Walla Walla in the 1920s

If you are curious about what went on in Walla Walla during the Roaring Twenties, watch the brief video I made featuring stories from Up to the Times magazine and photos provided by Joe Drazan from his Bygone Walla Walla collection. CDs of Joe's many photos and ads can be purchased at Walla Walla Public Library and proceeds from their sale benefit the library.

Walla Walla's Livery Stables

Small's Opera House and Livery Stable 1890

These days we take owning a car for granted and have trouble imagining how important a good livery stable was to a town up to the early 1900s. Livery stables were once essential to towns of just about any size, not just for residents but also for visitors. One could rent a horse or board one at a livery stable within walking distance of a hotel or home. Walla Walla had a number of good livery stables and we are fortunate that we can still see a couple of the finest of their time.  
Livery is defined as the care and boarding of horses for a fee, and a horse owner could choose different boarding "plans." One could pay just to have a horse housed in a livery stable but have responsibility for feeding and grooming it and even cleaning out its stall. Or an owner could subscribe to a more expensive plan where the livery stable did everything, in some cases even exercising or training a horse. A vital service was provided by these stables to those who did not own a horse. Liveries had coaches available for hire and even provided delivery and moving services. If one needed to move a piece of furniture, visit a relative in the country or just take a Sunday ride, it all started at the nearby livery.
In the 1880s one could board a horse downstairs at Mr. Small's livery on Main street and then go upstairs to take in a lecture or musical performance. The Small Livery Stables and Opera House is gone now, but its ornate appearance is represented accurately in the mural in Heritage park. An imposing brick livery stable we can still see at 4th and Poplar was built in 1905 by Mordo MacDonald and housed 75 horses on three floors. Fires were common in livery stables; the Union Bulletin reports an especially big blaze in 1915 when nine horses died. Brick liveries were more likely to survive a fire and more likely to be repurposed rather than torn down.

The Former McBride's Livery Stable

We still have a prime example at First and Poplar, the former McBride's Livery. Mr. McBride boarded horses, rented carriages, and even provided an ambulance service. If one had an outing planned for a big group, an especially large "Tally Ho"carriage could be rented at McBride's. Hack (short for hackney) carriage service was in demand around the clock. For night driving a hack was equipped with two ornate lamps lighted by sperm oil candles. Drivers at McBride's were elegantly attired in navy blue uniforms and soldier-like caps. The brick building that remains was only part of McBride's operation; large frame buildings stood where there is a parking lot now. McBride's needed lots of space because they not only rented carriages, they built them; their finely-crafted hack carriages were sold in Walla Walla and Pendleton. A detailed article in the April 1908 issue of Up to the Times described McBride's process of crafting a hack carriage and their photo of a McBride-produced carriage is pictured here. 

A McBride-built Carriage 1907

  In the early 1900s the livery business was starting to fade. The stables were threatened by the increasing number of automobiles and some even banned "horseless carriages" from their property. The McBrides gradually reduced their livery business and started to sell off their hack carriages. Charles McBride kept with the times by operating an auto taxi service out of his former livery business. It was probably with reluctance that Mr. McBride and other Walla Walla stable owners gave up their fine horses and stately carriages. It is fortunate that some of their buildings still stand and remind us that there was a time when we relied on livery stables to keep Walla Walla moving.

Late-breaking Livery News!!

 

McDonald's Livery in Process of Restoration

Since I wrote my post about McBride's livery, a building at Fourth and Poplar has been going through an exciting refurbishing. Yellow paint has been stripped, mellow brick restored and the original signs on the front and side revealed to show us all that Mordo McDonald's Stable filled the huge building. Joe Drazan provides a great photo of the interior.  Up to The Times featured many ads and a shot of the exterior from 1908.

Interior of McDonald's Livery Stable 1910

McDonald's Livery Stable 1908

Mr. McDonald was a well known horse dealer and breeder in Walla Walla and for a while limited his business to providing horses to the government. He furnished eight thousand horses for service in the Philippines. 

A 1910 pamphlet described Mordo McDonald's business: "One of the best known livery and sale stables is McDonald's, corner Fourth and Poplar Streets. Here you will find a large brick barn of modern type and equipped with every convenience.It comprises three floors and will accommodate 75 horses."

It is such a privilege to watch this handsome building through its stages of restoration.

