Battelle/Talaris Campus

Status: Most Endangered Places

Year Listed: 2013

Location: Seattle, King County

Developed in the late 1960s, the Battelle/Talaris property is architecturally significant to the region as an example of Pacific Northwest modern architecture that represents the move toward environmentally responsive design. David Hoedemaker of NBBJ was the project architect. He attributes the influence of Eero Saarinen with whom he previously worked, as well as Paul Kirk and Al Bumgardner on his own work. Richard Haag, the award-winning designer of Gas Works Park, designed the landscape. By 2001, Battelle Research outgrew the location, which subsequently served as home to the Talaris Institute, an organization dedicated to early childhood development.

Concerned with losing the site’s delicate balance of the built and natural environment to development, a group of neighbors formed Friends of Battelle/Talaris. The Friends, who have closely partnered with Historic Seattle, successfully nominated the property as a City of Seattle Landmark in 2013. Various redevelopment plans have been proposed to the Landmarks Preservation Board, but none have moved forward.

Enchanted Valley Chalet

Status: Most Endangered Places

Year Listed: 2014

Location: Olympic National Park

Located in the heart of Olympic National Park, the 2 1/2-story, hand-hewn, dovetail-notched log structure is listed in the National Register of Historic Places for its association with the recreational development of the wild and remote interior of the Olympic Mountains. The Olympic Recreation Company completed the chalet in 1931, operating it as seasonal wilderness lodging. Purchased by the National Park Service in 1953, it was open to the public and served as a ranger station until it was closed in 2013 due to limited maintenance and vandalism.

The Chalet is the last structure of its type within the park’s interior. Flooding events and changes in the flow of the Quinault River caused bank erosion, leaving a portion of the chalet cantilevered over the riverbank. The Chalet was nominated as a Most Endangered Place in 2014 and in September of that year, the building was successfully moved 100 feet from the bank of the river. The Chalet was not given a permanent foundation and is currently still sitting on the steel beams used to move it back in 2014.

Unfortunately, the Quinault River has continued to move in the valley and as of March 2019, the river bank has once again eroded to within approximately 5 feet of the Chalet.

Update

In May 2020, National Park Service released an environmental assessment about the future of the Enchanted Valley Chalet which recommends that the building be dismantled and removed from the Valley. Olympic National Park staff hosted a virtual public meeting on July 15 and shared what they are planning, answered questions, and provided information about the process. They accepted further public comment on the assessment until August 31. Additional documents and a link to comment, can be found on the project planning website.

If you want a quick primer on the situation, Olympic National Park has released a Frequently Asked Questions document about their assessment. If you want a deep dive, you can read the entire environmental assessment document.

We will continue to keep you updated on this important and unique piece of Washington history!

https://parkplanning.nps.gov/ONPEVCEA2

Masonic Home of Washington

Status: Most Endangered Places

Year Listed: 2015

Location: Des Moines, King County

UPDATE (January 24, 2024): The Draft Environmental Impact Statement has been released for public comment! Visit the Advocacy Alert page to take action today.

Completed in 1926 as a retirement community for members of Washington’s Masonic Society, the Masonic Home of Washington features box beam ceilings, hand carved woodwork, stained glass, and terrazzo floors throughout. By 2004, the Masonic Grand Lodge of Washington initiated plans to market the property as a traditional retirement home, open to Masons and non-Masons alike, but the economic recession put these plans on hold. Instead, the building, its ornate facilities, and beautiful grounds, was utilized as an event center hosting weddings, film shoots, and corporate meetings.

The property was put up for sale in 2013, and event center operations ceased the following year. It has been listed as one of Washington’s Most Endangered Places since 2015, and the property finally sold in August 2019 to EPC Holdings LLC for $11.5 million and was transferred to Zenith Properties LLC in November 2019. According to The Seattle Times, “The Masons submitted an application for a demolition permit in July 2019 as part of the sale. The city is currently waiting for additional materials from the current owners after they resubmitted the demolition permit application in September 2020.” On May 3, 2022, the City of Des Moines issued a Determination of Significance (DS), meaning “this proposal is likely to have a significant adverse impact on the environment, and accordingly, an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is required” under the State Environmental Protection Act (SEPA).

