Grants awarded to preservation projects across Washington, including Ilwaco

The Doupé Building in Ilwaco was included among recent historic preservation grants.

The Washington Trust for Historic Preservation is proud to announce the 2023 recipients of its Valerie Sivinski Fund grant program.

Founded in 1976, the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation is a private nonprofit organization with a mission to save the places that matter in Washington and to promote sustainable and economically viable communities through historic preservation. 

Each year, the Washington Trust provides grants through the Valerie Sivinski Fund to organizations and community groups engaged in historic preservation across the state.

Prior local projects funded by these grants included money for the City of Hoquiam for both the Senior Center Building which houses Hoquiam Brewing, as well as Olympic Stadium, and funds in Pacific County to support the 1892 Oysterville Church.

Named in memory of Valerie Sivinski, a beloved former board member of the Washington Trust who served as president in the early 1990s, the Fund was established in 1997 with the first grants awarded in 1998.

Since its establishment, the Fund has awarded more than $200,000 in cash grants and building assessment services to 186 projects across the state to local organizations and historic preservation advocates.

Recipients of the 2023 Valerie Sivinski Fund grant awards were publicly announced at the Washington Trust’s annual Sivinski Holiday Benefit, held at the Stimson-Green Mansion, their landmark headquarters.

All proceeds from the benefit go to support the grant program. 

The 2023 grants were awarded to the following 11 organizations in amounts ranging from $1,000 to $2,000, with a total of $20,000 awarded:

• Neely Mansion Association: In support of the Neely Mansion, an 1894 Victorian-style residence in Auburn. The grant will go towards the design and printing of materials to better highlight the diverse histories of the land and river where the house sits, including the Coast Salish peoples and the five immigrant families of Neely, Galli, Fukuda, Hori, and Acosta who have lived and worked there.
• Duwamish Valley Neighborhood Preservation Coalition: In support of the South Park Neighborhood Center, a 1920 Mission Revival-style building that was formerly used as a fire station. The grant will be used to research and interpret the history of the building and the surrounding South Park neighborhood.
• Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial: In support of developing a new visitor center for the memorial wall that winds down the Eagledale ferry dock landing site. This is the site where the first of more than 120,000 Japanese and Japanese American citizens were banished from their West Coast homes and placed in incarceration camps during World War II. This visitor center will help better tell the story of this historic site.
• Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding: In support of the historic Port Hadlock Heritage Campus. This grant will help the school research and interpret the legacies of the region’s indigenous peoples—the S’Klallam, Chemakum, Snohomish—on their maritime campus.
• Point Roberts Historical Society: In support of the Point Roberts Community Center, a former schoolhouse built as a Works Progress Administration project in the 1930s. This grant will fund interpretive signs around the community to drive traffic from locals and tourists to the museum and archives.
• Friends of Saint Ignatius Hospital: In support of Saint Ignatius Hospital, built in 1893 in Colfax where it served as Whitman County’s hospital until 1968. The grant will support the stabilization of the failed roof, including hiring a structural engineer and addressing urgent repair needs. 
• Spokane Valley Heritage Museum: In support of Opportunity Township Hall. This 1912 Mission Revival-style governmental building has lived many lives, serving as a silent movie theater, Spokane Valley’s first library, home to five different church congregations, and many other community activities before settling as the Spokane Valley Heritage Museum. Grant funds will be used for repairs of missing stucco and other exterior features. It is the last remaining Township Hall in Washington State.
• Parkland Community Association: In support of the preservation project at Parkland School. This beloved 1908 Spanish Colonial-style school building in unincorporated Pierce County was added to our Most Endangered Places list this year after a demolition and delisting application was submitted to Pierce County Landmarks Commission. In coordination with local advocates, the owner—Pacific Lutheran University—is providing the Parkland Community Association until next August to develop a viable adaptive reuse plan and raise $2.8 million for the building’s purchase. In coordination with preservation architect Vernon Ableson, the Sivinski Fund will help the Parkland Community Association create a conditions assessment and/or redevelopment plan for the school to pitch to potential partners.
• The Olympia Tumwater Foundation:  In support of lead abatement and repainting of the wraparound porch at the Schmidt House.
• The Save Our Water Tower organization: In support of the exterior restoration of the Burlington Northern Railroad Wooden Water Tower in the City of Roy.
• Ilwaco Heritage Foundation dba Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum: In support of window restoration on the Doupé Building.

To see or download images of the award-winning projects, please visit the Washington Trust’s website:  http://preservewa.org/sivinski.