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Renton Historical Society Announces Custer Award For Heritage Citizenship

On Wednesday, June 9, the Renton Historical Society will give the George and Annie Lewis Custer Award for Heritage Citizenship to real estate developer David Smith. Smith receives the award for his rehabilitation of the historic Louisa Building—now known as the Old City Hall—at 225 Wells Avenue South in downtown Renton.

The Custer Award is given annually by the Renton Historical Society to recognize extraordinary contributions to documenting, preserving, or educating about Renton’s history. “David Smith is actually the first developer to receive the award,” Museum Director Elizabeth P. Stewart observed, “and he was selected for his willingness to improve downtown Renton by returning this beautiful building to its former glory.”

The Old City Hall was built in 1924 as Renton’s first dedicated City Hall. Smith was struck by its architectural details and its prime location in Renton’s downtown. Smith purchased the two-story building from the Barei family and started the project in early summer 2009 by removing the green glass tiles that covered the exterior from sidewalk to roof. Smith consulted historic photographs in the Renton History Museum’s collection to assist with the rehab. The completed office space now features seismic retrofitting, parapet wall detailing and stucco work, exposed interior brick, and the original six-foot-wide staircase.

The Renton Reporter wrote a piece concerning the Custer Award.

People are talking about the Museum!

Check out the latest SC Business Report. It has a long piece about arts and culture in South King County that features the Museum! (It's a PDF so you have to scroll to page 3 for the article.)
The Smithsonian Institution’s Museum on Main Street program recently featured the Museum on their blog.

Museum Offers Native-American Storyteller To Schools

Thanks to a grant from the Muckleshoot Charity Fund, the Renton History Museum is making Native-American storyteller Roger Fernandes available to every Renton elementary school as part of the Museum’s Coast Salish/Duwamish curriculum. Roger has already performed for third-, fourth- and fifth-graders at Hazelwood Elementary, and will also be telling stories at Renton River Days. For more information, please contact Dorota Rahn at 425.255.2330 or info@rentonhistory.org.

Museum Master Plan Complete

Working with nationally known museum planners Gyroscope Inc., the Museum recently completed a Museum Master Plan. The master plan provides the Museum with a blueprint for its next 15 years of operations, laying out a new strategic approach—the Experimental History Projects—that will recreate the museum as a center for the exploration of historical questions and lifelong learning. The master plan also provides direction for the smarter use of our historic landmark building and creating a more exciting anchor for the cultural amenities in our neighborhood. Next steps include revising our strategic plan and planning for a capital campaign. Learn more on our Museum Master Plan page.

Archived News Stories

Renton History Museum Welcomes Back Its Newly Reconstructed Coal Car

Completed coal car at CRC After eight months of research and hard work, the historic reconstruction of our coal car is complete! The project, funded by 4Culture, came to an end on August 26th when the coal car returned to Renton from the Conservation and Restoration Center of the Northwest Railway Museum in Snoqualmie. Renton History Museum staff and volunteers installed the coal car in the Museum's main gallery as an integral part of the When Coal Was King coal mining exhibit. Having been reconstructed and even correctly reengineered in some areas, the coal car now serves as a tangible reminder of Renton's coal mining roots.

The rescue of the coal car is the result of a constructive partnership between the Renton History Museum and the Northwest Railway Museum. When we discovered in late 2007 that our coal car had seriously deteriorated, we called upon the skills and knowledge of the NRM staff to help us return the car to its original shape. Thanks to grant funding, NRM staff was able to restore information about how coal cars were designed, built, and used in the mines by properly reconstructing its physical characteristics. You can revisit the progress of the project on the updates below, and see more photos at the Museum's Flickr album.

Read more about the project here: Coal car arrives at RHM