In the late 1800s, Wawona was the largest stage stop in Yosemite. After hours of bouncing and bumping along uneven dirt roads, inbound stages stopped for the night at the Wawona Hotel before making the eight-hour trip to Yosemite Valley. If a stage needed a repair before the sixteen-hour round-trip journey, the grey barn was the place to visit. The Washburns, proprietors of the Wawona Hotel, used this barn for repairing stages.