Budget gives mouth-to-mouth to fort’s remains

PETER CALLAGHAN; THE NEWS TRIBUNE
Last updated: May 3rd, 2007 01:24 AM (PDT)

But it was nearly enough to move Walter Neary – or perhaps his alter ego Charles Prosch – to tears.

Section 2027, covering minor projects and repairs at Department of Social and Health Services facilities, contained this line: “Up to $250,000 is provided for roof repairs of historic homes on the grounds of Western State Hospital.”

Placed there at the urging of Lakewood Republican Sen. Mike Carrell, the appropriation means some of the oldest buildings in Washington state will survive. Whether they thrive is still in question, but at least they’ll have the opportunity.

The four cottages, built before the Civil War, are all that remains of Fort Steilacoom. That’s where the U.S. government made its first official footprint in what would become Washington territory. It not only housed federal soldiers, it gave the surrounding settlers a market for crops and other goods. That’s where they clustered during the Indian War of 1855-56. And many soldiers and officers who served there later fought one another in the Civil War, the most famous perhaps being George Pickett.

Abandoned after that war, the buildings became the territorial – and later state – mental hospital and asylum. The state long ago stopped using them. And largely because they are architectural orphans, owned by a state agency that has its hands full with other missions, they have deteriorated. Last year the state Trust for Historic Preservation placed them on its most endangered list.

Neary, a Lakewood city councilman, has co-authored a book on Lakewood history and is active with the Historic Fort Steilacoom Association. During re-enactments at the fort, he portrays pioneer newspaper publisher Prosch. And for more than a decade he and others have campaigned to preserve the cottages.

That challenge became more crucial a year ago when high winds and rain damaged the roofs on Quarters 1 and Quarters 2. Maintenance workers laid blue tarps, but what was needed were new roofs.

DSHS finally found some money for emergency repairs last summer. But the contracted work still hasn’t been completed, to the frustration of DSHS architect and project manager Rich Christian. In the meantime, another hole was blown in the cottage that once served as the fort chapel. Rainwater reached a display case and damaged valuable antiques that help docents tell the story of the early fort.

Without some help from the Legislature, the whole effort to save what is left of the fort might have failed.

Carrell took an interest in the history of the fort and the hospital when he helped secure funds six years ago to stabilize and reroof the old barns across Steilacoom Boulevard from the main hospital. They are artifacts of the farms once staffed by patients as therapy and to supply food for the hospital.

This session, Carrell worked to secure money in the budget for the cottage repairs.

“This is a very unique set of buildings,” he said of the cottages. “Where else do you have something like this?” He hopes the work can be done for less than the money appropriated, but he sometimes grudgingly goes along with the need to make repairs as historically appropriate as possible.

Christian said the new money will allow the department to rebuild the cedar shake roofs and fix other problems that might show up once the old roofs are removed – flashing, siding and structural elements. He said he hopes to have the work done before the rains return next fall.

When Neary heard last week that Carrell might have been successful in getting help, he scrambled for proof. After seeing the line item in the budget, he was ecstatic.

“Oh thank God,” he wrote in an e-mail. “After working this since the mid-’90s I either feel like crying or passing out or something. But that said, I am already rethinking my public promise to kiss Sen. Carrell.”

Peter Callaghan: 253-597-8657

peter.callaghan@thenewstribune.com

Originally published: May 3rd, 2007 01:24 AM (PDT)