http://collegehillassociation.org/

College Hill Association, PO Box 164, Pullman, WA (2026)

08/31/2026

Everyone is invited and encouraged to attend the CHA's annual meeting and neighborhood discussion on Wednesday, September 16.

WSU students who register, attend, and complete a 5-minute post-meeting survey will receive 1.5 hours of Community Engagement tracked in GivePulse by the WSU Center for Civic Engagement.

Register at https://givepul.se/mc3ejq

Free parking is available, and refreshments will be provided.

We can't wait to see you and get started with another year of improving, preserving, and celebrating College Hill!

City of Pullman WSU CCE Associated Students of Washington State University Interfraternity Council at Washington State University WSU Multicultural Greek Council WASHINGTON STATE PANHELLENIC

08/21/2026

On this day in 1923, WSC Vice President Osmar Waller telegrammed Orren Edgar Osburn, offering him an appointment as an instructor in electrical engineering. The 9 ½-month position came with $2,200 annual compensation. Osburn arrived in Pullman just in time to start the 1923-1924 school year on September 17. He became the department’s fifth faculty member, following Hubert Carpenter, Royal Sloan, Harry Lickey, and Homer Dana. He stayed with the college until his retirement in 1961.

After renting for over a decade, which was common during the Great Depression, Osburn and his spouse Myrtle Blakely Husbands Osburn built a home on Illinois Street in 1935. Plans for the “six room Cape Cod shake house” were drawn by the Osburns themselves, who took inspiration from those published by several home magazines. Local builder Howard Baker, a neighbor on Michigan Street, constructed the home at a cost of approximately $4,000.

Myrtle Osburn engaged in civic activities reflecting the public roles often assumed by faculty spouses during the period. She was an officer in the Pullman Woman’s Club, active in local gardening organizations, and one of the volunteers who helped with the major landscaping project at the WSC president's house. In 1948, Myrtle Osburn served as a founding board member and officer of the WSC staff’s Beaver Creek Camp Association. The Osburns later left the association and purchased a lake property independent of the association.

Following Myrtle Osburn’s death in 1958, Orren Osburn remained in the house until 1987, with help from neighbors and his grandson. He kept an extensive workshop area in the basement and put his electrical skills to use by repairing appliances for the annual rummage sale organized by St. James Episcopal Church. Osburn House was listed on the Pullman Register of Historic Places in 2020, with a nomination prepared by the property owner. Today, the Osburn House stands as a well-preserved example of Cape Cod Revival architecture and as a reminder of the faculty families who helped shape both the college and the Pullman community.

City of Pullman Washington SHPO WSU Libraries Pullman

07/22/2026

There are plenty of ways to get involved in CHA. Here are just a few:

• Volunteer with the hospitality team to help plan events like the Annual Neighborhood BBQ.

• Provide input to – or, better yet, serve on – a board, commission, or committee.

• Volunteer with the Adopt-a-Block program or serve as a judge for our Yard of the Semester recognition program.

• Participate in twice-yearly neighborhood walk audits.

• Provide support for CHA’s efforts with a donation. If you’d like to explore opportunities to become a supporting member, we would love to hear from you. Email us at [email protected].

• The CHA board of directors is elected from its supporting members. The board governs the nonprofit; sets its mission, vision, and strategy; and approves an annual budget. The board also performs behind-the-scenes tasks required to keep things running. New members are elected to the board each September. If you would like to explore the possibility of board service, email us at [email protected]. (You can also learn more about CHA, founded in 1992, by visiting the “About Us” page of our website at collegehillassociation.org.)

And whether or not you choose to become more involved, please know that we are always listening. Your viewpoints, questions, and suggestions for new projects and programs are always welcome.

07/08/2026

On this day in 1921, the Pullman Herald reported that local dentist Dr. Adolphus A. Rounds had installed a Victor X-ray machine in his newly remodeled office. The purchase reflected an innovation still relatively uncommon in American dental practices at the time; only a few years earlier, some dentists who used X-rays were still building their own equipment.

According to Polk’s Dental Register and Directory, Adolphus A. Rounds was one of only four dentists practicing in Pullman in 1921. His Pullman career spanned from 1910 to 1945, and he was also active in local civic life as a founding member and past president of Pullman’s Chamber of Commerce and served on the Pullman City Council. In 1925, he and his wife, Pearl Atwater Rounds, built their home at 630 NE Garfield Street. The house was listed on the Pullman Register of Historic Places in 2015, with a nomination prepared by Robert Franklin on behalf of the College Hill Association.

Pearl Atwater Rounds’s public life is less fully documented, as was often the case for women of her era. Newspaper accounts from the 1920s describe her as an accomplished bridge player, while her obituary notes her work with the Community Chest, the YWCA, state and national politics, and the Congregational Church’s Thrift Shop.

The couple were also active in fraternal organizations. Pearl Atwater Rounds was a member and past matron of the Order of Eastern Star, and Adolphus A. Rounds was past High Priest of the Royal Arch Masons. His 1947 obituary noted he had been a member for nearly fifty years.

Rounds House was designed by the local architectural firm of Stanley Smith and Fred G. Rounds, who has no known relation to Adolphus A. Rounds. It was built by Spokane contractor M.C. Conley, who also built the Beta Theta Pi fraternity and Pi Beta Phi sorority houses that year. Today, the Adolphus A. and Pearl Rounds House stands as both a distinctive example of Dutch Colonial Revival architecture and a reminder of the people, professions, and civic organizations that helped shape Pullman in the early twentieth century.

City of Pullman Washington SHPO The WSU Department of History

06/27/2026

A huge thank-you to our Annual Neighborhood BBQ sponsors: The Coug, Emporium, and Munchyz!

