The Local Legends of Tualatin: Small Businesses Worth Falling in Love With

As the housing developments crept across the Tualatin Valley over the past century and a half, one family kept farming the same land — and seven generations later, they're still there.

Lee Farms: Seven Generations and the Last Working Farm Left in Tualatin

The story of Lee Farms traces back to 1869, when the Jurgen family first established a farmstead on the fertile soils of the Tualatin Valley, growing row crops to feed their families before eventually migrating into cattle farming, dairy production, hay hauling, strawberry picking, and pie making. The Martinazzi family joined two decades later in 1889, and the Lee family arrived in 1936. The modern Lee Farms operation truly began through the 1952 marriage of Laurance "Larry" Lee and Loyce Martinazzi, the fourth generation of what has become one continuous family farming tradition.

What set the family's path apart from so many other Tualatin Valley farms came down to a deliberate choice in the 1960s and 1970s, as the surrounding area began urbanizing rapidly. Rather than sell the land to developers — as so many neighboring farms eventually did — Larry and Loyce opened their strawberry fields to the public for u-pick visits, beginning the retail side of the business that would ultimately keep the farm alive. Craig Lee, the fifth generation, took over ownership and started raising Christmas trees alongside his father in 1975 while the family's crops shifted over the decades from hay to pumpkins to strawberries to sunflowers, adapting continuously to keep the farm financially viable as the land around them transformed into subdivisions and shopping centers.

Today, Lee Farms spans roughly 150 acres — including land the family still farms after losing 45 acres to eminent domain when Interstate 205 was constructed through the property in the 1960s — and is recognized as the last working farm remaining in Tualatin. Craig's daughter Annie now operates the farm market and bakery and hosts the Easter Egg Hunt and Berry Festival; her sisters Kara and Teagan manage the outdoor festivities for the Sunflower Festival, Fall Harvest Festival, and Christmas tree season; and the farm's seventh generation, including Teagan's children, are already growing up working alongside their parents and grandparents on the same land their ancestors first broke ground on more than a century and a half ago.

As sixth-generation Annie Lee Bartelamia put it during the farm's 150th anniversary celebration, "You look around at all the farms that are becoming housing developments, and there's no farms. So we feel really fortunate that our ancestors saw value in having this farm and passing it on to us." Lee Farms' country store and bakery now offer fresh berries, beef, pork, seasonal produce, and more than twenty flavors of homemade pies and donuts, alongside the seasonal festivals — berry picking in spring, sunflower fields in summer, pumpkin patches in fall, and nostalgic carriage rides through the Christmas tree farm in winter — that have made the family's working farm into one of Tualatin's most cherished community gathering places.

Why locals love them: The last working farm in a city that has watched nearly every other one disappear into subdivisions, run by the seventh generation of the same family that has worked this exact land since 1869.

Why Local Businesses Matter to Tualatin

Lee Farms' 150-plus years of continuous family stewardship — through urbanization, eminent domain, and seven full generations — reflect exactly what Annie Lee Bartelamia describes as the family's deepest source of pride: the rich heritage of the Tualatin community that her ancestors saw fit to preserve and pass down, rather than sell off as the city grew up around them.

FAQ: Supporting Local Businesses in Tualatin

Which local businesses should I support in Tualatin? Tualatin is home to Lee Farms, the last working farm remaining in the city, continuously operated by the same family since 1869 and now in its seventh generation of stewardship.

Why are small businesses important to a community? As Lee Farms demonstrates, multi-generational local businesses preserve a community's agricultural and cultural heritage even as surrounding development transforms the landscape, giving residents a tangible, living connection to the area's history.

Discover More Local Favorites in Tualatin

Discover more amazing local businesses that make our community special — explore Discover Tualatin. Support the heart of our community — see more neighborhood favorites featured here.

References:

Lee Farms. (n.d.). About Lee Farms. https://www.leefarmsoregon.com/about

Tualatin Life. (2019). Lee Farms Celebrates 150 Years in Tualatin. https://tualatinlife.com/history/lee-farms-celebrates-150-years-in-tualatin/

Tualatin Life. (2021). Seventh Generation Is Now Part of 1869 Lee Farms in Tualatin. https://tualatinlife.com/history/seventh-generation-is-now-part-of-1869-lee-farms-in-tualatin/