HomeMy WebLinkAboutHPC Packet 2016-01-13 HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION - AGENDA
REGULAR MEETING 5:15 P.M. January 13, 2016
I. 5:15—CALL TO ORDER:
II. 5:15—ROLL CALL: Declaration of Quorum
III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES:
December 9, 2015
IV. 5:15—OLD BUSINESS:
A. None
V. PUBLIC HEARINGS:
A. None
VI. WORKSHOP:
A. Discuss converting "Historic Pasco' Presentation into discrete 10-15 minute
segments
a) Discuss revised narration for Railroad segment; finish narration text;
review photos
b) Discuss revised narration of Pasco Schools Segment; review photos
c) Discuss Potential Narrators: Mike Talbot
d) Discuss Potential Interviewees
(1) Altha (Skogley) Simmelink-Perry
(2) Brad Peck
(3) Frank Pontarolo
(4) John Morgan
II. 5:55—OTHER BUSINESS:
A. Next Meeting February 10, 2016
III. 6:00—ADJOURNMENT
HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION - Minutes
REGULAR MEETING 5:15 P.M. December 9, 2015
I. 5:15—CALL TO ORDER:
II. 5:15—ROLL CALL: Present: Marilynn Baker, Malin Bergstrom, Tom Brandon,
Devi Tate, Dan Stafford.
III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES:
November 18, 2015: Approved
IV. 5:15—OLD BUSINESS:
A. None
V. PUBLIC HEARINGS:
A. None
VI. WORKSHOP:
A. Discuss converting "Historic Pasco' Presentation into discrete 10-15 minute
segments
a) Commissioners discussed proposed revisions to the Railroad segment
b) Commissioners discussed Potential Interviewees as follows:
(1) Altha (Skogley) Simmelink-Perry
(2) Brad Peck
(3) Frank Pontarolo
(4) John Morgan
c) Commissioner Stafford shared two postcards:
(1) Swing-span Pasco-Kennewick Bridge, and
(2) Ainsworth Railroad Bridge
II. 6:30—OTHER BUSINESS:
A. Next Meeting January 13, 2016
III. 6:40—ADJOURNMENT
A Railroad History of Pasco
Pasco's story begins in Ainsworth, Washington Territory, the railroad construction town that came to life
on the North shore of the Snake River in 1879. The Northern Pacific Railroad began construction of a
bridge across the Snake River in 1879 and finished in 1884. Upon completion of the bridge Ainsworth's
population started to dwindle as workers moved on to the next project.
A new county called Franklin had been created in 1883 by carving off a large chunk of Whitman County,
with Ainsworth becoming the Franklin County seat.
The railroad's next big project was building a bridge across the Columbia River several miles upstream
from the mouth of the Snake River.
To support the new bridge-building effort, Pasco was built, and all the railroad's construction
equipment, as well as the transfer steamer Frederick K. Billings, was moved to the new railroad town
site. Pasco was officially designated as a Northern Pacific Railroad station in Nov 1884.
As business at Ainsworth slowly wound down the old county courthouse at Ainsworth was moved
overland to Pasco which became the new county seat in 1887.
Construction on the Columbia River Bridge from Pasco to Kennewick lasted from July 1884 to September
1888 but was closed through the winter of 1888 as ice had damaged some of the wooden support
structure.
The bridge was originally a center-pivot swing-span design consisting of 9 spans of 250 feet each, 5 on
the Pasco side and 4 on the Kennewick side. The contract was let May of 1887 and the bridge was
temporarily opened by Dec 1887. In January of 1887 ice swept away about 600 feet of the falsework
timber supports; temporary repairs weren't completed until April of 1888. The permanent spans were
placed by May of 1888 with the last span completed in July of that year. Pasco's rail facilities started
with a temporary single-stall roundhouse in 1884 which was replaced by a permanent 4-stall
roundhouse in 1888 and again in 1889 with a 6-stall version. Meanwhile in 1889, the 10-stall
roundhouse at Ainsworth was torn down and the rail inclines for the transfer steamers were removed at
Ainsworth and Kennewick.
In 1906 Pasco became a Division Point for both the Northern Pacific and the Spokane, Portland &Seattle
Railways. Pasco's population had grown to almost 1,200 persons, and a huge building boom commenced
as a result of the Division Point news. However the construction was almost entirely commercial,
resulting in an acute housing shortage; people were sleeping in tents and on the ground. Fights and
bribery broke out as people tried to secure lodging. One newspaper likened Pasco's housing situation to
that of"a wild mining camp."
Supposedly five "tenements" were built by the railroad but there is confusion about when and where
they were located. Finally in late summer 1906 contractor C.W. Herrick started work on the original 16
railroad houses on what is now "A" Street. These consisted of 10- 11/2 story houses and 6 -13/4 story
houses By the end of Sept 1906 the first four houses were completed and were painted "Indian Red",
the color of boxcars with "Forest Green" trim. By mid -August, 12 more houses were under construction
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and by years end a total of 28 houses had been constructed at a cost of$47,000 dollars. In spring 1908
carpenters completed the porches and trim on the last 16 houses.
The 6 larger houses on the West end away from the tracks had indoor plumbing and were assigned to
railroad employees in upper management. In 1941 a local developer named Warden Fann purchased all
the houses from the railroad and sold them to private parties.
Meanwhile contractor C.W. Herrick working under Northwestern Improvement Company (a subdivision
of the Northern Pacific Railroad) started work on the new Division Headquarters complex consisting of a
two story office building and a new Depot and platform which surrounded both buildings, costing a total
of $8,000. This was Pasco's second depot and was located South and East of the 4th and "A" street
intersection.
