Neary-Sighted

Those of us who love Lakewood history will face some tough questions, and relatively soon. My loyal readers, both of you, know that the area occupied by Fort Steilacoom Park and Western State Hospital was once a British pioneer farm. It was then a U.S. pioneer fort established in 1849. So that's why I often tell people that these particular properties represent the most historic ground in the city.

Part of that history includes some of the grand old buildings of Western State.

Western State - and more specifically, the land management group of DSHS - is working on a master plan that would take down some of their older buildings. Before you panic, they have no plans to mess with the original fort buildings or the grand old main building.

But their plans do involve taking down some other older buildings.

Some, to be honest, I have trouble getting up a head of steam about. There are some small houses from the 1930s and 1940s that are starting to fall apart. The hospital wants to demolish them. I mention them because certainly some people might be accustomed to them being there. You can argue that their use by many, many patients makes them historic.

Here's an example of one of those. If you look the next time you will drive past, you will see a whole row of these guys:



I feel more passion about the old chapel building, which does indeed have a couple of old chapels in it that are still being used. Like the cabins, this building is also visible from Steilacoom Boulevard. Take a look the next time you drive past. If you are like me, you usually do not look around too much on this stretch of road because some moron is tailgating you because they want to drive 50 mph. But look for this building the next time you pass by:

The biggest challenge, though, is that the oldest and most historic building that would be torn down is hidden from Steilacoom Boulevard by the main building. It sits near the historic pioneer cemetery in which rest the remains of, among others, Idaho's first territorial governor. This building, known as the bakery, is simply falling apart.
We're not entirely sure when the building went up, but it is probably as old as the mortuary nearby. But at least there is no hole in the roof of the mortuary. Not so for the bakery. Below you will see a photo of me gazing at a hole in the roof that, on the day of our tour, was allowing large amounts of rain to get in.


What this means in practical terms, of course, is that DSHS has every reason to tear this building down because it is unsafe. Historic preservationists call this situation "demolition by neglect." You've probably heard of demolition by neglect occurring with some of the privately owned buildings in or near downtown Tacoma. In this, case though, at least in theory, there's a complication. We are not aware of any big buckets of tax dollars that DSHS has to throw at non-functional historic buildings that do not serve patients or staff. So here is our problem. Here is our question.

Do we, as a community, care about a hidden historic building surrounded by a mental health care facility?

There will be much more discussion about land use planning for Western State Hospital, so don't worry about any final decisions being made soon. In the meantime, I welcome your thoughts about what you think of any or all of these structures.
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