Historical Highlights

  • In 1836, Narcissa Whitman and Eliza Spalding, missionaries to the Cayuse and Nez Perce Tribes, were the first white women to cross the continent overland. The missionaries' wagon, reduced to a cart, was the first vehicle to travel as far west as
    Fort Boise.
  • The first formal Indian Council, led by Isaac I. Stevens, Governor of the Territory of Washington, was held in 1855 with the Nez Perce, Yakama, Umatilla, Walla Walla and other smaller tribes in attendance. The campsite is said to have been on Mill Creek in the vicinity of present Grove Street just south of Whitman College Campus. Stevens with the aid of Chief Lawyer of the Nez Perce Tribe, secured the agreement of the main body of the Indians to three reservations, the Yakama, Nez Perce and Umatilla reservations. There is a monument behind the present day Carnegie Art Center acknowledging this event.
  • Walla Walla's Main Street was built on the Nez Perce Trail that stretched from the Bitterroot Mountains in Idaho to the Columbia River. The trail crossed Mill Creek at present day First and Main Streets. The frontier town was named Walla Walla in 1859; the city was incorporated in 1862.
  • Walla Walla became a banking and supply center during the gold rush in the early 1860s. It was on the main route from the west to the gold mines in Idaho and Montana.
  • The Walla Walla County Fair is the oldest fair in the state of Washington. The first county-wide fair was held in 1866 and included horse racing. The Walla Walla Fairgrounds Pavilion built in 1906 is the oldest octagonal building in the state of Washington and the oldest fair pavilion still in use in the northwest.
  • Baker Boyer Bank, a vital bank of present day Walla Walla, is the oldest independent commercial bank in the state of Washington. It was established in 1869. Various buildings housing the bank have occupied the site on the southwest corner of Second and Main Streets with the current building erected in 1910. It is known as Walla Walla's earliest "skyscraper".
  • The Day-Reynolds Building (1874) at 4 and 6 E. Main Street is one of the oldest buildings on Main Street. Washington's first State Constitutional Convention was held here in 1878 in a room on the second floor known as the Science Hall.
  • Five presidents have visited Walla Walla. They include Rutherford B. Hayes in 1880, Teddy Roosevelt in 1903, William H. Taft in 1911, Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1954 and Richard M. Nixon in 1971. Dwight D. Eisenhower stayed at the Marcus Whitman Hotel when here to dedicate McNary Dam.
  • Over a century ago, a French soldier, Peter Pieri, found an Italian sweet onion seed on the Island of Corsica and brought it to Walla Walla. Impressed by the onion's winter hardiness, Pieri, and Italian immigrant farmers harvested the seed. The Walla Walla Sweet Onion has developed through the process of hand selecting onions from each year's crop, ensuring sweetness, jumbo size and round shape.
  • Walla Walla has over 50 state champion trees that are the largest known of their species in Washington State. Walla Walla has one of the highest concentrations of champion trees for a town or city of its size in the continental USA. The catalpa tree on Estrella across from Whitman College is a national record tree for the nation.
  • The Walla Walla area is home of three colleges. They include Whitman College, a private liberal arts college with its beginnings in 1859; Walla Walla College, a private college established in 1892 by the Seventh Day Adventist Church; and Walla Walla Community College, a public two-year college that was established in 1967.
  • The Walla Walla Symphony has been serving the Walla Walla Valley since 1907 and is the oldest continuous ongoing symphony orchestra west of the Mississippi River.
  • Pioneer Park, first opened to the public in 1908, is a beautiful grand park that includes record trees, a 1909 bandstand, a rose garden, an elegant 1910 iron fountain, an aviary, a large playground, shaded walking paths and an array of ponds. John C. Olmstead of the famous New York firm of Olmstead Brothers, Landscape Architects was invited to Walla Walla in 1906 to examine the City. His report greatly influenced the design of Pioneer Park. John Langdon, a talented and civic-minded person, has been credited with the final park design, while the Women's Parks and Civic Arts Club secured funds, material and labor for the development of the park.
  • Winemaking in the Walla Walla Valley began in the mid to late 1800's. Italian immigrants brought with them their tradition of growing, making and drinking wine. The Valley's reputation for producing wines of superb quality took root in 1977 when the first present day winery was established. Today, more than 60 wineries are operating in the valley and more than 1000 acres of vineyards traverse the agricultural landscape.

Reviewed by the Historic Resources Coordinating Committee.