West Seattle, Washington
13 Friday
(WSB photo from February)
Surrounded by fencing, windows boarded up, the little stone-studded house at 1123 Harbor SW awaits its future – or lack of one. As we first reported in February, its site has been sold. But local preservation advocates and historians hope to save the hand-decorated Depression-era house and move it. One of their first public presentations was at last week’s meeting of the Alki Community Council, which voted to support the effort. As outlined by Mike Shaughnessy, here’s what’s being proposed:
A volunteeer advisory group called the Alki Beach Rock House Association has been formed, led by local entrepreneur and historic-preservation advocate John Bennett, who’s long been restoring old buildings, from West Seattle to Georgetown to South Park. They would like to move the house from its current location to city Parks land – ideally near the Alki Bathhouse – where it could become a visitor/interpretive center. As the infosheet he circulated at the meeting describes it:
The (center) would be staffed and operated by the Southwest Seattle Historical Society and offer a “gateway” location to the Log House Museum down the street. All relocation and construction-related costs will be provided by the Rock House Association and an “Operations and Maintenance” endowment will be established to release SPR of any incurred costs.
They envision putting it on a raised foundation and including a small space where an SWSHS volunteer could answer visitor questions and direct people to the nearby museum. The building could also be used to display interpretive information about the Duwamish people, the Denny Party landing, the nearby Statue of Liberty Plaza, Seattle Parks, and more.
There’s a precedent for a community-initiated project to become part of Alki Beach Park – a decade ago, that’s how the miniature Statue of Liberty, which originally was on a relatively nondescript base surrounded by asphalt, got its own plaza. (Though the original organizers and proponents of that plan have long since moved on, the ACC has remained caretakers of its originally endowed maintenance fund.)
The Rock House Association has had some preliminary talks with Parks. At last week’s meeting, the ACC voted to send the city a letter of support and also offered some advice on people to consult. Meantime, no redevelopment plan for the site is filed – yet.
This Friday, the centennial celebration at Highland Park Improvement Club continues with this month’s Corner Bar. The announcement is from Dina Lydia, who also created the groovy poster art above:
Time Travel to “CounterCulture” Corner Bar at H.P.I.C.
In this Centennial Year, Highland Park Improvement Club honors each decade of its history at our free monthly Friday Corner Bar.
Friday June 7th, we celebrate the years 1959-1968 in music, art, fashion, decor, games, and happenings.
PRIZES will be sprinkled for retro fashion savvy and trivia knowledge.
Photo Ops galore! Groovy wardrobe and props are free to borrow.
Neighbors are invited to bring mementos for Show and Tell.
1962 Seattle World’s Fair? Rock concerts? Campaign buttons? Lava lamps?
Doors of the EnGroovement Club open at 6pm
Kids welcome until 9
HPIC is at 1116 SW Holden.
Thanks to Judy Bentley for sending the photos and report on another of Saturday’s remarkable West Seattle events:
More than 90 people of all ages walked native land yesterday from ridge to river on National Trails Day in the West Duwamish Greenbelt.
Ken Workman, a descendant of Chief Seattle, described his personal experience growing up on Puget Ridge and the Duwamish experience of the land on the ridge and along the Duwamish River.
The hike left South Seattle College and followed an unimproved trail down to the Duwamish Longhouse on West Marginal Way and back up. In the last few blocks, hikers had to walk the parking strip along the busy truck-way because sidewalks are intermittent.
The hike, sponsored by the West Duwamish Greenbelt Trails group, highlighted the vision of a ridge to river trail, connecting landscapes nurturing human life for thousands of years.
For more information about the Duwamish Greenbelt Trails group, consult our website at www.wdgtrails.com
If you went to West Seattle High School – whatever the year – this reunion is for you. All classes, all years are invited to the annual all-school reunion, continuing until 7 pm.
Besides a special spotlight on the class that’s celebrating 50 years since its graduation – this year, that’s 1969 – there are special celebrations too.
Two more alumni are being inducted into the Hall of Fame – from the Class of 1965, journalist/author Elizabeth Becker, and from the class of 1978, Christine Charbonneau, CEO of Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest and the Hawaiian Islands. And the reunion also celebrates scholarships awarded to more than 20 outstanding students. Note that the setup changed this year – everybody’s in the commons instead of breaking up into multiple classrooms.
P.S. This year’s unofficial afterparty gets going at Whisky West (6451 California SW) around 7:30 pm, and the WSHS Alumni Association says it’s the last one that musician Tim Turner plans to host.
