WALLA WALLA — Fort Walla Walla Museum After Hours presents “The History of Automobile Dealerships in Walla Walla” on Thursday, Feb. 27, from 4-5 p.m.

“The Head of Auto Row” is a documented tagline used by one of the earliest and largest automobile dealerships in Walla Walla and refers to the corner of Alder and Spokane streets. Around that corner, within a block or two, was the early central location for several dealerships.

R.L. McFarland will be the speaker for February After Hours. He cites Joe Drazen’s website, “Bygone Walla Walla,” as critical to the research of the early history of automotive dealerships and describes the website as an archive of everything over decades, often with little to no context provided with each photo.

McFarland said that is where the mystery of “sleuthing out the context” emerges, and Up To The Times and the Reverse City Directories “have proved invaluable.”

This is the journey he has taken to stitch together and create/provide context, which allows the viewing audience to better connect with what’s in the photos, and then pull up bits and pieces of memories of their own to add to the story.

In 1908, the original brick building on that corner was the Inland Auto Company and it soon became Walla Walla Franklin Motor Company. The building housed several businesses over time with Walla Walla Upholstery eventually located there for many years and then Goodwill.

The museum is located at 755 NE Myra Road, Walla Walla. For more information, visit www.fwwm.org or call 509-525-7703.