One of the many benefits of taking the slow roads is the opportunity to see fabulous barns of all shapes, sizes and colors. While some are visible from the interstates, the vast majority line the secondary roads that connect county seats, small towns and agricultural centers. Icons of the landscape, these utilitarian structures are often the most significant feature on the horizon set in an unending sea of wheat, corn, hay or barley.

Unfortunately, the future of many historic barns is endangered due to changes in the agricultural economy and farming technologies, prohibitive rehabilitation costs, development pressures, and regulations restricting new uses. In recognition of their historic and cultural significance, the Washington Trust included heritage barns statewide on its 2006 Most Endangered Historic Properties List.

In the fall of 2006, the Trust helped establish a King County Heritage Barn Preservation Program to provide grant funds to stabilize, rehabilitate and restore historic barns and other significant agricultural buildings. In the spring of 2007, the Trust successfully championed passage of the Heritage Barn Preservation Bill (SHB2115) that created a new Heritage Barn Register and provided nearly a half million dollars in matching grant funds to preserve historic barns around the state. Barn owners can now nominate their properties to this new register that commemorates these historically significant resources representing our state’s agricultural, economic and cultural development. Although strictly honorary in nature with no protections offered or regulations imposed, listing on the register makes them eligible for grant funding.

While many heritage barns continue to serve their original purpose of storing hay or sheltering animals, others have been converted to new uses that bring new life and vitality to rural communities. The non-profit Uniontown Community Development Association rehabilitated the historic Dahmen Barn (Tour 4b) to provide local artists and crafts people working studio space along with the opportunity to showcase their work to the public. Artisans at the Dahmen Barn recently celebrated the first anniversary of its grand opening on October 1, 2006. Even before its conversion to an arts facility, the Barn was famous for owner Steve Dahmen’s 50-year art project – the welded wagon wheel fence that surrounds the property.

This fall, take in the change of seasons by taking a trip on the slow roads and then come back and tell us about the great barns you’ve seen along the way!

Traveling the slow roads has the uncanny effect of stirring up hunger pangs every 50 miles or so. Perhaps this is due to all the local eateries passed along the way. Unlike the big chain restaurants, they tempt you from the side of the road since you don’t have to leave the interstate to see them. The result, of course, is not being able to decide where to eat given all the choices.

Allow us to make a few suggestions:

Fat Smitty’s – Discovery Bay (junction of US 101 and SR 20 along the Olympic Peninsula). Voted Best Burger in Washington by the 2005 Burger Tour and location where a Dubya bobblehead can be purchased with no irony or satire intended (Tour 9a).

Red Horse Drive-In – Ellensburg (1518 W. University Way). In addition to tasty burgers and shakes, you can enjoy the meticulously restored Mobilgas station, featuring (obviously) a winged red horse as the logo. It certainly caught the eye (and satisfied the appetite!) of this traveler (Tour 7b).

Frank’s Diner – Downtown Spokane (1516 W. 2nd Ave.). Formerly serving as the Northern Pacific Railroad Presidential Car, car #1787, originally built in 1906, now serves the best breakfast in town (Tour 1a).

Now’s your chance to tell us where you eat when you’re on the road!

Believe it or not but Washington’s finest collection of public murals can be found in historic post offices built in the 1930s by Depression-era federal relief agencies. On post office walls large and small around our state, professional artists created scenes reflecting the Northwest’s history and way of life. Many mistakenly assume that these murals were the product of the better known Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration when, in fact, they were funded by the Treasury Department’s Section of Painting and Sculpture (later renamed the Section of Fine Arts).

Between 1934 and 1943, the Section, as it was commonly called, commissioned the murals through public competitions to embellish new federal buildings, from agency headquarters in Washington DC to post offices across the country. With a mission to transform the federal post office into a democratic art gallery, the Section employed nearly 850 artists and commissioned 1371 murals, a majority of which were installed in post offices around the nation.

In Washington State, we have a rich trove of this fantastic public art waiting to be discovered. Most of the murals focused on the predominant early industries of logging, mining and agriculture, such as those found in Snohomish (Tour 1C), Sedro-Woolley (Tour 8B), Renton (Tour 1b) and Mount Vernon (Tour 8a). Appropriately, the Anacortes Post Office (Island Tour 3) at 519 Commercial Ave. features a mural titled Halibut Fishing that celebrates the area’s seagoing heritage (see detail above). Celebrated Northwest Artist Kenneth Callahan completed this oil on canvas in 1940, two years after painting Industries of Lewis County for Centralia’s post office (Tour 8d) in 1938. Callahan was later commissioned to paint the 1943 mural titled Rugby, the Geographical Center of North America for the post office in Rugby, ND.

Other murals depicted historic scenes such as the The Saga of Wenatchee found in the former Wenatchee Post Office and now included as part of the Wenatchee Valley Museum & Cultural Center (Tour 1a). Completed in 1940, this mural was the only one painted by a female artist, Peggy Strong, whose mural work can also be found at the University of Puget Sound. Take a gallery tour of some of Washington’s beautiful murals on this website or, better yet, go see the real thing in person!

