Hollywood Farm Exhibit Opens at Woodinville Museum

The Woodinville Heritage Museum is now showing a special exhibit featuring the original 1912 Hollywood Farm, where Chateau Ste. Michelle now stands.  

The farm was founded by Fred Stimson, a prominent Seattle lumberman who turned his weekend estate in the valley into a thriving Holstein dairy farm.  His wife, Nellie, headed up Hollywood Gardens, consisting of eight large greenhouses that supplied carnations and chrysanthemums to the Seattle markets as well as shipping them as far away as Alaska and Hong Kong.

In addition, the Stimsons operated two stores in downtown Seattle, one providing flowers from Nellie Stimson's greenhouses and another selling products like cream, butter, cheese and ice cream from the farm.

Stimson also partnered with Morton Atkinson to establish Hollywood Poultry Farm on acreage atop Hollywood Hill.  Selectively breeding White Leghorn chickens, the poultry farm became known around the world for its prized laying hens. The enterprise later became Heisdorf-Nelson Poultry Farm after Atkinson's death.

Stimson funded construction of Hollywood Schoolhouse which still exists today. The Hollywood community also boasted two general stores and a small railroad station.

The museum is open every Sunday from 1-4 p.m. through Labor Day weekend.  Admission is free.

The Woodinville Heritage Museum is housed in the pioneer DeYoung house at 14121 NE 171st St., just east of the Urgent Care Center.  Parking is available onsite and across the street at the Woodinville Community Church.