By Peggy Sturdivant

My editor Ken Robinson warned me I would have only half the usual column space this week. Unfortunate timing. I have a lot to share. Over 100 volunteers have neglected home and health documenting and assessing 7308 pre-1965 structures. We’re ready to reveal our findings and celebrate with a big party. But I’ve only got half as many words???

Just in case the editor cuts off my final sentences I’ll spit them out now. The Ballard Historical Society’s Department of Neighborhood’s funded project Mapping Historic Ballard: Shingletown to Tomorrow invites you to a community party on Saturday, June 4th at Sunset Hill Community Association Clubhouse at 6 p.m. There will be an exhibition gallery, refreshments, presentation findings, and awards for top structures and volunteers.

The June 4th party is the culmination of six months of intense effort. After mapping 7308 structures the GIS consultant analyzed the data, identifying structures with the most historic integrity: by block, by decade, by architectural type, and by clusters. Then volunteers hit the streets again to revisit the top 2350 structures, winnowing the list to just under 800. The goal was top 500 and select 100. Impossible. The compromise is top 670 and select 159. Then volunteers did research on the select 159. Come learn about all 670 and see maps of the entire project.

Many volunteers haven’t even seen the final results. Bob and Mary Jean Gilman logged weeks of their lives on the project. Bob Gilman said, “I feel more connected to the neighborhood. I came to realize that each house is like a storybook. All the dramas that took place in each of these old houses will never be known.” He also confessed mapping, “Got to be sort of obsessive, like eating peanuts.”

Claudia Kyama also spent an incredible amount of time on the Mapping Historic Ballard project, but with the perspective of a newer resident, and Historic Preservation expert from Mexico City. She found most neighbors welcoming. “People in Mexico will literally chase you until you show them you have erased the photos of their houses.”

Kyama also noted what the numbers later revealed, “The huge amount of historic houses still here. In the older sectors you can see how there has always been newer houses replacing older houses. I think people need to see that the beautiful mid-century house they now cherish was once the ugly duckling…change has always been part of the neighborhood.”

I wonder how many words I have left. I feel like it’s the Oscars and they play music to cut off thank you speeches. I have 100 volunteers to thank and all of Ballard to invite. You’re on the invite list, on behalf of your business, your church, your apartment building, your home. I think I hear the orchestra shooing me off stage. Come party for the love of Ballard on June 4th.

Saturday, June 4, 2016 at 6 p.m. Sunset Hill Community Association Clubhouse, 3003 NW 66th
www.ballardhistory.org or https://www.facebook.com/BallardHistory/