A.M. Jensen's:The Modern Daylight Store

In 1920 a building was erected on the corner of Main and Spokane the likes of which Walla Walla had never seen. Mr. A. M. Jensen, an established local businessman, hired the Beezer Brothers from Seattle to build a department store that would make a statement.The two stories of A. M. Jensen's store were clad in intricate sculptural forms made of white glazed terra cotta. Surrounded by stately brick offices with tall curved windows that were typical of Walla Walla's downtown in 1920, this new building must have seemed quite the architectural anomaly. Up to the Times magazine, February 1920, described it as "a handsome building, metropolitan in its appointments." Mr. Jensen's ad described the residents of the Walla Walla Valley as "progressive people" who "demand that the store keeper do his share and provide merchandizing service in keeping with the present day and age."

The architects, Louis and Michael Beezer, were twins and devout Catholics. They had commissions all over Washington state, but designed mostly churches and banks, including Walla Walla's First National (now Banner) and Baker-Boyer Bank. The Beezers were based in Seattle but also had an office locally, in the Drumheller Building. The brothers' experience with designing churches led to their acquaintance with Charles J. Connick, a master stained glass designer, and they invited him to design windows for the store. Mr. Connick knew Mr. Jensen liked to describe his establishment as " the modern daylight store" and created windows of leaded glass to illuminate the interior. The combination of Connick's windows and the roof-to-pavement white glazed terra cotta facade made A. M. Jensen's bright and beautiful inside and out. 

Mr. Jensen had a department store on Alder for years before he opened this new store on Main in 1920. He knew he could not rely on his remarkable building alone to attract customers; Jensen's offered a wide variety of clothing, appliances, furniture, radios and toys. The 90 employees were not only sales staff; some worked in the "Marinello Beauty Salon" and there were cooks and waitpersons staffing Jensen's Tea Room. A 1920 ad for the Tea Room said Saturday evening dinner was available for $1, and entertainment was provided by "Cowan's orchestra, conducted by Miss Etta Holt."

Mr. Jensen died in 1948 at age 80; he had been in the department store business for 36 years. The Allied Department Stores bought his store and in 1951 changed its name to Bon Marché and began "improvements." It is not clear when the terra cotta on the street level was bricked over, when the elegant wrought iron awning over the front entrance was removed, or what happened to Charles Connick's leaded glass windows. A 1993 parade photo with the Bon Marché in the background shows an awning running around the building as it does today, brick covering the first floor terracotta and the upstairs windows covered. The Bon operated their store until 2005 when Federated Department stores rebranded the store as Macy's.

Walla Walla residents are grateful to still have a department store downtown, and Macy's inside still has a classic department store "feel." The architectural drawing provided by Joe Drazan shows us what A.M. Jensen's looked like in 1920. Standing across Main street and looking above the awning, the remaining sculptural white glazed terra cotta facade can still be seen on the second story, and using our imagination we can visualize it covering the first story too. Our mind's eye can uncover the upstairs windows and enlarge those downstairs. With some effort, 93 years after it was built, we can still see A. M. Jensen's one-of-a-kind "modern daylight store."

A Keen Little Building and Its Neighbor

A modest building can have as interesting a past as a grand one; that's the conclusion I came to after researching the O. D. Keen Building at what is now #15 and #19 Spokane. It's a perfectly balanced little building--the two entry doors slant slightly and give the entries an interest that doors inserted flat against the exterior would not. Each half of the building has a large inviting front shop window and there are subtle but effective incised designs along the sides and the top of the building's facade. If you peer into #15, you will see that a new business, The Interior, is in the process of moving in. Number 19 now houses Lotus Imports.

When Orlan D. Keen built this building about 1935 it had just one address, #15, and one front door and seemed to be intended to be "automotive." A huge door at the back could have admitted any vehicle. Its first inhabitants according to the Walla Walla City Directory were Battery and Electric Service Company, who moved there in 1935. They were an "official Willard Service Station" and specialized in "Magnetos, Gas and Oil, Auto and Radio Repairing, All Makes of Battery and Ignition." Battery and Electric Service occupied the Keen Building until after the war, when Hunt and Lindstrom's General Auto Repair moved in.

Even though it's no longer there, I'd like to talk about the O. D. Keen Building's neighbor next door, the former #19. This was the Keen Apartments and seems to have been built even earlier, probably 1930. The five units of the Keen Apartments were there from 1931 until 1964, and with automotive businesses next door it could never have been a peaceful place to live. I asked around to find out if anyone could remember the Keen Apartments. Doug Saturno confirmed that the apartments were indeed a separate structure from the O. D. Keen Building and remembered they were brick. The only remaining physical evidence we have of the Keen Apartments is four tiny windows cut into the Mill Creek embankment that looked out to the creek from the building's basement. Tenants of the Keen Apartments were mostly widows and single gentlemen, with an occasional couple. Zoning at the time must have allowed businesses as well as residences. A messenger service called 55 (their business name was also their phone number in the days when 2 digits was all you needed) was operated from the Keen Apartments and owned by a Mr. George Elkinton. He offered delivery service in "modern trucks and vans" and could do household moving and retail store delivery. In the 1960s "Hank" and "Kelly" each had barber shops in unit #1. After 30 years, and a name change to Millbrooke Apartments, the building's listing disappeared from the city directory along with its tenants.