Drafting the EIS started in late August 2022, and it was released to the public for comment on January 9, 2024. The draft EIS focuses on the effects of demolition and does not thoroughly explore ways to adapt and reuse the existing buildings of the Masonic Home, the Landmark on the Sound. This leaves the future of the more than 30-acre site unknown and unexamined.

The building’s architectural features and exterior remain in good condition. Renovation of the building would require substantial investment as many of the building’s systems are outdated and in need of replacement. The building sits on a large parcel of more than 30 acres of land that could allow for the coupling of rehabilitation with new construction- potentially making the project more financially feasible.

Learn more about the history of Masonic homes in Washington in Adam Alsobrook’s essay, “The Three Masonic Homes of Washington State.”

Robert Morris Earthwork

Status: Most Endangered Places

Year Listed: 2015

Location: Seatac, King County

Created in 1979, the Robert Morris Earthwork is a 4-acre sculpture and public artwork, with significance as a pioneering example of land reclamation as art. It has garnered an international audience of scholars, students, urban planners, curators, and art enthusiasts. As part of King County’s Public Art Collection, Robert Morris Earthwork is open to the public from dawn to dusk on a daily basis, providing a contemplative open space and an extraordinary view to the Kent Valley below. Since its creation, the physical context of the Earthwork has changed dramatically as nearby urban development continues to expand. Encroaching development has also led to more abuse of the site, including vandalism and illegal dumping. Current funding from 4Culture, King County’s cultural development entity, provides for daily management of the site, but is insufficient for cleaning up vandalism, restoring the site from erosion, replacement of decomposing natural features, or new interpretative signage. 4Culture is organizing a campaign for funding toward site restoration, interpretation improvements, and to raise awareness for this important cultural resource.

Lincoln School

Status: Most Endangered Places

Year Listed: 2015

Location: Jefferson County

Location: Port Townsend, Jefferson County

Completed in 1892, the Lincoln School stands as a contemporary of Port Townsend’s major civic structures. Considered one of the most handsome public buildings in the state when completed, it served as a public school for 86 years. A 1936 Public Works Administration project modernized the school, changing the external appearance of the building to resemble the design of the newly built neighboring high school. In 1980, the building was deemed a “fire trap” by the local fire chief and was vacated in the middle of the school year. School district administrative offices remained on the first floor until 2012, when the doors were shuttered. Although unoccupied and facing substantial plumbing and seismic issues, the building remains solid and is currently used for storage. The Port Townsend School District would like to see the building repurposed, but unfortunately a request for proposals to rehabilitate the building issued by the school district in 2014 yielded no responses.

Longfellow School

Status: Most Endangered Places

Year Listed: 2015

Location: Everett, Snohomish County

Built in 1911, the Longfellow School has a one hundred year legacy serving as both a school and as administrative offices for the Everett School District. Following construction of a new Community Resource Center in 2013, the District effectively retired Longfellow School, leaving it to serve a non-essential storage function. The District issued a request for letters of interest for the property and indicated a preference that the exterior of the building be preserved. The district has received several proposals that have included rehabilitation of the former school building, but they have all been considered not viable. Adding to the concern is the fact that the entire site is adjacent to the district-owned Memorial Stadium, which is used for a variety of school and community events. Advocates fear the perceived need for parking could trump a plan for rehabilitating the building. The Longfellow School site is large enough to accommodate new construction, an important element as the cost to rehabilitate the historic school may require a degree of new development to make the economics feasible.

A December 2016 Herald article about the impending demise of Longfellow prompted a miraculous donation of $3 Million to the Everett Museum of History to purchase the school for use as a museum. However, after several months of negotiations the deal fell through and the museum purchased a different property. In 2017 the Everett School District called for bids to demolish the Longfellow School and construct a parking lot. In July of 2018 the bids were put to vote by the school board. The lowest bid came in at $2.1 Million, about three times what they had estimated. This caused some hesitation, but in the end two directors voted in favor of accepting the bid and two voted against. A fifth director who supported the demolition had stepped down the previous week for health reasons. Only because of this the motion failed and the school received a stay of execution.

UPDATE!

