The South Sound Story of the Longbranch Improvement Club, its Building & Marina On the west side of the Cascades in the State of Washington among the bays and inlets of South Puget Sound lies the twenty mile long Key Peninsula. In the early decades of the 20th century, in the open spaces of cleared farmland in the forests on the peninsula surrounded by the waters of the Sound filled with salmon, shellfish, seals, and occasionally whales, there was a land of pioneering lumbermen, farmers and fishermen. Linked to the outside world by water more than road, boats and boat transportation were an essential part of the life of the people. This is the land in which the Longbranch Improvement Club came into existence. More than eighty years ago this Improvement Club was organized by a group of people in the Longbranch area at the southern end of Key Peninsula. They had been meeting for years in local homes and sponsoring community events such as baseball games, Halloween parties and New Year's Eve dances at a building in the village called Library Hall. During the early years baseball was important in the life of the peninsula. Each community had a baseball team and their games were the major entertainment on the weekends. Teams from Steilacoom, Tacoma and Puyallup and from Anderson and McNeil Islands came to the peninsula by boat to play the Longbranch team and Longbranch traveled by water to play those towns. As time went by the games attracted so many spectators that the group began to think about a larger area for a new ball field. This was a period of rapid change for the little village. Pierce County was planning to put in a county road to serve the local peninsula communities, even though, lacking a bridge across the Tacoma Narrows, there was no link by road with the mainland. The road would take people up the peninsula from the ferry slip at Longbranch. At about the same time a consolidated school was being planned by County education officials for the children of the Longbranch area. The school not only needed a building site but it would need an athletic field. The community group, working cooperatively, decided to take the necessary steps to become a legally constituted group that could own land and work formally for the community good. Organizing for the Longbranch Community On December 21, 1921 the Longbranch Improvement Club, at the core of the community, was incorporated as a non-stock holding organization (today called a non-profit corporation) under the laws of the State of Washington. In the charter it was written that the club would work for the "betterment of schools, homemaking, roads and marketing dairy and poultry and all its branches" The charter stated the club's purpose to be "buying real estate for the purpose of a consolidated school, for athletic and picnic uses" and announced that dues for members would be 50 cents annually. Less than a month after the incorporation was recorded on January 16, 1922, for $500 the LIC purchased from Andy Simonson ten acres adjacent to the anticipated county road. That spring when the ferry Elk made its first trip from Steilacoom to Longbranch to dock at the county ferry pier the local leaders proudly announced to the public that ten acres of land for a fine ball park and tourist camp had been bought and a consolidated school was going to be built. During 1922 volunteers from the community cleared and leveled the acreage purchased by the Improvement Club (LIC) for a baseball field between the salmon-running stream and the proposed county road. Then they built a covered grandstand with a lower level concession booth. During these years the LIC met in Penrose Hall at the Longbranch Congregational Church which later became the Longbranch Community Church. In 1924 the Club donated the south 3 acres of its property to the Pierce County School District to build the two room consolidated School #328. The School District Builds In anticipation of the population increase expected when the planned Tacoma Narrows Bridge linking the area with Tacoma would be completed and the need to provide more school facilities, in 1938, the Pierce County School District purchased additional land adjacent to the three acres that LIC had already given to the School District. In 1939 the federal Works Progress Administration erected the building now known as the Longbranch Improvement Club Hall as a gymnasium for the School #328 building located about 100 feet to the north. This building is architecturally distinct with its large scale rustic architecture combining stone walls, log rafters and concrete buttresses. Some of the WPA men who built the structure, as well as most of the materials needed for its construction, were brought in by boat and all of the concrete was mixed by hand. It has a stone foundation with poured concrete buttresses flying out at the sides to lend support to walls bearing the weight of the immense, steeply sloped cedar shake roof. During the years the building served as a gymnasium for the school, the floor in the main gym was dirt. The east end of the building housed the school's kitchen and lunchroom. During the 1940's, School #328 was closed and the students started attending school in Lakebay. Eventually the school house was torn down but the gymnasium remained. When the school was discontinued in the 1940s, the LIC took over the management of the former gymnasium building and scheduled numerous community activities in the facility including dances on major holiday weekends and special events like the annual Huckleberry Festival Dance. These dances became famous around the South Sound region where many people had boats that could bring them to Longbranch and the ferry brought people from Steilacoom. For many years there were basket socials. The Longbranch ladies would bring their best lunch in a fancy basket and the men would bid for a chance to have lunch with their favorite lady. During the second World War, the Ladies Aid rolled bandages here. When the Congregational Church started sliding down the hill above the marina during the 1930s and was finally abandoned in 1939, the gymnasium was pressed into duty as a church. It served as a church and Sunday School until 1948 when the new Longbranch Community Church was erected. There were fewer churches on the Peninsula then, and the congregation was large. Sometimes as many as 70 children attended the Sunday School. School into Community Center In 1956 the Longbranch Improvement Club purchased the gymnasium from the School District for $7,000. to serve as a community center. The purchase included the three acres the Club had donated to the county years before for the construction of School #328. While the second Narrows Bridge was under construction in 1950, although the LIC didn't yet own the building the dirt floor in the gymnasium had been replaced by club members with hand-mixed concrete subflooring overlaid by an oak dance floor. The same year restrooms were added. Two years later the club donated to