Electric Light Works Building

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012.

From the record

“The Electric Light Works Building, also known as Gesa Power House Theatre, is a noteworthy building in Walla Walla, Washington that has aided in the growth and success of the city. It started out as a substation in the early 20th century, supplying Walla Walla with electricity.”
Wikipedia article Electric Light Works Building, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 32 National Register listings published here for Walla Walla County · listed in 2012 · category: Building.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
Address. 111 N. 6th Ave., Walla Walla, 99362
When was it listed? January 2012
Category. building
Census division. Walla Walla-College Place
National Register reference number. 11001013 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 11 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 11 workings within 5 miles of Electric Light Works Building: 10 past producers, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Clay. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status
Walla Walla Pit	Clay	Past Producer
Borrow Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Dell Avenue Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Jones-Scott Company	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Mill Creek Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Unnamed Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Unnamed Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Unnamed Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Unnamed Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Unnamed Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Walla Walla County

Storms near this property

19 since 1999

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Walla Walla, the town this property stands in, in 19 storm reports between 1999 and 2017: 10 thunderstorm wind, 4 funnel cloud, 2 hail, 1 heavy rain. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
August 2001	Lightning	Walla Walla	$25,000	no account filed
December 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Walla Walla	$20,000	A severe thunderstorm with winds gusting to 58 mph knocked down trees and caused power outages to over 3500 customers in Walla Walla. One large tree fell onto an unoccupied car and caused major damage.
May 2005	Flash Flood	Walla Walla	$20,000	no account filed
August 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Walla Walla	$5,000	no account filed
May 2000	Heavy Rain	Walla Walla	$3,000	no account filed
July 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Walla Walla	$2,000	Winds from a dissipating thunderstorm broke tree limbs 8 to 10 inches in diameter, damaged the roof of a camper, and broke a window. Very little rain fell from this storm.
June 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Walla Walla	$1,000	Power lines down due to strong wind gust at Pioneer Park in Walla Walla. Damage amount estimated.
June 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Walla Walla	-	Strong thunderstorm winds downed power lines in Walla Walla.
May 2015	Thunderstorm Wind	Walla Walla	-	Roof damage reported in the city of Walla Walla.
September 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Walla Walla	-	A 60 mph wind gust estimated by the public.
June 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Walla Walla	-	Awnings were ripped off travel trailers and tree limbs up to 6 inches in diameter were snapped.
May 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Walla Walla	-	Large tree limbs and power lines blown down.
February 2003	Funnel Cloud	Walla Walla	-	A funnel cloud was cited west of Walla Walla, which had sporadic movement. The base of the funnel cloud was at about 1,000 feet, with the length of the funnel around 500 to 600 feet.
March 1999	Funnel Cloud	Walla Walla	-	A funnel cloud was seen southeast of Walla Walla for a few minutes during the early afternoon. A newspaper's photographer was able to capture the funnel cloud on film.
September 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Walla Walla	-	no account filed
April 2012	Hail	Walla Walla	-	no account filed
May 2005	Funnel Cloud	Walla Walla	-	no account filed
May 2004	Funnel Cloud	Walla Walla	-	no account filed
May 2000	Hail	Walla Walla	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Walla Walla County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
Whitehouse-Crawford Planing Mill	0.2 miles	2000
Washington School	0.2 miles	1991
Bachtold Building-Interurban Depot	0.2 miles	2019
Dacres Hotel	0.3 miles	1974
Northern Pacific Railway Passenger Depot	0.3 miles	1990
Marcus Whitman Hotel	0.3 miles	1999

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 11001013 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Walla Walla County	All 32 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.