The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

[Editor;s Note: This is the first in a short series of articles that will appear on this page about the importance of preserving and restoring the historic buildings in the Touchet Valley]

Growing up in Dayton, I knew that our downtown was a special place. It had a wide expanse of street and wide sidewalks where bikes could be ridden without hitting anyone. The stately old buildings that graced each side were like old friends. They had a certain feel and smell when you walked in that made you think of permanence and times past.

It wasn't until I was an adult and became involved with the fundraising and restoration of the Columbia County Courthouse, that I began to understand the significance of downtowns. Our Downtown Historic District was born from the restoration of the Columbia County Courthouse. From this comes the economic and cultural significance of the Downtown District.

Main Street is an important economic engine for Dayton. It is a wise place to invest local resources and is the hub of small business development.

Because of the benefits of the District, my husband Dan and I have invested in five buildings on Main Street. The first was the Guernsey Sturdevant, which has housed the Wenaha Gallery for 23 years. The second was the Weinhard Hotel which we owned and operated for 14 years. The next two were the McGee Building and the one next door which became Patit Valley Products, 230 and 236 E. Main. They were owned by the same person, who would not sell separately, so we purchased both buildings, cleaned them up and resold them so that they could become the productive buildings they are today.

The last building is the Dantzscher Building next to the courthouse. We live in a flat upstairs and house Azure Mountain and Manila Bay downstairs. All five of these buildings had been vacant for many years.

Without the protections and tax benefits of the Downtown Dayton Historic District, these projects would have been much a bigger risk. The belief that saving these buildings as historic resources and turning them into productive spaces has paid off for Dayton.

Courtesy Image

After: The Columbia County Courthouse, which was restored in the early 1990s.

In a fast paced world, we are still able to learn about our unique local heritage and connect with our neighbors when we go downtown. It is not naïve to desire the kind of lifestyle where the business owner knows your name.

The defining character of our downtown and our older residential districts are the reason we have people interested in moving to Dayton. They are the reasons other communities in Washington that are struggling to preserve their heritage, know and respect the work that we have done to preserve our resources.

As president of the Dayton Historic Depot Society, I hope you enjoy the pictorial look backward and to the present as the Depot showcases some of the changes that Historic Preservation has brought over the last 20 years to Dayton.