The Vashon Hardware Store building was the first store in the community and is the only commercial building remaining from the earliest period of this rural business district. Initially built in 1890 as a general store, the building began to be used as specialty hardware store around 1929 and has been in nearly continuous operation since its opening. The building façade was modernized in the mid-1930s with the addition of a distinctive false front designed in the Moderne style. The building now houses a restaurant.

Located approximately one mile southeast of Vashon’s business center on Beall Road, this 23-acre district is significant for its association with the development and growth of the horticultural industry on Vashon Island and King County from 1888 to 1989, and for its contribution to the cultivation and preservation of orchids and roses. More than 500,000 feet of greenhouse space is given to flowers, tomatoes, and cucumbers and a truckload of flowers leaves from here to Seattle markets every morning. The complex has been a prominent Vashon Island commercial operation and employer since the establishment of the greenhouse company. During the plant’s 101 years of business, it became the nation’s largest grower of roses and an orchid establishment of international renown. The Vashon plant closed in the 1970s when operations were moved to Bogota, Columbia. The district contains 59 greenhouses, representing 100 years of the evolution of greenhouse technology, and the power plant used to generate the heat for the greenhouses. Also within the district are the homes of Harrington and Beall family members, including the 1885 Hilen Harrington Log House, a 1892 Queen Anne-style house built by the Harrington family, and the ca. 1898 Beall Family Home.