In 1922, Jacob Propstra, a Dutch immigrant who had moved to the United States in 1912, and shortly thereafter took a job at the Old Imperial Creamery in Portland, founded the Holland Creamery in downtown Vancouver, Washington. The butter and egg business evolved into the Holland Butter and Ice Cream Co., and when Sunday visitors stopped by to sample the product, Propstra added cones. In 1928, the business moved to another nearby location. Propstra put in tables and chairs, and, in 1933, he began to offer cheese sandwiches at the newly expanded Holland Restaurant. The average per customer sale at the time added up to about 11 cents.
In 1935, shortly after the restaurant began to offer sandwiches, George Propstra, Jacob's son, who was three months short of completing a college business degree, joined his father in the family business. George Propstra had started out scooping ice cream, washing cans, and wrapping butter as a boy, along with his two brothers--all "part and parcel of being in one of those dairy families," as he described it in a 1982 Oregonian article.
In 1956, Jacob Propstra retired and George Propstra assumed control of the business and "realized that the butter, egg, and ice cream businesses were all to be dominated by big outfits. ... We finally saw the handwriting on the wall," he was quoted as saying in the Oregonian. "[A]t the time, we were a one-horse operation." However, there was room to grow in the restaurant business. "We had had a taste of the restaurant business and could see it was a small man's business. You could grow slowly and carefully, opening one restaurant at a time." In 1957, The Holland added a $30,000 bakery addition, located in the restaurant building; the bakery sold Danish and French pastries and all types of cakes. (info from here)
I could really go for a lime soda and a danish pastry.