When you think of Washington State Ferries, you usually picture one of the twenty-eight ferries that cross Puget Sound and its inland waterways, carrying over 26 million passengers annually to 20 different ports of call. What many people don’t know is that the State’s involvement with ferry boats began on the Eastern Washington “dry side” long before it ventured into the cross-sound routes in Western Washington that are familiar to so many. From the earliest years of Euro-American settlement in the mid-19th century, private ferries operated at key crossings along the lengths of our State’s major and minor rivers. Eventually, bridges replaced most of the early ferry crossings in those locations that provided connections within the State’s transportation infrastructure.

One ferry remaining in service is the Keller Ferry (Tours 1a and 7a) that crosses the Columbia River at its confluence with the Sanpoil River from Ferry County and the Colville Indian Reservation on the north bank to Lincoln County on the south. On September 1, 1930, the State of Washington Department of Highways took over control of the Keller Ferry run on the Columbia River, operated by Mr. William Latta, completing a link on what was then known as State Road #4. At that time, the river wasn’t as wide as it is today. Construction of the Grand Coulee Dam about 15 miles downstream from the ferry route quadrupled the width of the river when the reservoir was filled in the early 1940s, creating what is now Franklin D. Roosevelt Lake. The State’s tenure as a Puget Sound ferry transportation provider did not begin until over 20 years later, with its purchase of the Black Ball Line on June 1, 1951.

Launched in 1948, the vessel Martha S. has been in continuous service ever since, carrying approximately 60,000 vehicles across the Columbia River each year. Unlike its Puget Sound counterparts, the Martha S. carries few walk-on passengers as the ferry route is a link in a rural highway, State Route 21. The nearest communities are Wilbur, 14 miles to the south through golden wheat fields, and Republic, 53 miles to the north through green forests. The free ferry operates “on-demand” seven days a week, 18 hours a day, from 6:00 a.m. until midnight with an average crossing time of 10 minutes. A drive from either direction is well worth the trip for a unique experience and the spectacular views of the basalt cliffs and scab land forming both shores.

As summer winds down, we hope you’ve been enjoying traveling the s-l-o-w—r-o-a-d-s highlighted in Revisiting Washington. Not to be missed on Tour 2b is the Teapot Dome Gas Station on I-82 near Zillah. Built in 1922 as a political statement on the Teapot Dome scandal of the day, this piece of roadside Americana is truly a community icon and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Unfortunately, you can’t fill ‘er up anymore. It’s closed, but the City of Zillah hopes to relocate the structure to the center of town, rehabilitate it, and incorporate it into its plans for a new visitor center. To publicize this effort, the Washington Trust named the property to its 2007 Most Endangered Historic Properties List.

If you find yourself in Yakima (Tour 2c), check out the Yakima Valley Museum, one of the best regional museums in the state. A visit to the museum located at 2105 Tieton Drive is a great way to learn about the area’s history and heritage, and they have a fantastic collection of old neon signs. Be sure to stop off at the museum’s soda fountain for a shake or sundae!

While in Yakima during the summer fruit season, go to Johnson Orchards (4906 Summitview Ave.) for delicious cherries, peaches, apricots, etc. Family owned and operated, it’s been in the same location since 1904.

Our vote for best moving neon sign is the revolving hunter with rifle at the Yakima Sports Center at 214 E. Yakima Ave. in downtown Yakima. Stop in for a delicious meal, drinks, and cool music. You can’t miss it if you look for the sign!

And don’t leave town without grabbing a burger the size of your head at Miner’s Drive-in Restaurant located at 2415 S. 1st Street. Perfecting their burgers since 1948, the family-operated restaurant’s motto is “Nothing is cooked until you order it!” Just don’t try to go when busloads of schoolkids are there, and we mean busloads, with lines out the door. Otherwise, you’re in for a wait that’s worth it!

For enthusiasts of military history and architecture, Washington State is an absolute treasure trove of sites and installations waiting to be explored. A system of coastal defenses began to develop prior to the territorial period, while interior forts connected to the Columbia River and served the interests of pioneers coming to the region. The majority of Washington’s pre-Civil War buildings are located on historic military sites, including Fort Walla Walla (Tour 2a) and Fort Steilacoom (Tour 8c). From a stand alone architectural perspective, the best bang for your buck, in our opinion, is the Commanding Officer’s Quarters at Fort Simcoe State Park – a wonderfully preserved board and batten gothic revival cottage (Tour 7b). And as it is run by State Parks, admission is free: you can save your buck!

Welcome to the Revisiting Washington blog! The Washington Trust for Historic Preservation, together with our fabulous project partners, created this interactive guide to entice would-be travelers to get out there and explore the wonders of our beautiful state. We don’t mean racing along I-5 or I-90 at breakneck speed. We mean taking it easy and enjoying the ride via the scenic byways – which we affectionately call the s-l-o-w—r-o-a-d-s. As Washington’s statewide historic preservation advocacy organization, we spend a lot of time traveling throughout the state. But it wasn’t until we drove the s-l-o-w—r-o-a-d-s while working on this project that we realized how much of our amazing state we were simply passing by in our haste to get from point A to point B. Roadside chapels, waterfalls, a house constructed entirely out of flotsam, Grange halls, hot springs, Washington’s (perhaps the world’s?) largest frying pan – it’s all out there, waiting for you to marvel at, just like we did! So, fill up that tank (yikes!), pack some snacks, grab your map and copy of the guide, and get out there on the open road! Then, come back and tell us all about the cool and unusual things you encountered along the way. We’re sure we only scratched the surface of what’s out there and we want to know what we missed!