Capturing the Maritime Legacy

Photo scanning seeks to preserve images of the past

Susan Schell

of the Gateway

Jake Bujacich casually walked into the Gig Harbor Civic Center on Saturday with several photographs tucked under his arm. “Is that my neighbor?” he asked when he saw Dick Allen seated at a table going over some old photos with architectural preservationists Julie Koler and Mildred Andrew.

“I was heading out to the golf course, and it started snowing so bad I turned around and came back,” he said.

Bujacich and Allen were two Gig Harbor residents who answered the call from the city to go through their closets and photo albums and bring in photographs of the town, their families or homes to scan into the city’s historic archives.

Koler, Andrew and Lita Dawn Stanton, historic preservation coordinator for the City of Gig Harbor, were on hand with flatbed scanners, copy machines and notebooks to capture and preserve for prosperity the remaining vestiges of the city’s past.

Residents came in with shopping bags, folders and hand-held photos of family reunions, fishing expeditions and homes that once stood on land now occupied by freeways, intersections and shopping centers.

Most photos had the typical brownish-yellow “sienna” look of the images of that time.

“We ended up with about 20 people and over 150 photos scanned,” Stanton said. “It’s the biggest turnout they ever had for photo documentation.”

Stanton said an unexpected benefit from the event was a planned get-together with members of some of Gig Harbor’s original families who came in with their pictures.

“What came out of it is we got two different generations,” she said. “There’s a group of guys that are in their 80s who are going to sit and talk with the preservationists. Then we’ll have a sit-down coffee talk with the next generation and try to fill in the blanks. They were very motivated to do that.”

Rose Marie Ross, a volunteer for the historical society, said she was very excited with the outcome.

“The historical society was able to pick up more images that they didn’t have before,” she said.

Cindy Storrar brought in a photo of her home on Pioneer Avenue that was moved to make way for a new road.

“When we bought the house, we brought it back to its original farmhouse look,” she said.

Koler said historic preservation is the ultimate form of recycling.

“Our landfills can’t take much more,” she said. “I recently watched a PowerPoint presentation which had the most amazing facts about the reuse of older homes and buildings.”

The historic preservationists’ next project is to hire a consultant to look at the area’s net sheds for their historical significance.

“We’re looking to have them entered into the state’s ‘most endangered structures,’ ” Stanton said. “We have the most concentrated group of net sheds around. People don’t think they have any value, so they’re just being torn down. We would like to change that.”

Reach reporter Susan Schell at 253-853-9240 or by e-mail at susan.schell@gateline.com.