When the apartment building was razed I can't be sure, but by 1965 #19 Spokane was no more. I resigned myself to never knowing what the Keen Apartments looked like until Joe Drazan found me a 1931 photo taken during the serious flood that occurred that year. The apartment building was right next to Mill Creek, and the photo shows water gushing over the bridge and, in the background, one can see the long narrow brick Keen Apartments. Due to a disaster, a building that might not have ordinarily been photographed was captured for history. 

By 1964 the Keen Apartments were gone. Next door Hunt and Lindstrom left the O. D. Keen Building in 1968. For the next 32 years the O. D. Keen was relegated to mere storage space. It was used until 2000 as a convenient warehouse for Naimy's Furniture, whose retail store was on the corner of Spokane and Main. Good things happened when Steve Rapp of Allegro Cyclery bought the O. D. Keen Building in 2000. Steve described it as pretty much a "shell" at that time, but with the help of RTL Construction, he restored the building's original features and gave it some pleasant new additions. The building was divided into two spaces; the two shop windows were installed, as were the entry doors. The massive garage door at the back had been boarded up for years and was a wonderful surprise when it was uncovered. The understated but charming geometric designs on the front were restored and highlighted. O. D. Keen's name in relief at the top of the building was painted so that a passerby could easily make out the man who built it. His apartments next door are gone but we still have the O. D. Keen Building, and it is looking better than ever. 

Thanks, Joe Drazan for the 1931 photo of the Keen Apartments.

Franklin Motor Company

It is not often that we get to see history being revealed day by day, but that's just what's happening at the corner of Spokane and Alder. The building that had been the location of Walla Walla Upholstery for many years is being stripped of its facade, and lets us glimpse the original brick front of the building of 1908, the Inland Auto Company. The Inland Auto company was where you could buy a Franklin. Not many of us have heard of a Franklin, a luxury car with an air-cooled engine, full-elliptic springs and a laminated wood chassis frame. The Franklin, produced in Syracuse, New York, was known as The Car Beautiful. Perhaps you are thinking that 1908 seems early for there to be a significant market for autos in Walla Walla. The February 1908 issue of Up to the Times magazine claimed that "Automobiling is becoming more and more popular in the Walla Walla Valley. At present there are about 60 autos in the city alone." By 1909 Inland Auto Company was renamed Walla Walla Franklin Motor Company and their showrooms at "Number One, Auto Row," featured attractive displays and a "very fine line of Franklin cars." Thanks to Joe Drazan's collection we have a 1909 photo of the "fine garage" of the Inland Auto Company. Who were the gentlemen photographed standing in the building's doorway? Possibly the manager, Eory Corkrum, William Waldron, one of the several "machinists," Harry Bathainny, the bookkeeper, or Charles Scott, a "vulcaniser."

If you were shopping for an auto in 1910, you had choices other than a Franklin. You could purchase a White Motor Car at MacBride's, Arthur Lutz on Palouse Street could sell you a Reo, and John Smith, dealer of "High Grade Buggies and Carriages, " carried Studebakers. However, Up to the Times reported in a 1910 issue that "a list of the number of motor cars for which licenses are now in force in the state of Washington, shows that the Franklin air-cooled automobile heads the column with a total of 322." Isabella Kirkman, widow of William, purchased a Franklin for her family in 1912.

The Franklin Motor Car Corporation did not survive the Depression. Sales declined nationwide and they eventually declared bankruptcy in 1935. Walla Walla's Franklin Motor Company sold its last Franklins in 1922. Their building retained its identity as an auto dealer, though, for the next twenty years. In the 1920s and 30s Mosley Wholesale Sales, Monnett Motor Company (Cadillac and Hupmobile), and Ruley Motor Company (Hudson and Essex ) all had dealerships there. The last auto dealer was Kerr Motor Company; Kerr sold Buicks and Pontiacs and left in 1941. Kentworthy's Battery and Electric was the next occupant and it was followed by Myers Electric and Radio. Myers was in the building for over twenty years and during their tenure evolved from "Electric and Radio" to "Radio and TV." Most Walla Walla citizens remember upholstery businesses operating there from the 60s until recently. Goodwill next door has plans to expand into the Inland Auto Company space and are responsible for the remodeling going on now. A gentleman who owned the building for many years said that the original Inland Auto Company sign was still faintly visible on the back wall of the building. I stood in the alley and looked long and hard. Finally I was able to discern the ghost of just one word: AUTO. It is gratifying that the old building retains a little of the sign that represents its historical importance as the place where early Walla Walla citizens could, for many years, purchase a Franklin, The Car Beautiful.