the County Fire Protection District for "$1 and other valuable consideration" a piece of property 100 feet by 100 feet at the north end of the Club's property for the construction of a Longbranch Fire Station. From Ferry Slip to Marina After the Narrows Bridge was finally completed ferry service to Longbranch was discontinued but the County ferry dock, now abandoned and falling into disrepair, remained. The beautiful sheltered harbor at Filucy Bay where Longbranch is located had become a popular stop on the cruising schedules of many boaters over the years. In the summer up to as many as 100 boats might be seen in the harbor on a weekend in the late fifties according to the Tacoma News Tribune. There was however no good way for the boatmen to go ashore without anchoring and using a dinghy. In 1956 after asking the County Commissioners if the abandoned ferry dock could be improved so that it could be used by boaters and learning that the County approved of the project but had no money available for the improvements it was decided by local leaders to go ahead themselves. Members of the Improvement Club, under the leadership and direction of Ramon Bussard and W. H. Duerden, volunteered their time and expertise to construct a dock and floats. These were then attached to the Pierce County float that allowed access from the shore. Although never before involved in marina operation, from the spring of 1956 LIC has operated the Longbranch marina, with moorage available to members and to guest boaters. During the 1970s and 1980s the LIC building was used for potluck dinners, benefit dances for various projects, numerous plays, garage sales, and several continuing education classes. Also during those years, the building was home at various times to the Longbranch Nursery School and once for a special event, the Longbranch Bicentennial Fair in 1976 with a production of the Civil War military comedy, Shenandoah, in the big open field to recreate the battle scene. The two day celebration also featured a baseball game, dinghy races, sky divers and antique stunt planes doing maneuvers. Historic Rating In September 1986 Pierce County Department of Planning and Development completed an inventory of rural and suburban public school buildings and nominated the building for the Pierce County Register of Historic Places. Subsequently, the Washington State Advisory Council on Historic Preservation determined the building was worthy of nomination for the National Register of Historic Places, under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service. In November 1987 LIC was notified that the nomination was accepted and that the Longbranch Improvement Club building had been added to the National Register of Historic Places. The notification read: "The National Register records the tangible reminders of the history of the United States and is the official list of the nation's cultural resources worthy of preservation." In the nineties a major Club project was the complete replacement of the floats at the marina and the creation of a covered pavilion for the use of members and guest boaters. Under the responsible guidance of club leadership and volunteer workers, a major clubhouse renovation was commenced: the rest rooms were replaced with modern facilities, the kitchen upgraded, the flooring of the main hall and adjacent meeting room replaced with a high quality oak floor, and office and storage rooms created in an unused area. The Club is now facing the necessity of replacing the great, steeply pitched roof on the Hall, a major project that is essential for the maintenance of this historic building. At the Heart of the Community In recent years following the motto, "for the betterment of the community" written in its bylaws, the Club has sponsored many events at various times for this area separated by land and water distance from neighboring areas. These activities provide community centered fun including dances on the major holiday weekends, yardsales, salmon derbies and dinner theaters plus annual activities such as family day, which upon occasion has included a baseball game in keeping with the early tradition. The funds raised are used to repair and maintain the Hall as a center for community activities. Some of the dances have been co-sponsored by Community Services with proceeds benefiting the Key Peninsula Food Bank. The club often cooperates with the sponsoring group, the Lakebay Community Center.. Since 1996 the Club members have been responsible for cleaning a section of the Key Peninsula Highway under the Adopt-a-Highway Program. The building and grounds have been the site of Old Timer's Day, attended by people from all over the peninsula. The Club often works together with the Longbranch Community Church and the Key Singers on community events such the Church Salmon Bake held at the club and a Christmas program with carols by the Key Singers for the local school children. Money is raised for a Scholarship Fund for graduating high school students. The clubhouse provides a center for meetings of other community organizations and institutions such as the Boy Scouts, Evergreen School groups, and the Longbranch Garden Club. In return for use of the building and grounds community groups often provide hours of work to assist in the maintenance of the building. Continuing to unite local people and work for the community in the 2000s, the Improvement Club carries on many activities. In 2001 the LIC became one of four cooperating, sponsoring Peninsula groups which launched the Key Peninsula Community Fair, an annual three-day gala celebration, to provide summer fun for the entire Peninsula region on a weekend in late August. A tour of the McNeil Island Washington State Correctional Center was taken by a boat load of members. A community informational coffee on State House of Representatives Redistricting was held with Representative Lantz as speaker. BoatSmart safety training classes for boaters by the Tacoma Power Squadron have been sponsored by the group. The open athletic field is used by the Fire Department for Medi-vac emergency helicopter evacuations and training. Occasionally passers-by might see a local softball team practicing in the field. The building and grounds are frequently used by many local community and school groups for their meetings and events. They are also available for private group and party rentals. Revisiting the past Longbranch connection with the South Sound region, in the late spring of 2002 the early Mosquito Fleet Steamer Virginia V, recently rehabilitated, called at Filucy Bay and tied up at the Longbranch Marina for a series of boat trips and tours for people from the region. School tours of the steamer were highlights for classes from the local schools. The active membership of nearly 200 continues in the footsteps of those early pioneers to join together to welcome new members and provide a friendly, cooperative community activity center and marina for member, community and guest use.