In early February of 2019, Historic Everett learned of plans by the Everett School District to bring a contractor in to the Longfellow school to salvage lights, doors, handrails, cupboards, etc. for surplus. They were concerned this move would make the building less attractive to a future buyer and saw it as an attempt at a piecemeal demolition. They decided to raise awareness of the issue by staging a “heart bombing” on Friday March 1st. A heart bombing is a public display of affection for a historic place, where balloons, flowers, and large hearts with personal love notes are attached to a building. The event garnered the attention of the press in advance of the school board’s vote on the issue, including a story in the Sunday Herald by popular writer Julie Muhlstein. In addition, Historic Everett ran a full-color half-page ad calling on people to write to the board or attend the meeting.

On Tuesday, March 5th, a large number of people showed up at the school board meeting to support Longfellow, including eight who spoke in its defense. Some of the community members promoted the idea of forming a committee of district people and citizens to study the problem of how to use the building. During the meeting two board directors made dramatic statements coming out as supporters of preserving the school, disavowing themselves of their previous votes to accept bids for demolition. When the issue finally came up three hours into the meeting, a long and tense debate was had between board members. Two directors who were on the fence were eventually persuaded that the salvage did not urgently need to be performed right away. When the vote was taken, only one director voted in favor of approving the salvage contractor, and the motion failed. Community support played a major role in defeating the school district’s plan.

In the news:

July 10, 2019 – “Everett’s old Longfellow building beats wrecking ball for now”

June 15, 2018 – “Everett School District prepares to demolish 1911 Longfellow building”

March 20, 2019 – “Longfellow spared gut job by school board”

March 8, 2019 – “Why not use Longfellow building as a school?”

March 7, 2019 – “Editorial: Longfellow decision may only put off inevitable”

March 6, 2019 – “Group hoping to save doomed Longfellow Building”

March 3, 2019 – “A heartfelt plea to save Longfellow School”

July 5, 2018 – “Everett’s Longfellow building gets stay of execution”

February 7, 2018 – “Everett School District has had offers for Longfellow School”

November 1, 2017 – “Museum drops bid for historic Longfellow”

October 27, 2017 – “Everett History Museum ends bid for the Longfellow building”

June 29, 2017 – “Allow history museum to buy, save Longfellow School”

April 19th, 2017 – “Longfellow Building may be saved by offer”

March 29, 2017 – “Everett Longfellow offer helps Everett Museum”

March 24, 2017 – “Donor pledges $3M for history museum to buy Longfellow building”

December 28, 2016 – Editorial: Loss of landmark Longfellow School sad but inevitable

December 14, 2016 – Longfellow Elementary School destined to become parking lot

November 29, 2016 – Everett School’s Longfellow building slated for demolition

April 19, 2015 – No luck selling Everett School District’s historic Longfellow building

December 10, 2014 –
Everett District trying to sell lease century-old Longfellow building

St. Ignatius Hospital

Status: Most Endangered Places

Year Listed: 2015

Location: Colfax, Whitman County

St. Ignatius opened in 1894 as Whitman County’s first hospital. The substantial brick building underwent alterations in both 1917 and 1928, which removed portions of the Victorian trappings and left the building with a more modern, symmetrical appearance. By 1964, the hospital board decided to relocate the hospital, leaving the existing building to serve as an assisted care facility. The last residents moved out of the facility in 2000, and since that time it has sat abandoned. Despite over a decade of neglect and exposure to the elements, the building retains solid structural bones. The building is presently for sale, but redevelopment will require a complete overhaul of the entire infrastructure and building systems. City officials are supportive and welcome the potential economic impact rehabilitation could have for the area. Despite some inquiries, the owner has yet to receive any viable offers for rehabilitation.

Enloe Dam Powerhouse

Status: Most Endangered Places

Year Listed: 2016

Location: Oroville, Okanogan County

The gold rush spurred early pioneer settlement of the Okanogan River Basin, but after 1914 the area increasingly turned to agriculture given the railroad’s ability to provide efficient and reliable transportation of goods. The Enloe Powerhouse and Dam were built in 1922 to meet the electricity demands of the local mining industry and an increasing population. With the improved infrastructure, the new dam greatly contributed to the extensive growth of the Okanogan Valley. The dam and powerhouse operated until 1958, at which point the Bonneville Power Administration transmission lines reached the area, providing electricity from the Columbia River.

