By Monica Wooton, Board Member, Magnolia Historical Society (MHS)
The Magnolia Community Club has transitioned from a club to council, dropping a requirement for dues and formal membership. These changes have been made to make the now called Magnolia Community Council (MCC) a more inclusive organization working on issues of quality of life on the Bluff. Bruce Carter and Tom Tanner, co-presidents for 2016 (both past-presidents serving again) sum up their main mission as: ?to educate the public on subjects affecting the Magnolia community and to monitor private or governmental activities that affect the quality of life in Magnolia and to take appropriate action to further or protect the interests of the community.?
The group seems poised and energized to take on Magnolia?s issues with vigor, vigilance and new volunteers. Past president, Carol Burton in 2015 helped MCC develop a modern website and social media presence through Facebook. Today the Council is reviving old sub-committees like land use and continuing with the traditional and needed ones like transportation and Port issues as well as increasing its Board size this from 15 to 20 members.
Today life on Magnolia has experienced some growing pains and changes having to deal with new and pressing issues of growth, proposed changes for residential neighborhoods, more and different land use and development policies, changing transportation needs, new visions for the Village and the culmination of decades of work in getting Smith Cove as a park. Like all organizations in the last decade the Club has had its share of waxing and waning volunteers to take on its issues.
For 2016 Smith Cove Park remains a huge agenda item – an accomplishment of a many years struggle that began with past president Ursala Judkins in 1990 with her ideas and efforts to get that land for park use. Because of the tenacity of MCC, others from the wider community, Council member Sally Bagshaw and past King County Council member Larry Phillips this is about to become reality. Smith Cove Park will be a unique waterfront park that will serve Magnolias/QA/Uptown and our city for many years to come.
According to Magnolia: Memories & Milestones in the chapter: A Certain Clout: The Magnolia Community Club: ?The Magnolia Community Club can trace some origins to a club formed in 1921 as the Magnolia Bluff Improvement Club. Those Club minutes give an interesting view of the ongoing history.
?In 1939, the Club officially became the Magnolia Community Club and received its ?Articles of Incorporation.? The books of official record are chock-full of business, with the occasional dance or annual picnic plans of years gone?? Tree plantings on streets and avenues and the Incense Pines buffering the neighborhood from the railroad noise were MCC projects.
??the very first page of minutes [1939] reveals members of the community who came together to talk about establishing [another] school for the neighborhood children [Lawton and Magnolia were already established]. The stories from then until now, include scribblings on the thin, aged pieces of notebook paper in handwritten ledgers and letters, mimeographed minutes, and computer-generated documents. All reveal the same message, this is a community that looks to preserve its quality of life: demands for bus service, streets and sidewalks, sewer repairs, and the critical bridges. The MCC has evolved through the years addressing more complicated issues such as fighting Metro?s secondary sewage treatment plant, struggling against mandatory school busing, and working to preserve park land such as Smith Cove.
?A quick look down the past presidents roster demonstrates why the MCC has always been strong: Lady Willie Forbus, Joel Haggard, Ken Schubert, Janet Anderson, Ursula Judkins…? In recent years: Nancy Rogers, Diana Dearmin, Stephan DeForest, past presidents Bruce Carter and Tom Tanner now serving as 2016 co-presidents??all very busy and successful in their ?real? lives of civic activism, politics, law, accounting, real estate, some retired from their careers?have stepped up to serve as Club presidents to handle the issues of their neighborhood through the historically active organization of the Magnolia Community Club…?
The MCC ??knows its job: to get to the bottom of whatever is proposed for this neighborhood, and approve the plan if it enhances the community or to work to change it so that it will. Discovery Park, only three bridge entrances, the Locks, the Interbay trains, Piers 90/91, and the sliding slopes surrounding the neighborhood are real reasons for concern?This is a club surrounded with issues, metaphorically and quite literally. It works to demonstrate a sense of pride and duty, and to maintain the quality of Magnolia life and neighborhood safety and appeal for the long term.?
The Magnolia Historical Society (MHS) (with participation from MCC) will be sponsoring their Annual Meeting on the History of Magnolia Bridge, a bridge long talked about needing replacement, April 14th, at the Magnolia Lutheran Church at 7pm. The meeting is open to the public and will give the history of the Bridge. John Buswell, Director of Seattle Department of Transportation?s Structures and Bridges will be a speaker as well as Janis Traven, who served on the Design Advisory Committee in 2002 and for six more years regarding a bridge replacement that has never materialized, will also speak. Councilmember Sally Bagshaw will be in attendance as well.
The club usually meets on the third Tuesday of the month at 7pm. They will begin meeting at Magnolia United Congregational Church (MUCC) starting March 15, at 7pm. Meetings are open to the public. To begin receiving information on the Council sign up here?and to bring issues to them, contact president@magnoliacommunityconcil.org .
For more history on the MCC and Magnolia MHS award winning and nominated history books can be bought here?and Magnolia?s Bookstore.