VFW weighs sale of its historic home

EVERETT — Expenses are up and membership is down.

Everett’s Veterans of Foreign Wars Old Guard Post 2100 may have to sell its building.

The post, chartered in 1931, built its brick headquarters on Oakes Avenue shortly after World War II. The two-story building includes a lounge, a dance floor, meeting rooms, a storage attic and a veterans services desk. It also is the current home of the Seattle Veterans Museum.

At its meeting at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 26, VFW members plan to vote on whether to sell the building and its parking lot, which together have an assessed value of about $1.2 million.

Post 2100 Commander Don Wischmann, a Navy veteran, hopes to find a less expensive home for the Old Guard.

“Our building is paid for, but its age makes it somewhat difficult to maintain. It’s the rising costs of operation and the taxes,” Wischmann said. “Our income is down because the older members are dying off. We had 22 who passed away this summer alone.”

Even though veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, including those still on active duty and those in the reserves, have joined the post, the membership roll is shorter than in past years.

Nationally, the Veterans of Foreign Wars has seen a decline in the total number of its posts, said spokeswoman Randi Law at the VFW’s national headquarters in Kansas City, Mo.

“We’ve seen a steady decline over the last several years, however, that decline cannot be attributed solely to financial difficulties,” Law said.

The rise of Internet connections has meant that some posts operate mostly online and no longer need a permanent building, she said.

“And though we are losing our older veterans, it’s inaccurate to suggest veterans of the modern era are not joining,” Law said. “Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan make up about 10 percent of our overall membership. This is a larger group than any previous war.”

Some VFW posts have consolidated or have closed their doors and hold meetings at other places, Law said.

For VFW Old Guard Post 2100, it’s definitely not a matter of disbanding, Wischmann said.

“We just need a more economical place in which to operate.”

The hope is that, if the building sells, the post will find a place to rent or to buy in the downtown area, with room for a lounge and dance floor, a kitchen and meeting room, Wischmann said. The idea is that the veterans services desk and the museum would move with the post, he said.

Todd Crooks, museum director, said he is waiting to hear what the VFW post plans to do. The museum includes uniforms, combat gear, letters from the front lines and other artifacts from each branch of the military and most U.S. wars. Unable to pay rent at its former space at the Seattle Center, the nonprofit museum was saved from a stuffed storage unit by the Everett VFW post, which offered the space earlier this year.

VFW chaplain Earl Stephens, who was instrumental in inviting the museum to Everett, said he is anxious that the museum stay in Everett. The museum is in the process of renaming itself the Veterans Heritage Museum.

“Our need is to have a permanent home,” Crooks said. “Because we don’t know if we can move with the post, I have sent letters to the city of Everett and Snohomish County asking for help. Perhaps our museum would be a good addition to the military aviation museums up at Paine Field.”

Wischmann tends bar in the post’s lounge during lunch time a few days a week. Some of the regulars and many of the members are sad about the potential sale and move, he said.

“It’s pretty emotional for those who have attachments to the building,” Wischmann said. “Most people would like to stay, but most understand that we really can’t. It’s a cool old building, and we have had some interest in its sale.”

The post also looked at other ways to stay put, he said.

“We even thought about getting the building on the National Register of Historic Places, which would have helped with taxes and the ability to get grants to fix it up, but we were told that building didn’t qualify.”

In the heyday of veterans organizations — the 1950s through the 1970s — VFW Post 2100 hosted dances, bingo games and dinners, he said.

“I’ve been told that there were nights when a person could not find a place to sit,” Wischmann said.

Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427; gfiege@heraldnet.com.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

A firefighter stands in silence before a panel bearing the names of L. John Regelbrugge and Kris Regelbrugge during the ten-year remembrance of the Oso landslide on Friday, March 22, 2024, at the Oso Landslide Memorial in Oso, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘Flood of emotions’ as Oso Landslide Memorial opens on 10th anniversary

Friends, family and first responders held a moment of silence at 10:37 a.m. at the new 2-acre memorial off Highway 530.

Julie Petersen poses for a photo with images of her sister Christina Jefferds and Jefferds’ grand daughter Sanoah Violet Huestis next to a memorial for Sanoah at her home on March 20, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. Peterson wears her sister’s favorite color and one of her bangles. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
‘It just all came down’: An oral history of the Oso mudslide

Ten years later, The Daily Herald spoke with dozens of people — first responders, family, survivors — touched by the deadliest slide in U.S. history.

Victims of the Oso mudslide on March 22, 2014. (Courtesy photos)
Remembering the 43 lives lost in the Oso mudslide

The slide wiped out a neighborhood along Highway 530 in 2014. “Even though you feel like you’re alone in your grief, you’re really not.”

Director Lucia Schmit, right, and Deputy Director Dara Salmon inside the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management on Friday, March 8, 2024, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
How Oso slide changed local emergency response ‘on virtually every level’

“In a decade, we have just really, really advanced,” through hard-earned lessons applied to the pandemic, floods and opioids.

Ron and Gail Thompson at their home on Monday, March 4, 2024 in Oso, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
In shadow of scarred Oso hillside, mudslide’s wounds still feel fresh

Locals reflected on living with grief and finding meaning in the wake of a catastrophe “nothing like you can ever imagine” in 2014.

Rep. Suzan DelBene, left, introduces Xichitl Torres Small, center, Undersecretary for Rural Development with the U.S. Department of Agriculture during a talk at Thomas Family Farms on Monday, April 3, 2023, in Snohomish, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Under new federal program, Washingtonians can file taxes for free

At a press conference Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene called the Direct File program safe, easy and secure.

Former Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy Jeremie Zeller appears in court for sentencing on multiple counts of misdemeanor theft Wednesday, March 27, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Ex-sheriff’s deputy sentenced to 1 week of jail time for hardware theft

Jeremie Zeller, 47, stole merchandise from Home Depot in south Everett, where he worked overtime as a security guard.

Everett
11 months later, Lake Stevens man charged in fatal Casino Road shooting

Malik Fulson is accused of shooting Joseph Haderlie to death in the parking lot at the Crystal Springs Apartments last April.

T.J. Peters testifies during the murder trial of Alan Dean at the Snohomish County Courthouse on Tuesday, March 26, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Bothell cold case trial now in jury’s hands

In court this week, the ex-boyfriend of Melissa Lee denied any role in her death. The defendant, Alan Dean, didn’t testify.

A speed camera facing west along 220th Street Southwest on Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2023 in Edmonds, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
New Washington law will allow traffic cams on more city, county roads

The move, led by a Snohomish County Democrat, comes as roadway deaths in the state have hit historic highs.

Mrs. Hildenbrand runs through a spelling exercise with her first grade class on the classroom’s Boxlight interactive display board funded by a pervious tech levy on Tuesday, March 19, 2024 in Marysville, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Lakewood School District’s new levy pitch: This time, it won’t raise taxes

After two levies failed, the district went back to the drawing board, with one levy that would increase taxes and another that would not.

Alex Hanson looks over sections of the Herald and sets the ink on Wednesday, March 30, 2022 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Black Press, publisher of Everett’s Daily Herald, is sold

The new owners include two Canadian private investment firms and a media company based in the southern United States.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.