In 2016, the Okanogan County Public Utility District released a solicitation seeking a party interested in taking over ownership of the Enloe Dam Powerhouse. Qualified applicants need to “demonstrate capacity and capability to adapt and utilize the facility for recreational, historical, and/or community use,” with an emphasis on “historical” given the powerhouse’s listing in the National Register of Historic Places. While the powerhouse is remote and in disrepair, it does afford the opportunity to tap into tourism and recreational activities for which the Okanogan Valley is known including fishing, hiking, wine tasting, and visitation to other historic sites nearby.

The property poses an adaptive use challenge—to say the least—but the potential payoff for a creative solution is enormous!

LaCrosse Rock Houses and Station

Status: Most Endangered Places

Year Listed: 2016

Location: La Crosse, Whitman County

Local businessman Clint Dobson is credited with building the unique collection of structures known as the LaCrosse rock houses and station between 1934 and 1936. The project included three houses, three cabins, and a service station with all buildings prominently featuring basalt stones collected from the surrounding fields. Dobson was not a master stone mason, rather, basalt stone was the most readily available material in the area during the Great Depression.

Local farm hands, workers, and railroad crews used the houses and cabins as rental units, while the station offered a service and repair shop. Although the structures have not been in use since the 1960s, amazingly all but one of the houses remain. Those remaining buildings, however, are in critical danger of collapse if they do not receive repairs to stabilize and secure the stone and structural elements.

Hope for rehabilitation increased when a local family gifted the property to LaCrosse Community Pride, which enjoys a strong track record of successful community development projects in town. Following the closure of the town’s only grocery store, LaCrosse Community Pride embarked on an effort to re-invent that site as an ongoing enterprise and community center. Today, the building houses a new grocery store, the local library, a community meeting space, and two rentable office spaces. The group also organized efforts to return a bank to the town when the local branch closed: they purchased the bank building, secured a new tenant to run the bank, and are currently working to find another tenant for the adjacent café.

The Washington Trust was proud to support LaCrosse Community Pride in rebuilding one of the stone cabins through a Valerie Sivinski Fund grant. Now they are fundraising for the rehabilitation of the remaining buildings and just last month were recommended to receive a state Heritage Capital Grant to realize their vision of creating a heritage museum and Ice Age floods center in the service station along with places for visitors to stay in the homes and bunkhouses.

https://lacrossecommunitypride.com/

Beverly Railroad Bridge

Status: Most Endangered Places

Year Listed: 2017

Location: Grant County

Location: Columbia River between Grant and Kittitas Counties

The Columbia River is a defining feature of Washington State, but it also serves as a challenging barrier for cross-state travel. The construction of the Beverly Railroad Bridge, completed in 1909, was part of the westward expansion of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad and a major engineering feat of its day.

By 1980 the route was closed, but due to its significance, the Beverly Bridge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. Today, the Milwaukee Railroad route has been converted to the John Wayne Pioneer Trail – part of an effort by conservation, recreation, and preservation advocates to create a statewide greenway trail system. The Beverly Bridge is the pivotal missing piece that would connect east and west. Advocates would like to see the bridge transferred from the Washington State Department of Natural Resources to Washington State Parks and rehabilitated to complete the cross-state recreational trail.

The Washington Trust is part of a broad alliance of statewide conservation, recreation, and preservation organizations who have been advocating for the rehabilitation of the Beverly Bridge across the Columbia River in Central Washington. Completed in 1909, the bridge was part of the westward expansion of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad and a major engineering feat of its day. By 1980, the route was closed, but much of the old Milwaukee Railroad route was converted to the John Wayne Pioneer Trail—recently renamed the Palouse to Cascades Trail. The Beverly Bridge currently sits as the pivotal missing piece connecting the eastern and western halves of the 285-mile-long trail, and rehabilitation of the bridge would be a critical investment in Washington State tourism along the trail while serving to enrich the recreational lives of Washingtonians.

