Council votes down the Freed House relocation
June 17, 2009
By J.B. Wogan
New: June 17 2:45 p.m.
City Councilwoman Michele Petitti made one last effort to convince her fellow council members to fund the 114-year-old Freed house’s relocation.
“You’ve essentially pulled the rug out from any fundraising plan that could have gone forward,” she said. “If it doesn’t go forward, this is the end of the Freed House.”
But neither Petitti, nor roughly $6,000 in community-pledged donations, nor impassioned pleas from the Sammamish Heritage Society was enough to acquire the decisive fourth vote. The City Council voted 4-3 against funding to move the Freed House to the lower Sammamish Commons.
The house, owned by the city, was moved from its original location and has been sitting at the intersection of 212th Avenue and Southeast 20th Street. The June 16 decision has left the farmhouse in limbo.
City Councilman Jack Barry and Mayor Don Gerend voted with Petitti to move the house, with the ultimate hope that a combination of private and public donations would help restore the building once it had a foundation, new roof, and gutters.
Barry said he had spoken with about a dozen community members in the last week who said they would volunteer either time or money to the project.
“You know where I stand. It’s not easy, but I think it will become easy if it becomes a collective effort,” Barry said.
Gerend also spoke with an air of reluctance, prefacing his statement by saying that he had “come over to the dark side.” In the past, Gerend had voted against relocating the Freed House, a project that has appeared in city budgets since 2006.
The relocation would cost $330,000, with an estimated additional $400,000 or more to renovate it, according to Parks Director Jessi Richardson.
Gerend said comments from the public had convinced him that the building was worth restoring.
“There really is a history to it, even though it may not be by a famous architect or have an astounding design,” Gerend said. “I think as a council, I think we made that commitment and I think I’m ready to stand by it now.”
Mark Cross, Lee Fellinge, Kathy Huckabay and Nancy Whitten voted against the relocation.
“I think this really is one of the most difficult decisions that we’ve had to make,” Huckabay said.
Fellinge said he wasn’t comfortable voting to relocate the building without knowing exactly how the city or public would pay for its restoration.
“I have not been able to discern a real clear plan of what the building would be used for,” he said. “My experience of doing restoration of old buildings and old structures – my experience is that whatever you think the cost will be, the cost will be higher.”
Virginia Kuhn, co-president of the Sammamish Heritage Society, said she was discouraged by the council’s decision.
“We do not know where we will go from here,” she wrote in an e-mail. But Kuhn added that she had received several phone calls encouraging her not to give up on the house.
Reporter J.B. Wogan can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 247, or jbwogan@isspress.com.
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