Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Brotherton building
The giant Brotherton seed-cleaning building in Tekoa is being torn down.
Bought by Larry Heaton a year ago from Brotherton Seed of Moses Lake, Heaton hired Butch Drott of Tensed to take down the original 10,000 square foot, three-story building at the west edge of downtown.
The early 1900s building was used until 2005.
“It’s a hazard,” said Heaton. “It’s good for nothing now, not operable.”
While the main building will be taken out, with its myriad of wood beams salvaged, two flat houses at each side will remain.
“If somebody throws a match in it (main building) it would burn both the other buildings,” said Heaton. “I want it out of there.”
The space will be used for Stateline Processors. Heaton is co-owner of Stateline.
The building has been added on to several times over its decades of use.
Brotherton Seed Co. quit using the location because of shifts in where peas are grown. The Tekoa operation serviced consumer peas while most peas grown now in Whitman County are feed peas.
The plan is for Drott to have the tear-down complete by Sept. 1.
“He’s at the precarious stage of getting down the high stuff,” said Heaton.
The Brotherton building, noted in Tekoa by its large black lettering, was mostly cleaned out at the time that Heaton bought it.
Historically, peas would arrive at the building by wagon in the early morning to be cleaned while the wagon drivers waited – often eating breakfast and sleeping at the former Tekoa Hotel.
The drivers would pick up the cleaned peas for their return trip that afternoon.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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