Waiilatpu continues its evolution - at the beginning of the 20th century it was also the site of a farm and a church named in honor of Marcus Whitman

As the 20th century arrived, there was little evidence left at Waiilatpu of the thriving mission of the previous century. Blocks of adobe may still have littered the ground surface among the grasses, there was still water in the oxbow of the Walla Walla River, and here and there a household item may have surfaced from the wind and rain. The monument, Great Grave, and a newly built church, the Whitman-Eells Congregational Church, were all in sight of the old mission grounds. In 1916, an additional grave was placed beside the Great Grave. William and Mary Gray were re-interred at Waiilatpu after having been originally buried in Astoria, Oregon. Many believed it fitting that the man who had begun the memorialization efforts should be buried in his first home in the Northwest, Waiilatpu.

The owner of Waiilatpu by this time was the Swegle family. They had donated the land for both the memorials and the church. The family house was nearby the mission grounds, and the site of the mission used as pasture. In all the years following the end of the Waiilatpu mission, the actual site of the buildings was never plowed for crops, preserving the adobe foundations still lying beneath the earth. The events at Waiilatpu were not to be forgotten despite the changing of the century. The care and preservation of the mission grounds went to various groups until finally coming to the attention of the National Park Service, beginning a new era of preservation and memorialization to the site of Waiilatpu.

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