Ferry House, Historic building from 1860 in Ebey's Landing National Historical Reserve, Washington, United States.
Ferry House is a 1+1⁄2-story vernacular residence with Greek Revival elements, clad in clapboard siding and topped by a wood-shingled gable roof with a gable-roofed dormer on the north facade. It was built from salvaged 1-by-12 fir planks that run from the first floor to the top of the second, with two-by-fours attached to the exterior walls holding up the two floors. Several interior walls show weathering, showing they were once exterior walls.
Winfield Scott Ebey built the inn in 1860, using timber from the abandoned cabins of his brother Isaac Neff Ebey, who had been killed in 1857. Named The Ebey Inn, it generated income for Isaac's three orphaned children. The Ebey family kept the house for 57 years, until Isaac's grandson sold it in 1917.
The building welcomed travelers and provided them with lodging and refreshment during journeys across the waterway. It functioned as a gathering place where people from different areas met and shared news.
The house stays locked all year, but the grounds are open to pedestrians. The Ferry House is owned by the National Park Service as part of Ebey's Landing National Historical Reserve, not a state park, so no Discover Pass applies. Visitors walk the reserve paths and view the exterior; the second-story window above the front door marks where a veranda door once stood.
A film crew added wallpaper to several interior walls and the front door in 1998 for scenes in the 1999 movie Snow Falling on Cedars. A framework of two-by-sixes now stands in the living room, parlor and first-floor bedroom to keep the second floor from collapsing.
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