WALLA WALLA — The first thing a visitor notices on a warm summer day here is how spruced up the place looks. The second thing is how authentic it all seems.

Main Street Walla Walla looks authentic because it is authentic.

This is no dolled-up downtown trying to be something it never was. Along several blocks, building after building now boasts its original façade. Those still encased in '50s and '60s-era makeovers look like dowdy matrons who forgot to change clothes for the party.

A friendly, up-to-date streetscape, including trees, benches and sidewalk cafes, enhances Walla Walla's downtown experience for residents as well as visitors.

This out-of-the-way town of 29,300 is a striking example of how preserving the past can be a key to the future. In May, Walla Walla was one of five American cities recognized for its historic-preservation efforts by the National Main Street Center.

One block off Main Street, historic renovation meets economic development. Walla Walla's landmark building, the Marcus Whitman Hotel, has been restored to its 1920s elegance and expanded to include a conference center.

The result is stunning. The Marcus Whitman, which reopened late this spring, has been beautifully restored. Its grand lobby and Georgian Room, where high tea will be served, combined with 10,000 square feet of meeting space and state-of-the-art audio-visual equipment, instantly put Walla Walla on the list of small cities in Washington state competing for regional conventions and other meetings.

It won't hurt in that competition that another nearby building, an old planing mill called the Whitehouse-Crawford, has been renovated and converted into a winery, wine bar and fine restaurant.

Why here? This quiet, small town in southeast Washington is about as far from a metropolitan center as it is possible to be in the Northwest. It's not on any of the region's great rivers or beautiful lakes. The surrounding landscape of rolling wheat fields and vineyards is quite lovely, but an acquired taste for those accustomed to water, mountains, trees and easy access to urban amenities.

You can fly here, but if you drive, whichever way you enter you'll wind up on a two-lane road.

You could say Walla Walla has had more than its share of luck to offset geography. The Marcus Whitman was rescued from several decades of seedy existence by a pair of Indiana transplants, Kyle and Lori Mussman. Like other well-known benefactors in this state, Mussman made a lot of money in new technology and has put sizeable chunks of it back into the community, including more than $25 million on the hotel.

(The worry in Walla Walla now is that the Mussmans' pending and very public divorce will somehow affect the future of the hotel. Both are quoted in the local press denying they will sell.)

Also on the luck side of the ledger is the emergence of Walla Walla as a place to grow premium wine grapes and make world-class wines.

Darcy Small, whose husband Rick started Woodward Canyon winery nearly two decades ago, told me how folks thought he was "crazy to be planting grapes in the weeds." His was only the second winery in the valley.

She credits much of the current success of Walla Walla to "tons of volunteers." Small, who moved here in 1978, grew up in Bremerton, "a Navy town where people came and went." Walla Walla is different, a stable community with long-standing families and relationships. She credits the commitment to historic preservation to the community's pride in itself.

Like many other small cities, Walla Walla hit tough times when a mall was built outside of town. But focused attention on Main Street, especially historic preservation, paid off. Today, The Bon Marché is still there, hotel-motel stays are up for the first half of this year over last, and downtown sales are holding their own against Wal-Mart, which opened early this year just south of town.

This isn't just happenstance, said Jim Kuntz, executive director of the Port of Walla Walla and a key player in economic development in both the county and city of Walla Walla.

He's right. Walla Walla has bragging rights across the state not because it got lucky with a climate for growing grapes, or because it has wind to fuel energy-producing windmills, or because a guy named Mussman moved here.

Communities succeed when lots of people are involved in thinking smart and working hard to create a future. That, plus the blessings of history, make Walla Walla an unusually interesting place to be in 2001.

Contact Mindy Cameron via e-mail at mindycameron@earthlink.net or write her c/o The Seattle Times, P.O. Box 70, Seattle, WA 98111.

Copyright © 2001 The Seattle Times Company

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