Two updates on the murals in the West Seattle Junction:
Junction Association executive director Lora Radford sent that photo with word that the tagging damage done to that mural, “The Old Mud Hole” (south side of the 44th/Alaska lot), has been repaired by muralist Bob Henry. It still is in need of restoration, but the repair work is a band-aid, for now. Meantime, Radford adds, Henry starts work tomorrow on the next one to be restored, the West Seattle Ferries mural on the west side of the building at the southwest corner oF California and Alaska.
(WSB file photo)
Crowdfunding to cover the cost of restoration continues, and Radford says every bit helps – through June 30th, there’s a bonus for donations of $50 or more, inscribed mural-fundraiser keychains. Here’s where to donate.
(WSB photos by Patrick Sand)
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
Tonight, the Alki Homestead reopens as a restaurant, almost 10 1/2 years after a fire shut it down.
While the new restaurant, Il Nido, is in a bright spotlight because of its owner’s reputation and talent, we thought the moment shouldn’t pass without remembering the years of concern that the city-landmarked Homestead – 115 years old and originally known as the Fir Lodge – would never reopen and might not even be salvageable.
We also thought you might want to see inside, since you won’t get a chance without reservations to dine at the restaurant, already booked a month out. (Thanks to Chef Mike Easton for letting us visit briefly today to photograph the interior hours before his restaurant’s first night.)
First – the past decade of history (go here to look even further back). Old West Seattle’s collective hearts sank at news of the January 2009 fire, blamed on faulty Christmas lights. Then-owner Tom Lin had been in the process of selling the beloved home-style restaurant. Post-fire, he told WSB that it would likely take “more than six months” to repair and reopen.
No one likely could have imagined it would take a decade.
The sale did not go through. By March, the Southwest Seattle Historical Society expressed public concern about the landmark’s future. By May, the Homestead was on an annual “Endangered Properties” list. In September 2009, Lin briefed the Alki Community Council on possibilities for the Homestead’s future – maybe a restaurant, bar, spa, B&B.
Its future was still a question mark by July 4, 2010, when 150+ people gathered for that group photo outside the Homestead, declaring “This Place Matters.” The following January, on the two-year anniversary of the fire, preservation groups reiterated their concerns – “Somebody has to speak for the building.” Later that month, Lin and architects brought a new plan to a committee of the city Landmarks Preservation Board, and advocates declared they were “thrilled.” Questions lingered about whether, and how, the building could be salvaged, but proposals went through four public reviews in six months until things went quiet again.
Then in December 2013, almost five years post-fire, the Homestead was listed for sale. A prospective buyer emerged more than a year later, Dennis Schilling, a Mercer Island real-estate investor known locally for buying and restoring Alki’s Shoremont Apartments, once proposed for demolition and site redevelopment. That spring, it was announced triumphantly that Schilling was going ahead with the purchase. He promptly set about doing some of the restoration work himself.
(Dennis Schilling, Alki Homestead owner – May 2015 photo by Clay Eals)
In June 2015, another group photo outside the Homestead – this time celebratory:
(Photo by Jean Sherrard, courtesy SWSHS)
Students from Alki and Schmitz Park Elementary Schools gathered for what the SWSHS dubbed a “group hug.” But while the building had been saved, its future wasn’t yet clear. Its “rehabilitation plan” won city Landmarks Board approval in March 2016. Would it eventually reopen as a restaurant? The answer finally came last September, when Chef Easton announced the plan for Il Nido. A few days later, the Homestead’s famous neon sign returned from 2+ years of restoration:
(WSB photo, September 2018)
Inside, the work of turning the Homestead back into a restaurant began. Easton told us at the time, “It initially seemed to be such a big project, just how much restoration needed to happen – I wrote it off as more than I wanted to do. But the building sort of has a haunting effect on you.” Now the work is done, and we visited for photos as final touches were readied for Il Nido’s opening.
Whether or not you ever dine at Il Nido, you might want to see what’s happened inside the Homestead:
(For a kitchen view, here’s Easton’s own Instagram photo.) The grounds have been re-landscaped:
And we’re told they hope to open the back patio in July. But first – it’s opening night, as a new chapter in the Homestead/Fir Lodge’s history begins.
For your West Seattle summer bucket list – don’t miss the chance to tour historic Alki Point Lighthouse! Debra Alderman with the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary just sent the photo and word that Sunday tours resume this weekend:
Alki Point Lighthouse Tours begin this Sunday!
