Thank You!

On Wednesday February 2nd the Seattle Landmarks Board voted unanimously to accept the nomination of NAS Seattle as a city of Seattle Landmark Historic District.  They agreed that it met the four standards we presented in addition to having all the resources nominated more than 25 years old. It only needed to meet one.  Standard A is the site of an historic event: First Around the World Flight and Charles Lindbergh’s landing, Standard C is of political or economic importance to the city, state, or nation: Seattle’s first Municipal Airport, importance to Boeing, military importance as one of only 2 NAS on West Coast during WWII; Standard D buildings architecture are significant: important collection of WPA funded Art Deco, Colonial Revival and rare examples of pre WWII old hangers and finally Standard F is a landmark in our community:  NE Seattle developed around the base, heard taps, service men and women trained and served at the base, got married in the chapel, shopped at PX.

Thank you for your letters of support and testimony at the hearing.  The board even suggested other resources they might want to consider including like the remnant end of a runway (Swim Beach Parking lot) and interiors of several buildings and hangars.  At the meeting in mid March they will decide what will be included in the historic district.  Then the staff works with property owners to figure out what will be protected by city law, the legislation will be written and hopefully passed by the City Council in mid summer.

For some reason the U of W wants to pull their buildings out and Parks wants only the buildings included, not the bunkers and runway end that are in the National Listing.  The U of W realized the buildings were part of a historic district when they received them from the Navy so not wanting to abide by City law is sad especially when their buildings are already beautifully restored following historic guidelines.  The base was much more than just the buildings so I hope Parks is not successful in excluding the eastern edge.  Some work remains to be done.  I am busy answering questions from the board, meeting with staff and will go with the board on a tour on the site early in March.  Lots of good work has been done concerning the historic area by others for the National Listing and earlier historic district and by Parks in the Vegetative Management Plan to cover landscaping so it is just an issue of getting the questions answered and the facts presented. 

The eighth historic district in the city is close to protection by city historic preservation laws at long last.  I think we are all ready to pass that baton to the professionals and devote our time to fundraising for maintenance and our interpretative center and celebrations of base history.  Thanks again for your help.

Sincerely,  Lynn Ferguson  Board  Friends of NAS Seattle Historic District

SEATTLE LANDMARKS