The Washington Trust joined efforts when the Palouse to Cascades Trail Coalition nominated the Beverly Bridge to our list of Most Endangered Places in 2017. We played a key role in advancing the campaign to rehabilitate the bridge by managing the process of a conditions assessment of the bridge that would give advocates a realistic cost to work toward. Equipped with this information, the Washington Trust and our many partners were able to effectively advocate for state funding this past budget cycle to make that rehabilitation a reality. At the end of April this year, we were thrilled that the Washington State Legislature and Governor Inslee allocated $5.1 million to go toward the Beverly Bridge rehabilitation and conversion into recreational trail use. With an additional $429,000 in anticipated local funds, the total amount dedicated to rehabilitating the bridge and converting it to recreational use is $5.5 million. While there is still much to be done, the state’s investment in this historic bridge is a transformative accomplishment in the campaign to bring the Beverly Bridge back to life.

https://palousetocascadestrail.org/

Weyerhaeuser Corporate Campus

Status: Most Endangered Places

Year Listed: 2017

Location: Federal Way, King County

The design of the Weyerhaeuser Corporate Campus was a joint effort between architect Charles Bassett of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, landscape architect Peter Walker, a founding partner of Sasaki Walker & Associates; and George Weyerhaeuser. The collaboration resulted in the design of the stunning 430-acre campus clearly visible from Interstate 5 and Highway 18 in Federal Way. According to Bassett, the campus is designed such that “the landscaping and the building simply cannot be separated…they are each a creature of the other.” The interior design of the headquarters also reflected this sentiment by popularizing the open-office plan, free of any partitions, allowing the exterior landscape to be enjoyed from almost any location inside the building.

The campus was purchased in 2016 by a developer who is moving forward with plans to build warehouses on the surrounding acreage. Local residents are concerned that the massing and scale of proposed new construction will overwhelm the site, adversely impacting the balance of the built and natural landscapes that lend such significance to the site. Advocates are also concerned for the future of the globally important Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden and the internationally-known Pacific Bonsai Museum, two distinct and significant cultural resources also on the property.

With such an expansive campus, a certain level of development is inevitable; even the original concepts for the campus indicated areas for additional development, but at a much smaller scale. New buildings must be sensitive to the original design philosophy of the campus, which emphasized integration with the landscape and environmental sensitivity.

The developer is moving forward with plans to build five warehouses totaling 1.5 million square feet on forested portions of the campus. In response to the proposals, the organization Save Weyerhaeuser Campus (SWC) was founded, fighting for responsible development that is sensitive to the historical and environmental features of the campus. SWC has been pivotal in rallying the community in support of the campus and creating a network of partnerships, including state legislators, King County, Forterra, The Cultural Landscape Foundation, Rainier Autobon, SoCoCuulture, DocomomoWEWA, and the Washington Trust, to name a few.

The dedicated volunteers of SWC have been exemplary in their advocacy efforts in initiating meetings with stakeholders, engaging in the public process, holding their own events, and even legal appeals. It is often difficult to sustain long-term preservation advocacy efforts, and the Washington Trust is proud to be a partner of SWC and committed to doing all we can to preserve the essential elements of this campus.

Letter-writing campaign

Read letters in support of preserving this incredible campus from experts across the country at The Cultural Landscape Foundation’s website.

News coverage

A Fight to Save a Corporate Campus Intertwined With Nature
The New York Times – February 12, 2021

The Cultural Landscape Foundation launches campaign to halt “inappropriate” development at historic Weyerhaeuser campus
The Architect’s Newspaper – February 2, 2021

Weyerhaeuser campus clash continues over warehouse plan
Federal Way Mirror – January 28, 2021

Save Weyerhaeuser Campus appeal begins June 20
Federal Way Mirror – June 18, 2019

Nonprofit, company at odds over preserving Weyerhaeuser property
Federal Way Mirror – January 24, 2019

Weyerhaeuser’s old campus is five times bigger than Disneyland. So what should it become?
KUOW – November 5, 2018

Constantine wants to leverage conservation fund to buy 65,000 acres of ‘last best places’
Seattle Times – May 23, 2018

http://saveweyerhaeusercampus.org/