Federal Way Historical Society volunteers Ed Optstad and Marie Sciacqua browse a new collection of old slides on loan from the Cissna family. The slides featured images of the Federal Shopping Way and Santafair. Sciacqua has taken on the job of collecting photos for an upcoming book on Federal Way's history. Photo by Seth Bynum
With a history as rich and colorful as Federal Way's, it's hard to believe this no one has tried to take on this project earlier.
Volunteer Marie Sciacqua agrees. Her hands will help assemble Federal Way's first history book - a 120-plus page documentary in text and photos that will give a condensed version of the millions of volumes of information and documentation gathered and cataloged by the Federal Way Historical Society.
In a small room in the dimly lit interior of the Fisher Home - a room the organization calls "the morgue"- Sciacqua pours over old black-and-white photographs that caputre snapshots of the Federal Way of old.
"Right now, I'm in the process of gathering photos and seeing if I have enough photographs of certain topic to make each chapter," Sciacqua said.
With literally thousands of photographs at her disposal, Sciacqua still considers it a challenge to find enough related images to fill a section.
But she continues to maintain her confidence that the project will come to fruition.
"I've only been working on it a few months," Sciacqua said, "I've told myself, 'You can do this,"' she said.
"I've tried to put together a timeline for the project," she said, "but I think at this point it would be impossible for me to stick with it."
The printing process alone will take seven months, Sciacqua said. The Historical Society has commissioned Arcadia Publishing of South Carolina - a nationally-known publisher of local history books - to assemble and print the 128-page piece.
And right now, she's collected about 100 of the 200 photographs that will wind up in the printed pages of Federal Way's history.
"I'm not really a writer," Sciacqua said, admitting the next phase of the book will pose a challenge for her. She has solicited the help of some volunteer writers and an editor.
Sciacqua said she hopes to have the book of Federal Way's history on shelves and in people's hands by December of this year, but a release by that date isn't likely.
"We're hoping to time the release of the book with a major event in the city so that we can promote the sale of it," she said.
"We don't want to rush it," Sciacqua said, "We want to produce a good and accurate product."
