Central Washington University sits at the northern edge of downtown Ellensburg — a 380-acre campus with about 10,000 students, founded in 1891 as a teacher's college and now offering a full range of programs. Several of the older brick buildings on the central quad date from the 1910s and 1920s.
The campus is open to visitors and pleasant to walk through, particularly around the Japanese Garden and the central lawn between Barge Hall and the SURC student union. Two on-campus museums — the Museum of Culture and History and the Chimposium primate exhibit at the Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute — are open by appointment.