By late summer 1908 the Northern Pacific Railroad Lunch Building, also known as the Northern Pacific
Club, and nicknamed "The Beanery," was completed. A large two story building, it had a restaurant,
recreational area, and sleeping rooms for single railroad employees upstairs. It was later sold to the
American Legion and subsequently burned down not long after.
Another railroad building boom ensued in the years 1910-1912 when the railroad built a brick 38-stall
roundhouse as part of a complex of yard, office, and maintenance buildings and a complete private
power plant for a total investment of$300,000.
Pasco's third Depot was constructed in 1937,very close to the location of Pasco's little-known first depot
on Tacoma Avenue just north of Lewis Street. It was subsequently demolished in 20OX
A large part of the Northern Pacific's construction projects were its ice houses which were used for
storage and transfer of fruits and vegetables in refrigerated railcars.
Pasco's first ice house was built by the Northern Pacific Railroad in the early 1890's and was big enough
that it hid Pasco's shabby business district from travelers arriving at the depot. A larger new ice house
was built in 1898 adjacent to the old ice house with a capacity of 1640 tons.
By 1900 workers were loading 35 tons of ice a night to refrigerate fruit in the box cars. At that time men
and boys were paid $1.50 a day for a 10-hour shift and worked all summer long loading ice into the
boxcars.
In 1911 another new ice house was built next to the old one but on the opposite side of the tracks. This
ice house was 900 feet long and at the time was the largest ice house between St. Paul Minnesota and
the Pacific coast. By 1912 its capacity was up to 30,000 tons of ice.
In August 1912 fire destroyed both ice houses and the twenty loaded railcars that were parked between
the two buildings.
In early 1913 construction was started on a huge new fireproof concrete ice house 480 feet long and 94
feet wide with a capacity of 40,000 tons of ice.Then in the fall of 1924 The Addison Miller Company took
over the operation of the ice house after signing a long term lease with the Northern Pacific Railroad as
they were already operating the ice houses in Hilliard, Yardley and Laurel, Montana.
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The original 38-stall roundhouse built in 1910-1912 was reduced to 18 stalls in 1963 with advent of
diesel locomotives which didn't require as much maintenance and upkeep as the steam locomotives.
The railroad's hump yard complex north of Pasco was completed in 1955—a state of the art
electronically controlled freight car complex which allows trains to be made up with a minimum of the
old-fashioned switching process. Recently a new 5-track railyard was constructed just north of Big Pasco
stretching between Oregon Street and Sacajawea Park. This facility allows BNSF to store railcars and
make up specialty trains for grain, containers, coal, oil tankers, etc.
The WSRRHS which has chronicled Pasco's RR history for years has been derailed by the loss of their
museum on Tacoma Avenue.
Ironically the City of Pasco's Lewis Street overpass project that will replace the depression era Lewis
Street underpass eliminated the site of the Societies museum. With nowhere to go the society was
forced to mothball its extensive collection of RR artifacts until a new site could be acquired. Currently
negotiations between the City and BNSF regarding a location on "A" Street appear to have stalled.
Page 3 of 3
Pasco Public Schools
Pasco Public Schools had their genesis in a little one-room school building in Ainsworth which was
moved to the new town site of Pasco around 1885. As the town site established and growth occurred, a
new four-story Westside School was built in 1909. This school was complimented by a similar building
on the East side of town about four years later.
The Westside School contained all grades including elementary through high school. After a few years
the high schoolers were moved to their own building and the West Side school was renamed Longfellow
and served as an elementary school until 1949 when it burned during summer vacation. Displaced
students spent the next two years in a double shift configuration at the newly built Captain Gray School.
During this time Longfellow was rebuilt and reopened in the fall of 1953. This new building was replaced
in 1989 making this the third Longfellow School on the site.
The Eastside building served a similar grade configuration as Longfellow and was renamed Whittier
Elementary. For most of its years this school served large minority population and was voluntarily closed
for Desegregation purposes in the early 1960's. This building served special programs for the next few
years including Operation Motivation which was the predecessor of our current Alternative High School.
This building like Longfellow suffered the same fate of being razed by fire. This area of town was absent
of a school for the next several years until Whittier was built on a different site in 1995. Today three
elementary and a middle school are housed in this area of the city.
The 1950's became a very ambitious decade for the school district with the reopening of Longfellow as
mentioned and the construction of "sister" schools Emerson and Mark Twain which was criticized at a
Board meeting for being constructed in such a remote location of the town. But the big news of this era
was the creation of Columbia Basin Junior College housed in rental facilities at the former Pasco Naval
Station referred by some as the old airport. The college was housed at this location for a few years until
new permanent facilities were constructed at its current location on 20`" avenue. Later the Junior
College separated from the School District, forming their own state system. The old naval station
building was used by the school district to house overflow of a variety of grade levels for the next
several years. In 1988 the building was destroyed by fire while the Alternative High School was housed
there,the second time this program was displaced by fire.
In the early 1920's the City's first High School opened in what is today is the Pasco City Hall. Like other
buildings it had several uses including the High School, Pasco Junior High, later renamed Mcloughlin and
now City Hall. Growth in the city forced these changes prompting a new larger High School to be built
and open in the fall of 1953. This High School existed as the only one until the 350,000 square foot
Chiawana High School opened in the fall of 2008.
Since 1885 when the one-room school was moved from Ainsworth to the new town site the school
district has grown to over 17,000 students in kindergarten through twelve grades with 15 elementary
schools, 3 middle schools, 2 high schools, 1 alternative high school, and 1 STEM high school.
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