The board of directors of the Port Townsend School District voted to pursue action to retire the historic Lincoln Building, which could lead to its demolition.   

The decision came during the June 20 meeting of the board of directors, when they also determined the next steps toward the future of the Lincoln Building.

Last fall, the school board initiated a study group comprising 12 community members that expressly included a diverse range of stakeholders. The group included parents, students, teachers, school staff, architects, builders, historians and school board members. The goal was for the study group to play a pivotal role in strategically determining the best course of action for the school’s future, including the fate of the Lincoln Building.

John Nowak, director of the board, put forth the following motion:

“The School Board thanks the Lincoln Building Study Group for their hard work and careful consideration of the aspects of the Lincoln Building.  After reviewing the information from the study group, the Board would like to make the following proposal: We recommend that the final disposition of the Lincoln Building be referred to the High School Campus Long-Range Planning Facilities Committee with the Board’s recommendation that the Lincoln Building be retired with memorialization. This allows the Long-Range Planning Facilities Committee to use that space in their planning for campus renewal,” said Nowak.

The motion passed unanimously.

The Long-Range Planning Facilities Committee will research what Kai Wallin, community liaison, described as the “master plan.” In the study group reports, they identified and stressed the importance of memorialization of the site.

The process can be traced back to 2012, when the School District put forward a vote to the public as to whether it would support funding for demolition as part of a broader capital levy. The levy was passed in 2012, and $500,000 was set aside for demolition.

In 2020, the study group determined that the costs for demolition needed to be revisited. The group hired I.L. Gross, the firm that had previously examined the building. The updated the cost estimate of demolition at $850,000, a figure that did not include $275,000 to restore the area with gravel, or the costs of permit fees.    

The Lincoln Building was built in 1894 for first to eighth grade students, and it was a prominent feature of the community. Over the years structural issues were discovered that deemed the building unsafe, including slowly renovating or removing portions of the structure.

In 1980, the fire chief declared the building to be “a fire trap,” and the school board closed the Lincoln Building to students permanently. Forty years later, the building remains abandoned.