The Old Apple Warehouse - Kettle Falls, WA
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T0SHEA
N 48° 36.632 W 117° 03.362
11U E 495869 N 5384163
The Old Apple Warehouse is one of the oldest remaining buildings in Kettle Falls. It was built well before this was Kettle Falls, back when it was Meyers Falls.
Waymark Code: WMK6X0
Location: Washington, United States
Date Posted: 02/21/2014
Views: 3
When the Grand Coulee Dam was built, the lake formed behind it, Roosevelt Lake, flooded many towns upstream in the Columbia River Valley in 1939, the town of Kettle Falls being one. So, the citizens of Kettle Falls moved much of their town to Meyers Falls, just to the east on higher ground. Shortly thereafter, as a memorial to the underwater town of Kettle Falls, Meyers Falls changed its name to Kettle Falls.
This photo would have been taken pre 1910, when an addition was made to the east end of the building. As one can see, the building has undergone some change. The roof, for example, has lost all its vents and chimneys over the years.
HISTORY OF THE OLD APPLE WAREHOUSE
This building begins and continues with apples. The area along the Columbia River was perfect for producing fruit of all kinds, having a warming effect from the river, and a lower elevation than surrounding communities.
The first orchard belonged to John Rickey in 1874, and by the early 1900s the Columbia River Valley, from the town of Marcus south along the river for 100 miles, was home to hundreds of successful orchards. The packing of this fruit was to be a main industry in Meyers Fails (now Kettle Falls), from the turn of the century until 1939 when the lake created by the building of Grand Coulee Dam put most of these orchards under water.
This warehouse was built in 1906 by a co-op of orchardists, on land owned by the railroad, right next to the tracks. The building was set up so that horses with wagon loads of their fruit could drive into the basement from the west end of the building, drop off their loads, and exit through the East end of the building. In 1910, an addition was built on the east end, which effectively doubled the size of the warehouse. Porches were added, and large doors were installed on both sides of the building for loading and unloading (since the basement didn't extend to the new addition).
As an example of quantities of fruit processed here, in 1906 reported 40 railcars of fruit (were processed). After the flooding of 1939, quantities of fruit dramatically decreased, but the warehouse was still used as the main processing and shipping point.
Apples are still sold here today from orchards that began in 1874.
From a sign in the old warehouse
