Spellman Award

SAMMAMISH HERITAGE SOCIETY RECEIVED JOHN D. SPELLMAN HISTORIC PRESERVATION AWARD FOR ADVOCACY

On October 11, Sammamish Heritage Society was awarded the John D. Spellman Historic Preservation Award for Advocacy. As noted on the King County Historic Preservation Program web page, “Recipients of the 2018 John D. Spellman Awards for Exemplary Achievement in Historic Preservation were honored October 11 in a celebration led by King County Executive Dow Constantine at the Auburn Masonic Temple in downtown Auburn. The awards are named in honor of John D. Spellman, former King County Executive and Washington Governor, who established the County’s Historic Preservation Program in 1980.”

Sammamish Heritage Society was honored “for its commitment to preserving historic resources on the Sammamish Plateau in the face of tremendous development pressures. The City of Sammamish is less than 20 years old but the area has a 150-year history that the heritage society works diligently to protect by disseminating historic information, surveying the remaining historic properties, and working with the city to develop procedures to guide treatment of historic buildings.”

Efforts acknowledged in the award included:

Completing an inventory of all pre-1941 properties in Sammamish, documenting the condition of the properties, recording the property information in the state’s WISAARD database, identifying those properties eligible for national or local landmark status, and working with the City of Sammamish to institute stronger procedures to preserve and protect historic properties;
Fighting to save the Eddy and Baker Houses as two of the few relatively unchanged historic properties in Sammamish, and encouraging the City to obtain mitigation from the property developer for the loss of the Eddy House;
On-going restoration of the Reard House, now located on Parcel B of Big Rock Park;
Supporting the Sammamish Arts Commission utility vault wrap project to cover utility boxes with photographs of historic people, buildings, or views; and
Submitting a successful landmark nomination for Providence Heights College and fighting to try to save the property from complete demolition and redevelopment.

This is the second time that SHS has been given a Spellman Award. The first award was for saving the Reard House from demolition, moving it to the City-owned Big Rock Park and commencing restoration of the house.