Business Community

A super(ette) history of the Island View Market building

There used to be a cute little log cabin store in Rosedale, on Ray Nash Drive near the bridge over the Rosedale slough. It was an Austin & Erickson vertical log building, manufactured in what is today the Beach Basket Gift and Clothing Shop at 4102 Harborview Dr. in Gig Harbor.

There used to be a cute little log cabin store in Rosedale near the bridge over the Rosedale slough. Pierce County Assessor-Treasurer aerial base map.

The building went up in early 1954.

After concrete work by Lawrence Hemley and Son, Austin & Erickson assembled the structure and Luters Electric & Plumbing wired it. Larry Swinney’s Harbor Pump & Drilling installed the well. The two gas pumps sold Shell gasoline from Shel Stutz’s distributorship in Gig Harbor.

The owners of the new store were Stan and Inez McClay. They lived just a short way down Ray Nash Drive, toward Arletta. The two experienced grocers from Tacoma recognized that Rosedale could support both the well-established Eide’s Store, almost a mile away, and McClay’s Superette. It was a success from the start.

The grand opening of McClay’s Superette was on May 7 and 8, 1954. This ad is from the May 7, 1954, Peninsula Gateway.

The McClays owned the store for only about five years. They were forced to give it up due to Stan’s poor health. He died in 1961. Although his obituary said he died of heart trouble, his death certificate says it was a brain tumor.

A loose timeline

Gig Harbor telephone directories give a general understanding of when the store changed names.

McClay’s Superette was listed in the directory through 1959. It then became Alta Mae’s Superette. That name was in the 1960, ’61 and ’62 telephone books.

Related story

Island View Market is for sale. Read about it here.

The next owners were the Waltons. Walton’s Superette was in the 1963 through 1966 books.

The last owners to use their own name for the store were the Connors. Connor’s Superette lasted just two years in the telephone books, 1967 and 1968. They were also the last ones to call the store a superette.

In the 1969 directory, it was Island View Market. It’s carried that name ever since.

Log cabin camouflage

The cute little log cabin store that the McClay’s built in 1954 is actually still there. The vertical logs are behind the horizontal siding, added after it became Island View Market.

Underneath its horizontal siding, Island View Market in Rosedale is still a cute little vertical log cabin store. Photo by Greg Spadoni.