Founded in the spirit of working partnership — in a place first claimed in 1854, named in 1877, and incorporated as a city on April 22, 1889.
Promoting growth through four things, in the Association’s own words.
Workshops, peer mentoring, and practical advisories drawn from the working knowledge of long-running members — the kind of learning that doesn’t come from a webinar.
Monthly mixers, one-to-one introductions, the member directory — and the everyday running into one another on Washington Avenue that turns acquaintances into referral sources.
Holiday tree lighting on Calistoga, the downtown trick-or-treat, sandwich-board ordinance work with the city — the small advantages a row of storefronts can only earn together.
From the year-round member calendar to the spring weekend that puts Orting on the map. The OBA stages the Bridge Street section of the Daffodil Parade, on the route since 1934.
A prairie, a railroad, a town, and the businesses that hold it up.
William Henry Whitesell, Thomas Headley, Daniel Lane, and Daniel Varner filed the first recorded land claims on what was then called Gunson’s Prairie, and later, simply, Carbon. Their names — Whitesell, Headley — persist as Orting streets today.
A Northern Pacific Railway superintendent renamed the area from Carbon to Orting — said to be an indigenous word meaning prairie — while building the line out toward the coal towns of Wilkeson and Carbonado.
On April 22, 1889, Orting was officially incorporated. Hop farms, dairies, and railroad commerce powered the early economy — the foundation a downtown was laid on top of.
The Washington Soldiers Home is established in Orting, with an adjacent cemetery that today holds 2,265 graves — including four Civil War Medal of Honor recipients. It remains the oldest such institution in Washington.
The Daffodil Parade begins as a tribute to the valley’s agriculture industry. From its first year, Orting has been one of four cities on the route — alongside Tacoma, Puyallup, and Sumner. The parade has run every year since, with breaks only for 1943–45 and 2020.
The Orting Business Association is the working partnership of today’s independent businesses — the cafes, trades, professional services, and family farms keeping a 19th-century downtown alive in the 21st. We are still doing what every association in this town has done since the railroad came: keep the doorbell ringing.
§ III · About the Town
Orting sits at the confluence of the Puyallup and Carbon rivers, about thirty miles north of Mt. Rainier — close enough that the mountain frames every photograph taken on Bridge Street, and that the town is, in geological terms, on the lahar evacuation route from one of America’s most-watched volcanoes. We try not to dwell on it.
The valley was first claimed in 1854 and the town renamed by a railway man in 1877. By the 1890s, hop farms and a daffodil-bulb economy had taken hold. The Washington Soldiers Home, founded in 1891, brought veterans and their families to the town and remains the oldest such institution in the State. Coal trains rolled through on their way down from Wilkeson; daffodil floats roll through every spring on their way through the valley.
The Orting Business Association exists in that long tradition — a working partnership of the people who chose, year after year, to keep this place a downtown.
Sources: Wikipedia · The Daffodil Festival · OBA
The Association is open to any independent business operating in or serving the Orting community.
Members receive a directory listing, the monthly mixer, the educational programming, and a working voice in the events that shape downtown. Annual dues are modest and are listed in full on the Join page.