History of "The Old Fruit Storage Warehouse"

Welcome to one of the oldest buildings listed in the Downtown Wenatchee Historic District - Part of the National Register of Historic Places.   

This property was purchased in 1902 and the building was built in 1906 by John Lillis.  ​

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The stone warehouse was the first warehouse built in Wenatchee at a time when the fruit industry was just beginning. Lillis originally arrived in this new town in May of 1892, the same year that the Great Northern Railway announced its plans were to pass through Wenatchee. His warehouse (which would later become the beginning of the warehouse district) was positioned one block south of the train depot and four blocks north of the steamship landing. This was an excellent location between the two major transportation systems of the town.  The walls are constructed of local sandstone from the Chumstick/Dry Gulch area and are 32" thick above the ground and 42" thick below ground.  The original floors and beams are still intact.

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Rail transport arrived in the Wenatchee Valley in 1901. In 1906, the year our building was finished, Wenatchee’s population was 3,500.  The Wenatchee Valley was quickly becoming known as the Apple Capital of the World and “a place where money grows on trees.”  In 1906 Prices for apples ranged from 85 cents to $1.40 a box.

Wenatchee’s population grew to 4,050 by 1910 and continued to grow to 11,627 by 1930. For comparison, our 2020 population count was 34,741 and the 37th largest city in WA state.

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Between 1922 and 1952, this building housed Wenatchee Fruit and Storage Co., a Sears Roebuck & Co. warehouse, Eckert Trucking, Arrow Storage Co., and Wells Coulee Lumber & Box Co.

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In 1926 the Wenatchee Valley Foods (a different record lists Wenatchee Fruit and Storage Co., fruit packers and shippers) acquired the warehouse. In 1937 the firm leased the property to Baslett Warehouse Company. One record tells us that the building then became a track-side warehouse for the new Sears, Roebuck & Co. store.  A different record tells us that  From 1936-47 Eckert Trucking occupied the space.

In 1946 the warehouse was sold to Arrow Transfer who held it for a short while until E. J. Widby, the vice president of the Wenatchee Valley Bank, bought the property. Widby sold the warehouse property to Percy Scheble in April 1952, who used the warehouse for the storage of lumber under the name of Wells Coulee Lumber & Box Co.

The City of Wenatchee bought the Lumber Company property as well as other land and buildings around the site of the present Convention Center in 1976.  

Fun fact: During that time  this building was the location of a Halloween haunted house hosted by the Orthopedic Guild.  Because we often wonder if the place is actually haunted (by nice ghosts only), we feel it is safe to assume that was quite an exciting experience.

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In August, 1980 the City of Wenatchee sold the stone warehouse to Jerry Crovey when it was originally converted to restaurant use.

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J.P. Beans restaurant and tavern occupied the space starting in 1983.  In 1988, the first floor was occupied by the Spaghetti Works Restaurant with owner Raymond Largent, while the basement housed Danny's Place, a tavern.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By 1991, the Spaghetti Works had moved out, replaced by Goochi's Restaurant in 1993. Danny's Place remained in the basement until 1995. Jackson's Steaks restaurant opened in 1996.

 

Between 1983 and 2005 this building housed 6 restaurants. One of which was the Emerald Station Restaurant which opened in November 2003.  Beaver's Saloon and Honky Tonk was also among those and that name is still nostalgically on our red roof.  According to a local appraiser the building was not deemed to hold much success as a restaurant due to the fact that it is off the beaten path.  We had a dream and believed in good customer service and a good product to turn the tide.

 

We purchased the building in 2005 during which time we did a complete remodel of the bathrooms and the kitchen layout as well as the bar.  Seven layers of flooring were removed to reveal the original type of wood floors. Due to the uneven nature of this hundred year old floor, we put rope between the gaps of the wood for safety - an idea borrowed by the maritime world of boat building to make up for the flexing that time has caused and enable the world to enjoy the beautiful wood floors we have today.

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Ask us about:

-Ghost hunters filming all night (around 2008)

-ESPN filming Madden video game world championships using our TVs (around 2009)

-Covid Story

-Feed the kids 2020 https://www.wenatcheeworld.com/news/coronavirus/rail-station-introduces-feedthekids2020/article_c0dd4a3a-7846-11ea-b8cc-17fec3cda035.html 

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References: 

-https://www.historylink.org/File/21288 

-https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/54b0d1d5-39cf-45a9-afa9-5c6e454e9bbd 

-https://www.theclio.com/entry/107092 

-https://www.wenatcheeworld.com/news/oldnews/old-news-two-ships-catch-fire-on-lake-chelan-seat-belts-added-to-cars-at/article_ddce488c-f627-11eb-a40c-a30c77b0a763.html 

-https://www.facebook.com/groups/642254079562967 (Contributions from Fred Harvey, Dennis King and others in the group - thank you for sharing so many wonderful historical photos!)

-https://www.wenatcheeworld.com/opinion/the-worm-new-owners-try-their-luck-in-old-warehouse/article_519c5bb7-f876-5191-a89d-7d87e0c35226.html 

-https://www.wenatcheeworld.com/news/staffing-food-costs-supplies-dampen-restaurant-reopenings/article_addd2366-e0e5-11eb-8822-77d5e473d989.html