Lewis County Jail

The Lewis County Courthouse is a neo-classical Beaux-Arts inspired courthouse located in Chehalis, Washington. The structure was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 18, 2014. The Lewis County Courthouse is the last of possibly 7 or more courthouses that represented the county, including two prior judicial buildings in the city of Chehalis. The first official courthouse is debated between the home of Judge Sidney Ford in Ford's Prairie or the log cabin Jackson Courthouse under early pioneer John R. Jackson in present-day Mary's Corner. Judicial proceedings were known to have taken place on the homesteads of other prominent, early settlers in Lewis County. The first courthouse built on order of the county government was located in Claquato, temporarily becoming the county seat. The county seat moved to Chehalis in 1874 and the first courthouse in the city was constructed that same year. The structure served as a centralized judicial building until possibly 1901, when the county purchased a mixed-use hotel, entertainment, and commercial building built by the matriarch of Chehalis, Elizabeth Barrett Saunders. Known as the Barret Block Courthouse, it was often in disrepair, considered unsanitary, and experienced several prison escapes. The site was criticized consistently in the local press for its lack of facility and the building's eyesore nature. Moderate attempts to keep the building in working order were undertaken and it lasted as use as a courthouse until the Lewis County Courthouse was completed in June 1927. The Lewis County Courthouse held a dedication on June 17, 1927 after two years of construction. Attended by prominent government officials and a large crowd, the festivities included an evening ball. The courthouse was declared to last 100 years and, as the "people's courthouse", was always open to any and all Lewis County citizens. The courthouse, designed by Jacque "Jack" DeForest Griffin, was erected at a cost of over $418,000 on a corner lot at Main Street and Chehalis Avenue on grounds that contained a church and other buildings. The four-story structure is built mostly of concrete, with Tenino sandstone, carved inscriptions, and various motifs on the exterior. Bronze doors dominate the main entrance on North Street. The interior is dominated by a central staircase and the building contains original woodwork. Painting restoration efforts in the early 2000s reflected the initial wall colors of the 1920s. It once contained a jail on the attic floor from which several escapes were attempted, some successful. The courthouse floors include a basement and mezzanine and numerous original details still remain within the corridors of the building. The courthouse, despite being built with expansion in mind, began to suffer from overcrowding in the coming decades. The judicial building became a focal point of a larger government campus created to alleviate the crowding issue, beginning with the build of a 1950s annex known as the Lewis County Public Health Building. Continuing issues over a lack of functional space led to the construction of the Lewis County Law and Justice Center annex in the late 1970s, and the Lewis County Jail at the turn of the century. The Law and Justice Center once contained a skyway that connected to the courthouse, its purpose to ferry prisoners between the two buildings. The skywalk, the only such architectural feature in the county at the time, was removed for lack of use and deterioration in 2002. The Lewis County Courthouse has experienced over its lifetime several fires, acts of prisoner violence, vandalism, and is often a site for local protests. The building has also undergone numerous remodels, renovations, and restorations as needs for the county government has changed. Despite the necessary alterations over the years, restorations have allowed the courthouse to remain true to its original state. As of 2014, the courthouse's rebuild value was reported to be $140 million. The judicial building has been noted for its permanence of construction, historic character, ties to courthouse history in the county, and is considered to be an excellent example of pride within Lewis County and the city of Chehalis.

The Chehalis Post Office is a federal post office in Chehalis, Washington. The Georgian Revival building has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) since 1991. The site has been declared a historic building by the Chehalis Historic Preservation Commission. The post office is the only federal building in the city and was completed and dedicated in 1934. The Chehalis MPO, as it is listed in the NRHP form, was the last post office constructed in Chehalis. The build ended a stretch of perhaps nine different postal locations in the community. The first office was established in 1858 at the homestead of Schuyler and Elizabeth Saunders, the founding family of what later became Chehalis. The brick building was constructed for $97,400 during the Great Depression by the Works Progress Administration. Two stories tall, the structure was one of the last federal Beaux-Arts-style buildings erected and an example of 1930s architecture used by the United States government. The exterior contains several features of note, including numerous semi-circular windows, dormers, a front pediment entrance, as well as various terra cotta designs and motifs. Materials, which included sandstone, were mostly procured in the Pacific Northwest. The interior was built with modern amenities of the time and many features, including flooring and millwork, remain in the present day. The first floor hosts the post office's public duties, and the building contains a basement, mezzanine, and a second floor used for office space. Outside of natural upgrades and maintenance, the Chehalis Post Office is considered to remain in a mostly unaltered state. Located in between two other NRHP-listed sites, the Chehalis Downtown Historic District and the Lewis County Courthouse, the post office serves as a central hub for local mail deliveries and rural routes expanding across Lewis County. The Chehalis Post Office reached first class status in 1937 and mail service has operated continuously in the city since September 1870.

