Tag Archives: log cabin

Perkins House, Colfax, WA

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The drive out to Pullman, WA from Tacoma is a long one and I especially don’t like doing it over a weekend (one day there and one day back). But it was time for dear daughter to come home and off we went. I mentioned that I wanted to stop at Colfax on the way home to see a log cabin. The website I found said “Perkins House, Colfax, built in 1886, an original log cabin.” So I figured the Perkins House was a log cabin. I imagined it would take five minutes to walk around a small cabin, snap a couple of pictures and be on our way.

But when we got there it turned out to be an amazing house and a log cabin, and it was open to the public. Dear daughter happily agreed to a tour (muttering that it was my mother’s day present) and our guide took us through the entire property, sharing the history. Really, it was fascinating, well worth the stop. The property was placed on the national historic register in 1972.

We learned that Mr. Perkins founded Colfax and the local saw mill. He, his wife and their four children lived in the log cabin (built in 1870, the oldest standing building in the county) for a while, but in 1880s moved into the lovely Victorian house. We also got to hear an early record player and listen to the honey bees that live in the wall. We especially loved the wallpaper, which was mostly reproduced based on the original. Oh, did I mention, there is an outhouse with the traditional moon on the door? Our volunteer guide was terrific, so pleasant and knowledgeable. He was also patient with our many questions.

 

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Kelsey Creek Farm, Bellevue

13340504343_aa9c5da73e_bI’ve been wanting to visit Kelsey Creek Farms Park at 13204 SE 8th in Bellevue for a while, so on Saturday after dropping off dear daughter for her ride back to college I stopped by. There was a birthday party going on and plenty of children in the under five crowd. The 150 acre original site had been a forest and was developed as the Twin Valley Dairy Farm in the 1920s. Despite pressure from real estate developers, in the 1960s 80 acres of the property was sold to the City of Bellevue for use as a park. It receives over 200,000 visits a year. ThePark’s website is here.

The log cabin is the Frasier House, built in 1888 and moved to Kelsey Creek Farms Park in 1974.  It was built by two Norwegian woodsmen and lived in for a short time. Mostly it was used as storage. 

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Art Bus

I’ve been wanting to try the Art Bus for ages and Thursday was the day. Dear daughter and I were delighted to be able to hop on the sold out bus. The Art Bus runs every third Thursday and each time there are different venues.The website to get in on this exciting opportunity is http://www.theangelajossy.com/artbus.htm or here http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tacoma-ART-BUS/151270941559625

For our September Art Bus we went to Job Carr Cabin Museum (the log cabin), 253 Collective (birds and turds),Tacoma Glass Blowing Studio (the glass pumpkin), Hotel Murano’s new gift shop (the glowing canoe), Brick House Gallery (the neon sign) , Rampart / Brownie Morrison (the manikin) and Catwalk (the showroom). At Catwalk dear daughter purchase a groovy retro tie that she was enthused about. And we were treated to pizza from Puget Sound Pizza (yum!).