Wissahickon was laid down in 1899 by George Lawley & Son at Neponset, Massachusetts, as the private single-screw steam yacht Valda, with a composite hull made of an iron frame with wood planking. Valda was completed in 1900 and renamed Wissahickon in late 1901 or early 1902. She was the property of Mrs. Charles W. Henry of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, when the United States entered World War I on 6 April 1917 and may have served in the Maine Naval Militia prior to her acquisition by the U.S. Navy.