Ezra Meeker Mansion in Puyallup, tour hours and prices

The Ezra Meeker Mansion, also called the Meeker Mansion Museum, is at 312 Spring Street in Puyallup, about 19 miles from Enumclaw by a mapping service's estimate. As of October 2026 the Puyallup Historical Society, which runs it, lists self-guided tours Wednesday through Sunday from noon to 4 p.m., at $15 for adults, and asks visitors to allow 60 to 90 minutes. It is closed Mondays and Tuesdays.

The hook is a timing problem. The house was finished in December 1890, in the middle of the hop boom that made Meeker rich. By 1892, HistoryLink says, hop lice had devastated the Pacific Coast crop and, in Meeker's own words, swept away his accumulations. Lice and the Panic of 1893 also ended the hop years on the Enumclaw Plateau, so the man in the bedroom portrait is part of this plateau's story too.

Is the Ezra Meeker Mansion open, and when?

The society's own pages, read on October 28, 2026, give regular hours of Wednesday through Sunday, noon to 4 p.m. Its FAQ adds that the museum is also closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day, and another page says the house shuts for an annual restoration closure in January and February. A banner on the society's tours page announced a separate closure for October 21 to 25, 2026, which will be over by publication day.

The society is a private nonprofit, so it sets the hours and can change them. Check the Tours and Admission page of the Meeker Mansion Museum website before leaving. That page also carries an Upcoming Closures box that loads from the society's database when you open it. It listed no closures when checked from a desk on October 28, 2026, but closures can be added, so look at it on the day you go.

How much do Meeker Mansion tickets cost?

The society's Tours and Admission section lists self-guided tours at $15 for adults, $14 for seniors, military and students, and $12 for children 3 to 12. Annual memberships start at $30 and include free admission, according to its FAQ.

One thing to know: the society's own pages disagree on children. A separate museum page lists children 3 to 15 at $13 and under 3 free. The museum sets the price, so a call to the number on its site settles it. Guided tours are by appointment, and the society asks for 14 days' notice for weekend dates. Groups of 10 or more reserve at least two weeks ahead.

How long does the tour take, and what is inside?

Plan on 60 to 90 minutes, which is the society's own recommendation, though it says some visitors have stayed more than two hours. Self-guided visits set their own pace, and the society's FAQ says walk-ins are welcome during open hours, with guided tours, special access and groups of 8 or more arranged through its Tours and Admission page. Its Museum page puts the group threshold at 10.

The society describes six original fireplaces with their tiles and mantels, painted ceilings, stained glass windows and functioning speaking tubes, an old in-house intercom, with nickel-plated mouthpieces. It also describes a dining room table that could seat 18 and a bedroom with portraits of Ezra and Eliza Jane.

The first floor is wheelchair accessible. The upper floors are reached only by the original staircase, and the society asks people to call ahead. Personal photography is welcome; it discourages flash near textiles and original artwork.

Who was Ezra Meeker?

Ezra Meeker (1830 to 1928) was a hop farmer, merchant and town founder who became better known for what he did in old age. HistoryLink's essay on him, by Paula Becker, says he and his wife, Eliza Jane, founded Puyallup, that he platted the town in 1877 and that he was elected mayor after it incorporated in 1890.

He crossed the Oregon Trail in 1852. Two years later, HistoryLink says, he went over the Naches Pass Trail, blazed in 1853, to meet his family stalled on the way west. That is the same road this site covered in the first wagons over Naches Pass, which comes down the Cascades to the east of Enumclaw.

In 1906, at 75, he set out to retrace the Oregon Trail eastward with an ox-drawn wagon, to find its exact path and mark it. HistoryLink says his first trip ran from January 29, 1906 to June 6, 1908, and that over his two wagon journeys he placed 150 markers. He parked the rig at the White House to talk with President Theodore Roosevelt. The man the house is named for was seldom in it for long: HistoryLink says he was often away for months or years at a stretch during the 20 years the family owned it.

Why did the hop lice matter to Enumclaw?

Meeker planted hops with his father in 1865, using cuttings from a brewer in Olympia, and the Puyallup Valley became a hop country. HistoryLink's hop essay says that by 1884 more than 100 growers worked the valley and Meeker alone tended more than 500 acres. He kept a London office to sell abroad, and the family spent four months a year there from 1884 through 1887.

Then the crop failed. HistoryLink's Meeker essay dates the plague of hop lice to 1892, and its hop essay notes that some sources say 1891 and 1892. Meeker later wrote, "All my accumulations were swept away," and he left hops behind.

The White River Valley grew hops too, and the boom climbed it onto the plateau. This site's account of the plateau's hop years traces how lice and the Panic of 1893 ended it and how farmers turned to cows. The same story covers the dairy years that followed. A visit to Puyallup is a chance to see the house that boom built and the house that outlasted its end.

What happened to the house after the Meekers?

The society's pages say the house was completed in December 1890. HistoryLink says Eliza Jane hired the Tacoma architects in 1887 to design a 17-room Italianate Victorian, and that the Meekers moved in during 1890. After Eliza's death in 1909, HistoryLink says, Ezra got rid of the house as soon as he could.

Wikipedia, citing local sources, tells the later part. In its account the building was leased as Puyallup's first hospital in 1910, then in 1915 bought for use as a home for Civil War widows and orphans, and in 1948 sold and converted into a nursing home. Its ceilings were hidden and its trim stripped along the way. Wikipedia also says plans to sell the site for a parking lot ended when the historical society, which was donated the house on condition it be moved, bought the land instead and began restoring the house in 1970.

The National Park Service's NPGallery record lists "Meeker, Ezra, Mansion" as published on the National Register on August 26, 1971, which matches HistoryLink. The society's history page gives July 1972 instead; the federal record is the one used here.

How far is it from Enumclaw, and where do you park?

A mapping service's routing, using OpenStreetMap data, put the drive from Enumclaw at about 19 miles and roughly 35 minutes with no traffic. The society's FAQ says free street parking is available around the property.

For a local counterpart to the Meeker house, the walking tour of Enumclaw's historic buildings is a seven-stop route past King County landmarks and a National Register storefront.

Are there holiday tours?

The society's pages list holiday tours called Christmas at the Mansion, with hot cider and cookies, and lists adults at $17, seniors, military and students at $16 and children 3 to 12 at $15, although the same page says the tours run at regular admission, which the Tours and Admission section puts at $15 for adults, so ask which price applies. Its site gives the run as November 29 through December 31, Wednesday through Sunday, That run fits the 2026 calendar, since November 29 is a Sunday and December 31 a Thursday, and the society's events calendar marks Christmas Day, Friday, December 25, as closed, so confirm the dates before planning around them.

An opening-night evening for the season is listed for Saturday, November 28, 2026, from 4 to 7 p.m., at $20 for adults, $17 for kids and $70 for a family pass. Those are the society's figures, and the society sets them.

Before you go

Open the society's Tours and Admission page on the day you plan to go and look for the closure box, the ticket prices and any holiday schedule. Call the number listed there if the children's price or the holiday ticket price still reads oddly. The house is closed on Thanksgiving, which falls on November 26 in 2026.