Otis Orchards, Washington — Orchard Name Stayed on the Mail

Otis Orchards carries its agricultural past more explicitly than almost any Spokane Valley neighborhood.

Irrigation promoters once turned dry valley ground into intensive apple country, and the community name advertised exactly what buyers were supposed to find there. Packing houses, railroad sidings and farm families grew around the fruit business.

When frost, disease, oversupply and outside competition weakened the orchard economy, the name did not change with the land use.

Homes replaced many rows of trees, and metropolitan growth tied the community ever more closely to Spokane Valley.

That leaves Otis Orchards with a wonderfully stubborn address.

The orchards became neighborhoods. The label stayed on the mail.