Thanks to Kirkman House Museum for the photo of the Kirkman Family in their Franklin and to Joe Drazan for the early photo of Franklin Motor Company.

Gracious Gardener's Department Store

It is not hard to envision a department store occupying the large building on the corner of 3rd and Main where today you can find the AmericanWest Bank. What is hard to imagine is just how elegant and varied an establishment the three-floored Gardner's Department Store was. There was a department store at that location prior to Gardner's. The Schwabacher brothers had one there until they sold out to Gardner's in 1909. The building we see today, though, was built by the Gardners. You would expect glass cases displaying "Dependable Wearables" as the ads said. The second floor sold ladies' dresses made of exotic sounding fabrics such as "Marquisette Voile, Rice Cloth and Illuminated Grennadine." You could purchase children's clothes on the same floor: "Smart Dresses of Serge for Girls in their teens" and "Chic Little Coats for the little folks." Gardner's Department Store took fashion seriously. The Union Bulletin featured news stories about Ward Gardner's buying trips to New York. 

Friends of mine shared their Gardner's memories. June remembers Gardner's annual spring fashion shows and what an honor it was to be asked to model for them. A 1947 Union Bulletin article reported that the spring review would feature "the newest in spring creations for the discerning miss or matron" and would be "modeled by a bevy of mannequins, both adult and juvenile." Diane emphasizes that Gardner's wasn't the kind of place you would paw through the merchandise. Instead, the elderly salesladies would bring goods out from display cases for you to consider. A few of the employees were memorable; Betty recalls how during the war--when new silk stockings could not be bought--a lady named Lulu was stationed back by the elevator. Customers could bring Lulu their stockings full of runs and she would mend them. Jodee remembers Ila May, who was in charge of the Yarn Department, and could be found there any day knitting or crocheting. Ila May regularly conducted knitting classes and wore outfits she had created with her needles.

You might not expect that in the same store where you could buy baby clothes imported from Italy and fine leather gloves, you were also able to purchase lamb chops. "Ham Shanks, fine for boiling, Beef Roast, grade A, and fryers, young birds" were displayed on the first floor, but were cut in the basement. A gentleman who works at the bank now told me that the butchers who cut meat down below left gashes made by their cleavers in the floor's supporting posts. The meat and produce areas maintained the same elegance as the clothing departments. White-coated clerks were at your service there. Even as early as 1937, "misters" were in place that kept the fruit and vegetables "fresh and cold." Everyday goods such as canned food, laundry soap, clocks, lamps, and pots and pans were also available at Gardner's. Customers could call in orders--before noon--and have groceries sent to their homes with no delivery charge. Joe Drazan provides us with the 1949 photo of Gardner's and its fleet of delivery trucks.

Walla Walla had Gardner's goods and services available for many years and when the department store closed its doors in 1980, its customers knew it was not likely there would ever be another Gardner's Department Store. The store that provided one-stop shopping in gracious surroundings was sadly missed.

 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.

The Corner Cafe

I often ask friends to share their memories of Walla Walla buildings and sometimes ask for ideas of what building to write about. Diane suggested the one at the corner of Main and 2nd, "the one with all that decorative stuff all over it." She had an ulterior motive, Diane did; she had a fond 1960s memory involving hot chocolate--with a scoop of ice cream in it--served in that very building, and couldn't remember the name of the restaurant. Number Two West Main houses Paul Richardson Agency now and it has a very business-like look to it, and I was intrigued by what changes it had been through over the years. My research told me that the corner building was part of the Quinn Building (which I wrote about before.) It was occupied in 1876 by Marum and Doheny's Dry Goods Store, who advertised "All Goods Marked in Plain Figures", but "sold exclusively for cash." When the dry goods store moved in 1901, Tallman's Drugs moved in and stayed there until 1912 when they moved their pharmacy to a bigger space next door.

Up to the Times Magazine wrote a feature on 2 West Main's 1912 occupant in its Progress Notes:

"The Third National Bank of Walla Walla has purchased the Quinn property at Second and Main Streets....The property has a frontage on Main Street of 53 feet. It is reported that the purchase price was $1,200 per front foot. The Third National Bank will occupy its new quarters sometime during the new year". 

The Third National Bank before the facade was added.

The bank occupied 2 West Main for eight years before they remodeled and created the facade of the building we see today. Up to 1920 the front had been handsome, although not outstanding.

