We are sharing the letter and request below from Eirlys Vanderhoff of the Sammamish Heritage Society (SHS). The SHS has been leading the charge to save the Providence Heights Campus in Issaquah, a property we listed as Most Endangered in 2016 and an advocacy campaign to which the Washington Trust has invested significant attention and resources over the last two years. SHS has been a dedicated partner with the Washington Trust on this issue and now we need your help to support this joint effort to save Providence Heights with a donation to help cover the growing legal fees. Every contribution, no matter how small, will help. Thank you.

– Washington Trust for Historic Preservation 

Hi Everyone,

Susan Hass has been doing a wonderful job of keeping everyone updated on upcoming activities and events as well as encouraging you and all your friends to contribute to save Providence Heights.

Unfortunately, our fund raising has slowed down and we are in desperate straits. The money raised to date on our GoFundMe page has been great but that doesn’t even cover attorney Dave Bricklin’s bill for the month of June, when he was preparing for the Hearing that was postponed. David has continued to do a great deal of work in July preparing for the Hearing next Tuesday, July 11, and we don’t have the money to pay him. We also don’t have the money to pay for his time at the Hearing.

David believes that the Hearing could well run into a second day due to the number of witnesses on both sides and he wants to bring in witnesses on the second dat who cannot attend on July 11. Unfortunately I had to tell David this morning that we don’t know how we are going to pay even for his preparation work in July and for Day 1 of the Hearing and there is currently no possible way we can pay for a second day of his time. I also told David that we must therefore be very selective about the witnesses that we actually call. We have 12 witnesses on our list and I have submitted about one thousand pages of supporting documents to the Hearing Examiner.

My direction to David this morning was that we have to reduce our witness list to no more than about 4 people, one each to speak to the historical importance, the architectural importance, the loss of valuable housing and the waste of embodied energy respectively. This means that we are leaving out many wonderful speakers who would undoubtedly help the cause.

Please, please click on the GoFundMe link and contribute. If you contribute a second time we will be triply grateful! Alternatively, please send checks to Sammamish Heritage Society, 704 228th Ave NE, PMB 222, Sammamish, WA 98074.

Thank you,

Eirlys Vanderhoff

If you want to be added to the Providence Heights email list, please contact Jennifer Mortensen.