Tumwater staff, nonprofit outline preservation projects, History & Nature Center concept and brewery-site acquisition

City staff and the Columbia Tamara Foundation briefed the Tumwater Historic Preservation Commission on Oct. 16 about a series of preservation and park projects, a conceptual History & Nature Center, and the city’s recent acquisition of former brewery parking lots.

Parks staff reported completion of the Crosby House underpinning and foundation stabilization; the work includes new perimeter foundation, pier-and-post connections and seismic straps intended to stop ongoing settlement and vibration damage. Staff said the next phases at Crosby House will be a new roof, gutters and siding to address water infiltration and long-term preservation.

The Brewmaster’s House remains on hold. Staff told commissioners that while interior work and some stabilization are complete, boxes of archival and registration material from that property remain in storage following a prior arson and subsequent fumigation; the foundation and city are still determining a plan for restoring and rehousing the Brewmaster’s House collections.

Parks and Recreation staff also reported that the department has relocated its office to a former DOT building near the airport and will use that space to host future meetings once information-technology systems are installed.

The Columbia Tamara Foundation presented a strategic plan and described priorities tied to the park and the Schmidt House. Todd Cutts, foundation executive director, said the foundation had refined a strategic plan with five priorities—preservation champion, steward of natural beauty, redevelopment advocate (the brewery site), education/enrichment and organizational sustainability. The foundation reported formation of committees, a Friends of the Falls fundraising plan and partnership conversations with the Squaxin Island Tribe and economic-development stakeholders.

On the History & Nature Center concept, the foundation’s consultants produced a scaled, reduced concept to align with secured funding. Cutts said roughly $2.5 million is now secured and that the foundation believes an additional community fundraising capacity of approximately $1 million could make a smaller, viable History & Nature Center. The concept presented was a 1,300-square-foot flex building with roll-up doors to create indoor/outdoor programming space, a small office, restrooms and limited retail/gift space. The foundation said the building would serve K–5 educational programs, community meeting rentals and exhibit space; staff emphasized the commission’s role in future certificate-of-appropriateness review if the project proceeds in the historic district.

Staff also reported that the city closed on the former brewery parking-lot parcels in Tumwater Valley. The acquired real estate includes three smaller buildings (an old can building, a cinder-block structure and a pole-barn-style warehouse), some paved lots and an old power/steam plant structure the city expects to demolish. The parcels abut railroad tracks and do not contain existing utility hookups, so staff warned that any future development would need substantial infrastructure work and rail access negotiations.

Other items discussed: an ongoing interpretive-sign overhaul in the park, a possible Friends of the Falls membership program to generate operating revenue (staff cited an estimate of roughly 120,000 unique park visitors annually and projected conservative membership revenue scenarios), and continued maintenance priorities including ivy removal and periodic bridge inspections. Staff noted a recent bid to fully remove invasive ivy in the park for approximately $130,000 and said the Washington Conservation Corps has assisted with removal work.

Cutts and staff asked for commissioner engagement in several areas: review and input on the History & Nature Center design when it returns for COA review, participation in a Friends of the Falls pilot, and involvement in interpretive-sign planning. Foundation and city staff emphasized limited operating budgets and the need for staged fundraising and partnerships to implement larger projects.

Commissioners asked about fish-ladder ownership and maintenance: staff said the foundation owns the shoreline property where the fish ladder sits, and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has an easement and responsibility for the hatchery operations on that site. Commissioners suggested exploring cooperative funding or maintenance arrangements with state partners given ongoing maintenance burdens.

Staff and foundation leaders said they will return with design documents, refined budgets and schedules as projects progress.