Third National Bank after facade was added.

 The Third National Bank wanted a building everyone would notice, and embellished the exterior with features that resemble those you might see on a cake or fancy pastry. They did extensive remodeling to the inside too. The bank only enjoyed their distinctive building for nine years though, because by 1929, the Third National Bank was no longer listed in city directory, and Alfred Fitzgerald, Jeweler, had his shop there until 1933. This was the year that the building first became a place one could get a meal; Pinky's Barbeque moved in and was followed by Mitchell's Barbeque in 1935. Mitchell's featured "Fountain and Lunch, Cigars, Magazines, Card room."

And then in 1941, Mitchell's left and the Corner Cafe, "The House of Good Food" opened. It lasted until 1973, so it is a place many Walla Walla citizens remember. My friend Carolyn had her bridal lunch upstairs in the Corner's Kuaui Room. Diane and Alan had their romantic hot chocolate and ice cream date there. As a boy, Jim went to his accordion lesson upstairs over Tallman's and then always had a coke at the Corner Cafe afterwards.

When the Corner Cafe closed in 1974, it was back to business for 2 West Main: Jeffris Insurance Agency was followed by Munn's Surveyors and today we find Richardson Appraisers there. I stood downstairs in the Richardson Agency and tried in vain to imagine where the booths, counters, and fountain had been. Upstairs I tried to envision the Kauai Room, but I wasn't successful. The inside of the building is now desks, phones, and computers. The outside of 2 West Main, though, with its distinctive ornamentation, still makes an architectural "statement"--even after all these years.

Thanks, Joe Drazan, for the illustrations and photographs of the Third National Bank and the Corner Cafe.

The Quinn Block

The most fascinating part of writing about Walla Walla's historic buildings is learning how a space can change over time, its owners altering and molding it to their needs. If I walk into Tallman's Drug Store at 4 West Main today I am greeted by friendly folks who fill my prescription and ask about my day. 

If I had entered that door in 1880, I would have been visiting Thomas Quinn, Saddler and Harness Maker. His ads promised "Bridles, Whips, Spurs, Saddle Blankets, and in fact everything found in a first-class harness establishment." In Frank T. Gilbert's 1882 Sketches of Walla Walla, he describes Thomas Quinn: "With manners suave, a disposition to accommodate, and generous promptings towards his fellows, he greets the stranger, the customer, or the friend in that peculiar way ... which seldom fails to leave a desire with the recipient to do him a favor if he can." It appears that an hospitable greeting is part of the building's heritage.

Mr. Quinn's business prospered for years and it was taken over by his wife Clara at his death in 1889.

By 1908 Walla Walla's need for such equipment was no longer as great due to the growing popularity of automobiles, and Quinn'sSaddlery went out of business. The Quinns owned the building on the corner, too, at 2 West Main, which housed Dohenny and Marum's Dry Goods. The two buildings together were known as Quinn's Block, although from the beginning they were architecturally distinct. Both buildings had offices upstairs--doctors, lawyers, Mrs. Sarah Thacker's Commercial School, and the office of the publication Town Talk.In 1901, City Drugs moved into the corner building and when Mr. Tallman bought out Mr. Esteb in 1898 it became Tallman's Drugs.

Quinn's Saddlery gone, 4 West Main went through a dramatic remodel and in 1909 became the Dime Theater, where for ten cents (five cents for children 10 and under) you could see a silent movie in the "Coziest and Most Comfortable Place of Amusement in Town," accompanied by the "the Dime's excellent five-piece orchestra...one of the best musical organizations in Walla Walla." The theater stayed for three years and then moved to Alder Street. 

Tallman's moved from the corner into the more spacious 4 West Main, reinstalled shop front windows and a center door and furnished their new space with cabinets made by White House Crawford that are still in Tallman's today. 

 













The sign that labels the Quinn Building is no longer visible, but perhaps it still exists behind the modern facade. Maybe a future remodel or restoration may reveal it, and remind us that Thomas Quinn, Saddlemaker, was once in business there.

Maybe you are wondering what happened to 2 West Main, the corner building, after Tallman's moved? Iv'e saved that story for next time....

Henrietta's House

If you were to be invited into the parlor of Henrietta Baker's house, you might not be able to stand upright--that is if you were older than ten or eleven. When Henrietta's parents, Henry and Clara, built the playhouse for Henrietta in 1905, she was 11 years old and an only child. A Victorian-style home in miniature, Henrietta's house was situated beside the Baker family home at 428 Crescent Street. The playhouse was fashioned with horizontal siding below and scallops under the sharp peaks of the roof. Inside all was gracious and elegant. It was furnished with child-sized furniture, the walls were papered with colorful spidery flowers, filmy curtains were hung at the windows, and small-scale oriental rugs were laid on the floors. And there were dolls. Lots and lots of dolls. The black and white photo featured here (used with permission from Fort Walla Walla Museum) shows Henrietta and many of her doll friends standing on her house's front porch, probably soon after the house was completed.

