Biohazard Cleanup Near Downtown Waverly Waverly, WA

Waverly is a tiny incorporated town in southern Spokane County, set on Latah Creek (historically called Hangman Creek) in the rolling Palouse farm country.

Waverly was settled by white immigrants as early as 1878 and was named in 1879 by two settlers after Waverly, Iowa.

The community received a post office in 1880 at the residence of A. D. Thayer on the creek, and P. Gimble opened the town's first business, a general store, in 1884, followed by a branch station of the Oregon Railroad & Navigation Company and grain warehouses.

In December 1899 the Washington State Beet Sugar Company opened a beet sugar factory in Waverly that cost $500,000 to build, included a 1,400-acre farm, and could process 350 short tons of beets per day.

The sugar factory employed 150 workers in the plant and up to 400 more in the beet fields at harvest, supporting two hotels, two restaurants and a row of shops — but it proved unprofitable, closed in 1910, and its equipment was eventually installed in Centerfield, Utah, in 1917.

Waverly was officially incorporated on May 15, 1907.

The town's population peaked at 318 in 1910, then shrank for decades to just 37 people in 1990, before recovering to 121 at both the 2000 and 2020 censuses.

At the 2010 census Waverly had 106 residents in 44 households, with an average household size of 2.41 people.

The town covers just 0.41 square miles, all of it land, at an elevation of 2,536 feet.

Waverly is governed by a mayor and town council, making it one of the smallest incorporated municipalities in Spokane County.