Seattle Now & Then: Masonic Home of Washington, 1928

To  sign a petition to save the Masonic Home, visit here.

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(Click and click again to enlarge photos)

THEN: The Grand Lodge of Washington & Alaska visits the Masonic Home in Zenith on June 17, 1928, one year after the home opened as a retirement center for Freemasons and their wives. (Courtesy Des Moines Historical Society)
NOW: More than 100 people support the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation (PreserveWA.org) in front of the fenced-off Masonic Home, including ex-Des Moines mayor Richard Kennedy (mid-left, with accordion) and 8 elected officials: Des Moines City Council member JC Harris (right of Kennedy, red hat), King County Executive Dow Constantine (left, black jacket), King County Council member Joe McDermott (behind Constantine, left), state Rep. Tina Orwall (D-33rd, behind Constantine, right), state Sen. Karen Keiser (D-33rd, standing center, blond hair, print shirt), Normandy Park Mayor Sue-Ann Hohimer (right of Orwall), Normandy Park City Council member Earnest Thompson (right of Harris), Highline School Board member Azeb Hagos (front, standing, second from left, print shirt) and SeaTac City Council member Peter Kwon (back row, left center, dark glasses). (Clay Eals)

Published in The Seattle Times online on June 30, 2022
and in PacificNW Magazine of the printed Times on July 3, 2022

Will Des Moines’ majestic Masonic Home be demolished?
By Clay Eals

Near the south King County waterfront suburb of Des Moines, 10-year-old Richard Kennedy tickled his accordion keys to perform the “Lone Ranger” TV theme (the “William Tell Overture” finale) in a 1964 recital on the stage of the Masonic Home of Washington.

He had no idea he would grow up to be mayor of Des Moines and later lead the Des Moines Historical Society’s effort to save the same structure inside which he’d played the clarion call.

NOW: Richard Kennedy, Des Moines Historical Society director, local history-book author and former mayor, points to the Masonic Home in its context of downtown Des Moines (left) and Puget Sound in an enlarged aerial photo of the city circa 1987. (Clay Eals)

What would Kennedy’s hometown be without the majestic, 95-year-old edifice, sparkling from its hillside for all to see from land and Puget Sound?

“Des Moines would slowly become just another place without anything to denote it from the next town,” he says. “We’ve lost so much. The history is gone, there’s very little left. The Masonic Home is the most outstanding building in the city.”

Technically, the Masonic Home — built in 1925-27 by the European-rooted Freemasons fraternal assembly as a statewide residence for elderly members and wives “who have ceased to bear the heat and burdens of the day” — was erected not in Des Moines but one mile south in the community of Zenith.

But in 1982, Des Moines annexed Zenith, and in a town known for massive retirement complexes, the Chateauesque, five-floor Masonic Home stands preeminent. As city-council member JC Harris told the Waterland Blog earlier this year, “The Masonic Home is Des Moines. We all just live here.”

Closed as a retirement center in the mid-2000s, it hosted events for several years. The Masons studied its conversion to assisted living, a tourist casino or communal workspaces but determined that rehabilitation, costing $40 million, would not pencil out. In 2019, they sought a city demolition permit and sold the home. The current owner is Sumner-based Zenith Properties, which has filed its own wrecking-ball permit request.

In response, Des Moines began an environmental review, inviting citizen comments this spring and triggering an advocacy alert by the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation. But the city, says Bonnie Wilkins, city clerk, has advised its council members to stay mum to achieve an appearance of fairness during the extended study because council comments could prompt a developer lawsuit. “It’s pretty serious stuff,” she says.

That doesn’t deter the passionate JC Harris, who promotes the Masonic Home’s preservation, envisioning it as a park, city hall and/or community center, complete with coffee or wine bar: “It’s one of the most beautiful things in all of Puget Sound, which makes it one of the most beautiful things on the planet Earth.”

The stage is set for a Lone Ranger-type rescue.

WEB EXTRAS

Thanks to Mike Shaughnessy, Richard Kennedy, Kevin Hall, Chris Moore and Huy Phan for their help with this installment. Additional kudos go to the more than 100 people who turned out in the hot sun of May 22 to pose in our “Now” photo.

To see Clay Eals‘ 360-degree video of the “Now” prospect and compare it with the “Then” photos, and to hear this column read aloud by Clay, check out our Seattle Now & Then 360 version of the column.

Below are a video of Des Moines City Council member JC Harris, six additional photos, a 1938 booklet, four reports and documents, six web links and two historical articles from The Seattle Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer online archive (available via Seattle Public Library) that were helpful in the preparation of this column.

VIDEO (8:51): Click the image above to see and hear JC Harris, Des Moines City Council member, speak about why the Masonic Home of Washington should be preserved. (Clay Eals)
Groundbreaking ceremony for the Masonic Home of Washington, Aug. 8, 1925. (Courtesy Des Moines Historical Society)
Cornerstone ceremony, Masonic Home of Washington, May 1, 1926. (Courtesy Des Moines Historical Society)
Entrance to the Masonic Home of Washington, May 17, 2022. (Clay Eals)
Masonic Home of Washington from the air, May 26, 1996. (Courtesy Des Moines Historical Society)
Undated view of Masonic Home of Washington. (Courtesy Des Moines Historical Society)
Undated view of Masonic Home of Washington. (Courtesy Des Moines Historical Society)
Click the image above to download a pdf of a 24-page booklet from 1938 on the Masonic Home of Washington. (Courtesy Des Moines Historical Society)
Click image above to download a pdf of “The Three Masonic Homes of Washington State,” April 6, 2020, by architect Adam Alsobrook. (Washington Trust for Historic Preservation)
Click on image above to download a pdf of the Historic Resource Report, May 27, 2020, by David Peterson, historic resource consultant. (Washington Trust for Historic Preservation)
Click the image above to download a pdf of the city of Des Moines’ determination of significance for the Masonic Home of Washington, May 3, 2022. (City of Des Moines)
Click the image above to download a pdf of a letter of support for the demolition permit application by the grand master of the Grand Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons of Washington, Univeristy Place, May 16, 2022. (Zenith Properties)
PowerPoint slide from city of Des Moines online hearing, May 17, 2022.
PowerPoint slide from city of Des Moines online hearing, May 17, 2022.
PowerPoint slide from city of Des Moines online hearing, May 17, 2022.
PowerPoint slide from city of Des Moines online hearing, May 17, 2022.
PowerPoint slide from city of Des Moines online hearing, May 17, 2022.
PowerPoint slide from city of Des Moines online hearing, May 17, 2022.
Web links:
June 22, 1927, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, p2.
June 22, 1927, Seattle Times, p16.

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