The property was once part of the Broadmead townsite  plotted for development by Ladd, Reed & Co of Portland, Oregon. The Broadmead townsite sat opposite of Ladd, Reed & Co.'s largest agriculture endeavor, named Broadmead Farms, which consisted of 3000 acres located in Yamhill and Polk Counties. It was the best known large tract of land in a single holding in Western Oregon and for years was famous for its fine cattle and horses. They were also known for being the first to produce red clover seed in the valley.

William Ladd and Simeon Reed were business pioneers in Portland in the 1800’s and owned many buildings, land developments, and businesses, including a steamship company, the Oregon Iron Company, Portland Flouring Mills, and multiple banks. Reed College is perhaps Simeon Reeds most lasting legacy.

The farm was sold to a syndicate in 1909 who had high hopes for the area (see ad to the left). The proposed townsite of Broadmead, including the land the warehouse now sits on, had a hotel, a general store, and a blacksmith shop. Unfortunately, the river that runs through the property was determined to be too shallow to ship grain and the town never took off.

The location of the warehouse and the railroad siding that used to run along beside it became known as Winch Station for Martin Winch, the nephew of Simeon Reed and executor of his estate, and Station in deference to the sheep raised on the farm.

The property was eventually purchased from partners in the syndicate by Robert (Bob) L. Walker and his wife Mary.

At the end of World War II, Bob, tired of repairing the original wooden granary at Winch Station, decided to build a new warehouse and granary that he planned to be essentially fireproof. Due to the inherent design of many rural granaries - thick wooden walls, covered in dust, heated by the friction caused by the weight of the grain - fire was a major concern. The granary was thus constructed with surplus steel intended for the hulls of Liberty ships built by the Kaiser shipyards in Portland, Or. The concrete foundation was mixed on site, hauled by wheelbarrow and poured into place by hand, which took approximately a year to cure. Welding on the largely steel structure also took a year, bringing the total construction time to 2 years.

40 steel bins line the east side of the warehouse and can hold 100 tons of grain each. The large back room can hold another 200+ tons, and the large open holding area at one time held stacks and stacks of palleted clean seed, waiting to be shipped out on railroad cars that stopped at the west side of the building. Four seed cleaners operated around the clock during the harvest season and seed was routed around and through the warehouse using a series of elevators and conveyors. Over the years, the warehouse not only housed grain for the Walker family, but also cleaned grass seed and legumes for neighboring farmers, and mixed feed for the turkeys, which were also raised on the farm.

The granary and farm are now owned by Bob Walker’s granddaughter, Susan Stoller, and is part of Chatanika Farms. The name is in honor of her maternal grandfather who panned for gold on the Chatanika River in Alaska before moving home to Oregon to farm and raise his family. In a weird twist of fate, Wesley Stoller, Susan’s son, married his wife Jessica Vincent on the farm in 2014, who grew up just down the road from the Chatanika River in Fairbanks, Alaska.

As one generation looks to the next to continue our tenure on this land, Susan and Wesley are committed to growing wholesome produce for our community. You can find us every Thursday at the McMinnville Downtown farmer’s market. We hope to soon offer freshly milled flour and malting barley.