Will crews demolish this 110-year-old lodge in Pierce County? Here’s what we know
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- Gig Harbor weighs demolishing historic Masonic Lodge.
- Renovation estimates for the lodge reach up to $6.5 million.
- City seeks public input before council finalizes Crescent Creek Park plan.
After years of planning a redesign for Crescent Creek Park, the city of Gig Harbor has narrowed the plans down to two options.
One keeps a building that’s over a century old, and the other demolishes it.
City Council members discussed a recommendation from the Parks Commission to demolish the Masonic Lodge building at the park due to its condition and the anticipated cost to renovate it at their study session Sept. 11. City staff will collect further public input with their consultant team at their third and final open house at Crescent Creek Park on Thursday, from 4 to 6 p.m.
It’s unclear when the City Council will make a final decision about the building, but city spokesperson Lori Maricle wrote in an email to The News Tribune that “the timeline for the Master Plan for Crescent Creek Park is slated to finalize by December.” The City Council is scheduled to discuss the plan at its Nov. 13 study session, Maricle wrote.
“Whether that includes a decision on the lodge is yet to be determined by city council,” she wrote.
Asked what staff plan to share at the Nov. 13 study session, city Parks Manager Jennifer Haro wrote in an email that the open house and later input from the community will inform the discussion. She confirmed that a draft final design for the park will be ready at that time.
The Parks Commission is one of eight volunteer commissions who serve as advisory boards to the city council on specific areas of policy. The City Council is ultimately “responsible for enacting all legislation and making general policy decisions governing the city,” the city website says.
The city’s Historic Preservation Commission is scheduled to discuss the Masonic Lodge at its next meeting on Oct. 28, Haro wrote.
She noted that “A professional architectural review in 2023 stated the building does not qualify for a historic listing, so funding that might offset rehabilitation costs may be limited. Further study to assess the potential for historic status has been estimated to start at $35,000 to $60,000, an expense which is not listed in our current budget.”
Crescent Creek Park is located at 3303 Vernhardson St. in Gig Harbor and is the city’s oldest park, the first to be established in city limits. Long-time residents still call it “City Park,” according to the city website.
The park currently includes a covered shelter, spots to barbecue, picnic tables, baseball field, sports courts and a maritime-themed playground.
History of the Masonic Lodge
The Masonic Lodge building was originally built as the Crescent Valley School in 1915, according to the city’s website.
“Children enjoyed fire drills as they were allowed to slide down the chute-style fire escape from the upper floor,” the website says. “The first primary grade teacher was Lucy Goodman of Crescent Valley.”
Laborers under the Works Progress Administration, a government agency created to provide work opportunities for the unemployed during the Great Depression, helped build restrooms, a stone wall and a water fountain at the park, along with the sidewalks from the school, according to the website.
The school closed in 1941, and the Peninsula School District gave the park to the city, the website says. The Masonic Temple Association purchased the school building in 1949.
The Masons changed the building’s floor plan and used the facility for close to six decades, says a proposal to preserve the Masonic Lodge prepared by volunteers from the Masonic Lodge Community Advocacy Group. The group presented the proposal to the city last year.
In 2017, the city purchased the Masonic Lodge and the 1.10 acres it sits on for $665,000. The acquisition allowed them to begin developing a master plan for the park, The News Tribune reported.
Harbor History Museum Executive Director Stephanie Lile told The News Tribune in an email that the Masonic Lodge building has been central to the park’s development.
“In truth, if it weren’t for that building (a school) there’s a good chance there wouldn’t even be a park there today,” Lile wrote. “The WPA made the improvements to the ‘schoolyard’ before it was ever a park. And many of those improvements are still there (picnic shelters and bathrooms). That building essentially defined the entire property.”
Commission recommends demolishing Masonic Lodge for fiscal reasons
The city has been working with HBB Landscape Architecture on a master plan for Crescent Creek Park since early 2022, according to an agenda bill shared with the city council at their July 31 study session. After reviewing concepts presented by the consultant in May, the City Council asked to also see a concept for the park that removed the Masonic Lodge to reduce costs and impervious surface area, the agenda bill says.
The city Parks Commission was also briefed on developments in the master plan process, and voted unanimously Sept. 3 to approve a recommendation to demolish the lodge.
In its memo to the City Council on Sept. 11, the Parks Commission offered nine reasons why they believe the city should demolish the Masonic Lodge.
Among them were that the building is unlikely to be accepted to the National Historic Register because of changes made to the original structure over its lifetime; that repurposing the building as an event space would invite significant traffic and require significant additional parking; and that the building has issues with mold, asbestos and lead.
The memo also states that “costs will likely be greater, if not much greater, than anticipated due to general inflation, as well as unforeseen issues due to the age of the building.” Noting the city’s limited tax dollars, the memo suggested that other projects currently unfunded in the city’s budget could use the funding instead.
“Some of these projects include: Wilkinson Farm Park barn stabilization and master planning, Cushman Trail extension, KLM Veterans Park amenities, future phases of the Gig Harbor Sports Complex and trail development,” the memo said.
The Masonic Lodge Community Advocacy Group indicates a $4.5 million cost estimate from Washington Patriot Construction in their proposal to rehabilitate the lodge. The cost estimate “assumed that the building would be reroofed and sided, an addition for restrooms and catering kitchen would be added, ADA compliances addressed, and all asbestos and lead paint sites would be remediated,” the proposal says.
Demolishing the building and rebuilding it would cost about $1 million more, and renovating the building without adding restrooms or a community catering kitchen would be about $1 million less, it continues.
The city’s consultant offered a higher cost estimate at the July 31 study session.
The city could pay around $6.5 million if the council decides to go with the park concept that involves rehabilitating the Masonic Lodge, including “soft costs” for permitting, design fees, utilities and other expenses outside of construction, HBB Landscape Architecture consultant Juliet Vong told the City Council. The actual construction cost would be around $4.5 million.
If the city decides to go with the concept that replaces the Lodge with an open-air shelter, the estimated cost is closer to $1.8 to $2 million, Vong said.
Advocates want the Masonic Lodge to be repurposed as community center
Long-time Gig Harbor area resident John McMillan lives close to Crescent Creek Park and said he “walks the area almost every day.” A member of the volunteer group that submitted their proposal to the city in 2024, McMillan told The News Tribune that he believes the Masonic Lodge could fill an important need for a gathering space.
“There is no such thing at this end of the harbor,” he said. “Gig Harbor doesn’t have any meeting spaces that you could call a community center. The only other thing would be the (Gig Harbor) Yacht Club in the harbor that’s on this side of Highway 16.”
He went on to say that Gig Harbor is a growing and aging community.
“So both those things should be reasons to create a space where seniors could gather, where arts folks could gather,” he said. There could be classes, workshops, etc., weddings, reunions, and it would be rented out just like other centers are.”
Cost is a “big issue,” he said, but he thinks that “if there’s a will, there’s a way.” McMillan, who owns his own design company and describes himself as an industrial designer and inventor, shared original drawings with The News Tribune suggesting that the building could be renovated for $2.5 million.
“ ... we ought to be taking a second look at this and be very careful about decisions of destroying some of the last few historic landmarks that we have in this city,” he said.
“The Masonic Lodge, and before that the Crescent Valley School, has a long history as an important community gathering space,” Lile, the Harbor History Museum’s executive director, wrote. “I’ve seen historic buildings in much worse condition be repurposed very effectively. It would be a shame to let this one go.”
This story was originally published September 17, 2025 at 11:14 AM.
