Historic Landmark Designation
The Vashon Maury Grange Hall is significant under Historic Landmark Designation criterion as a community gathering place and neighborhood amenity for the Vashon Heights Community, associated with post-World War II residential development. Constructed by the Vashon Heights Community Club in 1953 and gifted to the Vashon Maury Grange #1105 in 1961, the building is associated with the community club movement and the grange movement of the twentieth century, both of which sought to bring local residents together for social, educational and recreational purposes supporting community identity and development.
The Original Lodge
The large open lodge room that constituted the entire original building is approximately 35 feet long and 23 feet wide on the interior, and is constructed of peeled log rounds. The smooth grayish brown logs are just over seven feet tall, and vary in diameter from six to ten inches. The logs are intact, and have a faded whitewash finish.
Vashon Heights
The decade of the 1920s saw significant residential development at Vashon Heights, including construction in 1923 of Ferncliff (also known as the Wise Mansion), a Tudor Revival home constructed for the A.D. Cowan family high on the bluff above the north end ferry dock with a territorial view of central Puget Sound. Ferncliff was designated as a King County Community Landmark in 1982. Construction of summer cottages accelerated in the 1920s along the shoreline north and south of the ferry dock, as well as on the west side of the north end in the communities of Biloxi, Sylvan Beach, and Corbin Beach.
