Last updated: August 5, 2026
Place
Ebey’s Landing Ferry House
NPS
Quick Facts
Location:
Whidbey Island, Coupeville, Washington
Significance:
One of the oldest surviving buildings in the Reserve, over 160 years old. Grounds include one of the oldest apple trees in Washington State.
Designation:
The house is included as a contributing resource in the Central Whidbey Island Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
OPEN TO PUBLIC:
No
Built ca. 1859, the Ferry House is among the oldest surviving buildings in Ebey’s Landing National Historical Reserve. Its prominent location above the coastal strip that connected Whidbey Island to mainland Washington lent the building various uses over the years—tavern, inn, boarding house, warehouse, farmhouse, and postal station. Though occupied and leased by many, the house was owned by only two families. Constructed on behalf of Isaac Ebey’s two sons following his death in 1857, the house was originally intended to generate income for his children. During its early years, the Ferry House provided travelers to Whidbey Island with a place for food, drink, and lodging. The surrounding agricultural lands were used to produce potatoes, grains, crops, and goods like butter. By the turn of the century, the Ferry House was used as a boarding house.
In 1917, Harold Ebey, grandson to Issac Ebey, sold the property, including the Ferry House, to Frank J. Pratt and his wife, Madelene. Between their acquisition of the house and Frank’s death in 1939, the family began renting the entire house to a succession of tenants, some of whom farmed the surrounding land. From 1956 to 2000, Earl (Bud) and Martha Morris served as caretakers, maintaining the house and property and making numerous repairs for over four decades of stewardship.
Robert Pratt, Frank’s son, eventually inherited the property and felt reverence for the open space, natural life, and history of Ebey’s Landing and Ebey’s Prairie, as with the previous caretakers. When Robert died in 1999, he donated the Ferry House, the Jacob and Sarah Ebey House, and 147 acres to the Nature Conservancy. In 2002 the National Park Service acquired the Ferry House property from the Nature Conservancy and continues the legacy of protection, stewardship, and conservation for future generations. The site’s association with the centuries of settlement on Whidbey Island makes it an essential element of the island’s cultural history.