Location: 3201 Alki Avenue SW
The US Coast Guard Auxiliary will again be leading free tours for the public at the Alki Point Lighthouse most Sunday afternoons Memorial Day Weekend through Labor Day Weekend. This year, no tours on Saturdays and we will be closed Sundays June 23rd and Aug. 4th.
Hours: 1 p.m. until 4 p.m. (last group enters site at 3:45 p.m.)
All ages welcome, but only those 6 and up may go to the very top of the lighthouse tower.
Questions? Email alkilighthouse@cgauxseattle.org
Congratulations to the team behind “Seattle Now & Then: The Historic Hundred,” which has won three awards! The 244-page coffee-table book published last year by Documentary Media is the creation o writer and photographer Paul Dorpat and Jean Sherrard, with West Seattle’s Clay Eals as editor and introduction writer. The awards:
— The Independent Book Publishers Association Ben Franklin Awards, Silver for Regional Books (note the commemorative sticker on the cover in the photo above!)
— The Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPYs), Bronze for West Pacific / Best Regional Non-Fiction
— The Association for King County Historical Organizations (AKCHO) Virginia Marie Folkins Award
Details are here, including video of one award presentation. And if you happen to be joining the Rotary Club for West Seattle tomorrow morning (8 am at the Alki Masonic Center in The Junction), you can congratulate Eals in person; he’ll be making the 32nd presentation about “Historic Hundred.”
Last week, former Seattle deputy mayor and longtime civic advocate Bob Royer died at 75. He wasn’t a West Seattleite so we didn’t make note of it – many regional publications did a great job of that – and then we heard from West Seattle historian, writer, and journalist Clay Eals. He reminded us of the event shown in the video above – a panel discussion in The Junction in 2014, commemorating the 30th anniversary of the opening of the high-level West Seattle Bridge, part of a monthlong series of events presented by the Southwest Seattle Historical Society, which Eals led at the time. Read more about it – and see some historic bridge video! – here. You can see/hear Bob Royer in the video starting about six minutes in (running for about 12 minutes) and then again for about seven minutes starting at one hour, 14 minutes in. Eals recalls, “It was fascinating local history, yes, but history that came alive in a lively manner. And anyone who knew Bob is mourning the loss of his energy and wit.”
(1949 earthquake damage near Harbor/Spokane; photo from the Seattle Municipal Archives)
Thanks to Mark Jaroslaw for pointing out that today marked exactly 70 years since Puget Sound’s biggest earthquake of the 20th century. The 7.1-magnitude South Sound quake at 11:55 am April 13, 1949, led to the deaths of eight people. Two were students – at schools in Tacoma in Castle Rock. Here in West Seattle, damage at a school was among the most notable in the city, mentioned with other nearby damage in the HistoryLink.org summary of the quake: “… At Lafayette Elementary School in West Seattle, the large brick gable over the main entrance collapsed. Three bridges crossing the Duwamish River were jammed shut due to shifting earth. …” The school damage – to a building that was predecessor to the current Lafayette – is featured in this post by historian Paul Dorpat. But because – like the 2001 quake – it was centered in the South Sound, that’s where it hit hardest; The Olympian published a story today featuring quake survivors’ memories.
SO, ARE YOU READY? The anniversary is another reminder that you need to be prepared for the next big quake. If you need some inspiration, next month you’ll find it at the West Seattle Bee Festival – an Urban Survival Skills Fair presented by West Seattle Be Prepared is part of the plan for the festival, 10 am-2 pm on Saturday, May 18th, at High Point Commons Park.
If you’re planning a visit to the Southwest Seattle Historical Society‘s Log House Museum on Alki this week, curator Tasia Williams wants you to know, “Our ADA ramp at the Log House Museum will be closed this week due to repairs.” The museum at 61st SW and SW Stevens will be open noon-4 pm Thursday-Sunday as usual, otherwise.
(‘Preferred’ massing option, from project packet by SMR Architects)
As first reported here two weeks ago, the Seattle Housing Authority has a new plan for the Lam Bow Apartments at 6935/6955 Delridge Way SW. Instead of just replacing the building destroyed in a 2016 fire, they’re going to demolish the remaining building too, and build a new ~79-unit building – almost 30 more apartments than the two original buildings had. The project is going through Administrative Design Review, and the design packet is now online for your review and comment (see it here, 68 pages, PDF). This is the Early Design Guidance phase, so the packet shows massing (size/shape/placement on site) options and lists these project goals:
LAM BOW REDEVELOPMENT OBJECTIVES
• Replace the 21 units lost in the October 2016 fire and increase the total number of units on the site.
