I don’t know about you but whenever I tell someone where I live, I get one of two reactions: 1). “Where is that?” (Our secret is safe!), or 2). “Oh, Hansville. I remember when I was a kid our family would go out there in the summer, stay in those little cabins and fish for salmon in the boats from the boathouses.” Hansville is identified by and synonymous with salmon fishing.
Our neighboring communities have their heritage and historic icons also. Poulsbo has its downtown Nordic theme. Silverdale has its Old Town. Indianola has the store and fishing pier. Only the historic hotel remains in Kingston. Try to imagine those communities without their symbols.
In its heyday Hansville had several fishing resorts from Point No Point Resort down to the Hansville Store. Several resorts had cabins, docks in the water and rented boats to anglers. Cars and trailers had to back clear up Hansville Highway waiting to launch private boats at the resorts.
Today only remnants of three resorts remain. Gone are the floating docks, the piers, the boats. The vestiges of only one rail launch system remain. Until recently, only one resort still rented cabins. Now none of them do. In all of the north Puget Sound, there are no other similar facilities.
Hansville was fishing. The resorts are the only tie to our past. Their existence is threatened and unless the Community speaks up they soon will be gone.
The Greater Hansville Futures project recognized the importance of the Lighthouse Park, Point No Point Resort and Norwegian Point Park. One of eight Action Items adopted by the Futures Planning Committee was: “Involve the Greater Hansville Area in the planning and design of the saltwater parks to see (if) they are consistent with Community Values.”
Two of the resorts are now owned by government. Point No Point Resort is owned by Washington Fish and Wildlife which has indicated it will demolish both the boat house and cabins on the site as part of building a new boat launching ramp. The old Erickson Resort is privately owned and not available. The Norwegian Point site was recently purchased by Kitsap County as a park and early county plans were to remove most of the buildings on the site. Unfortunately, the county never involved the Greater Hansville Area community in setting the broad direction for the park before applying for grant funding.
Even though the broader GHA community has not been involved, a Norwegian Point Park Planning Committee (recently adopted by the Greater Hansville Advisory Council) has been working with the county on preliminary planning for this park for some time. This group has been divided on the issue of whether or not to save the boathouse and cabins (everyone agrees that the remaining buildings should be razed).
Some have asked if the boathouse and cabins are really historic. The answer from experts is a resounding “YES.” The director of the Washington Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation, the field director for the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation and a preservation architect hired by the county to assess the lighthouse properties have all visited the site and said these are important historic structures that should be preserved.
To resolve this issue of the buildings and be consistent with Futures recommendations, the GHA Advisory Council has asked County Commissioner Chris Endresen to fund and authorize a master planning process for the park that would allow the full community to participate in key decisions for design of the park, including whether or not the boathouse and cabins should be retained. Commissioner Endresen has said that she supports such a process and will seek funding for it.
While we wait for the funding and authorization for this planning process, the boathouse and cabins at Norwegian Point Park are in serious jeopardy.
The Interagency Committee (the state agency that partly funded purchase of the park site) actively discourages use of buildings on the site. The county application to IAC included a concept design that showed retaining the boathouse and deck (with restored fishing pier) and the three cabins as picnic shelters. The county’s written proposal also said that “most” (but not all) buildings would be destroyed.
The IAC approved the county’s request without conditions, but now says the buildings could only be used for something like a commercial boat rental (or interpretive center if one or more walls were removed). Recently IAC gave the county until June 30 to make a decision on keeping the buildings. If the county accedes to the IAC and tears the buildings down, it gets the full grant. If it keeps the buildings, under most circumstances, it would lose some of the grant; how much is not clear.
If the county has to make a decision by June 30, there won’t be time to consult the community about the buildings. Accordingly, Commissioner Endresen has also been asked to request an extension on the grant from the state.
Many residents have been shocked when they heard about plans to remove the boathouse and cabins. Many people agree that these buildings define Hansville and, especially, the downtown area. As one person recently put it, “I deliberately take the long way home so I can come down the hill and see all the buildings at the foot of the hill. When I see those buildings I know I’m home even though I live in Driftwood Key.”
If you want to keep the buildings or support a master planning process so that the future of the buildings can be considered as part of the overall park design, you need to contact Commissioner Endresen and indicate your support. You should also contact Judy Foritano, chair, and other members of the Greater Hansville Area Advisory Council.
This is a fragile moment in the connection between Hansville’s past and its future. If we keep the boathouse, deck/pier and cabins then we can showcase and respect our origins. If we remove them we lose that connection and become just another North Kitsap suburb.
To join in efforts to help preserve the buildings at Norwegian Point Park and Hansville’s history, call Steve Bauer at (360) 638-1583.
