by Kirby Lindsay, posted 26 December 2013
In 2013, the Fremont Arts Council (FAC) Board of Directors discussed the idea of the organization purchasing its home and workshop – The Powerhouse, located at 3940 Fremont Ave N.
Easily Missed, Most Of The Year
The FAC has been using the concrete bunker-like building since 1994, with repairs, upgrades and decorating done largely by the sweat equity of volunteers. The space gets the most use, and becomes most visible, each spring when the FAC members build the Solstice Parade.
The line of fences, colorfully strung with streamers of fabric or ribbon, in front of the Powerhouse each May contain the float bodies and the workers, and actually obscure the view of the structure. Yet most know the space because of the activity and art. Most know the Powerhouse as, ‘you know, the place on Fremont Ave with all the floats and fences…’
Otherwise, the building, which serves as part of a long retaining wall, blends to its surroundings quite well. Its utilitarian and modest face along the sidewalk hides the wealth of art, and art supplies, stored within, while its very being supports the playground and the land upon which sits B.F. Day Elementary School.
Once A Boiler Room
Our local public school was built, in 1892, on property donated to the City by Benjamin Franklin Day and his wife, Frances R. Day. The childless couple gave the land specifically for construction of a school for the children of our community.
The original school building consisted of eight classrooms. The Seattle School District made additions to the structure in 1901 and 1916. According to a HistoryLink column, written by Priscilla Long in May 2001, the 1916 addition included installation of the concrete retaining walls and, according to information from the Fremont Historical Society, the boiler room.
Also called the Boiler House, the structure housed all the equipment necessary to provide steam heat, conducted through a 125’ tunnel to the school building. While the school faces the quiet residential street of Linden, the boiler room faces the main thoroughfare, for easier maintenance access. Also, it is separated from the school building, and reinforced, to prevent any accident or explosion potentially harming students or staff.
From Boiler To Potential
In 1981, the City designated B.F. Day Elementary School as a Historic Seattle Landmark. In 1985, the Seattle School District announced plans to shut down the B.F. Day program at this site, and relocate it elsewhere. Considerable pressure from the Fremont community – residents, school parents, and business owners – convinced the District to, instead, do an extensive ($5 million) remodel, completed in 1991.
When completed, the renovations included a heating system for the school safely located in the main building. The boiler room became surplus for the School District, and presented potential problems – located on school property, connected by a tunnel to the school, the empty structure could attract any kind of illegal and/or dangerous activity. Also, removal or public use of the structure by Seattle Schools might require an environmental clean-up, and/or remediation.
From Potential – Art!
Lease to the Fremont Arts Council, which had been building its massive, and massively popular, Parade since 1989, was given generously and gratefully accepted. The FAC leases the space for a very modest annual rent – at an amount not shared publically – and in exchange, the FAC Board agreed to help with arts education at the school, and abide by School District policies such as no alcohol and no firearms on the premises. The School District still owns, and occasionally inspects the space, but the FAC maintains it.
The first major maintenance done by FAC members, in 1994, was removal of 6-tons of boilers and piping, funded by a City of Seattle Small & Simple Grant but done, largely, by volunteer labor. The group then solicited donations from around Fremont to pay for professional asbestos abatement and other necessary renovations. The FAC replaced the roof and continues, to this day, to look for ways to seal up and cap the 72’ chimney.
Volunteers have built two mezzanines into the space, for office and storage use. A majority of the building is given to storage of art and craft supplies, and an annual (although not this year) rummage sale is organized to attempt diminish the stored materials, but tends to increase it. Also, a few times each year the hardiest of volunteers spend exhausting amounts of personal time cleaning and organizing the supplies.
For the FAC uses the building primarily for creating art, year ‘round. In 2013, volunteers strung ribbons for the May Day celebration, built the Parade for June, assembled luminaries for the Luminata lantern walk on September 21st, constructed giant puppets for the Trolloween haunt on October 31st, and put together headdresses, chandeliers and other decorations for the Feast of the Winter Solstice on December 21st.
An Art Resource
The Powerhouse has become a resource for all the Fremont community. Decorated with decades of art, most of it created on-site, the space also is a visual smorgasbord of interesting and intriguing sights. Photos cannot fully capture the activity this art creates on the walls, ceilings and shelves of the Powerhouse.
Visitors instead can see it for themselves, at public workshops held at random times or during the monthly FAC meetings, which take place on the second Tuesday of each month at 7p in The Powerhouse. At these C.O.W. meetings, members have been recently discussing ways to increase use of the space, and the guidelines users need to know and follow.
However, if you do attend a winter COW meeting – be warned. While the space does have heat, and a bathroom, the facilities are humble on the verge of barely adequate. They work fine for those covered in paint and wielding a glue gun, while creating a masterpiece, but for sitting and discussing the future of the FAC – and its Powerhouse – layers are advised!
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©2013 Kirby Lindsay. This column is protected by intellectual property laws, including U.S. copyright laws. Reproduction, adaptation or distribution without permission is prohibited.