Page 68 - Portrait 2011.qxd

f you’re exploring Oregon Decorative Rock in Beaverton, just try to catch up with Les Hawkins. And if you do take a stroll with Hawkins among the Asian beach pebbles, red lava wall rock, pattern cut teak wood and pea gravel, you’ll soon learn that this is a man with a passion for decorative rock and a fascination with early Beaverton.

Hawkins co-owns Oregon Decorative Rock, at 11050 S.W. Denney Road, with his brother Al. It’s a family busi-ness, and Hawkins is not shy about sharing a bit of histo-ry as he shows you his Beaverton yard. Hawkins’ father, Elmer, who started the business, found a small ad in a newspaper that mentioned a property for sale.

“My dad was fortunate enough to come in contact with Amos Spriggel, who had this piece of property (the Beaverton location) for sale. It was already established as a firewood and bark dust supply yard,” says Hawkins. “Amos wanted to sell the business and the land, so Dad actually bought the land and the firewood business.” For history buffs, Spriggel’s wife Alice was from the pioneer Denney family; Denney Road is named after Thomas Denney.

Oregon Decorative Rock started in Portland in 1976, at 17th and Northeast Columbia Blvd. According to Hawkins, “My dad realized he couldn’t do enough busi-ness over there, in that little industrial area, to make a liv-

ing. He mortgaged his house. My mom had to learn to run the Bobcat, and my dad went to the quarry and start-ed splitting rock. It was really a bare-bones beginning that almost didn’t work.”

A couple of years later, the business expanded to the rustic building on Denney. Hawkins says the decorative rock firm expanded 10 percent a year, but “25 percent of that disappeared in 2009.” Luckily, business is on the mend these days.

“We’re happy that some of our customers are surviv-ing the economy,” says Hawkins.

Many of those customers live in the area.

“People are going to shop close to their homes, so we see the most business right in our local area,” adds Hawkins. “We see a customer a week from the Oregon Coast. We’ll see customers from The Dalles and Hood River. We have them come from Pendleton. We actually draw customers from all over the state.”

Oregon Decorative Rock offers products from all over the globe. While stones can come from Idaho and Montana, “we’ll bring stone from as far away as China or India,” says Hawkins, who travels the Northwest in search of products. If Hawkins is not in his Beaverton office, behind his desk covered with “to do” slips, you might find him at Mount Adams, splitting rocks.

When it comes to customer interest in decorative rocks, Hawkins says he sees trends.

“A couple of years ago, ponds were really a big thing — accent boulders, for some reason, have been big this past year, where people just want one nice boulder to set out in their front yard. You just never know what people are going to do next. It seems to come in waves.” If a home makeover is in your plans, you’ll find a huge assortment of natural stone to choose from. “Local grav-el is a big thing. We have over half a dozen local gravel products that you might use for pathways, driveways — maybe you just need one stepping stone by your garden hose to get you out of the mud,” says Hawkins. “If you just need a little dab of gravel, we have all our local grav-el bagged up, in 50-pound bags.”

Perhaps you need to jazz up that old brick fireplace. Hawkins says,

“We have a new product we’re excited about — a thin, stone veneer– that is real stone, only one inch thick, that could be put up over that fireplace. You can have a beau-tiful stone fireplace and do it yourself, if you want to.” Hawkins is proud of Oregon Decorative Rock’s “old-fashioned” customer service.

“We have plenty of staff, where every customer gets attention. We’ll spend all day with a customer who wants to buy a rock.”

The website is oregondecorativerock.com.