Harned Drug at VFW

Kalama has always been a town full of “do-ers,” and when William and Lillian Harned moved in, they brought their advanced ideas to the growing city. The Harneds moved to and married in Kalama in 1895 and opened the town’s drugstore the same year. Mr. Harned, who was known as “Harned the Druggist”, made his career out of the storefront, giving the place the mark of an apothecary. For Mrs. Harned, keeping a home for her pharmacist husband did not quell her energy for change. After learning there were no high school athletic programs for girls at the time, Mrs. Harned saw an opportunity and began recruiting players for a basketball team. A trailblazer in her own right, she challenged the status quo of women of her time by having short hair and wearing bloomers, which was improper at the time. Empowered by the sport, players also began wearing bloomers as part of their uniform and were later nicknamed “The Bloomer Girls.” The women’s team became so popular through Mrs. Harned’s efforts, a gym was built out of old shiplap at the school, and it was the first of its kind in the county. In 1924, the school erected a new, more permanent gymnasium, which was used until the 1950s.