The Baker name is a familiar one in Walla Walla. Henrietta's grandfather, Dorsey Syng Baker, was a pioneer doctor and railroad builder. He organized the company that built a line from Walla Walla to Wallula and he was a prominent local business man.

Now her lovely little playhouse stands at Fort Walla Walla Museum and is one of many fascinating buildings in their Pioneer Village. I visited the museum when I first moved to town a few years ago and was intrigued by its small-scale design and charming furnishings. Buildings are of course more than structures; they are manifestations of the people who built them or inhabited them. I wondered what the story was with this very cherished and privileged little girl.

I tracked Henrietta through the years using old issues of the Union Bulletin. She grew up as girls generally do: she went to Sharpstein Elementary, she performed as a snowdrop in a children's opera, she attended St.Paul's School, and she graduated from Whitman College in 1914. But no one would call Henrietta a typical young woman of the times. Her degree was in mathematics, unusual for the that era, and she even taught math for a while at Whitman College during World War ll. She married Lincoln Earl Kennedy and she had a son and a daughter. Outside of work and home she was an energetic participant in community activities and organizations. She was a member of PEO, Phi Beta Kappa, and the Arts Club, and she was an actress in the Little Theater production of Harvey, a charming play featuring sweet, gentle Elwood Dowd, who insists he sees a giant rabbit (invisible to everyone but him.) Henrietta was cast as Elmer's staid, conventional, disbelieving sister and got good reviews for her performance. The Union-Bulletin said Henrietta "carried the brunt of the acting burden with eloquence and feeling." The role must have been a challenge for Henrietta since in real life she was anything but conventional.

In fact, she was somewhat of a character. She gave numerous lectures. She spoke to the Phi Beta Kappa chapter; her talk was "A Mathematician Looks at the Idea of God." And her speech for the Seattle Northgate Brunch Club gives us even more insight into Henrietta's personality. The title of her talk was "You Never Know What She Will Say," and in the advanced publicity for the speech Henrietta is quoted as saying that "being alive is wonderful. She says it all in one breath. She is a mother. She runs a home and cooks and writes stories and poems. She went to several colleges and won all the honors in mathematics---unimportant, she thinks compared to making good pie dough and stitching a neat seam."

Yes, she even wrote books--two of them. In later life she traveled extensively and then organized grand group tours of Europe.

But while Henrietta was flourishing, her little playhouse was languishing. The house remained at Crescent Street until Henrietta's parents moved to Park Street and relocated it there. It was moved again in 1970 to serve as a storage shed at the Kennedy's cabin on Mill Creek. Over the years the house fell into serious disrepair, and her grandson encouraged Henrietta to donate it to Fort Walla Walla Museum to make sure the little treasure of a house be saved. A trust for its maintenance accompanied its donation and local PEO chapters provided for its restoration. Happily, Henrietta was able to guide its repair and furnishing based on her memories. In 1986 the little house came to rest in the grounds of Fort Walla Walla Museum's Pioneer Village, where it can be seen today.

Go to Fort Walla Walla and visit the little house. You can peer into each of the rooms through one of the many windows and pretend you have been invited to spend the day there by that very interesting little girl, Henrietta Baker.

Walla Walla's Sweet Tooth

When I say Walla Walla Sweets, I am not referring to baseball or onions. I am talking candy. Residents and visitors certainly appreciate Bright's on Main Street and many remember fondly the many years Russell's Candy was in business. But there is a "ghost sign" on an elegant brick building at 108 South Third that marks Walla Walla Candy Co., an important business in our town's candy history. The sign is faint, but one can make out "Manufacturers and Jobbers." The candy made in this factory was sold wholesale--all over town and beyond. This company existed for years with various owners and different names, but maintained the tradition of supplying the sweet stuff to young and old. An 1889 ad says that the Walla Walla Candy Company (then on Main Street) are "Manufacturers of the Finest French and American Candies and Confectionery. Tropical and domestic Fruits and Nuts. Arctic Soda, Ice Cream and Oysters in their Season." Oysters? Yes, oyster sales often went hand in hand with candy, and many places that you could buy candy sold tobacco too. The vocation of candy maker could be a prestigious one. The Walla Walla Candy Company brought Earl Remington Davenport and his family all the way from Seattle in 1927 to be "head confectioner" and manage their company. By this time the company was owned by two gentlemen whose names Bybee and Burton merged into Burbee, and the Burbee Candy Company became famous not only for their chocolates, but for also for their Bingo Bar. (I'd love to know what a Bingo Bar consisted of. )

