More Stately Mansions

Arnold Polson's 6,500 square foot mansion, presented as a wedding gift by his bachelor uncle Robert, stood originally by his father Alex Polson's more stately (but now destroyed) mansion, the site of our Rose Garden.

The building, erected in 1924, was designed with twenty-six rooms, with six bathrooms and four fireplaces. The Polsons lived in the mansion to 1965 when they left their Hoquiam home for Seattle. Widowed in 1968, Mrs. Polson donated the property to the city in 1976. It has been the Polson Museum ever since.

The beautifully-restored building you see represents thirty-two years of private donations and volunteer labor. Single-length, thirty-eight-foot floor boards remain visible to the side of our newly-installed carpets. Each room features a 1941 photograph of the Polson family's original decorations and possessions. Throughout are rich signs of family and community pride on Grays Harbor.