The Nolan Farmstead sat where the current Nolan Town Center until 2005. Frank Nolan was a decorated World War II hero who raised his children at the farm.

The Nolan Town Center has almost everything you need — groceries, hardware, fast food, sit-down restaurants, coffee, postal services, manicures and food massage, banking services, chocolates to die for and plenty of parking. How handy is that?

But why is it called the Nolan Town Center? Here’s the story.

Frank Nolan was a decorated gunner in the Pacific Theatre during World War II. He came home after the war and married his sweetheart, Doris McCaffery.

Two years later they bought the McCaffery farm, which lay on both sides of Highland Avenue west of what was then Redmond’s city limits. Their farm included the south part of Dry Canyon.

On the land north of Highland, Frank grew potatoes. On the south side of Highland was their big, white barn and the farmhouse. That’s where Frank and Doris raised vegetables, prize-winning flowers and four children.

Big trees shaded the house and poplars lined 23rd Street, a dirt road that ran along the west side of the house. A cistern under the home was kept filled with water from the “the ditch” — probably Lateral C of the Old Pilot Butte system.

In the winter, when the canal shut down and the cistern ran dry, the kids were loaded into the car for baths at grandma’s house in town.

Highland Avenue provided entertaining transportation. Sheep were herded down it when changing pastures. All the carnival rides bound for the Deschutes County Fair paraded past the Nolan homestead as well. On the north side of Highland was a pond that froze every winter and provided a skating rink. It was a pretty ideal situation in which to grow up.

But Redmond also grew up. Traffic increased. 23rd Street was widened and paved. Highland Avenue was widened and then widened again, until the front door of the Nolan home opened right into traffic.

In 2005, Frank Nolan sold the property to a developer and the Nolan Town Center replaced the Nolan Farm. The Dry Canyon became the American Legion Park.

Progress is good but it takes a toll. The big poplar trees are gone, so is the pond. There is no landmark barn announcing Redmond to westbound travelers. Sheep no longer wander down Highland and the farmhouse is gone.

The next time you are shopping at the Nolan Town Center, see if you can figure out where the farmhouse was. Hint: If the person taking your order says “Do you want fries with that?” then you are there.