Once upon a time Seaside was a summer destination for visitors from Portland and beyond, delivered to the city via the daddy train. The train has long stopped running and U.S. Highway 26 is the preferred route, but the Seaside Museum & Historical Society still highlights the city’s days gone by through its archives, events and exhibits.

Established in 1974, the museum offers a visual montage of Seaside’s unique mix of history, tourism and commerce, with special celebrations like the Prom Centennial, the Fourth of July Old-Fashioned Social and Holiday Tea.

“Lulu’s,” curated by board member and City Councilor Tita Montero, pays tribute to an iconic, giant advertising image that hung in Harrison’s Bakery for many years.

Along with new exhibits, visitors will see familiar galleries featuring the Seaside Fire Department, the Seaside Signal’s original printing press and a diorama depicting Seaside as it was in 1899. There’s also a remembrance of the 1959 visit to Seaside by John F. Kennedy, a U.S. senator at the time, when he spoke to the national conference of the American Federation of Labor.

Visitors to the museum will see details on the 100th anniversary of the Prom, a look back at the Seaside Hotel and a revived and expanded Lewis and Clark Exhibition, highlighting Seaside’s role as the end of the Lewis and Clark Trail.

The library and research facilities are also well-used.

In 1984, Butterfield Cottage, formerly located downtown, was moved next door to the museum. It has been restored to be used as a museum depicting a beach cottage and rooming house in 1912, inspired by consultants and women’s magazines of the time. The cottage is famous for hosting annual gingerbread teas every holiday season for more than 30 years.

In a new exhibit, designer Robin Montero has recreated the House of Roberts, the custom design millinery and hat shop that opened in the building in 1958.

On the grounds, members of the Sou’wester Garden Club donate thousands of hours each year to create a heritage garden, featuring flowers and shrubbery that would have been common more than a century ago.