As winter approached Old Oregon, Marcus Whitman, after selecting this place for a mission, began work on a shelter. In December 1836 he brought his bride, Narcissa, to the crude house he had partially completed at this site, marking the beginning of the Waiilatpu (sic) Mission. Narcissa rejoiced at finding a house reared, the lean-to enclosed, a good chimney and fireplace, and the floor laid, though there were no windows or doors except blankets, and she recalled that her parents had made a similar and perhaps more difficult beginning. Flooding caused Whitman to abandon this site two years later, and he built the new Mission House on higher ground to the right.