History of 948 May Avenue – Walla Walla, WA

Legal Description

Butler’s Addition to the City of Walla Walla, Lots 21 through 24, Block 10

Title and Occupant History

Washington Territory was created in 1853.  In 1854, the new territorial legislature created Walla Walla County, which stretched from the crest of the Cascade Mountains to the crest of the Rocky Mountains in the present states of Washington, Idaho and Montana.  In 1855, Isaac Stevens, governor of Washington Territory, held a council on the banks of Mill Creek at the present site of Walla Walla with representatives of regional Indian tribes to purchase land from them.  The Yakamas, Cayuses and Walla Wallas were dissatisfied with the treaties and the intrusion by whites into their lands before the treaties’ ratification, and war followed.  Missionaries, former French-Canadian employees of the Hudson Bay Company trading post at Wallula, and soldiers at the military Fort Walla Walla were the primary European occupants of the area prior to 1859, when the treaties were finally ratified and the land was opened for settlement.  The transfer of ownership occurred by virtue of a treaty signed on June 9, 1855 in Walla Walla and ratified on March 8, 1859 by President James Buchanan, in which all of the land in the Walla Walla area was acquired from the Cayuse and Walla Walla Indian tribes.

The town of Walla Walla was originally laid out by County Surveyor Hamet Hubbard Case in 1859, prior to its formal incorporation as a city in 1862, as a one-quarter mile square with its eastern side centered on the point where Main Street crossed Mill Creek (at roughly the point where it does now).  Case’s plan was filed and recorded July 5, 1867 in Book A of Plats, Page 1. The City of Walla Walla received a Trustee Town site from the U. S. Government that consisted of 80 acres, issued on July 20, 1869 by the Vancouver, W. T. District Land Office.

Norman Francis Butler was born in Maine in 1828 and arrived in Walla Walla in 1861 via San Francisco, Oakland and Oregon. He settled on land near the present site of the Washington State Penitentiary. A carpenter by trade, he frequently billed himself as an architect. While he designed a number of houses in Walla Walla, including his own, extant at 207 East Cherry Street, he was known for having been the contractor for many more structures than he designed, including the Whitman Memorial Building.

Butler’s Addition originally was platted and filed May 31, 1881. An amended plat to correct an unspecified error to the original plat was filed September 17, 1895. At that time, Butler’s Addition consisted of nine city blocks of 24 lots each, plus a strip of 38 lots on the north side of Carrie Avenue, for a total of 254 building lots. The plat extends from the southeast corner of North 13^th and Rees Avenues, north to Carrie Avenue, including the 38 lots on the north side of Carrie Avenue, then east to what is now North 7^th Avenue, then south to Rees Avenues. The 254 lots were not large, suggesting that Butler may have intended them for homes. However, this portion of northwest Walla Walla developed more as a light industrial and manufacturing area, although a number of small houses can still be found along the streets of Butler’s Addition.

The current east-west streets through Butler’s Addition did not exist at the time the addition was platted and filed, with the exception of North 13^th Avenue, then known as County Road. (See 1895 plat map below.)

3/21/1865, Lease, E. H. Barron, lessor; Kyger & Rees, lessees, a 90-year lease for the Southeast quarter of the Southeast quarter of Section 19, Township 7 North, Range 36 East of the Willamette Meridian, $300. Kyger & Rees was one of Walla Walla’s earliest mercantiles, a major supplier to miners heading to Idaho, also selling clothing, foodstuffs and liquor, the latter kept in a separate building behind their large store on the northeast corner of what is now East Main Street and North 2^nd Avenue.

3/15/1881, Warranty Deed, Norman F. and Rebecca Butler, grantors; H. L. Rees, M. H. Paxton and S. L. Bowman, grantees, 45 and 58/100ths acres “except… a strip… conveyed to the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company containing 2 and 12/100ths acres…” $3,925.

3/17/1881, Deed, Harry L. Rees, grantor; Samuel L. Bowman, grantee, (same description as noted in lease of 3/21/1865), $1.

5/28/1881, Warranty Deed, S. L. and Carrie L. Bowman and M. H. and Edith M. Paxton, grantors; Eva Harris, grantee, Lots 23 and 24, Block 10, Butler’s Addition, plus 10 lots in Block 1, Butler’s Addition, $1,000 and other valuable considerations. This is the first splitting of Lots 23 and 24, on which the current building is situated, from the rest of Block 10.

10/10/1881, Warranty Deed, S. L. and Carrie L. Bowman and M. H. and Edith M. Paxton, grantors; M. J. Young, grantee, Lots 21 and 22, Block 10, $150. This is the first splitting of Lots 21 and 22 from the rest of Block 10, excepting Lots 23 and 24 as noted in the preceding warranty deed. As of 10/10/1881, all four lots comprising the current parcel defined as 948 May Avenue are now separate from the balance of Block 10.

1/24/1890, Sheriff’s Deed, M. J. Young by J. M. McFarland, Sheriff to J. L. Stubblefield, Lots 21 and 22, Block 10, $334.58.

10/20/1890, Warranty Deed, Eva A. and H. A. Harris, grantors; J. L. Stubblefield, grantee, Lots 23 and 24, Block 10, plus 10 lots in Block 1, Butler’s Addition, $1,500.

12/22/1894, Warranty Deed, J. L. and Cassann Stubblefield, grantors; Robert L. Kerrick and W. W. Kerrick, (same description as noted in warranty deed of 10/20/1890), $1,200. Robert Kerrick was listed in the 1893 city directory as a guard at the Washington State Penitentiary, residing on the north side of Rees Avenue, east side of 13^th. Also living there were five other Kerricks: Lawrence M., Sr. a farmer; Lawrence M., Jr.; Franklin, William and F. Kerrick, all farmers. The other Kerricks drifted off to different addresses over the years; Robert Kerrick’s last listing at 13^th and May was in the 1902 directory, which gave the address as 1004 May Avenue.

