It’s a part of Yakima that many people just drive by as they go from one place to another, not giving too much thought to the warehouses, some of which sport faded signs advertising fruit companies.
But Yakima’s Fruit Row along North First Avenue was the place where much of the Valley’s produce was prepared to be shipped out to markets around the country and the world, first by train and later by trucks.
Like most things in Yakima, the district owes its existence to the “iron horse.”
While the Valley’s agricultural roots go back to the Yakama, getting goods to market was always a challenge when the only way out was by wagons navigating mountain passes.
But that changed in 1884, when the Northern Pacific Railway arrived in the Valley. It would provide better access to the coast, as well as markets in the eastern United States for the Valley’s wares.
Snubbing today’s Union Gap, the railroad chose to establish its depot at a town of its creation, today’s Yakima. With train service established, growers had to prepare their wares for shipping to market.
Some growers did the packing themselves, while others banded together into cooperatives, which created an economy of scale and made the process more efficient. These cooperatives could also establish larger packing houses, while buyers also set up facilities, buying produce from local farms and shipping it out for a profit.
The logical place for the fruit warehouses was as close to the rail lines as possible, reducing the cost of getting the fruit from the warehouse to the train. And the first warehouses went up in 1889 on Selah Street — today’s North First Avenue — between West A and West D streets.
In time, the district would grow, extending south to West Pine Street and west to North Second Avenue. The early wooden packing houses were supplemented and replaced with brick and concrete in the early parts of the 20th century as the fruit industry continued to grow and expand.
Perry also created the Yakima Valley Shippers Association, which negotiated better rates with the railroad.
In 1912, the Yakima Daily Republic reported that 10 to 12 railcars laden with the Valley’s fruit were pulling out of the district daily. At that time, the district was known as “Fruit and Produce Warehouse Row,” serviced by both the Northern Pacific and the Oregon Railway and Navigation Co., a Union Pacific subsidiary that took over Yakima’s trolley lines, hauling both freight and passengers.
Fruit Row, as the area came to be known, weathered the Great Depression and saw a rebound in World War II with increased demand for fruit.
When the Interstate Highway System made shipping by truck more efficient, Fruit Row adapted as well, sending out truckloads of packed apples to markets and distribution centers.
Some of the older buildings are no longer in use as warehouses, replaced by larger operations near the district and close to the highways, but are occupied by other businesses.
City officials are in the process of preserving Fruit Row’s history and looking at possible inclusion on either the National Register of Historic Places or the Yakima Register of Historic Places.
A scale model of a portion of Fruit Row can be seen at the Central Washington Agricultural Museum in, appropriately, an old boxcar.
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August 02, 2021 at 09:00AM
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It Happened Here: Yakima's Fruit Row a vital hub in fruit industry - Yakima Herald-Republic
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