Fifty years in business is no easy feat to achieve, which is why Centerville Western Stores is thanking its customers with the opportunity to win a $50 gift card every Saturday for an entire year to celebrate the business’s 50th anniversary.
But giving away gift cards all year — which started earlier this month — isn’t all the business has planned for its 50th anniversary celebration.
The western wear store was originally founded in downtown Centralia in 1975 by Richard “Dick” Baker, who ran it with his wife, Joan. Now, Centerville is owned and managed by their daughter, Trish Hubbard.
“We really just want to honor my parents and what they did in the community,” Hubbard said. “Because we’re not like the Hamiltons who are remembered for doing such great things. We’re just the Bakers from Seattle, Washington, that had a dream and moved down here.”
The Chronicle visited Centerville on Wednesday, April 16, to talk to Hubbard about her family business origins, what she has planned for its future and what else she has planned for the 50th anniversary celebration.
Prior to founding and managing Centerville, Dick was a U.S. Navy veteran who worked as a traveling salesman for the family business, called The Baker Co., selling western clothing and gear. During this time, the family moved from Seattle to Centralia in 1973.
Not only was he selling western apparel, but he was working with retailers, showing them how it should be displayed.
“They didn’t listen to him to be able to sell more product,” Hubbard said. “So he thought, ‘How hard can it be?’”
Having been an investor, owning a lot of stock in the RV manufacturer Winnebago Industries, Dick liquidated his stock and used the money to purchase the old Oliver-Rickard Hardware building in downtown Centralia and opened his store.
For Dick and Joan, running a western apparel store wasn’t as hard as they thought and, eventually, Centerville Western Stores had 19 locations throughout Washington state and Oregon, with as many as 15 open at the same time.
Joan died in 2001, which led to Dick beginning to downsize the business.
“Once she passed away, he just started shutting them down. Their dream was just to have the one location and travel,” Hubbard said.
Though Dick and Joan never travelled as they had dreamed, they did accomplish another dream of establishing a family business they could pass on to their children and grandchildren.
After first starting to work at Centerville in 1980 at the age of 12, Hubbard has now been running the business herself for the past 20 years. Her daughter, Kassie, now works there, too.
She took over officially as owner after Dick died in 2022. Although he didn’t get to celebrate Centerville’s 50th anniversary, he did celebrate the 40th anniversary with a party at the Southwest Washington Fairgrounds’ Blue Pavillion.
“I asked him why we weren’t going to wait until the 50th, and he was like, ‘I’m not going to be around at the 50th, and I want to be able to party and celebrate and give back to the community to thank them for 40 years in business,’” Hubbard said.
Now, Centerville has a single location north of the Centralia Outlets, and though many businesses right now are facing economic uncertainty, business is still booming for Centerville, Hubbard said.
“We’re actually expanding when people are going out of business. We’re very blessed and thankful for all the greatness that Lewis County brings to us,” Hubbard added.
The expansion is in the east section of Centerville, an area Dick originally expanded to house a restaurant after some friends of his pitched the idea of opening one next door.
Since the restaurant never panned out, the space is now being converted to retail space and will be used for a clearance area at first. Eventually, Hubbard plans to have it be the new children’s section. She hopes to include a working carousel.
Centerville also serves as an unofficial local museum, where friends of Dick gave him various historical artifacts from Centralia, including multiple 19th century-era wagons that now hang from the ceiling all around the store.
“Most of the antiques are all from the old Jet Tavern,” Hubbard said. “… But a lot of people also just donate stuff because they want to see Uncle Joe’s lantern or whatever up there. Over there is an old doctor’s bag, and that’s from Bill and Teresa Knowles, who are locals from downtown Centralia, friends of ours. They were gonna throw it away, and I asked if we could put it up in the store. So, when they come in here, they can look up and see family history now.”
Centerville isn’t the only thing Dick started after moving to Centralia, as he and his friends started the Southwest Washington Fair’s rodeo, holding the first one in 1980.
“We’re partnering this year with the Southwest Washington Fair and we’re sponsoring the whole rodeo so that we can incorporate celebrating its founding with Centerville’s 50th anniversary,” Hubbard said. “... There was five of them, and they got together at Jet Tavern — well they probably went to the Jet Tavern — but Midway (Bar & Grill), because Verlyn Davis bought it. One of the founders was Verlyn Davis with my dad. They sat around drinking and decided that they needed a rodeo.”
While Hubbard and Centerville are sponsoring this year’s rodeo, it isn’t the only time she plans on being at the Southwest Washington Fairgrounds this year.
In November, Hubbard is planning on once again renting out the Blue Pavillion for another big party to celebrate the 50th anniversary like her father held for Centerville’s 40th.
“My parents loved the community and everything about it, so I want to do the same thing and give back,” Hubbard added.
She’s working on getting local country artists to perform, including Chris Guenther, along with giveaways, a barbecue and more.
“We’re gonna get Chris Guenther, but we also want to get Pat Murphy (and the Straitshot Band), and there’s this young group from Onalaska, too,” Hubbard said.
The first 50 attendees will get a gift bag. The party, which attendees will have to purchase tickets for, will kick off the official end of Centerville’s 50th anniversary.
Additionally, Hubbard has plans for an official 50th anniversary sale coming up in June.
Centerville Western Store is located at 1500 Lum Road in Centralia.
To learn more, visit Centerville’s website at https://centervillewesternstores.com/.
For more information on the upcoming 50th anniversary sale in June, follow the business on its Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/centervillewesternstore.