• Create a mixed-income community with units serving residents at or below 30% of Area Median Income (AMI) and 60% of AMI.
• Increase the supply of affordable homes, especially larger apartments (2BD+) for families with children. Our target unit count and mix is:
1-Bedroom Units: 22
2-Bedroom Units: 42
3-Bedroom Units: 15
Total Units: 79
One note – today’s notice published by the city erroneously refers to it as a 50-unit project, which it was previously, but we’ve confirmed with SHA that was a error by the Department of Construction and Inspections. The notice explains how to comment in this stage of Design Review – deadline April 8th.
Though the Southwest Seattle Historical Society had hoped its Log House Museum would reopen today after being closed Thursday for furnace replacement, it’s not ready yet, so the museum remains closed. They’re expecting to be open regular hours this weekend – noon-4 pm Saturday and Sunday, at 61st SW/SW Stevens in Alki.
The photo is from Nancy, reporting that another of the 25+-year-old murals in The Junction has been vandalized: “I wake up each morning to look at this awesome mural and this morning when I pulled up the blinds, this is what I saw. How disappointing.” The mural on the parking-lot-facing north side of the building at 4520 44th SW depicts a scene at the swimming hole that preceded Colman Pool on the shore at Lincoln Park; the vandalism is tagging done in white paint on the swimming-hole midsection of the mural. This is one of the murals that community volunteers hope to be able to restore, with an ongoing fundraising campaign. Meantime, the West Seattle Junction Association has been made aware of the vandalism, and we will follow up next week.
(WSB photo from last week)
As first reported here last Thursday, the Southwest Seattle Historical Society is hoping to move and save the well-known stone-covered cottage at 1123 Harbor SW before its new owner redevelops the site. Our story noted that SWSHS president Kathy Blackwell and preservationist John Bennett planned to meet this week with the company that bought the site and two adjacent lots. We checked back with them today to see how that meeting this past Monday went and what’s next. Blackwell described the meeting as “very cordial and positive.” She and Bennett both note that the new owners want the site cleared relatively quickly – voicing concern, Blackwell said, “about the buildings being vandalized or occupied illegally.” She also said the SWSHS is “very grateful for the outpouring of support” that followed when this all came to public attention last week. So what’s next? “Now the real work begins in finding a place where it can be re-located to. And researching the best way to move it.” Bennett adds that the site owners are “totally on board to save the stone house, but as business people, they want a plan and timeline on paper.” Speaking of documentation, in case you wondered, no redevelopment or demolition plans are on file with the city so far, just a permit that would allow work on the 90-year-old cottage’s exterior, studded with rocks its original owners gathered from the nearby beach.
Toward the conclusion of this year’s African American History Month, students, parents, and staff at Arbor Heights Elementary got the chance to reflect both on inspiration …
…and on violation:
Those photos show just a small part of the “American History Traveling Museum: Unspoken Truths” display that ethnomuseumologist Delbert Richardson brought to the school. We were invited to stop by tonight as families viewed what students had seen earlier in the day.
The curator is a Seattle resident and tells us that the museum has no fixed location – it features items he has been collecting for more than 30 years, and he travels with them to schools and other locations.
In our photo above are Delbert Richardson with, at right, Rosslyn Shea, the AHES staffer who got a grant to bring the American History Traveling Museum to the school, and at center, AHES principal Christy Collins. He is part of history himself – winner of the National Education Association‘s Carter G. Woodson Memorial Award in 2017.
Looking for something to do this afternoon? In addition to what we spotlighted this morning, that photo is just in from Sarah Miller at the Southwest Seattle Historical Society‘s Log House Museum on Alki, who explains:
Ken Workman (Chief Seattle’s 4th-great-grandson) and Marcy Johnsen (who lived in the Log House Museum before it was a museum for 14 years!) are here today to docent (until 4 pm) and would love to tell stories to the general public about their experiences.
The museum is at 61st SW/SW Stevens, less than a block inland from the beach. No admission charge, though donations are welcome.
(WSB photos)
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
Will the stone house join the Log House (Museum) under the Southwest Seattle Historical Society‘s wing?
SWSHS leaders tell WSB they are grateful that the new owners of the well-known little stone-covered house at 1123 Harbor Avenue SW have agreed to meet with them. They aren’t seeking to get in the way of whatever the new owners – who just bought the site and two adjacent lots last week – have planned. They just want to obtain the house itself and move it someplace new, potentially to use as an interpretive center.
