Embrey Building - Chewelah, WA
Posted by: 
T0SHEA
N 48° 16.570 W 117° 42.782
11U E 447095 N 5347241
The oldest building in the downtown area of Chewelah, this building was moved here in the 1880s from the little hamlet of Embrey, about one mile to the northeast.
Waymark Code: WMK7E9
Location: Washington, United States
Date Posted: 02/23/2014
Views: 1
This building is the oldest structure in the commercia1 area of Chewelah. It is one of the original buildings that was moved from the little town of Embrey in the late 1880s to this location. It first housed a saloon.
Embrey was settled in 1883 along Flowery trail, about one half mile east of the Chewelah Cemetery. It received its name from one of the original four discoverers of the Juno Echo mine. The four men were named Embrey, Kelly, Wagner and Hanschell. Embrey (the town) was built near the site of Embrey's mine cabin, hence the name. It consisted of several buildings, including a drug store, saloon, a general store and a boarding house.
Eighteen cabins, located around the town, comprised the residential section. Though some remains of cabins could be seen as late as the 1940s all signs have now disappeared. Along with this building, several other Embrey structures were moved to Chewelah's main street during the late 1880s. They served as a post office and living quarters, general store, variety store, second hand shop and pool room. All these buildings were either razed to make room for the brick buildings now occupying that space or were destroyed by fire.
This is the original site of this Embrey building and during the past 100 years it has served as a saloon, paint shop, plumbing shop, radio repair shop, residence, apartment house, doctor's office, dentist's office, and has housed at least two chiropractors. The settlement of Embrey was actually in existence only a short time as the gold strike did not develop as expected. Only traces of gold were ever found. However, the search for gold bearing quartz did expose the presence of copper and silver bearing ores.
These deposits which were exploited at a later date, proved to be of tremendous economic value to the Chewelah area. Embrey (the man) and his partners were the original discoverers of the Eagle mine (Blue Star), which is still in existence today and helped to develop the mining area on Eagle Mountain. However, due to disagreements over mining methods and other problems the partnership disintegrated and at least two of the partners were to die as paupers. This building serves as a reminder of the early day Chewelah and the historical importance of mining to this area.
