Hockinson Then and Now

September 14, 2022

Interpretive old-town Hockinson scene used to compare the community's historic landscape with the present

Modern Hockinson still carries visible traces of the older community in its road names, churches, cemeteries, school sites and rural landscape. Comparing historic records with the present helps show how Hockinson changed while preserving pieces of its earlier identity.

Hockinson then and now at a glance

John Nelson Road: direct connection to a pioneer family
182nd Avenue and 159th Street: recurring historic location reference
Elim Lutheran Church and Cemetery: surviving Scandinavian heritage anchor
Kelly Hill: connected to the Allen family, logging and Petiteville
NE 172nd Avenue: documented China Ditch location

Road names that preserve family history

John Nelson Road directly connects the modern map to the Nelson family story. Read about John and Johanna Nelson for the family history behind that name.

The old town center and school locations

The junction of 182nd Avenue and 159th Street appears repeatedly in older descriptions. School records also identify former building sites relative to businesses such as the Hockinson One-Stop. See the Hockinson One-Stop and old town center.

Churches, cemeteries and Scandinavian heritage

Elim Lutheran Church and Cemetery connect present-day Hockinson to Scandinavian settlement and family history. Learn more in Elim Lutheran Church and Hockinson's Scandinavian Heritage.

Kelly Hill, Petiteville and the China Ditch

Kelly Hill preserves another layer of history through the Allen Lumber Company and an area remembered as Petiteville. The China Ditch caption places that historic drainage feature along Northeast 172nd Avenue. Explore Petiteville and the China Ditch story.

Using then-and-now comparisons carefully

Then-and-now comparisons are strongest when the historical location can be matched carefully to the present landscape. Where a source gives only an approximate location, that uncertainty should remain part of the record. The historic Hockinson map gathers many of these location clues.