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