‘Iconic’ home in East Pierce County will be demolished. Here’s what it will become
This year may be the last time you’ll see the historical Ryan House on Sumner’s Main Street.
The Sumner City Council voted 6-1 Monday, Sept. 18, during a city council meeting to demolish the house at 1228 Main St. The goal is to restore the land as a park.
“Some of the feedback we’ve received from the descendants of the family who gave us the space was they wanted us to respect the original deed, and they were supportive of proceeding with the park,” city spokesperson Carmen Palmer said during the meeting.
The deed states if the house is ever demolished, the space must remain open and accessible to the public. The family originally deeded the space to the city to be Lucy V. Ryan park, according to the city’s website.
The house was built around the 1850s. Lucy Ryan and George Ryan lived there. George Ryan was Sumner’s first mayor in 1891. Lucy Ryan was the town’s postmistress.
The house used to be the city’s post office, town hall, library and museum. The city took ownership of the house nearly 100 years ago.
Council members Barbara Bitetto, Pat Cole, Charla Neumann, Patrick Reed, Earle Stuard and Deputy Mayor Cindi Hochstatter voted to demolish the house. Council member Curt Brown voted against it.
“It is very difficult to think about tearing down a piece of history, but I feel that we can accomplish much more by doing it,” Stuard said during the meeting.
Hochstatter said during the meeting that nobody wants to see the house demolished, but that the city has looked at every possible option. It’s a hard decision, but the reality is that the cost of repairing an old house would continue to rise, she said.
“There just doesn’t seem to be any way around it,” she said.
Brown said during the meeting that he wanted more time to consider what should be done to the house.
Kim Foster, a Gig Harbor resident, told the council he was “appalled” the city was considering demolishing the house. Foster’s family has roots in Sumner — his father was a mayor and council member around the 1960s-70s.
“It’s an iconic place,” Foster said.
The house could be demolished as soon as November, The News Tribune reported.
Inspectors found red flags
The house was supposed to undergo renovations. The plan was to install ADA-accessible doors and a new HVAC system, among other upgrades. The goal was to open the house to the public as much as possible when renovation work was done.
However, inspectors found issues with the house. Some walls on the first floor were missing a beam to support the floor above. The second floor had floorboards that collapsed easily.
Palmer said during the Sept. 18 meeting that the house has safety issues that the city would be responsible for fixing.
“It is closed until demolition due to safety concerns,” Palmer told The News Tribune. “We are talking with some of the Ryan descendants to see if we can get them into at least part of the house safely before demolition, but there’s no way to open it up to the public safely. We have a lot of photos and video we’ve taken, so we’ll rely on that.”
City staff presented council members with four options during a study session earlier this month.
The first option would have entailed full rehabilitation of the house for an estimated $2.2 million. The second option would have entailed the demolition of the kitchen area and the original cabin, and doing some renovation work to the main farmhouse, for an estimated $1.26 million.
The third option would entail the demolition of the house and turning the land into a park with amenities yet to be determined for about $600,000. The fourth option would entail the demolition of the house and turning the land into an open park, for about $100,000.
The council’s vote means the property will become an open space park. If they decide to add amenities to the park, that would take another vote.
Sumner Historical Society President Dale Loseth told The News Tribune Sept. 18 that the group preferred the second option out of the four. Photographs, scrapbooks, business records and all the other items that used to be in the house are in storage. The Historical Society owns them.
Palmer said during the Sept. 18 meeting that the problems found in the house are structural issues that routine maintenance can’t fix. The city applied to as many grants as it could qualify for, she said.
The city secured over $1 million in grants from the Port of Tacoma, Pierce County Lodging Tax and the state’s Heritage Capital Projects Fund. The city must return that grant funding now that the house will be demolished.
