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Harrington

Dating from the arrival of the railroads, Harrington was a shipping point for wheat and cattle. It features state and national historic register-listed brick building, Harrington Bank Block and Opera House, an imposing two-story structure designed and built in 1904 out of locally made bricks; the Opera House served as the center of entertainment in the community for four decades. Also find the Lincoln Hotel, a 1902-built single-room occupancy hotel.

The first settler in Harrington, Adam Luby, homesteaded on Coal Creek in 1879, and in 1883. Mrs. Emily H. Cutter platted the town on a land grant from the Northern Pacific Railroad. The town’s name commemorates a California banker and land speculator, W. P. Harrington, who with Seattle banker Jacob Furth, saw the investment possibilities attending the development of the fertile wheat lands of this region. Harrington was a solidly matter-of-fact town, with long lines of boxcars on the sidings, storage tanks for gasoline, grain elevators, and several flour and feed mills. Its busy Main Street was lined with small, well-constructed buildings, which included an “opera block” of red brick, ornamented with scroll work and a mansard roof, reminiscent of late Victorian architecture.  Today, Main Street is Third Street/SR 23.

Images

1910 postcard view of downtown Harrington, showing the Lincoln (Harrington) Hotel (center) and the surrounding landscape in background.

Source: Washington State Historical Society

Historic view of horse-drawn wagons hauling sacks of wheat in Harrington, near Mohler.

Source: Washington State Historical Society

Undated view of the NRHP listed Harrington Bank Block and Opera House.

Source: Washington Dept. of Archaeology and Historic Preservation

Ca. 1915 view of the Lincoln Hotel, also called the Harrington Hotel. This building is listed on the National Register and Washington Heritage Register.

Source: Washington State Historical Society

Ca. 1910 image of a baseball game in Harrington, showing many town buildings in the background.

Source: Washington State Historical Society

Points of Interest Points of Interest icon

Lincoln Hotel

Lincoln Hotel Completed in 1902, the Lincoln Hotel is one of the best-preserved commercial buildings Harrington and an excellent example of a “single room occupancy” (SRO) hotel, featuring unreinforced brick masonry construction, symmetrical fenestration patterns, a prominent front entrance, a street-level storefront, a first-floor lobby, and multiple single occupancy hotel rooms on the second floor. At the time of its planning and construction, anticipatory newspaper articles printed in 1901 predicted the Lincoln Hotel would be one of the “finest” hotels built in the area with “modern conveniences and improvements, nothing being spared to make it an attractive house.” With its strategic location just one block west of the Great Northern Railway’s passenger train depot, the hotel bustled with business through the 1970s as thousands of visitors, patrons, and lodgers enjoyed the lobby, dining room, and accommodations for more than 70 years. The Lincoln Hotel has undergone minor modifications since it was built, and retains a high level of exterior and interior integrity.

Harrington Bank Block and Opera House

The Harrington Bank Block and Opera House, at the northwest corner of Third and Willis Streets, was constructed in 1904 by the proprietors of the private Bank of Harrington to house their firm’s operations as well as a 350-seat auditorium and other businesses.

Harrington is part of the following tour legs:

Davenport to Ellensburg

Harrington is part of the following tours:

Davenport to Ellensburg