About Lake Oswego Jewelers

Our family owned and operated business started in simpler times in the 1930’s.  Our founder and grandfather Frank Hoag started in the back of his uncle’s hardware store, fixing watches for the local railroad men and lumber workers in the coastal town Newport, Oregon.  Frank had always had a fascination how things worked, so as a child he started building clocks out of discarded materials for his family and friends.

Eventually Frank caught the eye of a very well respected local watchmaker in Newport, whom took Frank under his wing as an apprentice. In 1934, Frank married his longtime love, Bonnie.  When money allowed, Bonnie started the business we have today.  She started by buying one wedding band for display, when it sold she saved to buy two bands and so it began.
 
In the early 1940’s, Frank and his wife Bonnie moved their small family to the biggest city in Oregon, Portland. It was there that Frank excelled.  During the day he worked on watches and jewelry in his stand alone store, and after supper he would open his television store in the evening. Yes, a television store, right next door to his jewelry store.  Frank had designed and manufactured, with his son James, aerial antennas to capture signals from as far away as Seattle, Washington.  Frank hired family members to install the antennas in the neighborhood, helping Portland come of age in the beginning of the T.V. era.  Frank was accomplished in many other ways as well as being a brilliant artist.
 
In the late 1950’s, Frank and Bonnie had moved their jewelry store across the street from their good friend and fellow business owner, Fred Meyer,  In 1961 Frank and Fred came up with a wonderful idea, have Frank and Bonnie move their jewelry store inside of Fred’s newly remodeled ‘all in one stop’ store.  These were happy days for the close friends, until Frank’s sudden and fatal heart attack, at the age 47 the following year.
 
Bonnie continued the family dream.  She was very loved and respected by all who knew her.  She was beautiful and smart, yet a humble woman.  Her family and jewelry industry worked side-by-side with her in her time of need and beyond. Bonnie was hard worker at her store and a strong matriarch to her family.   She was the past president and long time member of the ABWA(American Business Woman’s Association) receiving many accommodations. Bonnie was a world traveler for her business and brought many hard to find jewelry pieces and gemstones back to her store.  Many local Portland retail jewelers bought her fine jewelry right from her counters at her retail prices.  She had a good eye for quality and value.  Bonnie ran her store until retiring the early 1980’s, when her eldest son, James, took the lead in the business. 
 
The family knew that the now aging Fred Meyer store they were leasing from was going to close for good.  In 1985 James and his daughter Patti searched for a new home for the family business.  With much thought about their future (and past) for their families, they decided on Lake Oswego, Oregon.  This family oriented little town was perfect, besides, James’ wife Kay had been raised in Lake Oswego from an infant to 9 years old before moving to Portland where the two met and married.  The lease was signed and the second branch of the family business opened for the first time in Lake Oswego in the spring of 1986.  In 1989, the Portland store closed and James worked side-by-side with his daughter until his retirement in 2010. 
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