Pierce County historic landmark to be torn down after heated debate
The 111-year-old Alderton School landmark has been approved for complete demolition.
Members of the Landmarks and Historic Preservation Commission in Pierce County held a meeting Tuesday to discuss its recommendation for the fate of the Alderton gymnasium, which stands next to the now-demolished school.
In a 4-1 vote, commissioners recommended that the landmark’s owners commission a HistoryLink.org article to be written about the history of the school’s community connections within one year. That was part of the mitigation of the Alderton School demolition. Mitigation is a public benefit to balance to loss of a historic property.
HistoryLink.org is a not-for-profit corporation and an online encyclopedia of Washington state history. It provides researched historical essays through its encyclopedia.
What happened to the old Alderton School?
The school house was partially demolished May 18 before a stop-work order was issued, The News Tribune first reported.
Pierce County’s Planning & Public Works department issued a permit in March to demolish the Alderton School and adjacent gym at 9512 State Route 162, according to records on the county’s website. That was after the buildings’ owner, Alderton Way LLC, submitted an application for the demolition in February.
Sam Spooner of Spooner Farms spoke at the historic commission meeting and said he and his parents purchased the property 15 or 20 years ago.
The stop-work order was dated May 19. The notice said a historic preservation officer’s approval was needed. The gym was left standing. Both buildings were built in 1915 to replace an older wood-frame building, according to the National Register of Historic Places Registration Form posted on the National Park Service website. The building was last used as an elementary school in 1958.
The Alderton School was listed on the Pierce County Register of Historic Places in 1968, the Washington Heritage Register in 1987 and the National Register of Historic Places in 1987, the story said.
“Listing on such registries recognizes a property’s historical significance but does not, by itself, prevent private ownership, use, alteration, or demolition,” Maranatha Hay, spokesperson for Pierce County, previously told The News Tribune.
Hay said the county’s current permitting process includes an internal alert attached to parcels with historic designations in their review system. In the school and gym’s case, the alert did not prevent the demolition permit from being issued.
Commission’s recommendation
Adam Rorabaugh, cultural resources archeologist, provided the commission with general information on the landmark and the timeline of what has happened since the demolition. He also presented the engineering report from March, which described the school house and gym as structurally unsound.
The report said there was vegetation growth on the roofs, which were also sagging, collapsed stairs and balcony, and water damage on the upper floor joists.
Barton Wolfe, a commission member and architect, commented that the building appeared to be more dangerous every day and described it as a liability rather than an asset.
Marianne Lincoln, a historian and commission member, was the only person to vote no. The gymnasium is made out of Clay City materials, which she said do not exist anymore. She asked Spooner if his purpose for purchasing the buildings was to tear it down, which he denied, saying he originally wanted it to be a haunted house.
Lincoln asked if anyone had gotten a grant to preserve “a building made out of Clay City brick, for which there may only be a handful left in the county.”
In a back and forth, Robert Koreis, archivist and commission member, asked Lincoln if the property is in dangerous condition, does she think the owner should “have to pay whatever the cost is to rehab it.” Lincoln countered that Spooner did not have to buy it.
Lincoln claimed that the owners let the buildings deteriorate further.
“Do you know if it was even salvageable at that time?” Koreis asked.
“That’s not my job,” Lincoln said.
The interaction turned heated after Koreis said she did not have an answer to that question, to which Lincoln said she did not appreciate him accusing her of “making stuff up.”
“It’s my job to question what the owner is doing and what happened with this building that was not done in a procedural manner. And to ask: Do we even care in this county about any historic buildings or are we gonna just let everybody knock all of them down?” She said. “We don’t seem to preserve anything around here — we tear them down, and if we don’t tear them down, they burn down.”
Prior to the motion’s approval, Lincoln asked to clarify if the vote was just about the HistoryLink article being commissioned by Spooner. Joe Dervaes, vice chair, said the article’s commission and the demolition were tied together with the purpose of mitigation.
“The process of the demolition would occur, but the mitigation would be the link,” he said. “To preserve the history of the building, not the building itself.”
‘Pretty much in collapse’
Spooner said during the meeting that his family purchased the property with hopes “of doing something.”
“My grandfather went to [the school],” he said. “We repeatedly had structural engineers look at some way that we could ... I mean I originally wanted a haunted house or something.”
Spooner said they had different contractors look at the structures.
“Just structurally, it doesn’t add up,” he said.
Spooner also spoke about the safety hazards that the structures pose, especially since there are children who run around the property and unhoused people who trespass. He added that the buildings are an eyesore, and it is right in front of his farm.
“The building is pretty much in collapse anyway,” he said. “It is not if, it is when. Somebody will get hurt, and I don’t want that on my conscious when somebody’s child is hurt, falls through the floor.”
Spooner said he would probably put gravel on the property after demolition and place tractors there.
