Walla Walla, Washington.- Walla Walla is the second city in population and commercial importance in Eastern Washington, Spokane alone being ahead of it. It is the seat of justice of Walla Walla county, one of the oldest settled and today one of the most productive parts of the Northwest. The county is justly famous for its annual large production of wheat and fruit. Walla Walla itself is a modern city of about 7,000 population. It occupies a most attractive site in the Walla Walla valley, a section that is perfectly watered and the soil of which is as productive as is any of the best land on the coast.
    Walla Walla is especially favored in the matter of transportation facilities. It is only a daylight run from Walla Wall to either Portland, Spokane, Seattle, or Tacoma, and the city is reached either over the lines of the Union Pacific, Northern Pacific, or the Oregon & Washington Territory Railroad Companies. Surrounded as the city is by a productive and highly prosperous section of country, the growth of Walla Wall has been the result of the demand of the country itself for a large commercial center at this point. Walla Walla was never boomed, and yet there is perhaps more wealth represented here in proportion to population than at any other inland city of the coast.
     The approach to Walla Walla by rail from either direction, is intended to give the traveler a favorable impression of the country he is passing through. There is an enviable spirit of rivalry shown between the different farmers of the fertile lands in this section of the state, and in the vicinity of Walla Walla are farms that are not only highly productive, but which are also made as highly attractive as constant care can make them. The farmers here avail themselves of the generous use of the latest improved machinery, special high grades of horses have been encouraged for farm use, the finest breeds of cattle and sheep have received especial attention, and the buildings occupied by the rural classes are made neat and attractive from an architectural standpoint, and they are comfortably and in many cases, even elegantly furnished.
     Walla Walla is a city typical of Western push and energy. Its main business blocks are of brick and granite, two and three stories in height and of a modern style of architecture. The streets of the city are all wide and well kept, they are well shaded, and the many fine lawns seen in front of the private residences speaks much for the good taste and thrift of the inhabitants. Rising above the tops of the great poplars which shade the main streets are the spires of 13 churches.  denominations represented are the Baptist, Presbyterian, Congregationalist, Christian, Episcopal, Methodist, Lutheran, United Brethren, Catholic and Seventy-Day Adventist. The educational advantages of the city are of the highest order. The public schools are conducted in two large brick buildings, one of which was recently erected at a cost of $40,000. The number of pupils in attendance at the public schools here during the past year was 1,000. The grades of study, under the public system of instruction, range from the primary up to and including the high school. In addition to the fine public schools, Walla Wall is the seat of Whitman College, which is conducted under the auspices of the Congregational church. This institution affords a full collegiate course of study, and is liberally patronized. St. Patrick's school for boys, and a Catholic convent for girls, are also located at this point, as well as a business college and an academy of fine arts. The Seventh-Day Adventists have a fine college building in course of erection at Walla Walla. This will be a union college of that denomination for the states of the Pacific Northwest.
     Prominent among the business houses of Walla Walla are the banks. The five banks established here enjoy a standing in financial circles that is not surpassed by any moneyed institutions of the coast. The business houses carry large stocks, and Walla Walla, like Portland, does business principally with home capital. While not a great manufacturing center, Walla Walla boasts of three roller-process flouring mills, two planing mills, a foundry and an agricultural implement manufactory. These several industries together furnish employment to a considerable number of men, and they are all conservatively and ably managed.
     Walla Walla is especially proud of the excellent transportation facilities enjoyed. The rival lines of the Union and Northern Pacific furnish easy means for the Walla Walla merchant to ship his goods from the large Eastern markets, and they also afford equally advantageous facilities for shipping the great wheat and farm products of the tributary section to tidewater at Puget Sounds or to Portland. The Oregon & Washington Territory railroad, which taps the best part of Eastern Washington and Eastern Oregon as far south as Pendleton, and passing through Walla Walla, has done much to advance the interests of the latter city. These three lines of road furnish, at the present time, ample transportation facilities for the section of country of which Walla Walla is the commercial center.
    Walla Walla furnishes its citizens with all the benefits of a free library, an opera house with a seating capacity of 600, a handsome court house, a city hall, and a well appointed and ably conducted hospital. The Odd Fellows' Temple here is one of the most imposing buildings of the city. The press represented is represented by The Union Journal, an ably edited daily publication which handles associated press dispatches, and The Daily Statesman, one of the best known papers of the state. The city is lighted both by gas and electricity, it has a fine street railway line, efficient water works, and a well organized and thoroughly equipped fire department.
     Adjoining the municipal limits of the city on the west is Fort Walla Walla, a government military reserve which occupies a fine piece of land one mile square. This fort was first established here in 1856. It now contains five troops of the fourth cavalry. The grounds and buildings of the post are kept in the best of order, and it is one of the most interesting features of Walla Walla's many attractions. About $500,000 are annually expended by the government in the support of this post, and most of this money is of course spent in Walla Walla.
    The state penitentiary, located at Walla Walla, is said to be one of the best conducted penal institutions in the United States. The grounds connected with the penitentiary are 155 acres in extent. They adjoin the limits of Walla Walla. The penitentiary building itself has a capacity for 500 convicts. The present number of convicts confined here is about 450. To furnish employment for these inmates a mill containing 70 looms and other machinery necessary for making jute bags has been provided by the state at a cost of $155,000. In addition to the jute plant a large number of convicts are employed in the brick yard connected with the institution, while those of the convicts who do not find work in the jute mill and brick yard are employed in various capacities around and in the penitentiary. The jute mill has a capacity of 4,000 bags a day, and the number of men employed in the mill is about 300. The bags are manufactured from the raw material and find a ready sale among the farmers at the price of 6 1/4 cents each. The cost of maintaining the penitentiary to the state for the fiscal year 1892 was in excess of $268,000.
     Walla Walla is reputed to be one of the wealthiest cities in the United States in proportion to population. The assessed value of property in the city subject to taxation in 1892 was $3,106,290. The articles on Walla Walla county, of which Walla Walla is the trading and banking center, will afford much valuable information on the basis of the city's prosperity.

Oregonian's Handbook to the Pacific Northwest c. 1894

©Shauna Williams