It’s the 1910s in America. World War I is set to rage across countries, ballroom dancing is the big thing in America and, on a damp, forested plateau in western Washington, in what would become the city of Sammamish, the Kampp family built a barn.
In and of itself, the Kampp barn was average. Built with a combination of planks and whole logs, it housed sheep for many years, until it was demolished to make way for the Kampp subdivision near the intersection of Southeast 20th Street and 228th Avenue Southeast.
While not featured on any historical registers, the barn’s demise represents the loss of a piece of the plateau’s history, according to the Sammamish Historical Society, and could have been avoided.
“They’re changing the whole contour of the land,” Walt Carrel, Sammamish Historical Society archivist, said. “The barn itself was interesting … the really old ones were made of great big timbers, but after the turn of the century, they started essentially using tree trunks … this was a combination of hand-done timbers and some round logs in the structure. It took them less than a day to zip [demolish] it.”
According to estimates produced by the historical society, the site where the barn once stood will have a road to the northeast. Only a little bit of adjustment to the road could have saved the barn, Carrel said.
While one group offered to come in and remove the timbers from the barn before demolition, developers Polygon Homes wanted to charge them more than $100,000 to do so, according to Carrel. To date, Polygon Homes has not commented.
“They wanted to get it down to the ground and start building as soon as possible, is my best guess,” Carrel said.
While King County conducted a survey in 1994 of barns built before 1910, the Kampp barn itself has never been featured on a historical register, city of Sammamish Communications Manager Tim Larson said. The city also has never undertaken its own efforts at historical preservation, instead relying on private citizens and groups such as the historical society. While the city of Sammamish occasionally provides financial support for preservation efforts if a direct request is made to the City Council, most government aid comes from King County.
“There was very little concern expressed about the barn [during the city’s vetting process],” Larson said. “The city put out notices on the issue, but received little or no feedback from concerned residents during the public process.”
“Part of the problem is that to save a historic building is that it has to be on some sort of register,” Carrel said. “For whatever reason … Sammamish has never been really surveyed for historic structures. We’ve been trying to get the city to do a survey.”
The Sammamish Historical Society meets once a month at the Pine Lake Community Center. For more information or to become a member, email Society Secretary Dee Carrel at dee@carrel.org.