Your generosity and community spirit helped make this gathering possible. We’re grateful for your support and for all you do to make College Hill an amazing place to live, work, and connect.

06/26/2026

Some scenes from tonight's BBQ. Thank you to all the friends and neighbors who gathered tonight to celebrate. We welcomed new neighbors and visited old friends, enjoyed each other's company and celebrated summer.

and camaraderie.

06/14/2026

College Hill Neighborhood BBQ – all are welcome!

Join neighbors, community partners, and friends of College Hill for our annual neighborhood BBQ, a tradition since the late 1990s.

Thursday, June 25
5:30–8:30 p.m.

CHA will provide burgers and fixings. Please bring your own beverage and a side or salad to share.

Please RSVP by noon on Monday, June 22 by emailing [email protected].

We hope to see you there!

06/09/2026

On June 9, 1955, a photographer captured soil conservation scientist Glenn Horner explaining tillage practices about 3 miles northwest of Pullman at what is now known as the Palouse Conservation Field Station. Horner House,1040 NE Creston Lane, was listed on the Pullman Register of Historic Places in 2020. The nomination was prepared by Robert Franklin on behalf of the College Hill Association.

During the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, severe drought and dust storms – caused in part by harmful farming practices – swept across the Great Plains, stripping away topsoil and forcing many farmers out of work. The Pullman experiment station was one of 10 sites established by Congress in 1930 to research practical methods for preventing soil and water loss, and it was the only station west of the Great Plains. Horner arrived in Pullman in 1934 and became the station’s second superintendent. He later served as project supervisor for the USDA Agricultural Research Service’s Soil and Water Conservation Research Division and retired after a career spanning more than three decades. During his years at WSU, Horner also served as the university’s official weather observer and was frequently quoted in publications such as the Daily Evergreen on precipitation totals and other weather records.

Along with publications by WSU Extension and the USDA, Horner House serves as a tangible reminder of the people and events that shaped this history. Although farming practices have changed over the years, the central goals of erosion research remain relevant today.

Before “The Lanes” – Alfred, Duncan, and Creston lanes – were developed, Horner’s address was sometimes listed as “McGee Flats” or “Harvey Road,” the only route into the area until Stadium Way was constructed around 1950. With its overlapping gables, Horner House, later re-sided, is a Depression-era interpretation of the Tudor Revival style. The round nine-pane window in the front gable anticipates a motif that later became common in the WWII Era Cottage.

05/25/2026

The highlight of Pullman’s 1950 Memorial Day observances was the dedication of a new obelisk-shaped monument honoring local men who lost their lives in both World Wars. The monument stands just east of the old National Guard Armory on Main Street. John R. Anderson, a member of the Historic Preservation Commission, prepared the nomination for listing the monument on the Pullman Register of Historic Places in 2013.

Accounts in the Pullman Herald indicate the monument was envisioned by the Pullman Memorial Committee and designed and constructed by Bob Nielson with additional volunteer labor from local service groups. WWII veterans Asa Clark, Jr., of the American Legion and Kenneth Hall of the VFW led the community’s planning efforts.

A bronze plaque bearing 34 names of Pullman’s war dead from World Wars I and II was unveiled at the dedication ceremony on May 30, 1950. Shortly after the dedication, Sgt. Donald C. Broemeling went missing in action in South Korea on August 23, 1950. He was presumed dead on December 31, 1953, and his name was added to the memorial in 1955. On Veterans Day in 1983, the names of four men who died in Vietnam in the late 1960s were also added.

Pullman’s Historic Preservation Commission discussed the monument’s future several times between June 2012 and May 2013. The adjacent Brelsford WSU Visitor Center was then under design, and the City’s Parks Department was considering relocating the monument to the cemetery and updating the plaques with additional names from subsequent conflicts. Instead, the local Maynard-Price Post 52 of the American Legion worked with the City to develop the 2.81-acre Veterans Park and Memorial Plaza with parking, seating, a kiosk, a restroom, and other amenities. The original war memorial remains in downtown Pullman as a lasting tribute to those killed in service.

05/01/2026

In 2006, Pullman’s mayor Glenn Johnson proclaimed May 1 as Loretta Anawalt Day in perpetuity. Anawalt House, named after Bruce and Loretta Anawalt, was listed to the Pullman Register of Historic Places in 2016. Robert Franklin prepared the nomination on behalf of the College Hill Association.

In 1984, Lorretta Anawalt was a founding board member and co-incorporator of Pullman Civic Trust, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preservation, restoration, and enhancement of the natural and built environment of Pullman and the Palouse area. Working with Pullman Civic Trust, Loretta and Bruce were influential in community improvements such as the Civic Trust Riverpark, Downtown Riverwalk, Pine Steet Plaza, and the Bill Chipman Trail.

Bruce taught in WSU’s English department from 1960 to 1992 and held several campus-wide roles including a stint as the first university ombudsman in the early 1970s. Loretta taught undergraduate writing and literature courses but eventually left teaching to pursue her own writing interests. The literary couple participated in several Merchant Ivory films, and they even have a few credits on IMDB.com.

Anawalt House is a bungalow with Prairie Style design elements such as a hipped roof, broad overhanging eaves, and windows grouped in horizontal bands. Built around 1923 by developer Wallace A. Moss, the home was rented by a succession of WSC faculty members. Later, Norman Moss, son of Wallace, and spouse Amanda occupied the home until it was purchased by the Anawalts in 1965.

In 1967, artist Don Anawalt – the brother of Bruce taught ceramics and architecture at WSU – designed and built a dining room addition intended to complement the home’s original character. Distinctive features of the addition include inverted catenary arches that mimic kiln openings and a ribbon of five casement windows.

College Hill Association

08/31/2026

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07/08/2026

06/27/2026

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