This year marks 100 years that the Arnold and Priscilla Polson mansion has stood gracing Riverside Avenue and the eastern bank of the Hoquiam River.

The building was built as a wedding gift for the young couple, financed by Arnold’s wealthy bachelor uncle Robert and constructed under the direction of Ben Brunstad, a revered carpenter employed by the Polson Logging Company.

The home was built facing Arnold’s parents stately mansion, the Alex and Ella Polson home.

Built in the Colonial Revival style using lumber primarily milled at the Polson-owned Eureka Lumber & Shingle Co. at the foot of Ontario Street in Hoquiam, the home served as Arnold and Priscilla Polson’s primary residence through the mid-1960s.

The 26-room, 6,500-square-foot mansion was designed by the renowned Seattle architect Arthur Loveless and is notable as Loveless’s most geographically remote project (nearly all his work was done in Seattle) and his only home that is open to the public today.

In 1976, Priscilla Polson donated the home to the city of Hoquiam with the direction that the newly-formed non-profit Polson Museum would in perpetuity operate a museum in the building.

Though Priscilla envisioned a logging-centric focus, the Polson was founded as a museum devoted to the history of Grays Harbor County at large, a mission that endures to this day.

The Polson Museum is hosting its annual Christmas Open House this Sunday, Dec. 8 from noon to 4 p.m. Admission is free though gifts of non-perishable food items are being collected for donation to the Hoquiam Food bank.

As a special feature of Sunday’s open house, the Polson has asked author Karen Taylor to join Director John Larson at 2 p.m. for a Q&A session on her just-released book “Hoquiam Schoolhouse Memories.”

Karen and her sister Diane have penned a 242-page treatise on the history of schools in Hoquiam that is sure to delight anyone with an interest in Grays Harbor history but especially those with ties to Hoquiam.

In seeking information on their great-grandmother, Nettie Connell, a teacher in Hoquiam starting in 1896 and promoted to assistant principal of Hoquiam Public Schools in 1898, the Taylor sisters began a years long research journey that has culminated in this comprehensive history book.

While the the book chronologically details Hoquiam’s various schools dating back to the 1870s, the Taylor sisters have added a cornucopia of local school trivia that is sure to delight readers: Early published rules and regulations, profiles of early teachers, details on neighboring rural schools at places like Newton, Chenois Creek, Copalis Beach and more.

Non-public schools affiliated with religious or ethnic groups such as St. Mary’s Catholic and the Finnish School are addressed as well as activities that students participated in outside of schools at places like the YMCA, the Hoquiam Library and the 1939 Bunyan Jubilee.

All of the district’s elementary schools along with its Junior High and High Schools are chronicled into the 1960s and a wealth of historic photos, ephemera and maps are included.

This meticulously researched book culminates with a wonderful reference chapter on the “evolution” of Hoquiam’s schools that chronologically and geographically details these historic houses of instruction.

“Schoolhouse Memories” sells for $29.95 and copies are available now at the Polson Museum Store.

The Polson Museum is located at 1611 Riverside Ave. and is open Wednesdays to Saturdays 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sundays noon to 4 p.m. For more information, call 360-533-5862.

As a special feature of Sunday’s open house, the Polson has asked author Karen Taylor to join Director John Larson at 2 p.m. for a Q&A session on her just-released book “Hoquiam Schoolhouse Memories.”