Shoreline Historical Museum Closes Deal on New Home

After several rounds of meetings and negotiations since 2008, the bottom line was the Shoreline Historical Museum was going to have to move along.

And so it has, closing on a sale on a new home, while ending a nearly 35-year run at the historic Ronald School. 

On Dec. 30, the Shoreline Historical Museum closed the deal on its new digs at 18501 Linden Ave. North. Members of the museum's board and others plan to help move items being stored at Sunset Elementary in Shoreline into the new building during the next few months.

"We're excited to be moving forward," the museum's executive director Vicki Stiles said. "It's an exciting opportunity for us to do some new things. That's the best way to look at it."

The museum, which had called the Ronald School on North 175th St. home since it opened in 1976, is moving to make way for the new Shorewood High School. The museum's board wanted to stay in the building but the school district and its architect Lorne McConachie wanted the building, originally used a school, to be incorporated into the design of the new building. A months of negotiations and weighing of options, a deal was eventually reached last year for the district to pay the museum $800,000 for the building if the museum found a new home.

The museum bought the Linden Ave. property from FMAB Properties Inc. LLC for $800,000. The museum used money from the sale of its previous home, the Ronald School, to the Shoreline School District, and a $125,000 grant from 4Culture of King County to buy the building. 

The new museum sits on a six-tenths of an acre property and the building is 2,400 square feet, about a sixth of the size of the Ronald School. The building north of the new museum site will serve as an office for Stiles and the museum. Plans are to move into offices by the end of January and the museum by the end of March.

The museum has more than 10,000 artifacts and 8,000 photos. Only a portion will be on display in the smaller space. A large archive of research materials such as news clippings and genealogical files exists as well.