Wallowa County was incorporated in 1887, and in 1888  our building was constructed to house the First Bank of Joseph, the first bank in Wallowa County. The bank occupied the front section of the building for about 25 years. The other ground floor room, which is now the Nez Percé room, was a newspaper office.

F.D. McCully, the bank’s first President, selected the High Victorian Italianate Commercial style of architecture, which was typical of large cities at the time.

The structure of locally made brick was covered by a thin layer of cement. Red tin rosettes adorn the pillars at the front entrance. The door hinges on the big outside doors are ornately carved, the inside doorknobs are also decoratively scored, and all three sections of the building are finished with hand-turned moldings. The large varicolored light fixture in the center of the front room is also typical of the late 1880s. Such fixtures were made by hand, with each color of plaster being poured separately and no two are alike. The door of the large walk-in vault was hand painted. The upstairs was originally a meeting hall.

Subsequently it was occupied by a private school. The slate blackboard, installed about 1890 across the entire width of the building, is still in place.

In 1913, Dr. Vedro Gregory of Wallowa leased the entire premises for seven years to serve as a private hospital. An office and waiting room were in the front, the kitchen was in the second room, and a new inside stairway was built leading to the ward and the operating room        upstairs.

In 1927, the City of Joseph acquired the building from the bank and owned it for 50 years. The Women’s Club of Joseph leased the upstairs and installed a kitchen and a stage. That hall was then used for all kinds of social occasions; a place to meet, to hold public classes, dances, and banquets.

Because of these activities, a small iron fire escape was added over the front entrance in 1932. Meanwhile, the City of Joseph used the downstairs for the City Hall and library. Later, the front room was leased to the American Legion and then to the Forest Service as a ranger station.

In 1960, the Joseph Chamber of Commerce opened The Chief Joseph Museum in the front room and operated it during summers until 1972.

In 1973, the city moved its office and the fire station to new locations and the building was given to the Friends of the Museum. On October 16, 1976, the Wallowa County Museum was dedicated and the official opening was May 1, 1977. The old firehall was purchased with proceeds from the first History Book and in 2009 expansion was begun.

J H Horner Counties First Historian

John Harland (Harley) Horner, who came to Wallowa County at age 14 in 1884, was the first to take an active interest in the County’s historical background. He joined the Wallowa County Pioneer Association and became its secretary in 1924. In his position as county assessor, he traveled throughout Wallowa County, often by horseback, learning about its geographical details and about the people who had lived in the area.

He began to keep scrapbooks and old newspapers, as well as collecting other items. Some of the things in the museum from his collection: the Indian hemp robe, a piece of wood from an old fort located on Upper Prairie Creek, and an ox yoke.

A copy of Mr. Horner’s typewritten manuscript detailing his conversations and voluminous correspondence with individuals and government officials, the original of which is located in the Oregon Historical Society, is available at the museum for researchers.

The information regarding Wallowa County place names in Lewis McArthur’s Oregon Geographical Names was obtained from Mr. Horner.