Ezra Meeker Mansion

Sal is a voice that rides along as you drive Washington's roads: the road ahead, the pass, the stories of the places you pass.

Eliza Jane Meeker paid for the house and set its specifications, hiring Tacoma architects Farrell and Darmer to build it starting in 1886 [1]. Work finished in December 1890, and the family cooked their first meal there on the tenth of that month [1]. Before the house was finished, the Meekers held their youngest daughter Olive's marriage on the front porch that October [1]. Ezra made his money in hops and carried the nickname Hop King of the World, and the place served as the valley's social center while he lived in it [1]. It was wired for gas and electricity before the valley had power, so the fixtures could burn either way, and no house in the Puyallup Valley had running water in an upstairs bathroom before it [1]. After the hop crop failed and the Panic of 1893 came, Ezra lost most of his fortune, and the family let rooms to boarders before selling up [1]. The Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic bought it in 1915 for eight thousand dollars to shelter elderly women [1]. The Puyallup Historical Society owns and runs it as a museum [1].