Getting a new coat!

The lovely weather we’ve been having has given us the chance to begin the arduous task of re-siding and paint the house. We have enlisted the help of Sound Colors Painting. You can see them this week spraying and scraping the prep for primer. If we are lucky, we may even, see some color start popping up of the building this year!

Yellow! While prepping the house for work we actively removed baseboard, sanded wood, and scraped a century worth of old paint to find the original color. We believe this is the oldest color on the house. Using Benjamin Moore’s historical collection, we matched this with a lovely light ochre for the siding and a butternut squash color trim.

However, for the winter the house will only be primed. So, the yellow you see now is not the final stage of color. In spring we will put the final coats on and watch the house blossom along with the flowers.

Remember, none of this is possible without your help. Keep us moving forward with a donation today!

Education Seminars: Coupeville 101

This session of courses has ended.

Want to be notified when our courses are available for viewing online? Enter your email below and we will let you know:

Syllabus

10/18:  Change of Worlds: an overview of the original inhabitants of the Pacific Northwest, and their earliest contacts with European explorers.

10/25:  The Lost Years: the era of peaceful trading coexistence between England's Hudson Bay Company and the Salish peoples of what is today western Washington.

11/1:  Manifest Destiny: there goes the neighborhood: the first American settlers and their Army arrive in the new Washington Territory.

11/8:  Capture the Flag: settling the last boundary dispute with Great Britain, and the impact of the Civil War in Washington.

11/15: The Rise of Coveland: building a new American town with commerce, agriculture and infrastructure.

11/22:  Becoming Coupeville: shifting to a new location in anticipation of a railroad terminus, the seat of Island County finally settled into its permanent home, incorporating in 1910.

The conservatory is reborn!

Passersby in downtown Coupeville are happy to see—at long last— serious progress in the rehabilitation of the full exterior of the Haller House . This dream deferred—of the return of the 1866 Haller House to Front Street life—is finally being realized! Our Heritage Capital grant helps fund the reconstruction of the Hallers’ conservatory bay, the structural stabilization of the failing plank walls of the Brunn House ell, installation of two new ADA entrance doors in the Brunn ell, repair and painting of all clapboard siding. It will also help fund the installation of new house systems: water, power and heat in 2023. We hope you share our happy satisfaction in this progress.

Our Conservatory Window CamPANE was been a huge success! Following a windowengraving tradition popular in England and America in the 18th & 19th centuries, we have offered our “Haller House family” the chance to engrave their names on one of 94 new panes in the new conservatory windows. We are sold out and have been the long process of manufacturing the special panes that will be with the house forever.

Work Party - Engle Farmstead

It is time for the second of two community work parties to deforest the 1858 Pearson-Engle family farm - a Whidbey treasure. The farm is privately owned, loved by the Pearson-Engle family since 1869. The 7th generation of stewards is now taking the reins and Historic Whidbey is helping support them as they plot a new future for their farm. The farm is the most intact historic farm cluster in Ebey's Reserve - an irreplaceable gem!  If you ever wanted to explore the mysterious grounds, here is your chance!

WHEN: Saturday, August 13. Two shifts 10-1 and 1-4.
WHERE: 1391 Terry Road (near the intersection with Ebey Road - see map)
WHAT TO BRING: Your favorite hand tools, gloves.

Parking is available via the driveway off of Terry Rd.

150th Anniversary of the end of the Pig War

Join Historic Whidbey for an educational ‘Walk & Talk’ tour with 2 speakers talking about the boundry dispute on San Juan Island.

The Pig War

In 1872 arbitration settled a 13-year stalemate in the battle for legal possession of the San Juan Islands archipelago. Both Great Britain and the U.S. had been claiming the islands since the poorly written Oregon Treaty of 1846 had left a fog over the islands’ fate. The argument escalated to a military crisis on San Juan Island in 1859 when an American settler shot a Berkshire boar owned by his English neighbors at the Belle Vue Sheep Farm – owned by the Hudson Bay Company. Conflict ensued and before long, American soldiers from the 9th Infantry occupied the south end of San Juan Island, and warships of the Royal Navy were pointing their big guns at them. The stand-off resulted in a joint occupation that lasted 13 years, ending only when arbitrator Kaiser Wilhelm I of Germany decided the islands belonged to the U.S. in 1872. Thus ended the last international boundary dispute between Britain and the United States – 150 years ago this year.

What did it have to do with Whidbey Island?

The “special relationship” between the U.S. and Great Britain did not exist in the mid-19th century. Veterans of both the Revolution and the War of 1812 were still telling their tales. The Landing’s namesake, Isaac Ebey, was a committed anti-British agitator and played a big role in fomenting friction between the two nations. Although he died shortly before the Problem of the Pig, Coupeville’s own Major Granville Haller was an active participant in the military engagement on San Juan Island. It fell to Haller and the Army to resolve the brouhaha that Ebey helped start.

Want to know more? Join us at Ebey’s!

This event has passed.

Event included an introductory presentation at the Pratt Sheep Barn by Historic Whidbey’s Lynn Hyde and a delegation from San Juan Island National Historical Park. Where a hike began at the Jacob & Sarah Ebey House via the Prairie/Ridge Trail; continuing to Bluff Trail; ending at Ferry House. Following was a presentation on the significance of the Ferry House at Ebey’s Landing by former Reserve preservation coordinator Sarah Steen.

For more info, please contact us at historicwhidbey@comcast.net.