6/27/1903, Warranty Deed, R. L. and Edith Kerrick and W. W. Kerrick, unmarried, grantors; J. L. Stubblefield, (same description as noted in warranty deed of 10/20/1890), $1,000.

10/17/1908, Deed, J. S. Haviland, Sheriff of Walla Walla County to R. M. Dorothy, E. A. Reser and C. M. Rader, trustees under the Last Will and Testament of Joseph L. Stubblefield, deceased, Lots 21 and 22, Block 10, $334.58.

10/17/1908, Deed, R. M. Dorothy, E. A. Reser and C. M. Rader, trustees under the Last Will and Testament of Joseph L. Stubblefield, deceased to Standard Oil Company of California, Lots 21 through 24, Block 10, $1,000 in gold coin.

10/19/1908, Indenture, Robert L. and Edith Kerrick, party of the first part; R. M. Dorothy, E. A. Reser, C. M. Rader, as trustees under the Last Will and Testament of Joseph L. Stubblefield, deceased, Lots 23 and 24, Block 10, $1 in gold coin.

5/17/1926, Deed, Standard Oil Company, a California corporation, grantor; Standard Oil Company of Delaware, a corporation, grantee, Lots 21 through 24, Block 10, “…for good and valuable considerations… party of the first part grants… to the party of the second part… all real estate property… all leases, agreements, lease holds, drilling, contracts, option contracts, mortgages, rights of way and other easements…”

5/15/1981, Statutory Warranty Deed, Chevron U.S.A., Inc. of San Francisco, CA, grantor; Leid-Ford Distributing Company, Inc., a Washington corporation, grantee, Lots 1, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 and 24, Block 10, $10. Although Standard Oil forfeited ownership of the property, it appears that Leid-Ford maintained a business arrangement with the larger company. Roy Leid was listed in the 1982 city directory as office manager, and Dale Ford as salesman/driver for Standard Oil.

7/25/2001, Statutory Warranty Deed, Leid-Ford Distributing Company, Inc., a Washington corporation, grantor; Powell-Christensen, Inc., a Washington corporation, grantee, (same description as noted in statutory warranty deed of 5/15/1981), $10 and other valuable considerations. Powell-Christensen, headquartered in Grandview, is a distributor of fuel, lubricants and propane products, with branches in several eastern Washington cities.

10/31/2018, Statutory Warranty Deed, Powell-Christensen, Inc., a Washington corporation, grantor; Odilon and Ynez Vargas, grantees, Lots 21 through 24, Block 10.

Construction of Building

Standard Oil Company of California was granted Building Permit 400 0n 3/2/1909, for which they paid the City of Walla Walla a fee of $1.50, to construct “iron [illeg.] warehouses & stables” on the northeast corner of May Avenue and North 13^th Avenue. Bailey & Lambert, with an office at 430 Drumheller Building, was the contractor. Estimated construction cost was $4,500.

The Evening Statesman on 3/6/1909, in their “Commerce Building” column, wrote, “Among the permits issued this month is one to John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil company for four iron-clad sheds at Thirteenth and May streets, $4,500…”

The original edition of the 1905 Sanborn Fire Map shows that the only structure on Lots 21-24 was the aforementioned residence of Robert L. and W. W. Kerrick, presumably constructed in 1895 on Lot 21.

From ensuing alterations made to the 1905 Sanborn Fire Map, it appears that the extant frame structure that is oriented north/south was constructed first. The alterations to the 1905 map were made in July 1909, and this structure, labeled oil warehouse, is clearly evident, while the brick structure, extant and oriented east/west, is not; it, however, is clearly evident in the second alteration to the Sanborn map, dated December 1910. Building permits were searched through 1910 with no further permits having been issued to Standard Oil. Thus, the frame structure appears to have been completed in time to be included in the 1909 alteration to the 1905 Sanborn map, while the brick structure, finished later, had to await the 1910 alteration, where it is labeled REP’G and noted to be steel-truss supported and fireproof.

A build date of 1909 is most likely for the frame structure, with 1909-10 for the brick structure.

The first listing for Standard Oil Company in the city directory was in the 1910-11 edition, noting it was at “May av cor 13^th, L. H. Wade, agent.”

It is worth observing that there was obviously competition between three major dealers in petroleum products who were located on the north side of May Avenue between 11^th and 13^th. Union Oil Company was due east of Standard Oil, and on the corner of 11^th Shell Oil had constructed a facility. Indeed, the Walla Walla Union reported the following on 10/10/1912: “Washington Refining Co. to spend $4,000 on their buildings at 11^th and May. Storage tanks have been built and will be shipped to Walla Walla and installed within one month, to be surrounded by high concrete walls… to compete with Standard Oil Co. by selling a full line of petroleum products.”

Of the two remaining structures constructed for Standard Oil Company of California, the brick building facing on North 13^th Avenue is certainly the more interesting architecturally. An essentially simple brick warehouse redolent of several similar such structures that remain in this neighborhood, the corbels, purely decorative, that surround the building and the stepped east and west façades add interest to an otherwise simple structure.

Resources

• Pioneer Title/Columbia Title
• Whitman Archives
• Sanborn Fire Map, 1905 first edition with later additions
• Reed, Diane, The Man Who Helped Build Walla Walla: the Local Legacy of Norman Francis Butler, Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, 4/26/2016
• Walla Walla Daily Union, 1/10/1912
• Walla Walla Evening Statesman, 3/6/1909