Skagit City School supporters answer bell again

It was as much a homecoming as a picnic for those who gathered at the historic Skagit City School Sunday afternoon.

Among the large group on hand was a number of Skagit City Community Club alumni, several with La Conner ties – Peter Goldfarb and Chip Hall, to name two – who were chief advocates for preservation of the landmark school on nearby Fir Island before recent major restoration by contractor Chad Fisher was realized under ownership of the Skagit County Historical Museum.

Duane and Fern Brown, who formerly lived on and farmed land next to the school building, arrived for the annual Skagit City School Picnic from their present home in eastern Washington, and were pleased with what they saw.

“Whenever we come over to see our kids,” said Fern, “we make it a point of making a side trip here to see the school. A few years ago when we saw the Chad Fisher construction sign out front we really got excited.”

Duane was part of a corps of volunteers that tirelessly raised money and did enough maintenance a generation ago to keep the aging two-room schoolhouse and its grounds from slipping off life support.

It wasn’t easy.

Like so many others, the Browns were also busy making ends meet and raising children. In addition, Duane did yeoman work battling rising water on the North Fork of the Skagit River during the big Fir Island flood of 1990.

Duane often used his own riding lawn mower to cut grass at the school, and the Browns embraced the site to the point where they held their own family picnics there.

But the Skagit City Community Club had trouble keeping pace with the impact time and Pacific Northwest weather had on a structure built just two years after the turn of the 20th century.

“It was definitely hard to maintain,” Mount Vernon attorney and Skagit County Pioneer Association Vice-President John Kamb, Jr. said.

Kamb has painstakingly compiled a thick, chronological album of clippings and photos related to Skagit City and the school’s history, much of the material having been collected by the late Ronnie Holttum, who was admired by many in the La Conner, Fir, and Conway areas.

Holttum was a master storyteller. But his filing system in the pre-digital era was something else entirely. He saved everything printed and published about the Skagit City School, but often posted those items inside the building in a haphazard manner, rarely in any particular order.

The main thing, though, is he had the foresight to save those articles and pictures. He also saved the school’s iconic bell from theft, Duane Brown recalled.

“Ronnie was the caretaker of the schoolhouse,” said Brown, “and he happened to drive out one time just as two guys had gotten the bell out of the cupola. He caught them right then and there. If he hadn’t, they would’ve gotten away with it.”

The building had closed as a school sometime between 1938 and 1940 – accounts vary – a victim of consolidation. Holttum purchased it from the Conway School District in 1943 for $500 and with his wife, Ethel, created the Skagit City Community Club as a non-profit to preserve the school’s integrity.

He started the summer picnics shortly thereafter as a way to honor Skagit City students, their families, and descendants.

By the time of Holttum’s passing, in 1995, the school had been recognized as a National Historical Site. But that didn’t keep it immune from financial stress.

The state had denied the Skagit City Community Club tax-exempt status because the building was used so infrequently. But to increase its use would have required significant renovation costs to meet code standards.

A true Catch-22 scenario.

The Skagit City Community Club launched various fundraising events to keep the school property afloat.

“We came up with a lot of different ideas,” Kamb said, “and they worked. They kept it viable.”

For a time, at least. By 2007, the summer picnics could no longer be held there on a regular basis.

In stepped the Museum, which in 2014 took over care of the school and began securing the donations and grant monies that have made possible its restoration.

The picnics have been renewed as well.

“Getting the Museum and the Historical Society involved,” Goldfarb said, “has been terrific.”

Another key milestone was reached last weekend. The bell whose theft Holttum thwarted has been returned to the school’s rooftop cupola, thanks to funding provided by Joy and Gary Walter. The Anacortes couple was given the honor of ringing the bell at Sunday’s picnic.

The applause that followed was nearly as loud as the bell itself.