We talked this afternoon outside the 90-year-old house with SWSHS president Kathy Blackwell and longtime local preservationist John Bennett.
They shared the letter they sent to the new owners, who, they say, subsequently agreed to a meeting next Monday.
You might not be aware of all the backstory behind the little stone-studded house across from Don Armeni Boat Ramp. To catch up, see this Seattle Post-Intelligencer story from 2002. Even then, the owner of the house – a member of the family who built it with scavenged materials – was in her 70s and told the newspaper that developers had been making them offers for at least 15 years.
SWSHS had talked to the family in the past, too, as the 2002 story alludes to. Bennett says the family had expressed interest in donating the little stone house if they ever sold the property, but nothing was in writing. So now they’re looking forward to talking with the new owners, Chainqui Development, whose expressed values indicate this should be in perfect alignment. No development proposal is on file yet for the site – which also includes the two parcels immediately west – but the new owners have obtained a permit for exterior work on the stone house, including its windows, some of which are already boarded up:
Where the house would be moved, SWSHS hasn’t determined yet, but the sale of the site has them determined to obtain it first, settle on a site later. Wherever it winds up, the goal would be for it to be accessible to the public. (This wouldn’t be the first [corrected] moved house in the SWSHS fold – its headquarters at 61st/Stevens, the Log House Museum, was originally the carriage house for the Alki Homestead a short distance north.)
“We have a real opportunity here to preserve part of the special story of West Seattle,” says Blackwell – the story of its mostly-gone beach cottages, via what’s unquestionably the most distinctive of those that remain.
Love history? You have a chance this week to celebrate it as Paul Dorpat and Jean Sherrard return to West Seattle with an illustrated talk about their recently published book “Seattle Now & Then: The Historic Hundred.” West Seattle historian and writer Clay Eals, who edited the book, will be part of the presentation, 6 pm Thursday (January 24th) at Aegis Living (4700 SW Admiral Way). Everyone’s welcome to what will be, Eals notes, “the 25th event on behalf of the book since its launch on Paul’s 80th birthday last October 28.” Find out about the previous presentations – including videos – on the book’s website. Better yet, just go! It’s free, and Aegis will treat you to appetizers and beverages.
(File photo: Log House Museum, SWSHS HQ)
The new year brings new leadership to the Southwest Seattle Historical Society. Here’s the announcement:
The SWSHS Board of Trustees announces the departure of Jeff McCord from the position of Executive Director. Jeff’s leadership role with the society began in July 2017, and during this time, he oversaw successful exhibits in the Log House Museum and the many programs sponsored by the historical society.
Jeff is looking forward to focusing on his family, serving on non-profit boards and additional volunteerism in the community, as well as exploring other creative business pursuits in game design, videography, and drone photography. A search for a new Executive Director begins this month.
A new Board of Directors takes office in January to lead the organization in its mission to promote local heritage through education, preservation and advocacy. Officers include Kathy Blackwell, President; Nancy Sorensen, Vice-President; Lissa Kramer, Interim Treasurer; Sandie Wilkinson, Secretary; John Sweetland, Membership Secretary.
The society is pleased to have two new trustees: Carol Vincent, one of the founders of the Log House Museum, and Lissa Kramer, former Museum Curator. Dora-Faye Hendricks, Kerry Korsgaard, Burke Dykes, Marcy Johnsen, and Ken Workman continue as Trustees.
The SWSHS board is grateful to three departing board members: Karen Sisson, who served as President for 2 years; Ron Arant, Treasurer and technology guru for many years; and Jenni Bodnar, Trustee for 3 years.
SWSHS looks forward to the New Year that will include fresh emphasis on embracing the entire Duwamish Peninsula, highlighting its rich heritage and fascinating stories.
The next SWSHS event is this Thursday (January 10th), when the Words, Writers, West Seattle author series features our state’s Poet Laureate Claudia Castro Luna, 6 pm at Southwest Library (9010 35th SW).
Thanks to Lora Radford, executive director of the West Seattle Junction Association, for the photos! Renovation work is done at the Mosquito Fleet mural on the east side of the city-landmark Campbell Building in The Junction. Here’s what it looked like before muralist Bob Henry started work:
This was Henry’s second mural-restoration project in West Seattle, after the Morgan Street Market mural. (Here’s the backstory on the mural-restoration campaign and how to be part of it.)
