Mayor Dean Maxwell presented plaques to the first group of participants in the Anacortes House History Program on Friday on the steps of the Anacortes Museum. The plaques list each home’s first occupants and the date it was built.
The program, sponsored by the Anacortes Historic Preservation Board, is designed to raise awareness of Anacortes’s architecture and history—and those who helped make it. The plaques call attention to the development of Anacortes and help residents and visitors to better understand the community’s past.
Arlene French, who was the first person to complete a house history, says that the whole process of researching her house was “lots of fun and exciting.” Eventually, she was able to track a previous resident of her home, who now lives in Bellingham. “He lived here during the early 1940s as a teenager and had a clear recollection of the house. At that time, the only bath tub was located off the kitchen and a wood-burning stove was used for cooking.”
Other participants said they, too, enjoyed the opportunity to look at the earliest documents related to their house. Karolyne Deatley and Kathy Stegman, sisters who live next door to each other, traveled together to the State Archives in Bellingham to look through original Tax Assessor records and deeds.
“The Staff at the Archives was so helpful,” notes Stegman, while Deatley points out that the process of finding and seeing the documents “brought the past residents to being real people.”
While researching the Peter and Cecilia Beffa House, Tracee Hammond unravelled "all these little mysteries. It was really interesting finding out about people, what they did for a living, and to piece together an image of their families.”
“Behind every door there is a story about the history of Anacortes,” says Susan Rooks, Chairperson of the Preservation Board. The goal of our program is to encourage local residents to research a part of the past that directly relates to them by looking at the history of their home. When eventually we put all of these individual stories together, we’ll have a better sense of how our community grew and of the people who contributed to its development.”
The plaque presentations follow a workshop held last January, which introduced the program and described where and how to find information.
- Arlene and Bill French, William & Alice Johnson House, 1907
- Douglas & Terry Bradwin, William & Emma Hurd House, c 1908
- Terry and Tracee Hammond, Peter & Cecilia Beffa House, c 1911
- Karolyne Deatley, (built by) Harry Dodge, 1910
- Duane and Kathy Stegman, Sidney & Stella Beard House, 1914
- Hal and Susan Rooks, Charles & Desiree Brinck House, 1913 and the Lena, Elmer and Johanna Storme House, c 1908.
For information on how to participate in the Anacortes House History Program, check the Museum’s website or call the Museum at 293-1915.