Not all candy was made in a factory though. In 1929 the City Directory listed eight "Confectioners, Retail." Besides the larger businesses, such as "Den of Sweets" and "Keyes Confectionery," you could also buy candy from ladies such as "Mrs. Dunnington" and "Mrs. Irene Owen"--probably selling their homemade fudge or divinity from their homes. And of course there is the tobacco connection again. Van's Cigar Store is listed as a candy retailer. Lutcher's, of "Chief Smoke" (the Cigar Store Indian) fame sold candy along with tobacco products.

Walla Walla folks have always appreciated their sweets; the 1931 directory lists an equal number of Retail Confectioners and Dentists. The Union Bulletin stated that in the immediate prewar years Americans ate an average of 19 pounds of candy a year. World War II did make a difference as to the availability of candy due to sugar shortages and rationing. The UB talks about sugar shortages affecting candy makers nationally in 1944. An ad for Russell's says "Candy Hungry? We are at it again as far as it goes---" implying they were getting back to normal candy production after years of war-time sugar rationing.

Candy in Walla Walla is still in good hands, but what happened to that lovely old building on south 3rd after the Walla Walla Candy Company left it? Duff's Creamery moved in in 1933 and operated from there until 1969. After that the building was occupied by a calculator company and then was briefly an art gallery. Vacant since 1983, the windows are boarded and it has a desolate look. Happily, though, we still have the ghost signs on both sides of the charming brick building to remind us of the richness, variety, and history of Walla Walla "sweets."

Thanks, Joe Drazan for the 1923 photo of the Walla Walla Candy Company

Baumeister Building: Made With Metal

I can't walk by the elegant mauve and gray Baumeister Building without rapping one of its columns with my knuckles. Each rap is answered by a gratifying metallic clunk because this building is a "Mesker" and that means it's faced by a "galvanized storefront system." All its lovely ornamentation that looks carved and handmade is actually pressed sheet metal, a combination of galvanized steel and cast-iron. A small plaque affixed to the column identifies it as such. " Mesker Bros, Front Builders" it says. The manufacture of metal fronts for buildings began in the eastern U. S. in the 1840s and by mid-century there were foundries throughout the United Sates. The builders of the Baumeister Building ordered its sheet metal facade from the Mesker Brothers Ironworks of St Louis. A builder chose a front from a catalog, had it shipped by railroad, and--voila--he had a ready-made, durable and attractive front ready to affix to the structure. 

Also fabricated in metal, over the second story windows, is stamped big and bold that Max Baumeister built this structure and he did it in 1889. When it was first built the address in the city directory was listed as "between 2nd and 3rd" but now we find it by going to 27 West Main. Max Baumeister was a real estate and insurance agent in partnership with Harry Reynolds. You might expect that Mr. Baumeister would set up his own office in his handsome new building, but he worked from 8 E. Main and later he occupied space in the impressive Die Brucke building, which he also built. 

I spent many enjoyable hours poring over old city directories in the library and was able to discover what businesses occupied the downstairs spaces and for how long. The Walla Walla Savings Bank moved in there in 1889, the year the Baumeister was built, but over the years these high-ceilinged, big-windowed stores were mainly occupied by sporting goods stores such as Meyer and Keeny, which was not only a place you could buy a bicycle, but also a "rentery." Their ad in the 1901 city directory promised "Sporting Goods, Guns, Ammunition, and Bicycles", and you could get advice about your choice of a gun from Pleasant Le Francis, "gunsmith." The tradition of sports shop was carried on by Jackson's, who in the 30's often photographed hunters posed with their trophy deer in front of the shop. The sign in the window behind the hunters in one photograph says "Bargains-Balloon Tire Bicycles, $31.95 and Up." Ann Hamada, whose colorful quilt shop, Stash, occupies one of the store fronts today, remembers Soper's Leather Goods as being there when she was a child. Soper's sold more than leather; it also carried sporting goods. Ann told me that a gentleman came into Stash one day and asked her if she'd noticed any bullet holes in the basement walls. He remembered doing some target practice down there when he was young.

