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When a 128-year-old building in Bellevue was demolished a month ago, only a few people noticed that the structure was actually one of the oldest schools on the east side of Lake Washington.

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The Northup Schoolhouse was on 116th Avenue NE, just north of 520 and just east of 405, on the campus of The Little School, a private elementary.

It was built in 1891 by local residents who joined together to create School District 96. The need for a school symbolized how much the community was growing and changing, and thinking about ways to educate its youngest citizens, as well as provide a gathering place for public events.

The building was a classic wooden schoolhouse with a prominent bell tower that served the community for nearly 50 years. In 1940, a family named Grandrud bought the school and removed the belltower, and turned the building into a residence. In 1985, the Grandrud鈥檚 sold the property to , who had moved onto adjacent property in 1968.

鈥淣orthup鈥� is the name of road that runs from the Yarrow Bay area (near the border of Kirkland and Bellevue) east toward 405 and then south into the industrial area of Bellevue. According to a history of schools in Bellevue, 鈥渢he Northup name was derived from the James Northup family, who settled not far from Yarrow Bay in 1877.鈥�

The Little School

The Little School says that they needed space on their 10-acre campus for a new multipurpose facility to serve their 165 students, and they decided to tear down the old Northup Schoolhouse to make room.

Julie Kalmus is Head of School for The Little School. She wrote in an email, 鈥淭he Little School made numerous efforts to relocate the … structure. However, we were told that due to its remodeled condition, there were not any parties that were interested.鈥�

Kalmus didn鈥檛 respond to further inquiries seeking more details about efforts to relocate the building, such as who the structure was offered to and under what conditions.

Brian Westcott is a descendant of the Dunn family, who also settled in the area near the Northup Schoolhouse in the 1870s. He鈥檚 been in contact with The Little School in the past, and shared the history he鈥檚 researched over the years.

鈥淚 had provided them with the family history that’s pretty comprehensive regarding that school and the Dunn family and all that went on there at the turn of the century, and I’d offered to come back and speak with them,鈥� Westcott said. 鈥淲e’d visited a few times and got photographs of the outside of the school, but I hadn’t heard anything back from them. I was kind of surprised. Being a school, I figured they’d want to have some history.鈥�

Westcott didn鈥檛 learn of the demolition, or of any efforts to relocate Northup Schoolhouse until it was too late.

鈥淏eing a building tradesperson, I would have at least would have loved to have gone in and captured some of the elements some doors, some flooring whatever some pieces of history before it was sent to the scrapyard,鈥� Westcott said.

How Northup got tagged for demolition

Liz Stead, Land Use Director for the City of Bellevue, says The Little School followed the rules for seeking a demolition permit in the city, including public notice and public meetings. The part of the process that determined whether or not the building was worthy of being preserved involved The Little School or their consultants maintained by the state of Washington.

鈥淭his building was identified in the database as the Northup Schoolhouse, however, it was determined not eligible for historic significance,鈥� Stead said. 鈥淚t did not meet the criteria of either there having been a historic event in the building or … significant persons associated with it. There were no distinctive characteristics and that would be normally speaking about architectural characteristics. And nor were there any significant achievements in the building in the last 50 years.鈥�

What was surprising to learn is that the City of Bellevue has no historic preservation ordinance; that is, Bellevue has no certified historic preservation experts on staff to review permit applications, and no city laws that formally address whether or not a particular structure is worthy of preservation.

Here in Washington, that鈥檚 very unusual for a city of Bellevue鈥檚 size.

How it’s done in other cities

In King County, Seattle has its own ordinance and staff that administer the city landmark register. Unincorporated areas of the county are administered by . Additionally, several small to medium sized cities in King County contract with the county for historic preservation services through what are called 鈥渋nterlocal agreements鈥� or ILAs.

This is true of Kirkland, Redmond, Renton, Sammamish, Woodinville, North Bend, Newcastle, Snoqualmie, Issaquah, Kenmore, Kent, and many others.

Around the state, Spokane, Tacoma, Vancouver, and Everett have their own preservation programs. In terms of population, Bellevue is the largest city in the state by far that has no historic preservation program and no interlocal agreement.

There鈥檚 also a complicating factor with what Stead said in describing the process that property owners in Bellevue, such as The Little School, are supposed to follow when potentially historic resources are involved.

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鈥淭he problem with relying on the state database to determine whether there are historic properties in a location in King County is that oftentimes, local properties don鈥檛 get surveyed and entered into the state database,鈥� said King County Preservation Planner Todd Scott. 鈥淎nd the ones that are in the state database are generally evaluated for national register eligibility and not local eligibility.鈥�

To put it simply, Bellevue judges all potential historic properties on national criteria, not local criteria. This makes Bellevue different than almost any other community in the state.

There are dozens of landmarks in Seattle and all over King County that qualify as city or county landmarks for their local significance, but that would be unlikely to qualify for the National Register. It appears that somewhere between a third-and-a-half of landmarks in King County qualify only for the local landmark register.

What this means is that because there鈥檚 no one at the City of Bellevue with expertise in historic preservation, no historic preservation ordinance in place, and no interlocal agreement with King County, the Northup Schoolhouse 鈥� which might have easily qualified as a local landmark, as schoolhouses often do for what they represent and what role they play in a community鈥檚 history 鈥� fell through the cracks.

How Northup could still be saved

King County Councilmember Claudia Balducci — who is from Bellevue herself — says that in the past, there have been what she calls 鈥渇ire drills鈥� to try and save particular buildings in Bellevue that were threatened. She鈥檇 like to move things to the next level.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a little presumptuous of me, I have to say, as a King County Councilmember, to say what Bellevue ought to do,鈥� Councilmember Balducci said by phone last week. 鈥淏ut I feel ownership because of my relationship with the city and because I live here. I think it’s time for us to have a conversation so that we get out of 鈥榚mergency response mode,鈥� and more proactively into identifying the structures we should be preserving and actively doing this.鈥�

Similar sentiments were expressed by historic preservation consultants hired by the City of Bellevue more than 20 years ago. The consultants spent several months preparing an inventory of potential landmarks, and reached the same conclusion as Councilmember Balducci.

鈥淭he consultants recommend that the Bellevue Historical Society work with the City of Bellevue and with King County to consider the possibility of an interlocal agreement for the provision of preservation services,鈥� they wrote. 鈥淏ellevue has already lost many of its historic properties, and for a city of its size, it is surprising that Bellevue does not have a cultural resources program.鈥�

Now that two decades have passed since those words were written, is there any interest from the City of Bellevue to create their own historic preservation program or to enter into an 鈥渋nterlocal agreement鈥� for preservation services from King County to avoid what happened to the Northup Schoolhouse?

That鈥檚 hard to say. Stead wasn鈥檛 able to comment, and the city wasn鈥檛 able to make an elected official available to answer this bigger picture question.

Councilmember Claudia Balducci obviously cares about this issue. She says an interlocal agreement is worth exploring, but she also says it鈥檚 up to the City of Bellevue to initiate the conversation.

鈥淚 know that the county is willing to do so, and it would be up to the city to decide to want to join, but I’m not making that ask through the press,鈥� Balducci said. 鈥淚’m just saying that that opportunity is there any time the city wants to take advantage of it.鈥�

It might be up to Bellevue residents to really get this conversation started. Until then, it鈥檚 anybody鈥檚 guess what other potential local landmarks will fall through Bellevue鈥檚 historic preservation cracks.

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