Quincy supports Heritage Barn project with $100,000 appropriation

QUINCY — Quincy city councilmembers agreed Tuesday to contribute a total of $115,000 to support the proposed construction of the Quincy Valley Historical Society and Museum (QVHSM) Heritage Barn.

Following a presentation from QVHSM representative Harriett Weber, city councilmember David Day proposed the city appropriate $100,000 in cash and $15,000 in kind to be used toward the engineering, infrastructure, sewer and electrical components of the Heritage Barn construction. The motion passed unanimously.

The QVHSM is a 501(c)3 that was founded in 2002. Its previous projects have included restoring the 1904 Reiman-Simmons House, which is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the 1904 Pioneer Church, which is on the Washington Heritage Register. Both facilities are accompanied at the heritage site by a summer kitchen, garden and archives, among other features that depict stories of early settlers in area.

“Quincy has a great heritage,” Weber said Tuesday evening at the City Council meeting. “I’m really proud of the collaboration that we have had with the city since 2002 or 2003, when we really started working on everything over there at the Reiman-Simmons House site. We really have a beautiful facility there now. It’s wonderful and we are very proud of it.”

Still, Weber said there are needs not being addressed at the current heritage site. The house represents the family life of early pioneers, Weber said, and the church represents their faith — “whether they went to church or not, they had to have a certain amount of faith in order to come here and homestead and try to make a life here.” But there was more to pioneer life that needs to be portrayed, she said.

“One thing we have not been able to portray is the livelihood of the people that homesteaded here — what they did here,” Weber said. “And so we came to the idea of having a heritage barn.”

The QVHSM could qualify for state funding to assist with the costs of construction of a heritage barn. Weber said the organization received grant funding via the state’s Heritage Capital Funds grant program for a renovation to the Reiman-Simmons House, as well as for the pioneer church. The Historical Society could easily qualify for significant funding for this project, too, she said.

“(The state) approached us and said, ‘if you take this new building that you’re thinking about building and make sure that there’s an archive in it’ — which is something that was a need for us anyway … they said, ‘if you will do that, you will qualify to write another Heritage Capital Funds grant, of which we can get a third of the cost reimbursed back to us by the state of Washington,” Weber said.

The organization’s current archive system is located in the basement of the Reiman-Simmons House, Weber said, and access to the archives is far from easy. With documents and photographs portraying early life in the Quincy Valley, a proper archive system is needed, she said, so that particular prerequisite aligns perfectly with the group’s needs.

The difficulty will be time. Weber said the deadline to receive grant funding for the project is May 1 and the application only became available about two weeks ago. The structure of the grant process is new, too: the program is emphasizing public-private partnerships with greater depth this time, she said. More than simple letters of support, the state’s grant program wants to see cities and other entities make significant financial investments into the heritage projects.

That’s where the city of Quincy comes in. Weber said the idea is to raise the QVHSM Heritage Barn with four support posts, each symbolizing investment from various entities. One would be for the Historical Society itself, which Weber said has about $130,000 available or pledged for the project, and another would represent the city’s investment. The remaining two will ideally be funded by the agriculture community and the industry and technology sector, she said.

Once complete, Weber said the Heritage Barn would be an outstanding addition to the historical site, and it can fulfill other purposes.

“I think it is going to be a wonderful addition to the site there,” she said. “The venue itself, the large room, will be able to be used for receptions, family reunions, all kinds of things — as well as we have field trips (and) farmers markets. Some of the classes through the (parks and recreation) department could happen in the big room there. So we are really excited about it and hope that you will be, too.”

The council showed its excitement for the project by unanimously approving the $115,000 appropriation. Councilmembers Paul Worley and Sonia Padron were not present.

The Quincy Valley Historical Society is open from Memorial Day through mid-September. Its hours are 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday each week, as well as by appointment. For more information on the QVHS, visit the organization’s website at www.qvhsm.org.

Ryan Minnerly can be reached via email at countygvt@columbiabasinherald.com.