Yakima Valley Transportation Lines

Status: Most Endangered Places

Year Listed: 2025, 1992

Location: Yakima Valley, Yakima County

UPDATE

May 2025: The Yakima Valley Trolleys have been added back to the list of Washington’s Most Endangered Places, after an original listing in 1992. This second listing comes as a result of the Yakima City Council’s current plans to rebuild 6th Avenue in downtown Yakima, which includes a section of the trolley tracks. One of the options under consideration include the removal of the trolley tracks, which would mean that trolley cars could no longer operate between Yakima and Selah.

On Tuesday, June 17, 2025, the Yakima City Council will make a final determination on the Yakima Valley Trolleys’ fate when they meet to decide upon the 6th Avenue design options to pursue moving forward. The Washington Trust joins community advocates and local organizations who have come out in support of preserving the trolley tracks, including the Greater Yakima Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Association of Yakima, Selah Downtown Association, Selah Chamber of Commerce, and Yakima Historic Preservation Commission.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, people were lured to Washington’s Yakima Valley to grow apples on orchards that promised to produce wealthy independence in “the home of the prize red apple.” Private and public irrigation projects created hundreds of thousands of acres of fruit, and by 1929, Yakima County had the largest number of bearing apple trees in all of Washington’s 39 counties and had become the statewide leader in apple production. Yakima County has ranked first in national apple production since 1930.

In order to get apples to market, the Yakima Valley Transportation Company (YVT) built a 48-mile-long electric interurban railroad between 1907-1913, stretching west of Yakima and north to Selah. In 1908, the railroad was bought out by the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company (now Union Pacific). Electric freight operations continued nonstop until 1985 when Union Pacific decided to abandon the YVT.

By that time, it was the last authentic turn-of-the-century interurban electric railroad in the United States still operating. After the railroad’s abandonment by Union Pacific, some of the YVT was donated to the City of Yakima, but elsewhere, some rail lines were removed, prompting the Washington Trust to sound the clarion call for its preservation. In 1989, the YVT was listed on the Washington Trust’s “10 Most Wanted” list, a precursor to our Most Endangered Places list. In 1992, the YVT was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and in 1994, the late Les Tonkin, an architect and former Washington Trust board president, devised a total restoration plan for the YVT. This first Most Endangered list was declared a “save” when the historic belt-operated shop/carbarn, powerhouse substation, and five of the original 48 miles of track were saved, connecting the cities of Yakima and Selah, and the YVT was successfully in operation by the nonprofit Yakima Valley Trolleys.

https://www.yakimavalleytrolleys.org/

Leonard Round Barn

Status: Saved!

Year Listed: 1992

Location: Pullman, Whitman County

Early in 1992, the Trust began offering assistance toward saving the T.A. Leonard barn built near Pullman in 1917. Barn preservation was a growing concern statewide, and this was one of Washington’s few remaining round barns – and a unique design within that small typology. With their self-supporting roofs, smaller amount of wall space, and circular feeding and cleaning methods, round barns were briefly believed to be more efficient and modern, and less expensive to build. The Leonard Barn, documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey in 1985 (photos and drawings), is unusual for its exceptionally high roof, wooden rather than concrete base, and large number of windows.

Placement on the Trust’s Most Endangered list in 1992 brought additional local as well as statewide attention to the Leonard barn. The owner wanted to re-roof it and make it more structurally secure but lacked funds. Board members Kit Garrett from Spokane and Don Heil from Pullman, along with executive director Becky Day, met with the owner to tour the barn and offer help publicizing its challenges. The next year, the Trust proudly granted $5000 won through the LU Cookie Company’s “Restore What’s Gone Before” campaign to re-create the missing cupola, the first step in sealing out the elements.

Still, it took many years to assemble funding for fully rehabilitating the barn, which remained on the Most Endangered list until 1996. The major renovation completed in 2001 included repairs to the beams, windows, and floors, shingle replacement, and fresh paint. The Leonard Barn is recognized in the Oxford World Vernacular Encyclopedia.

Finch Building

Status: Lost

Year Listed: 1999, 1992

Location: Aberdeen, Grays Harbor County

Politician, lumber magnate, real estate developer, and philanthropist Edward C. Finch opened his eponymous building at Heron and H Streets in downtown Aberdeen on April 1, 1910, about 20 years after the town’s incorporation. The Finch Building was the first in town with an elevator and the first commercial building to make use of reinforced concrete. The building’s Renaissance Revival design by the noted Seattle architect A. Warren Gould featured terra cotta details, and six storefronts which were active into the 1970s.

The Finch Building was largely unaltered on the exterior when first listed as Most Endangered in 1992 and again in 1999, but by the latter date all the storefronts were boarded up. The interior had suffered a great deal of deterioration. Other Washington Trust efforts to save the building, led by treasurer Les Tonkin, a Seattle architect, included city council testimony and the filing of an affidavit supporting preservation. The affidavit stated that the city was not paying heed to the options for preservation stated in the 1998 Final Environmental Impact Statement. Recognized city needs, such as a library and downtown affordable housing, were among the possible uses, and developers had expressed interest. However, the city of Aberdeen declined to accept any renovation proposals.

The Finch Building was demolished on April 5, 1999 at age 89 years and five days.

Sunrise Lodge

Status: Saved!

Year Listed: 1992

Location: Mount Rainier National Park, Pierce County

Completed in 1931 in just six weeks, Sunrise Lodge at Mount Rainier is a stunning example of rustic architecture, often called “Parkitecture.” Despite its popularity today, the National Park Service had sought to demolish the Lodge in the past, actively planning for its removal in the late 1980s. These actions prompted the Washington Trust to include Sunrise Lodge on our Most Endangered List in 1992, the inaugural year of our Most Endangered Program. Over the next four years, the Washington Trust, working with the Washington State Historic Preservation Office, opposed demolition while supporting efforts to require state review of any proposed action. In 1996, a letter of understanding was signed between the NPS, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation and the SHPO to allow “review of demolition.” This effectively prevented the NPS from carrying out its demolition plans. Sunrise Lodge still stands today.