A Way Forward

Welcome to Heights Grocery Store, your northend neighborhood market - a new way forward for the former Vashon-Maury Grange hall.

A little history: The Vashon-Maury Island Grange Hall was constructed in 1953 as the Vashon Heights Community Club. Northend residents chartered the Community Club as a neighborhood gathering place for social events and political organizing. Club members then sold the clubhouse to the Vashon-Maury Grange #1105 in 1962. Grange #1105 was charted in 1941 and was active until 2019.  In 2021, the hall was purchased by a northend community member for the purpose of reviving the space into a neighborhood grocery store.

We islanders are united in our need for community and connection – and sustenance. Access to food in a warm, welcoming, inclusive environment is an intersection where all can easily meet. This is a new era, and a new way forward, for the northend neighborhood and the old hall, poised to be repurposed and protected for years to come. 

In a bygone era, virtually every waterfront settlement on Vashon Island had what was essential for a community to thrive and survive: a neighborhood store.  There were 16 stores, consolidated to two that remain today at Burton and Center, with all the remaining present-day shopping concentrated into Vashon’s town core. 

Protection, preservation and repurposing historically-rich buildings is imperative to maintaining Vashon Island culture. When the former Grange Hall is designated as a King County Landmark, it will be eligible for a zoning change which will allow for its re- use as a community market.

Northend neighbors, meet your new old store.