Flashback Friday : Strong Drinks, Strong Woman- Belle Webb's Hi-Way House
Grover and Belle Webb in the early 1900s. Their work on the farm in Tygh Valley was diversified with purchase of Hansen’s Tavern , soon to become the Hi-Way House on Highway 30 - now east Second Street in The Dalles.
By Tom Peterson
Belle Webb Beatie had no time for whiners or crying.
She drove a red Pontiac Firebird when she was in her 80’s.
And if not for her, you would have never heard of the Hi-Way House.
This is her story.
The Hi-Way House, well, it was exactly that in 1940 when Belle (Head) Webb and her husband Grover bought it.
It sits on historic Highway 30 at the east end of The Dalles. Before the construction of Interstate 84, It was either the first place you came to on the way into town or the last stop before heading into the east counties.
And if you needed a good dinner or a stiff drink, it did not disappoint.
Namely because of Belle (Head) Webb Beatie. She was a one-of-a-kind, with no fear of hard work or taking risk.
The entrepreneur with an eighth-grade education and a penchant for numbers is why you may know about the Hi-Way House.
And she was driven, her granddaughter Dixie (Webb) Schanno reflected.
“She had me drive to Portland when I was only 16. She worked hard, so she would take naps. She woke up and she said, ‘Dixie, why are we going so slow?’ I said, grandma, we are going 80, and I am not a very good driver. She said, ‘step on it.’”
That’s a little insight into the personality that turned a hamburger joint into a hotspot of social life. A good part of the people living in Wasco and Sherman counties enjoyed a steak or fried chicken, dancing and having a snort or two on Saturday night thanks to her industry.
The Hi-Way House, now under the ownership of Dixie, is slated for a reopening in days to come. Dixie’s children, Chris Schanno and Amy Sugg, and her grandchildren are reloading. They have remodeled the restaurant, while keeping the charms of the past including the horseshoe bar, red booths and historic photos that adorn the walls and date back in family lore to 1940. The restaurant has a Rat Pack kind of feel or film noir/ roadhouse vibe. The remodel is definitely an homage to that sensibility and to their great grandmother and all the staff and operators that came after her in the last 80 years.
New manager Rachel Miller said the restaurant would provide for family and special occasions or a place to stop in after work.
In the beginning, the restaurant was by no means handed to Belle and Grover Webb. And it was not the Hi-Way House, rather, Hansen’s Tavern.
FROM THE START
In 1901, at the age of 14, Grover Webb hopped a freight car out of Spruce Pine, N.C. and headed west. Webb was among several historic families that migrated to Wasco County, including families such as the Conleys and Ashleys.
Grover landed in the Dalles; his first work came at the Columbia Brewery; the building still stands on Third Street downtown, across from Holstein’s Coffee.
In 1899, Belle was orphaned at the age of four in Chimney Rock, N.C. Her brother Bill was homesteading here in Wasco County. Unwilling to see his family torn apart, Bill retrieved Belle and her two older siblings, bringing them back to The Dalles where Belle could be raised by her older sisters.
Life was not easy; Belle learned early.
“That gets into the start of the times being hard,” Dixie said. “She (Belle) taught us to put our heads down and go to work - no matter what hand was dealt to you. In life, loss, sadness and grief - those things always happen to you. Be kind to others; get to work, and do something for somebody else, and it would help you survive. Problems don't seem so big when you’re helping somebody else.”
When Belle was 16, she married Grover who was 24. They homesteaded at the bottom of Butler Canyon near Tygh Valley. “Grandma was a great cook,” Dixie said, noting she fed large harvest crews in Tygh Valley. In those years, machinery was horse or tractor powered, and harvests were labor intensive requiring many hands to bring a crop in. That in turn required copious amounts of food - good food. Belle and Grover worked the farm for decades.
A NEW OPPORTUNITY
In 1940, Belle caught wind of an opportunity. Hansen’s Tavern was for sale.
“She was an optimist,” Dixie said. The couple bought it and renamed it the Hi-Way House.
Belle ran it on weekdays, and Grover would come in from the farm on weekends to help.
“They just got in there and started running it,”Dixie said.
They slowly turned the hamburger joint into the Hi-Way House, featuring home-cooked meals. But if you wanted fried chicken, you had to call in an hour ahead so it could be prepared.
Belle and Grover also added some excitement.
Prohibition was lifted in 1933, and the Oregon Liquor Control Commission ran a tight ship.
You could not just go into a bar and order a drink. Temperance was still hot in politics.
So, if you wanted a drink, you brought your own bottle to the Hi-Way House and handed it to the bar keep - they could then mix you a drink at a fee of maybe 25 cents, Dixie estimated.
“A lot of people in The Dalles and Sherman County left bottles at the bar with their name on them,” she said.
“It’s a good thing these booths can’t talk,” she laughed.
Just three years later, Grover died in 1943 from spinal meningitis at the age of 57.
NO SLOWING DOWN
That did not deter Belle. She doubled her efforts and moved into the apartment upstairs from the restaurant.
“She was an entrepreneur,” Dixie said, noting when Belle grew up television and radio were not available to her. “She and Grover would read aloud every night. She had a little dictionary- she used it until her eyes went bad. But when she heard a word and did not know the meaning, she looked it up. She was self taught. She had an amazing financial wisdom about her - to favor money and to invest. I remember her reading about investments and savings accounts and interests. She explained to me about compound interest.”
The establishment gained in popularity and even survived two fires. They added a new kitchen after the first and a new bar was added after the second.
And there was always a little philanthropy in the mix. Belle would provide handouts at the backdoor, packing sandwiches and coffee for hungry hobos that needed a bite while traveling through.
