Falkenberg Jewelers: Before and After--And Before!
The 1878 ad for Day's Drug Store, shows
what we now call the Reynolds-Day Building. In the ad it looks almost
exactly as we see it today, over a hundred years later. But, wait a
minute, you say. Where's the clock? The whimsical, charming,
much-photographed clock in front of Falkenberg's Jewelers isn't
pictured in the engraving because Kristian Falkenberg (and the
distinctive clock) hadn't arrived in Walla Walla yet. Mr. Kristian
Falkenberg, "jeweler, silversmith, and optician" emigrated
from Norway in 1893. After settling in Walla Walla, he opened his
shop at 42 East Main in the space that is now occupied by Macy's shoe
department. Mr. Falkenberg installed the magnificent American-made
clock on the sidewalk outside his store in 1912, and started the
routine of winding it once a week that continues to this day. A young
William O Douglas, then a student at Whitman College, and in his
later life a Justice of the Supreme Court, was employed at
Falkenberg's as a stock boy. Another important employee at the store
was Jerry Cundiff, who started work there in 1913 and eventually
bought the business from Mr. Falkenberg.
Meanwhile, the Reynolds-Day Building
down the street was going through a number of changes. In a room
upstairs in 1878 the first Washington Constitutional Convention was
held. Downstairs Dr. D.H. Day operated his drug
store. In 1889 A.H. Reynolds, a prominent "capitalist"
and the "Chairman of Streetlights" moved his business
there. Hence the "Reynolds" in Reynolds-Day.
Time wrought more changes to the
building over the years: J. C. Penney's was housed there, as was
Payless Drugs, and a bank. And in the 1960s the lovely historic front
we see today was modernized (and obscured). In 1973 the Cundiffs were
faced with a problem: Falkenberg's lost its lease and they needed to
move their store elsewhere. However, the Cundiff's problem turned out
to be a great thing for Walla Walla. They chose to move Falkenberg's
to the Reynolds-Day building in 1974. This was no small project; the
business had to move and so did the 3000 pound clock. Skip Cundiff
remembers that a sign company was hired to do the moving of the
clock. A crane lowered it in place in front of its new location,
concrete footings were poured, and it was bolted to the sidewalk.
Falkenberg's Jewelers was now where we know it today in terms of
location, but the old Reynolds-Day Building's 1880s character was
still hidden by a facade. The building's original beauty was
revealed when it became one of the Walla Walla Downtown restoration
projects in the 1990s. A combination of Cundiff family funds and
grants made it possible to remove the modern facade, and the original
features of the Reynolds-Day Building came to light after being
hidden (and nearly forgotten) for years. The Reynolds-Day
Building received the Grand Prize in 1993 from Walla Walla
Architectural Awards for exterior restoration and interior
renovation.
So, we have the Cundiff family to thank
for preserving two essential pieces of Walla Walla history--the
historic, elegant Reynolds-Day Building and the magnificent
Falkenberg clock.
The Days' Drugs ad and the 1970s photo
of Falkenberg's are used with the kind permission of Joe Drazan, and
come from his wonderful Bygone Walla Walla photo collection.