Doug Saturno, who owns the Baumeister (and restored it with such care), met with me, talked about his building's history, and--best of all--gave me a tour of the offices upstairs that are accessed via a marble-lined stariway. The halls have high ceilings; the offices are spacious and gracious. I was able to see where a long list of dentists and lawyers and real estate agents had their practices. The office number I sought was 211 and I was gratified to see that its large, light main office had an enviable view of Main Street below. You see, I chose to write about the Baumeister Building because it has some personal significance for me. My husband Mark and I live in a 102-year-old home built by S. E. (Sam) King, an attorney who had his office in # 211 in the Baumeister for many years, starting in 1906. I like to imagine Sam walking to work from Thorne Street. I'm guessing he took the quickest route, which was north on First to Main. Sam King may have taken the streetcar on cold days; a 1910 postcard shows a streetcar running right in front of the Baumeister. But I expect he walked if he could--up a pleasant street of big shady trees and handsome houses and then turning left onto Main, and in a few blocks there he was at the Baumeister, a metal beauty of a building.

Thanks, Joe Drazan for the historic photo (1890).

The BeeHive

There is a fond place in the hearts of many Walla Walla folks for the Bee Hive Building on the corner of First and Main. Built of dark red brick and featuring tall, gracefully curved upstairs windows, it now houses several businesses. It's really the Sayer building, named for the man who built it in 1890, but everybody calls it "The Bee Hive" because they remember the department store that was there for so many years. "You could buy anything you wanted at The Bee Hive," June told me. June's 88, but younger people, too, have vivid memories of what they bought there as late as the 70's. "Blue Bell Jeans," says Ron. Tina (too young to have any Bee Hive experiences herself) says her grandma went there every Christmas to buy still another Mr. Potato Head for Tina's father. "Oh, yes, the toys," says Diane, "all displayed upstairs at Christmas time on huge tables, and downstairs way at the back you sat on little metal tools to try on shoes."

That's what people told me about the Bee Hive Department Store, but when I shared my findings that the building was for many years also a lodging house, most were surprised. The 1892 city directory tells me that at first several separate businesses operated from the Sayer Building: Mr. Lynch, Steamfitter, Mrs. Howells of the Elite Dressmaking Parlor, and Regal Shoes with Mr. Schumaker (I am not making that up) in charge. Kind of an early mini-mall. The directory also says that Mrs. Howells and Mr. Schumaker had their "res" in the building as well as their businesses. I had trouble imagining Mrs. Howells setting up a cot amongst her dressmaker forms and sewing machines. And how could one have as many as seven men and women living in one building without "facilities" and privacy and some kind of communal space for Alonzo Robbins, "horsebreaker," and John Clary, "marker" at the Walla Walla Laundry, to have a friendly chat at the end of the day? Even though the directories say exactly who had their addresses at "The Bee Hive Lodging House" year after year, there was no way of knowing how the space was divided. I wanted the lodging to have been upstairs where the residents could enjoy the light from the windows and a view of the activity of Main Street, but how the lodgers and businesses occupied the building was going to be a history mystery and I'd never know for sure. Well, I wouldn't have known if it hadn't been for the fire.

So newsworthy was the blaze at the Sayer Building in May of 1902, that the Spokane Spokesman covered it. The fire broke out just before midnight, the paper said, and "In the building are the Bee Hive Store, conducted by William Ferguson and the Bee Hive Lodging House overhead." Although some of the stock and most of the floor was damaged in the store space below, no one was seriously hurt. All the residents escaped early, the news story reported, except "Winfield Scott Taylor, a ranch hand, who in trying to get out, lost his way, stumbled into a closet...and when found by fireman after an hour was almost suffocated."

Mystery solved. The lodging component of the Bee Hive was "overhead" and the lodgers did have the high ceiling rooms I wanted them to have, with the the lovely views of the growing town below. Over its twenty years it must have been comfortable and gracious enough to satisfy the superintendent of the hospital James Mullinix, and his wife (who was the hospital matron), plus carpenters, farmers, painters, and several widows and single ladies and gentlemen.

Mr. Ferguson's inventory must have grown and his need for space increased, because by 1910 the directories no longer mention the Bee Hive Lodging House or list its residents.. For years the Bee Hive Department Store's slogan was the same: "Why Pay More When You Can Buy for Less at the Beehive?" and it continued to sell "fabrics, cotton union suits, boy's trousers, soap, brassieres, junior dresses, toys" and more until the late 1970s, when it closed.

If you walk into the Main Street door of Starbuck's or through the South First entrance to The Coffee Perk, you are in the spaces where business was done and goods were sold by the Bee Hive Department Store. But if you climb the stairs that now lead to the Bee Hive Salon, you can imagine yourself a resident of the Bee Hive Lodging House, where you would have occupied one of those comfortable, sunny upstairs rooms with the high ceilings and terrific views.

Thanks, Joe Drazan for the 1910 photo of the Bee Hive.