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| July 6, 1978 Shelton Mason County Journal |  |
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July 6, 1978 |
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Historic Grisdale House has seen years of change
THE GRISDALE HOUSE at 309 North Second Street, one of the historic
homes dating back to the early days of Shelton's logging-town boom.
By CAROLYN MADDUX
The fate of the Grisdale
House, one of Shelton's more
historic homes, goes on the
block this month when the
two-story, four-bedroom house
at 309 North Second is placed
for sale.
Owned by the Corporation
of the Archbishop of Seattle, it
was an opulent private home for
half a century, used by Saint
Edward's Parish for nine years
for CCD classes and then held as
a rental property by the Parish:
Council.
Since the council has
determined that there is no
anticipated church-related need
for the property, it may have
seen its last days as a family
home.
Two parties have looked at
the house with an eye to
converting it into apartments, a
spokesman revealed last week.
One of them, a partnership
between former CCD director at
Saint Edward's Mary Signorelli
and Olympian Dave Merrell, has
placed earnest money on the
property but may have altered
plans somewhat. Dave Merrell
said Monday that they probably
would resell the home if they
purchased it, with an upgrading
of wiring and plumbing the
major work planned for the
interim.
"It's in good condition for
its age and use," Merrell noted.
"But it would be very difficult
to convert to, say, a fourplex. A
duplex might be possible."
George Grisdale: "... lots
of memories."
City building inspector Dave
Delph said last week that no one
had yet come to him with
preliminary plans for the
conversion project.
"We are aware of the historic
significance of the home," said
Bob Smith, representative of
A RUSHING STREAM flowing through the front yard of
the old house is audible from the front bedroom windows
upstairs. It was once covered over while the Grisdale
children were growing up.
First Properties, Inc. of Seattle,
the firm designated to handle its
disposition. "The Archdiocese
would be more than pleased if
someone would undertake
restoration of the house."
The Grisdale House dates to
the flourishing of the lumber
industry in Mason County and
the emergence of Shelton as a
prosperous milltown which grew
with the increasing prosperity of
the Simpson Logging Company.
fireplace and a piano.
Built with leaded glass
windows, the downstairs front
ones featuring beveled glass, and
elaborate gingerbread in the
gables and turned porch posts,
the house was originally late
Victorian in appearance. Its
exterior was simplified by the
replacemenl of the leaded
windows and the removal of the
gingerbread at a later date.
Dental work in the trim and the
Built in .1906 bY George bay in the l!ving room still recall
Grisdale, the'::he)tt rhfff0redfftS-: i t :ariy.faade. "i ' :
status. Grisdale's mother was Sol
Simpson's sister, and the young
Grisdale came from eastern
Canada to stay with his uncle
while he finished school. He
went to work in the woods,
became camp superintendent of
Camp 5 and then general
superintendent of operations for
Simpson Logging Company.
The house was constructed
on a scale hardly seen today.
The dining room is nearly 30
feet long, and the entry, with a
stairway descending on three
sides of its far end, was a
sizeable room itself with a
!-
Page 8 ;helton-Mason County Journal Thursday July 6, 1978
i
Two of the house's original
three fireplaces and a wall
dividing parlor from living room
were removed during remodeling
done in the 20's, local contractor
George M. Grisdale recalls. He
was born the year his parents
built the house, and it holds a
host of memories for him.
George Grisdale had three
older sisters, Irene, Doris and
Beth; he does not recall whether
it was one of them or he himself
who tumbled into the creek
which flows through the front
yard. Whoever it was, the
incident caused the senior
Grisdales to have the creek
covered over.
And so it remained until the
mid-forties, when George
uncovered the stream for his
mother and poured its present
concrete embankments.
He recalls the copper beech
and birch trees, giants which
flank the house, as saplings and
remembers when wooden
sidewalks went along Second
Street to a wooden bridge over
Sheltor C,e k between Cedar
' 'and :igi?i]liidiret§; "wltli :similar
bS 0n'Thirdl ,=,.;z: '' Fourth and
Fifth Streets. Cars and
horse-and-buggy rigs traveled the
largely unpaved lanes.
Fruit trees were prolific on
the back of the lot; three cherry
trees and several apples
flourished there in George
Grisdale's time. One of the
cherries still remains; a recent
resident recalls it bearing "huge
bunches like grapes" of sweet
black fruit.
Tragedies number among the
memories George associates with
the house: his father's untimely
death in 1929; and earlier, the
MANY A SHELTON BRIDE has descended the staircase in the house's
spacious entry. Bertha Grisdale kept her Chickering piano at the base of
the stairs in the home's earlier days.
i III
A BAY WINDOW and a giant birch tree in the spacious side yard
among the more pleasant features of the house. Note the dental-work
around the top of the first story.
death duri?he po,ii,i'i.}he.d..f6, huse with
Beth. "It was a perfect house for
The joyous occasions were
many, however; the extended
family gathered frequently in the
huge dining room, and later,
when Episcopalians were forming
what was to be Saint David's
congregation, the church held
services for a number of years at
Bertha Grisdale's home.
A number of Shelton brides
descended the impressive entry
staircase for weddings in the
Grisdale House.
The home was acquired by
Saint Edward's Parish for
Christian education purposes in
1957 and was used for nine
years, until the acquisition of the
former Methodist Church.
Kitchen facilities were removed,
a fire escape added, and a school
bell installed which later
residents used variously as a
dinner bell or a conversation
piece to startle visitors.
When the house was no
longer needed for CCD classes,
the parish council maintained it
as a rental property for a number
of years. The first renters
reinstalled kitchen cupboards; no
one has yet eliminated the
school bell.
Joan Winne, who with her
husband Bill and four children
were the residents of longest
raising children," she recalls.
"You could always find a place
to get away by yourself. The
dining room was big enough to
have a ping-pong table as well as
a dining table.
Rob Williams: "We hate to
leave it."
"We never expected to stay
there for nine years, though. It
was huge, expensive to heat, and
need of a lot of fixing up. Every
time there was a windstorm, the
beech tree limbs would knock
bricks off the corner chimney.
We finally took the chimney
down."
Roll d Daphne Willia
the i'6'h"laiholic deacon '
his wife who moved there I
summer with four of
children, began the restora"l
process. Their original plans
to buy the house and remai
the area. Now they are mo
from the Northwest.
"We hate to leave
commented Rob, who
painted and repapered mud
the downstairs with period ct
and papers. "There's so #
that could be done with
place."
"It's a family hot*
Daphne agreed. "I'd hate to
it lose its integrity."
Helen and Bud Soper,
own the Govey House next dt
are equally fervent in t
appreciation of the two ho
alike in style, vintage
background; the original o
of theirs was Simpson Lo
Company Auditor A.B. Go
"I've always had a feelin
pride to be able to tell pe
that I live in the Govey heft
Helen Soper insists. "The hot
are so much a part of Shel
history."
.Amidst all the specul#
about its future, the Gri
House stands straight
spacious on its grounds, awll
the outcome of the next port
of its own history.
WHEN IT WAS FIRST BUILT, the. Grisdale house had many
features; the gingerbread and leaded glass windows gave way to a
modern look and the fireplaces were rearranged in the mid-twenties.