Thanks to Darryl for sending the photo! He explains:
A hidden history is revealed at 16th and Trenton. We’ve heard stories from long time residents that this house on the corner used to be a neighborhood grocery store, but have never seen pictures from that period. Today, as the house is undergoing another transformation, I caught this cool image that confirms the story. Kind of neat!
UPDATE: Thanks to everyone who’s added to this story via the comments – don’t skip them!
(UPDATED MONDAY with fundraising total)
(Photos by WSB’s Patrick Sand unless otherwise credited)
History isn’t just about the past. That was highlighted during today’s Champagne Gala Brunch raising money for the Southwest Seattle Historical Society at Salty’s on Alki (WSB sponsor). We stopped by in the early going for some photos; the highlight notes were contributed tonight by SWSHS executive director Jeff McCord:
Special guests Paul Dorpat and Jean Sherrard were a delight as they were being interviewed by Connie Thompson from KOMO4. Longtime Seattle Times columnist Dorpat — famous for his wit and improvisational style — further entertained the crowd by interrupting his own interview (that Connie was conducting) and creating an impromptu “auction” of his Gala program that’d he’d gotten everyone at his VIP table to sign the cover of, plus his receipt from Trader Joe’s.
(Jean Sherrard and Paul Dorpat, photographed by Gail Ann Photography)
Hilarity ensued when he started the “auction” at 10¢, and then Connie encouraged Paul to throw in the nice chocolate bar he’d bought at Trader Joe’s (which he ‘reluctantly’ acquiesced to). Once the auction grew to ‘tens’ of dollars, Connie herself took over the auction.
(Connie Thompson, a longtime West Seattleite)
Then, seeing the action and seizing the moment official auctioneer Ron Hippe, took it over and took the previously unplanned auction to over $50, at which point we whispered to Ron that we were throwing in a donated, signed copy of Paul & Jean’s new book, “Seattle Now & Then: The Historic Hundred,” and the “auction” went skyward to over $200.
Earlier during the live auction segment, 4th great-grandson of Chief Seattle, Ken Workman, had donated a beautiful grouping of cedar jigsaw artwork depicting Chief Seattle that his brother Kurt Workman had handcrafted, and he talked about the connection of his own ancestors’ DNA that was captured in the very wood of trees around us in our area, since they’d traditionally been buried among the trees.
(Ken Workman)
Every springtime the rains wash down and the groundwater is drawn up into the trees, meaning that his own relatives continue to live all around us, and in the ancient beams of many of the buildings built here in West Seattle.
(Husky Deli proprietor Jack Miller and Easy Street Records proprietor Matt Vaughan)
In another instance during the auction, when Husky Deli owner Jack Miller realized that his popular “Create your own Husky Deli ice cream flavor” auction-item had nearly sold in a deadlock between two close bidders, he ended up “doubling” the auction offering on the spot, meaning that both the first bidder and runner-up bidder Adah Cruzen — another honored guest—won the opportunity to create a flavor with Jack that *might* even find its way onto the permanent menu sometime in 2019 in Husky Deli finds it to be popular. The auction package(s) include a launch party for the flavor for up to 25 guests… Yeah, Adah (and other guest)!!
(Jeff McCord and Adah Cruzen)
In addition to these sweet moments, guests reported that they enjoyed this year’s Gala a lot, saying it was fun, low key and relaxed, and being excited about the great auction items and the flow of the event.
(Auction item: Michael Birawer print provided by Diane Venti)
There were lots of smiles & laughter, nice conversations, and thankfulness for the generosity of the donors who came forth to support the Southwest Seattle Historical Society.
More photos!
(Laura Vanderpool with Paul Dorpat)
(SWSHS board president Karen Sisson)
(Jeff McCord with John Bennett, longtime SWSHS supporter whose Luna Park Café was the brunch’s presenting sponsor)
We’re expecting an update from SWSHS on Sunday with the brunch’s fundraising totals and we’ll add it here.
MONDAY NIGHT UPDATE: Here’s that info from SWSHS’s Jeff McCord:
We are happy to report that we were able to raise over $72,000 in revenue for this year’s 2018 Champagne Gala Brunch, aptly themed, “History is Happening Now!” There was an additional $4,000 in in-kind contributions to add to that, plus so much more … We are thankful for all of the generous donors, attendees, auction-item donors, corporate sponsors, challenge-funders, and volunteers who came together in a monumental effort to make this year’s Gala a success!
The Southwest Seattle Historical Society is devoted to continue bringing great programming, community events, activities, museum exhibits, and educational opportunities to the community we all love so much.
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