the early 1900s, the Orchards area became the goal of a streetcar company. One line was completed in Vancouver in 1908, and by 1910, a line had been finished to Sifton, two miles east of Orchards.

This was the only streetcar trackage ever developed in the suburban area, although promoters had promised many more miles of such transportation for Clark County.

A 1911 listing of Orchards businesses, a year after streetcars started running, mentioned a Grange Hall and IOOF Hall, two blacksmith shops and other businesses, including Stalnaker's stationery store and drugstore.

Postmaster Stalnaker also operated a prune-drying business, and Blair Brothers managed a sawmill in 1911.
The population was estimated at 200.

from Columbian archives * Burnett's Grocery served Orchards - circa early 1900's

A small business district continued active in later years, but rapid increases in car ownership and the development of good roads resulted in much of the trade from the Orchards area going to stores in Vancouver and Portland.

Plan fails
One of the great might-have-beens for Orchards was a proposed airport.

About 1945 a Vancouver Chamber of Commerce committee recommended that an airport be developed north of Sifton and south of a line between Brush Prairie and Hockinson, before more small homes were constructed there. This suggestion failed to get enough community support, and Orchards continued to its eventual destiny as a major residential and commercial area.

In 1956, Orchards-area residents petitioned for Vancouver water service. The proposal was dropped in favor of organization of a private company, and in 1958, Clark County commissioners approved a water company's application to serve Orchards. Extension of water lines helped spur residential growth in the area.

The city of Vancouver purchased the independent system in 1967.

In the 1970s, the city extended sewer lines into the Orchards area, while Clark County building permits for residences and businesses continued to be approved in great numbers.

Mall opened
New businesses were constructed on Fourth Plain, but the biggest single new commercial development was Vancouver Mall, a short distance west of Orchards, opened in two phases, in 1977 and 1979.

Later, other commercial complexes were developed near the mall west of Interstate 205, which pretty much separates Orchards from Vancouver.

In 1980, Orchards residents turned in petitions to Clark County commissioners to incorporate. Clark County Superior Court voided the incorporation plan in 1981 because of an ambiguity in the petition language.

The natural environment at Orchards was disappearing in the rapid urbanization, but Clark County officials were able to acquire a cluster of tall timber called Orchards Park about 1980, in a land swap with the Department of Natural Resources.

Traffic is worry
Nearby, in Orchards streets, a traffic congestion problem has been growing. "It's a bottleneck right here on this corner," said Bob Boyd, clerk in charge of Orchards Post Office, off 109th Avenue near Fourth Plain.

"And there's a lot of Battle Ground-Brush Prairie coming through here all the time."

At the landmark old frame Orchards Feed Mill, owner Loren Carlson said the amount of new home building in the Orchards area is "incredible:"
"They're packing them in, any place they can put houses."

Orchards downtown along Fourth Plain had not experienced any major alteration for a number of years, but this has been changing in a big way because of construction at the east end, just west of Highway 500.

The new business center, Vancouver Marketplace, will be anchored by a Home Base discount home improvement store, Albertson's store and Pay Less Drug.

Today Orchards remains unincorporated, and there is even a divided community loyalty on names in the area.

The number of businesses using Evergreen in their names in the area is about the same as the number favoring Orchards.