Is a house more than just a house? Is it not a part of a community, a part of a neighborhood, where people lived and families thrived? Former Historical Society President Tom Moak will share the story of his 120-year-old house in downtown Kennewick, his 40-year journey to learn of the people who owned and lived in it, which is a part of the historic neighborhood of Amon’s Addition. Prominent Kennewick leaders such as Spaulding, Gravenslund, and Amon have been associated with this house and neighborhood, but also a 100-year-old who made it on national TV (twice), and an owner of multiple movie theaters in the Northwest. Every house has a unique story. Learn about one house and its residents and then go and discover the unique story of a house that you know and love.

Come to the Museum at Keewaydin for a treat plus free admission!

Come to the Museum at Keewaydin for a treat plus free admission!

The Washington Department of Ecology will be joining us to hand out candy and lead an activity.

We’re celebrating our 43rd anniversary this year with several events this year.

Open House with free admission 12-4pm

Annual Meeting October 16, 5pm

All members can vote at the annual meeting. Board nominations due by Oct 1, 2025. More more information go here.

The meeting will be followed by:

Growing up Kennewick - Boy’s Life in the 1950s, A presentation by Gale Metcalf

Light refreshments will be provided at the annual meeting and presentation. All events are free to attend, donations are appreciated. 

Back by popular demand!

$10 for a 5 minute appraisal of one item!*

Bring your fine art, rare and valuable treasures, historic objects, and interesting items for a five minute verbal evaluation from celebrity appraiser Grant Zahajko, Auctioneer. Absolutely no weapons of any kind please! You must purchase a time slot for each item.

Museum admission is free all day for everyone to come watch the appraisals and enjoy the museum!

Book online with the link below, or book in person with Misty at the museum Wednesday-Saturday 12-4pm.

*Per the appraiser, no firearms, weapons (including knives and swords) or chemicals will not be assessed. Please buy a time slot for each item you wish to have appraised. This is a verbal evaluation for entertainment purposes only. No written appraisals will be provided at this event. All proceeds go to the Museum at Keewaydin. Cancellations with less than 72 hours notice, or no shows will not be refunded. Please arrive a minimum of 15 before your appointment time. We will do our best to keep on schedule, but cannot guarantee time slots will run on schedule.

UPDATE: We are sold out. Thank you Tri-Cities for your support.

https://EscapetheMuseum.as.me/antiqueappraisal

Discover the history and culture of East Benton County at the Museum at Keewaydin, located in Historic Downtown Kennewick! We’re offering free admission for everyone on six days over the summer of 2025.

Made possible by a grant from 3 Rivers Community Foundation.

Discover the history and culture of East Benton County at the Museum at Keewaydin, located in Historic Downtown Kennewick! We’re offering free admission for everyone on six days over the summer of 2025.

Made possible by a grant from 3 Rivers Community Foundation.

Discover the history and culture of East Benton County at the Museum at Keewaydin, located in Historic Downtown Kennewick! We’re offering free admission for everyone on six days over the summer of 2025.

Made possible by a grant from 3 Rivers Community Foundation.

Discover the history and culture of East Benton County at the Museum at Keewaydin, located in Historic Downtown Kennewick! We’re offering free admission for everyone on six days over the summer of 2025.

Made possible by a grant from 3 Rivers Community Foundation.

Discover the history and culture of East Benton County at the Museum at Keewaydin, located in Historic Downtown Kennewick! We’re offering free admission for everyone on six days over the summer of 2025.

Made possible by a grant from 3 Rivers Community Foundation.

Discover the history and culture of East Benton County at the Museum at Keewaydin, located in Historic Downtown Kennewick! We’re offering free admission for everyone on six days over the summer of 2025.

Made possible by a grant from 3 Rivers Community Foundation.

Protecting your memories from every disaster may be impossible but many can be digitized and saved to the cloud so that they are safer from the elements. Learn valuable hacks to save your memories for future generations no matter the weather!  Taught by Ryan Bennett, our Digital Archivist.  

This is part two of a two part series. First part is Saturday, May 29, 6 PM.

Protecting your memories from every disaster may be impossible but many can be digitized and saved to the cloud so that they are safer from the elements. Learn valuable hacks to save your memories for future generations no matter the weather!  Taught by Ryan Bennett, our Digital Archivist.  

This is part one of a two part series. Second part is Saturday, May 31, 2 PM.

This showing of Supervolcanoes is available to members and friends of the Museum at Keewaydin for a special price of $5/person. The event also includes a presentation on our night sky. Please arrive early as there is no late admittance allowed.

The show is located at the CBC Planetarium D-Building at 2600 N 20th Ave, Pasco, WA 99301.

Tickets must be purchased in advance.

The award-winning Supervolcanoes is an immersive planetarium show that looks back at rare classes of eruptions that have marshaled the energy that lurks, like a sleeping dragon, beneath the surface of planet Earth. The program moves beyond Earth to explore the impact of giant volcanic eruptions around our solar system. Audiences will fly down to Neptune's frigid moon Triton, and onto the ultimate volcanic world: Jupiter's moon Io. On a visit to a legendary North American hot spot, Yellowstone National Park, the film asks: can a supervolcano erupt in our time? Narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch. Recommended for 4th grade and up. 24 minutes.

This film will be shown with English captions. Assistive listening devices are also available upon request.

Ticket holder assumes all risks related to attending this event, including the risk of lost, stolen, or damaged property or personal injury.
Masks are not required inside our facility, but we support our patrons who choose to wear one!

