The Eddy House at 440 218th Ave. SE in Sammamish is said to have historical value as a residence for members of three Indian tribes. It’s at risk of demolition for a development, say the Harry Shedds.
A quiet effort to save a house that is called historical in nature faces an uphill fight with the City of Sammamish.
Harry and Claradell Shedd want to prevent the demolition of the Eddy House at 440 218th Ave. SE, just north of Big Rock Park and South of SE 4th.
The boarded-up house is “a singular landmark-eligible residence of Indian tribal members’ importance,” they say. Members of the Duwamish, Yakima and Snoqualmie tribes have lived here, they said.
Sammamish is processing a development application from Quadrant Corp. that would result in tearing down the home, the Shedds say.
The Sammamish Heritage Society and the City have reached an impasse, they said.
“The impasse could have been avoided if the City staff had honored the Aug. 3, 2008, Interlocal Agreement for Landmark Services between King County and Sammamish,” the Shedds told Sammamish Comment.
“Now the City community finds itself potentially the victim of the demolition death knell with the appearance the City and Quadrant once again coalescing against the property rights of Sammamish residents,” the Shedds said.
Claradell Shedd told The Comment that they’ve spent hundreds of dollars and “endless hours” researching county records to document the historical nature of the Eddy House.
The Sammamish Heritage Society provided documents to the City over several months supporting preservation of the Eddy house.
Sammamish Comment 
Is there anything the community can do to influence the city and communicate our support?
WHY? This house is condemned and ugly. Why do we want to keep it?
They just rip down cool places like this and put up big ugly McMansions all crammed In next to each other adding to our traffic woes and creating more blight. These Quadrant neighborhoods are ugly IMHO.
I think Harry and Claradell do a lot of good work for the city and Citizens for Sammamish, but this is unreasonable. I am all for preserving buildings that have a true historical nature, like the City Church chapel in Issaquah, or even the Freed/Reard house.
This is an old dilapidated building that happened to house people who were Native American. That hardly qualifies it to be deemed ‘historic’. I hate the McMansions just as much as anyone else, but this is very clearly an attempt to stop development rather than doing the reasonable thing.
If you really want to stop development, you have to change the laws, codes, and ordinances. In Washington, that means doing it at the state level. That’s the only effective way to fix the runaway development in the city.
First of all, there is ZERO historical facts on this house. This house is ugly and dilapidated AND condemned. What would you people like to see done with it? –Keep it boarded up with squatters living in it? This is ridiculous.