The City of Murals has added three new installments to its collection in the past three years, thanks to the Campbell family and Eastern Washington painter Don Brown.

All three of the new murals — the 75th, 76th and 77th in the city of Toppenish’s four-decade collection — can be found on the façade of Blue Sky Market, originally known as Campbell’s Grocery.

The market at 116 Chehalis Ave. was first built in 1938 by Robert and Agnes Campbell, a Lower Yakima Valley couple who graduated from high school during the Great Depression. The new murals depict the first 22 years of the store, which started out as a 25-by-25-foot market and 25-by-25-foot residence before two significant add-ons in 1944 and 1960.

Brown completed the third mural this summer, showing the market’s transformation into an 8,500-square-foot, full-service market. The Campbells were married in 1935 and three years later started their grocery careers.

“My dad was a strong young man, and he started digging the 50-foot-by-25-foot footings that ended up being Campbell’s Grocery Store,” said the couple’s son Paul Campbell, who worked with the Toppenish Mural Society and the former owners of Blue Sky Market, Mike and Janet Mayer, to commission Brown for the three-mural project that started in the summer of 2020. 

“He had a philosophy that if he could sell groceries to the people of Toppenish, the town would help take care of his family,” Campbell added. “They were one of 19 grocery stores in town at the time, but they ended up being successful because of how they treated their customers.”

The Campbells always did whatever they could to help the people of Toppenish, extending credit lines to their neighbors — most of whom were farmers — and offering a food delivery service so customers didn’t have to come into town for their food and supplies.

“They provided credit to a lot of farming families, and people really appreciated that because they only got paid once a month,” Campbell said. “People back then really struggled, and my dad was there to help them. His whole philosophy in life was to help others because he knew it would come back to him in a positive way. He just wanted to provide a service and give back to his community — and people loved him for that.”

The first mural, based on a family photograph, shows Robert and Agnes Campbell standing outside their store in the late 1930s with a sign that says “Open for Business” and selling candy bars at three for 10 cents.

The second mural, depicted with a collection of historical photos, shows the expansion of the market with a new marquee, selling “new spuds” for 7 cents, tuna for 33 cents a can, and Tide detergent for 27 cents. It also shows the market’s expanded collection of canned goods, two large apple containers out front for 97 cents a bucket, and the newly installed meat counter with pork steak for 49 cents a pound.

“Each of the murals tells a story,” Campbell said. “In the first one, my folks were just starting out. The second one shows the first expansion, which doubled the size of the store and featured a meat counter and some basic refrigeration. The third mural shows when it became a large grocery store in 1960, with longer aisles, an expanded meat market, and a cooler in the back.”

The original 625-square foot store grew into an 8,500-square-foot, full-service market in 1960 — called the Northgate Super-Duper Market — and offered one of the most expansive meat counters in the Lower Valley. The meat market featured sawdust on the floors to absorb the blood from the meat and to help cushion the employees’ feet.

“The meat counter was a showcase at that time,” Campbell said. “We were just starting to slice the meat to order and wrap it in cellophane. That was a new concept, and the Super-Duper Market was one of the first ones in town that could do it.” 

He also recalls the 50-gallon pickle buckets, which were a big hit with customers.

“Pickles were pretty popular back then, and they were best when they were cold,” he said. “We sold them for 5 cents apiece.”

Campbell noted that the Northgate Super-Duper Market was affiliated with Wray’s Marketfresh IGA but it wasn’t an IGA store. His parents had formed an advertising agreement with Wray’s founder Ray Brown in Yakima, but the Campbells never went into business with Wray’s.

“The name of the store changed several times, but my parents were always independent,” Campbell said, adding that the store is the longest-running grocery business in Yakima County.

The new owners of Blue Sky Market — Freddie Perales and his mother, Leonor Garza — are planning an 85th anniversary celebration on Sept. 24. The owners of Mercado Guadalajara in Toppenish purchased the market from the Mayers earlier this year and they want to honor the store’s rich history. The Mayers are just as proud as the Campbells about the market’s tradition.

“We wanted to make sure it was going to stay in good hands with someone who takes the same amount of pride in it as we do,” Mike Mayer said in early 2023. “We wanted someone local; someone who would be in the store every day like we have been.”

Campbell and his siblings will always hold a special place in their hearts for the market and the adjacent property. Their parents always made it known how much they appreciated the help of Agnes’ father, Barney Olson, who supplied them with the startup capital they needed to open Campbell’s Grocery.

“My grandfather worked for Northern Pacific Railroad for 45 years, and he helped them get started,” Campbell said. “But my parents put in all the work to make the market what it became. Even during hard times, they did well enough to buy a house across the street. Then, about 15 years later, they turned it into one of the most successful family-owned businesses this town has ever known. 

“My brother, sister and I are very proud of what our parents were able to do — not just for our family but for the people of Toppenish.”