Look inside: PLU is selling estate once home to university presidents and a lumber baron
Pacific Lutheran University is selling the Gonyea House — the 84-year-old home of a pioneering family that shaped businesses, philanthropy and housing in Pierce County for decades. For the past half century, the estate has been the home of the university’s presidents.
The bucolic property at 13611 Spanaway Loop Road South in Parkland features a 5,400-square-foot house with four bedrooms and five bathrooms. It’s listed for $1.58 million. The nearly 8-acre estate has a creek flowing through it and a pond.
Lumber family
The house was built in 1940 by Minnesota native Joseph Henry Gonyea. Born in 1889, Gonyea moved to Tacoma with his family in 1910, according to his obituary in the Tacoma News Tribune. He quit school early and took a job loading doors manufactured by the Wheeler Osgood Company into boxcars.
Later, Gonyea took an accounting course by correspondence and held jobs with the city, working with Mayor W.W. Seymour. Gonyea eventually returned to the door business, this time as owner. His holdings expanded to include companies taking advantage of the increasing popularity of plywood.
Both of Gonyea’s sons, Wilford, born in 1911, and Douglas, born in 1917, graduated from Stadium High School before attending the University of Washington. They eventually joined their father in the timber industry, which included businesses in Oregon.
Joseph Gonyea began the family’s decades of philanthropy in Pierce County. Among other projects, he saved the Annie Wright School from bankruptcy by buying the private school and then giving the deed to the school’s foundation, according to a story in The News Tribune. He died in 1963 at age 74.
The estate
The colonial style house was built on what was then a 102-acre estate.
The property had been carved out of the vast Rigney pioneer homestead from which today’s McChord Field at Joint Base Lewis-McChord was also extracted. Originally, the estate had tennis courts and a 16-stall horse barn. Horses, a 1971 Tacoma News Tribune story said, were the enthusiasm of son Douglas.
Spanaway Creek flows from Spanaway Lake to Tule Lake through the property.
“The water and garden scene are a quiet delight for white-haired Mrs. Gonyea who watches the activities from her chair,” another 1969 story states.
When Joseph’s widow, Hilda, died in 1971, she left the property to PLU to be used by the university’s presidents and their families.
Before his death, Joseph Gonyea gave 25 acres of the estate’s property to the county to create today’s Gonyea Playfield. The county now calls the field “dated” and plans to begin improvements in 2026. The area between the estate and the playfield is now a housing development.
Sons
In the 1940s, Wilford Gonyea partnered with Jay Pritzker to become co-owners of Timber Products Company in Springfield, Oregon. Pritzker was the founder of the Hyatt hotel chain, among many other business enterprises, and established the Pritzker Prize in Architecture. Timber Products is still owned by the Gonyea family. It produced $220 million in revenue in 2023.
Like his brother, Douglas Gonyea pursued a career in the timber industry. In 1949, he became president and owner of Eatonville Lumber Co.
Douglas Gonyea stayed in Pierce County and became involved with a number of charities and nonprofits, most notably the Boys and Girls Club organization. The D. A. Gonyea Boys and Girls Club in Tacoma’s North End is named after him, and he raised money for the construction of the Eastside and Al Davies branches.
In the 1970s, Douglas Gonyea created the Lorigon Corp. to turn 750 wooded acres in Gig Harbor into a housing development designed for horseback riders and equestrian enthusiasts. Although it retained its equestrian name, it instead became Canterwood, an upscale development built around golf, not horses.
Douglas Gonyea served as president of the Annie Wright School Foundation for decades. He also served on PLU’s board of regents, and numerous other boards of nonprofits and charities.
Wilford died in 1992 at age 80. Douglas died in 1999 at age 82.
PLU president’s home
The Gonyea estate hasn’t housed a PLU president since 2017, according to PLU spokesperson Zach Powers. The home is now seldom used for school events, he said.
“The grounds of the property are peaceful and beautiful, however the costs to maintain this property two miles from campus now outweigh the home’s benefit to current students,” he said.
Proceeds from the sale will benefit university projects, Powers said.
“We look forward to selling the Gonyea House to a buyer who appreciates all it has to offer and is excited to steward this beautiful property into its next chapter,” he said.
Photos in PLU’s archives show the house and grounds being used for numerous school functions through the years.
At the time of the 1971 donation, Douglas Gonyea said he was ensuring his father’s desires that the home and grounds be used by young people.
Half a century later, Realtor Michael Morrison agrees.
“It was meant and destined to be the place where people came to be happy,” he said.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misidentified the creek that flows through the Gonyea property.
This story was originally published March 7, 2024 at 9:29 AM.
