Close-up of
cellar wall of First House, showing the header-
stretcher method of laying up the brick. About halfway up,
the wall, which is 4 1/2 feet high, bulges in from 3 to 4 inches,
the result of the floods of 1837 and 1838
Adobe structures are
typically associated with the Southwest – pueblos, bright blue sky, desert
landscapes – right? Not always! Dr. Marcus Whitman used adobe for the
mission structures he built in the Walla Walla valley of southeastern
Washington.
He had seen similar
structures at Fort Boise and Fort Hall on his way west and decided to
use it at Waiilatpu, as there was not much wood to be found at the place
of the rye grass. The Blue Mountains were rich in timber, but they were
20 miles away. Eventually Whitman built a sawmill on Mill Creek in the
Blue Mountains to bring more wood to the mission, but the First House,
Mission House, Blacksmith Shop (which used the adobe bricks from the
dismantled First House), and Emigrant House were made of mud bricks
covered with a whitewash of burned clam shells, as limestone was unavailable.
This whitewash helped to protect the structures from the elements.
Visitors to the
mission site in the 1930's remember seeing several layers of adobe bricks
still visible above ground despite years of neglect and weather. A display
seen until 1978 at the site of the First House was a wall from the foundation
of the building made of adobe bricks that had been uncovered during
archeological excavations and was minimally protected by a glass cover.
Due to deterioration, the wall was re-covered and preserved in 1978.
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