For the safety of our patrons, there will be NO LATE ADMITTANCE ALLOWED after a show has begun. To ensure you are seated when the presentation begins, please be sure to arrive early. Directions to the facility can be found by clicking here.

How many times have you heard someone wearing women’s clothing exclaim, “And it has pockets!” Comparisons have shown that modern garments designed for women have about half the storage space of clothing designed for men. From their invention, pockets in women’s fashion have represented independence—so much so that in the 18th century, laws were enacted to strip women of their personal liberty by making the contents of their pockets the property of their husband. The right to have pockets went hand-in-hand with the right to vote. And people today are still speaking out about the inequality between men’s and women’s clothing based on this simple storage system.   

Join costume designer Diane Johnston to dig into the pockets of the past, tracing the history of the humble pocket to determine if the battle for equality may still be decided by a few inches of extremely influential fabric. 

Diane Johnston (she/her) is a theatrical costume designer who has spent the past 33 years creating costumes for productions large and small throughout the region. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Costume Design and is a member of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. Johnston has always been fascinated with fashion history and the historic trends that find their way into our modern closets. She is currently the Theater Teacher at Snohomish High School.

Johnston lives in Stanwood.

Spring Printmaking Make and Take. Learn about the history of printmaking and create three spring cards to keep! We’ll provide linocut stamps, ink, blank cards and envelopes. You provide your own creativity! Ages 6 and up recommended. Cost is $10 per participant. Kids must have an adult present. Non-participating adults pay admission prices. Reservations required, see link below.

*The ink is water soluble, but we recommend wearing a smock or old shirt*

https://EscapetheMuseum.as.me/printmaking

“Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?”  

The answer to this question—or the refusal to answer it—cast hundreds of lives into turmoil at the dawn of the Cold War. The Red Scare that erupted in the 1940s allowed the House Committee on Un-American Activities to grab headlines by parading prominent Hollywood figures before the cameras. Witnesses could either defy the hearings at the risk of their own careers, or “name names”—inform on their colleagues and friends. The resulting blacklist threw many moviemaking professionals out of work.  

This presentation, illustrated with film clips, tells the stories from this heartbreaking and scandalous era, and how notables such as Humphrey Bogart, Elia Kazan, and Charlie Chaplin were swept up in the frenzy. We’ll also ask a question: With today’s politics at a boiling point, are we living in such a period again? 

Robert Horton (he/him), a member of the National Society of Film Critics, was the longtime film reviewer for the Seattle Weekly, Everett Herald, and KUOW. His books include a critical study of Frankenstein. He has been a Fulbright specialist, a Smithsonian Journeys speaker, and an instructor at Seattle University and the Architectural Association in London. He now hosts the radio program, The Music and the Movies.

Horton lives in Seattle.

In early October of 1942, Walt Lewis boarded a train from Minnesota to Sheppard Field, near Wichita Falls, Texas, after enlisting in the Army Air Corps in September. He left behind a Minnesota heading into a cold winter for a dusty but warmer outpost. He also left behind the love of his life—Doris Paull.

In the next two years, Walt wrote frequent letters to Doris, sometimes daily. The letters were often breezy descriptions of the happenings of the day, the people he met, connections to back home. The letters also included drawings, poems and photos. And sentiments of love and longing.

Walt’s goal was to get into the Corps’ photo school, which he did, followed by teaching at the school. In late 1943, he got out of the service to go to a war project near Pasco, Washington. He continued to write, providing a snapshot of the beginning of the Hanford Engineering Works.

Jerry Lewis, will set the stage and show a selection of the letters, and photos, including on the local history and the resolution of this love story!

Holiday Printmaking Make and Take. Learn about the history of printmaking and create three Christmas cards to keep! We’ll provide linocut stamps, ink and blank cards and envelopes. You provide your own creativity! Ages 10 and up. Cost is $10 per participant. Kids must have an adult present. Non-participating adults pay admission prices. Reservations required. *The ink is water soluble, but we recommend wearing a smock or old shirt*

Book Now! Limited to 10 spots.

Donald Sorenson presents the history behind the Hanford Engineer Works’ movement to fund-raise for “Day’s Pay.” Plus we’ll debut our model of the B17G Bomber known as Day’s Pay, built by Michael Aldrich.

Please join us for the “History of Voting” presented by members of the League of Women Voters of Benton and Franklin Counties! Come to the East Benton County Historical Society Museum at 205 Keewaydin Drive in Kennewick on November 2, 2024, at 2:00 p.m.  The presentation will include a timeline of when different groups attained voting rights, as well as women’s specific fight for the vote. The process of voter registration and how a ballot moves through the system will also be explained. The presenters will be dressed as they would have been in 1920, the year that women got the vote. Come and enjoy the fun!

$10 for a 5 minute appraisal of one item!*

Bring your fine art, rare and valuable treasures, historic objects, and interesting items for a five minute verbal evaluation from celebrity appraiser Grant Zahajko, Auctioneer. Museum admission is free on October 19 to celebrate our 42nd Anniversary! Come watch the appraisals and enjoy the museum!

Time slots are limited! Book now!

*Per the appraiser, no firearms, weapons or chemicals will be assessed. Please buy a time slot for each item you wish to have appraised. This is a verbal evaluation for entertainment purposes only. No written appraisals will be provided at this event. All proceeds go to the Museum at Keewaydin.