Photos by Cheryl Landes

Stark’s Vacuum Museum is on a wall in the Stark’s Vacuums showroom in downtown Portland, Oregon. Twenty-five vacuum cleaners from the late 1800s through the late 1970s are on display.

There’s also a timeline that covers milestones in vacuum cleaner history and technology, along with old ads and articles published in popular consumer magazines.

The museum is located at 107 NE Grand Avenue, on the corner of NE Grand and NE Couch (pronounced “Cooch”) Street.  Free parking is available in a lot on the corner of NE Martin Luther King Jr Blvd. and NE Davis Street.

The museum’s hours are the same as the Stark’s Vacuums store: 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday.

Stark’s Vacuums opened in 1932 at the Grand Avenue location. Today, the business has 10 stores in Portland, Gresham, Hillsboro, Beaverton, Happy Valley, Wilsonville, Sherwood, and Bend, Oregon; and Vancouver, Washington. I’m one of their Vancouver customers, and I highly recommend their repair services and face masks.