The Downtown Waterville Historic District encompasses all of one block of Locust Street plus the west end of a second block and a few buildings along North and South Chelan Avenue. In all there are 17 contributing and 2 non contributing buildings in the district. All buildings are of brick, save for the Centennial Feed Building, a single storey wood framed building on the west side of North Chelan. The brick for the district was manufactured locally in brick yards, first established in 1889. The oldest structure in the district, on the northeast corner of Locust Street and Chelan Avenue, is the First National Bank/Kincaid/IOOF Block, constructed in 1891.
Douglas and Lincoln Counties were created in 1883, 6 years before Washington was to become a state. Were it not for the lobbying efforts of a Mr. J. W. Adams, a "professional townsite boomer", there would have been only a Lincoln County. The original county seat was a place named Okanogan City, later to become the present day hamlet of Douglas. A 24 foot by 36 foot store was built on the site and was used as the county courthouse. When it turned out that there was no usable water to be had the county seat was moved six miles west to a new town named, quite appropriately, Waterville. The county legally became a county in 1888 and a small shack, the second building on the site, was built. In 1889 a permanent courthouse was built, a substantial two storey wood frame building which managed to survive several years before burning down.
By this time a number of wood frame buildings had been built in Waterville, but a block south of the present downtown core. The construction of the large First National Bank building caused others to build commercial and retail establishments near to it, rather than on Walnut Street. Soon, Waterville's downtown began to stretch west along Locust Street, all buildings built subsequently being of brick construction. The notable exception of the Centennial Feed Building stands across Chelan Avenue from the First National Bank building, as does the Douglas County Bank building, erected in 1910-11, a Neoclassical structure and the building most easily recognized as a bank.
Retaining a high degree of integrity, no historic brick buildings in the district have been demolished and only one non-historic structure has been built since World War II. The district has a mix of one and two storey commercial buildings, commonly Victorian/Italianate in style with elaborate brick or metal cornices, originally with large plate glass storefronts, many with iron columns and lintels. The majority of these last have been removed as buildings were modernized in later years.
In the 1892 photo below the
First National Bank, the only brick building yet built in the district, is the large building furthest in the distance on the left. In the contemporary photo it's the white building on the left. All the wood frame buildings, of course, are now long gone.
O.C. Knemeyer Building
Building #14; O.C. Knemeyer Building
Address: 115-115 1/2 West Locust Street
Classification: Contributing
Date of construction: 1914
Description and History: The Knemeyer Building is a one story brick structure with two storefront bays; it measures 42 feet across the facade and 70 feet deep. The bays are framed by brick piers which rise to a corbelled cornice. The frieze above the storefronts is decorated with recessed panels. Although some original storefront material has been lost, part of the original transom windows are still visible.
O.E. Knemeyer was a prominent Waterville merchant who served on the city council in the early 20th century. In 1914, he had this block constructed by E. Pfuller and the structure was completed within 60 days.
Initially, the building housed the post office and the Frank and Frank Billiard Hall.
From the NRHP Registration Form![]()