CHILDHOOD MEMORIES
Dixie and her sister Jo (Webb) Harvey stayed with Belle at the small apartment above the restaurant when Dixies was around 10 years old. Her parents, Kenny and Grace Webb, remained back on the farm near White River Falls.
“It was exciting for being little country kids. We got to spend two weeks with her, take swimming lessons at the natatorium. She would put me to bed on the couch. My sister slept with grandma.”
“In the mornings grandma cleaned the kitchen. It was our job to wipe down all the tables and wash the ketchup and steak sauce and salt and pepper bottles.”
“I was always the child,” Dixie said. “I could not sit still. I had my seat next to the french fry maker. I had this burning desire to leave the kitchen through the swinging doors. When I went out I was under a waitress carrying a million dishes. The dishes crashed everywhere, and I got back on my stool in a hurry.”
The apartment also had a phone that connected Dixie and Jo to the kitchen, and at times, Belle would call them and check on them or let them know that some peppermint ice cream was on the way. They were not permitted in the restaurant during open hours.
“The apartment had a big window, and we could watch the trains and see the planes come in across the river. It was pretty exciting.”
The girls also befriended the cooks and waitresses. They were wonderful people, loyal friends. It’s like we had extra aunts.”
Cal McDermid, who is the Fort Dalles Museum Director, grew up on a ranch in Sherman County. He remembered coming to town once a month to see his own grandmother.
“It was always the place,” he said of the Highway House. “You could come dressed up or in jeans and feel really comfortable.”
He said he and his siblings would always sit next to the window at the west end of the restaurant to watch trains. He said he learned to cut a rug on the dance floor with the jukebox.
“This was the last place I took my grandmother before she passed away,” he said.
JACK BEATIE
Belle eventually chose to marry again after befriending Jack Beatie. But the granddaughters were not happy about it.
Beatie was a salesman for Standard Oil and a patron of the Hi-Way House.
“We were not going to like him, but he was charming,” Dixie said. “We thought he would take grandma away from us.”
Jack used the jukebox and dance floor at the restaurant to break the ice with Dixie and Jo.
“He would play the jukebox and teach us to dance and take us to the “nat” in the afternoon for free swim,” Dixie said. “He was wonderful.”
A LEGACY OF OPERATORS
Jack and Belle left The Dalles and moved to Portland to buy and operate a trailer park in Portland in the 1950s.
Vi and Bob Wristen who had run Stiles restaurant at the mouth of the Deschutes took over operations of the Hi-Way House.
Bob’s sister, Arleta Look, was notorious for her amazing memory -she could remember what everyone drank and how they liked their steak. Arleta never missed. More recently the Kane Family, including Jay, MaryKay, Steve and Stacey – have played host to Hi-Way House patrons. The contribution to the Hi-Way House legacy by these great families is immeasurable, the family wrote on their Hi-Way House website.
There was also a camaraderie among restaurant owners. Belle often worked with the Langdons, owners of the Shamrock Lounge, which stood at Safeway’s current location, and the Rendes who had Ole’s Supper Club. They shared tables and chairs when one of them had a big party to arrange.
RETURNING TO THE DALLES
Jack Beatie died in the late 50s, and Belle sold the trailer park and returned to The Dalles in 1959, Dixie said, noting Belle lived in the house at the corner of Dry Hollow Road and Kelly Avenue for 26 years.
In those years, the Hi-Way House was booming as the population in The Dalles nearly doubled due to construction of The Dalles Dam.
Dixie said people were concerned if not fearful of the newcomers and the immense need for additional services, such as Dry Hollow and Petersburg schools. But it came to pass, as the difficult and dangerous work attracted respectful people who were willing to do an honest day's work, Dixie said. Belle was driven even at the end of her life. She made her own choices.
She broke her hip after Christmas in 1985.
She was prescribed two weeks of physical therapy at a nursing facility before she could return home.
“I’m not going,” Belle told Dixie. The appointment was set for a Monday. “She died on Sunday. She did not go. She never did anything she did not want to do.”
Through it all, Dixie said it was the friendships kindled at the establishment that make her the happiest. She and her family looked forward to meeting new folks and making memories for years to come - expanding the Hi-Way House family.
Dixie (Webb) Schanno, Rachel Miller and Cal McDermid stand on the steps of the fabled Hi-Way House on East Second Street. Schanno’s grandmother, Belle (Head) Webb Beatie took ownership of the restaurant and turned it into a social hotspot. Miller, above right, is now managing the restaurant and nightspot that is undergoing a renovation and expects to be open in weeks to come. McDermid, now the Fort Dalles Museum Director, remembers learning to dance at the restaurant as a youth.
The Hiway House was originally Hansen’s Tavern before the Webbs bought it in 1940. The cut basalt stone used for its construction still holds the local institution up.
Here is a mock up of a sign that was never built, but is an homage to Belle and her second Husband Jack Beatie.
One of the historic photos that has hung at the Hi-Way House for years shows George Hilderbrand’s ground-powered harvester in Sherman County circa 1900. John and Wanda Hilderbrand of the same family still frequent the restaurant.
Jerry and Dona Kelly of The Dalles, both who have now passed, could often be found at the Hi-Way House. Photos of customers, such as this one from 1949, are displayed on the walls of the restaurant.
Mr. and Mrs. Chris Peterson were also frequent customers - Mrs. Peterson being renowned for her hats.
Columbia Brewery on Third Street, The Dalles. This is where Grover Webb landed his first job after hoping a box car to The Dalles from North Carolina. He was 14.