The St. Helens Hotel, also known as the St. Helens Inn, is located in Chehalis, Washington and has been registered on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) since 1991. The historic hotel is situated on the south end of the Chehalis Downtown Historic District, an NRHP-listed district. The first St. Helens Hotel was a wooden inn built in the late 19th century and owned by William West, a prominent Chehalis pioneer. Due to a growing, modern city and an increase in travelers through the region, the hotel was rebuilt of brick and expanded between 1917 and 1921. The West family continued full or partial ownership of the hotel since its inception until 1976, when the St. Helens underwent a full conversion as an apartment house. Named after Mt. St. Helens, the hotel was a center for civic activity in the city during its peak and hosted numerous events and guests during its run as a hotel. The St. Helens is the tallest building in Chehalis and is the core marker of the downtown district.

Cascade School, also known as Cascade Elementary School, is a schoolhouse located in a residential area of Chehalis, Washington. The school, converted into an apartment building in 2025, was added to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 2026. The one-floor, Neo-classical revival schoolhouse was built between Market Street and Cascade Avenue in 1922, replacing an existing school building known as East Side School. A lack of funds prevented the full plans of the construction to be implemented. The school's gymnasium was completed in 1923, a classroom and basement addition was finished in 1924, and two wings were constructed in 1925 and 1956 to accommodate a growing student population. The school underwent several modernization and remodeling projects between the 1950s and 1970s. The East Side School's footprint and prior playground were expanded multiple times for Cascade School recreation purposes, including efforts for a new playground and a tennis court in the 1920s, as well as the build of an athletic field and grandstand for the city's high school in the 1930s. A covered play shed was added to the playground in 1960. The size of Cascade School, since its beginnings, was never large enough to house the number of elementary students in the city. Additional schools were built in Chehalis due to a lack of space at Cascade. By the 1990s and 2000s, the "usable lifespan" of the schoolhouse had been exceeded. The facility became a safety and financial concern, requiring large amounts of funding for renovations, repairs, and retrofitting. Efforts to publicly fund either a replacement of the building, or to update Cascade School, began in 2010. A bond was passed in 2015 to construct a campus of two elementary schools in Chehalis; the schools were completed in 2018 and students from Cascade began transferring to the new campus. The last students taught at Cascade School was a third grade class during the spring semester, 2019. During vacancy, the schoolhouse was proposed to be either demolished as a future multi-use, commercial site or be converted into a residential facility. The building was sold in 2021 and remodeled as an apartment building. The schoolhouse became known as Cascade Apartments and opened for residential use in 2025.

The Chehalis Downtown Historic District is located in Chehalis, Washington and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. One of three NRHP districts in the city, including the Hillside Historic District and Pennsylvania Avenue-West Side Historic District, the district represents three separate development periods. The community was an important timber hub and freight exchange stop between south Puget Sound and Portland, Oregon. The historic district is home to the St. Helens Hotel and is located in the northeastern part of the city and includes North Market Boulevard, Northwest Pacific Avenue, Northeast Cascade Avenue, Northeast Boistfort, Front Way, and Northeast Division.

The O. B. McFadden House is the historic home of Obadiah B. McFadden and is located in Chehalis, Washington. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1975 and is situated south of Millett Field. The house is the oldest structure in Lewis County and the oldest residence in Chehalis.

The Hotel Washington, also known as the Washington Hotel, is a building located in the Chehalis Downtown Historic District in Chehalis, Washington. The hotel, built and opened in 1889, was named after the newly formed state of Washington. The ground floor of the venue became of use as a restaurant and commercial space and in 1911, home of the Dream Theater, which existed until the late 1920s. The movie house and vaudeville theater became the Peacock Theater in 1930, and later as the Grand Theater, permanently shuttering by the end of the 1930s. Ownership changed frequently, especially during the 1920s, and the hotel underwent numerous renovations in order to create a successful business. Several original features were covered by plaster or stucco, including the brick façade. The Hotel Washington suffered a devastating fire in July 1997. The blaze, considered one of the worst in the city's history, destroyed the top two floors of the building. A Chehalis couple, Barbara and Frank Mason, purchased the hotel and began restoring the structure. In the process, some original details were found and saved, including a ghost sign for the Dream Theater. The hotel reopened as a retail space by June 1998. The Vintage Motorcycle Museum, a collection owned and operated by the Masons, was moved to the second floor which also contained a renovated space known as the Grand Room. The Masons sold the Hotel Washington in 2017 and the museum moved to another location in the downtown district in 2021.

The Vintage Motorcycle Museum is an appointment only museum in Chehalis, Washington. The collection, founded in 1979 by retired building contractor Frank Mason, includes pre-1916 motorcycles, photographs and memorabilia. Mason and his wife Barbara bought and renovated the historic 1889 Washington Hotel building in Chehalis after it burned in 1997, and moved the collection there.The museum moved its collection in 2021 to the Marketplace Square building, half a block south from the hotel.

Millett Field (also Millet Field) is the oldest, continuously used public park in Chehalis, Washington and is most noted as home to a Chehalis minor-league baseball team in the early 20th century. The ballfield was regularly used as the central hub of Chehalis sporting activity for decades, including hosting games for several Negro League teams in the 1920s. Located in the city's South Market district, one block north of the NRHP-listed O. B. McFadden House, the 3.3-acre (1.3 ha) park began in 1898.

