Plans are underway to cut the historic Freed House in two pieces so that it can be moved to the Lower Sammamish Commons and carefully put back together.
The house has been sitting in wait along 212th Avenue Southeast for several years, since being moved off its original location to make way for the Crossings development. City Council members recently approved a contract with an architectural firm that will design plans for splitting the house as well as assisting with the logistics of the move, which will likely take place by spring of 2009.
A great deal of uncertainty has loomed over the process since it began more than 10 years ago. It’s a relief to members of the Sammamish Heritage Society and others who have been involved to see things finally moving forward.
“We’re looking forward to it having a new home,” said Virginia Kuhn, who helped found the heritage society in 1999 in order to lead an effort to save the Freed homestead.
She has lived in Sammamish for 22 years and always enjoyed looking at the buildings and farmland as she drove past it.
Helen Baxter, current co-president of the heritage society, agreed.
“This is one of the last, if not the last, remaining farmhouse from that era in Sammamish,” Baxter said. “I believe in saving the past so that we can teach our children and our community about the past.”
Historic home had several owners
The land that the house was built on was originally owned by the Northern Pacific Railroad. In 1890, a German immigrant named Jacob D. Reard bought 80 acres from the railroad company for $380, according to the Sammamish Heritage Society. Reard married Emma Groat, and the two began raising a family in what would one day become Sammamish. A few years later, Reard took out a $900 mortgage and built a two-story, Queen Anne-styled home and high-gabled barn.
A man named O.L. Skogman bought the property in 1923. He worked at the Monohan Mill, and he and his wife hosted community dances and other gatherings in the home, according to the heritage society.
Just five years later, Oscar and Dorothy Freed moved from Valentine, Mont., after three years of wheat crop failures. The Freeds traded some land in Eastern Washington for the Skogman farmstead. The third notable structure on the property was built in 1931, when Freed constructed a large, two-story wood-framed chicken house next to a small, existing coop. The farm was known throughout the 1930s and ’40s as the Mountain View Poultry Farm, and produced as many as 1,500 eggs per day, heritage society members wrote in a brochure about the house.
In 1945 when the farm’s well dried up and they had to haul water from nearby Pine Lake, Oscar Freed came up with the idea to create a water district. By a narrow margin, 76 area residents voted to create Water District No. 82. Oscar Freed served as its first commissioner, and the farmhouse was the first water district office. Freed remained active in the district until his death in 1979, according to the heritage society.
In 1980, the movie “Act of Love” starring Ron Howard, Robert Foxworth and Mickey Rourke, was filmed at the house.
Finally, the Freeds’ son and his wife lived on the farm until they sold it in 1996 to residential developer John Buchan Homes.
After forming the heritage society, members tried to save the farmhouse, barn and chicken coop, even appealing the development, but were unsuccessful. The farmstead was nominated to the National Register of Historic Places in 2001, but was not listed because Buchan did not grant consent.
New home for historic building
City officials are hiring an architect firm with experience in similar projects to determine how to split the home in two for the move. Several factors determined that it would not be feasible to move in one piece to the Lower Sammamish Commons. The home will be placed at the site of a brick house on city property that was demolished earlier this year.
Possible uses have ranged from office and meeting space to a coffee shop, although the ideal use in the heritage society’s opinion would be to have office space for the society and the Sammamish Chamber downstairs, along with a small museum display, and storage space upstairs.
City Councilmember and heritage society member Michele Petitti said she’s excited about the approaching move.
“It’s been a long saga,” Petitti said. “You’ve gotta look back to look forward, I think. … We want it to be used. We want the community in it.”
City officials and heritage society members are looking for input about how the community would like to see the building used once it’s in place and restored.
The city is paying for the move, a new foundation and a possibly a new roof, and community fundraising will have to help foot the bill for the restoration, said Jessi Richardson, director of Parks and Recreation. Heritage society members plan to apply for grants from King County and the state of Washington in addition to holding fundraisers.
