community center, the club set about renovating and restoring the historical structure as time and fundraising efforts allowed. During this period, a Dungeness Community Club-related group called the Women of the Dungeness also became an instrumental force in helping transform the former school into a social center by offering educational and cultural opportunities at its bimonthly luncheon meetings that regularly featured topical guest lectures, themed activities and theatrical presentations. “People who lived in this area were in the group and so there was a real sense of ownership there,” said Dungeness Schoolhouse Volunteer Committee member Pat Marcy, whose mother-in-law Jeri Marcy was a member of the Women of the Dungeness for several years. “The schoolhouse is a part of our heritage and the history of this little area that is pretty remarkable.” The Women of the Dungeness also founded an elaborate holiday fundraising event that has filled the Dungeness Schoolhouse with the sounds, sights and smells of Christmas each December for more than 40 years. Since 1969, the schoolhouse has been home to an annual tea and bake sale event to usher in the holiday season and raise funds for its continued preservation. Now undertaken by the Museum & Arts Center’s Dungeness Schoolhouse Volunteer Committee, the festive event began in 1966 under its original moniker of Christmas House and was held in private homes for its first few years until being moved to the Dungeness Schoolhouse. The immense popularity of Christmas House, which reflected a different holiday-inspired theme each year, was such that in 1982, the group compiled the spiral-bound “Christmas House Delights from the Women of the Dungeness,” a compilation cookbook of their favorite holiday recipes. “Maintaining this tradition of the Christmas Tea is important,” Marcy said. “It’s a pleasant time to get together with friends, enjoy tea and just relax in a beautiful setting.”
A covered bridge linking Anderson and Towne roads once spanned the Dungeness River in the shadow of a pre-1921 Dungeness Schoolhouse. Bert Kellogg Collection, Museum & Arts Center in the Sequim-Dungeness Valley
In the years that followed, the MAC and its volunteers, supporters and community partners have invested their time and talents toward the local landmark’s continued upkeep, with ongoing maintenance and preservation efforts funded through donations, fundraisers, grants and facility rentals. Such efforts, which recently included electrical upgrades throughout the building that now allow for wireless Internet accessibility, were recognized in 2012 when the MAC received a State Historic Preservation Officer’s Award for Outstanding Achievement in Historic Preservation for its stewardship of the Dungeness Schoolhouse. “We’re continuing the spirit of community and honoring the pioneers and their descendants, area old-timers, the Dungeness Community Club, Women of the Dungeness and myriad of service organizations and volunteers who have helped keep this well-loved landmark alive,” Bassett said. “If it wasn’t for their vision, dedication, hard work and perseverance, this living testament to our past would have faded away and with it a little piece of us.” Preserving into perpetuity Noting that the future of the Dungeness Schoolhouse After nearly 30 years of stewardship, during which time rests in the present, Bassett said its continued care and the building was recognized as a Washington State Historical operation is largely dependent upon substantial monetary Site and placed on the National Register of Historic Places, donations and the community’s renting of the facility. Mainownership and operation of the Dungeness Schoolhouse tenance costs of the aged building have proven both small was transferred from the Dungeness Community Club to and large, Bassett said, the most substantial expense of late the MAC in 1995. being the installation of a new well in the spring of 2012 after the old well failed completely. “Just as the community once saved the schoolhouse from disrepair, it now has that same opportunity just in a different way,” Bassett said. “The schoolhouse is important because it is a tangible connection to the past and, particularly for those who have chosen to retire here, is an aesthetical component of developing a sense of place and community.” Seeking to ramp up rentals of the multi-use structure, which includes two downstairs classrooms and an Recent maintenance efforts at the Dungeness Schoolhouse have included installing a new well, shown here being done by Oasis Well Drilling, following upstairs auditorium that is ADA accessible via chairlift, Bassett said the MAC the old one’s failure in the spring of 2012. Photo by Reneé Mizar
Living on the Peninsula | WINTER | DECEMBER 2012
is embarking on a marketing campaign specifically for the schoolhouse to draw both long-term renters as well as eventspecific users. As part of the campaign, the MAC recently has secured grant funding to create a Dungeness Schoolhouse website, complete with an online booking calendar and photo galleries of the rooms and grounds, as well as other marketing materials and new building signage. “The surest way to ensure a historical structure is preserved is to continue building its economic base. In many ways the schoolhouse is like the barns of the area; they’re expensive to care for and maintain,” Bassett said. “They might look nice, but if you can actually utilize one to its full potential and best use, its future will be better ensured. That is how we are going to ensure the Dungeness Schoolhouse can be enjoyed by those another 120 years from now.” Additional information about the Dungeness Schoolhouse, including rental agreement forms, is available on the MAC website at www.macsequim.org.
Museum & Arts Center Executive Director DJ Bassett, Dungeness Schoolhouse managers Mike and Kathy Bare and several members of the Dungeness Schoolhouse Volunteer Committee pose on the front steps of the landmark building in August 2012. Photo by Reneé Mizar
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