The Chehalis Theater, also as the Chehalis Theatre, is a single-screen, Art Deco movie theater in Chehalis, Washington. The theater is situated at the north end of the Chehalis Historic Downtown District near the Hotel Washington. Known locally for the hand-painted illustrations of popular children's fantasy characters that once populated the ceiling, it is the only surviving movie house in the city. Since the theater's last renovation that began in 2021, it has been renamed McFiler's Chehalis Theater.

The Lewis County Historical Society and Museum, also known as the Burlington Northern Depot, is located in Chehalis, Washington. The structure was added to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1974. The site is located within the Chehalis Downtown Historic District and borders the Pennsylvania Avenue-West Side Historic District, both NRHP-listed locations. Chehalis, then known as Saundersville, attempted to create a train stop and station during the 1870s after the build of a Northern Pacific Railway line through the developing town in 1872. After community-wide petitions and actions, which included flagging down passing trains to stop, the town received an official train stop in 1874. The first station, known as the Northern Pacific Depot, was constructed in 1890 near the downtown core. The station was used as a stopping point by President Benjamin Harrison the following year and Theodore Roosevelt in 1903, who spoke from the McKinley Stump. Though the station remained in operation and brought economic prosperity to the booming community, by the turn of the 20th century the depot was criticized for its appearance, lack of safety, space, and utility. Northern Pacific constructed the Chehalis historic depot in 1912, located north of the old station. The brick depot is considered Mission Revival architecture and spans nearly a block, situated closely to the railroad tracks. The station is noted for its sectioned façade and gables. The structure once contained a passenger room, telegraph office, and a baggage and freight area. The waiting area was noted for its enameled brick detail and cove ceiling. A portion of the previous station was moved to the new site for use as a freight office. A dedication of the $30,000 train station was held in January 1913. Most commonly known as the Burlington Northern Depot and in the present-day as the Lewis County Historical Museum, the location went by a variety of names over its lifetime as an operational train station. The Northern Pacific Depot was utilized as one of the first transport hubs in the United States to relocate Japanese-Americans during World War II. In February 1973, Burlington Northern closed the depot, transferring operations and employees to the Centralia Union Depot. The railroad company initially ordered the historic Chehalis station to be demolished, but after two years of community and political protests hoping to use the depot as a museum, the site was leased to Lewis County in late-1975 for $1 per year. The building was renovated by the Lewis County Historical Society and several volunteers, officially opening as a county historical museum in September 1979. The depot was renamed as a museum under the oversight of the Lewis County Historical Society, which incorporated in 1965. The Lewis County Historical Museum has remained in operation since the 1970s despite funding difficulties and an embezzlement of the society's endowment fund in the late 2000s. The 4,600-square-foot (430 m2) space hosts permanent displays, most notably exhibits on pioneer life and indigenous culture and people, as well as special presentations tied to the county's past. Over 50,000 artifacts, which include audio recordings, interactive items, newspapers, photographs, and physical objects of historical importance, are stored within the museum or under its management. The original passenger waiting room houses the main exhibit space and the museum is known for a large-scale, working model train display of Lewis County. The site is a standard location for celebrations, events, and festivals pertaining to Chehalis and Lewis County.

The Burlington Northern Depot is located in Chehalis, Washington. The structure was added to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1974. The site is located within the Chehalis Downtown Historic District and borders the Pennsylvania Avenue-West Side Historic District, both NRHP-listed locations. As of 2026, the station is home to the Lewis County Historical Society and Museum. Chehalis, then known as Saundersville, attempted to create a train stop and station during the 1870s after the build of a Northern Pacific Railway line through the developing town in 1872. After community-wide petitions and actions, which included flagging down passing trains to stop, the town received an official train stop in 1874. The first station, known as the Northern Pacific Depot, was constructed in 1890 near the downtown core. The station was used as a stopping point by President Benjamin Harrison the following year and Theodore Roosevelt in 1903, who spoke from the McKinley Stump. Though the station remained in operation and brought economic prosperity to the booming community, by the turn of the 20th century the depot was criticized for its appearance, lack of safety, space, and utility. Northern Pacific constructed the Chehalis historic depot in 1912, located north of the old station. The brick depot is considered Mission Revival architecture and spans nearly a block, situated closely to the railroad tracks. The station is noted for its sectioned façade and gables. The structure once contained a passenger room, telegraph office, and a baggage and freight area. The waiting area was noted for its enameled brick detail and cove ceiling. A portion of the previous station was moved to the new site for use as a freight office. A dedication of the $30,000 train station was held in January 1913. Most commonly known as the Burlington Northern Depot and in the present-day as the Lewis County Historical Museum, the location went by a variety of names over its lifetime as an operational train station. The Northern Pacific Depot was utilized as one of the first transport hubs in the United States to relocate Japanese-Americans during World War II. In February 1973, Burlington Northern closed the depot, transferring operations and employees to the Centralia Union Depot. The railroad company initially ordered the historic Chehalis station to be demolished, but after two years of community and political protests hoping to use the depot as a museum, the site was leased to Lewis County in late-1975 for $1 per year. The building was renovated by the Lewis County Historical Society and several volunteers, officially opening as a county historical museum in September 1979.