South King Country wrestles with how to grow
Once there was a farm, to go along with this house.
But that was decades ago, back when the streets were lined with orchards. Back when children picked berries from the bushes.
Now the Stephenson farmhouse is surrounded — on one side by a motel, on the other side by a warehouse. Cars rush past it, horns yelling, radios blaring, tires screeching to a stop.
"Industry has come in and increased the potential of the city," said John Mergens, 72, executive director of the Greater Kent Historical Society Museum, who was raised in the city during the farming days. "But any time you see concrete poured over your fertile land, you feel a little bad about that."
It's poised to happen again in Kent — this time with the Stephenson house, built in 1889 by a family of farmers, a year before the city was incorporated. The current owner wants to raze the run-down building to make way for a mixed-use development. Historic-preservation advocates are putting up a fight. And the whole thing has Kent considering the larger question of how to preserve its history in the face of such fast growth.
It's a question many cities in South King County are asking, as development races through a valley once known for growing fruit and lettuce. Some have adopted ordinances to protect historic buildings from demolition. But many more are taking preservation on a case-by-case basis, reluctant to interfere with property owners' rights.
If there's money to restore a building and the owner agrees with the plan, then fine. Otherwise, some city officials say, the preservation advocates are out of luck.
"Just the fact that it's old doesn't affect me at all," said Mayor Steve Mullet of Tukwila, who grew up in the town when it was mostly cow pastures. "I don't save things for the sake of saving them."
Continue reading this article from the Seattle Times:
Cities wrestle with how to grow but not erase history in the rush
