KEY PENINSULA HISTORIC SOCIETY

Historic preservation of Vaughn Library Hall on the Key Peninsula, Pierce County, WA. Objective: This facility was restored to serve our entire community (about 20,000 people) for family events, community historical presentations, historical activities by our school children, and other community events. We have completed our remodeling of the building to its original condition from approximately circa 1893. It is the last remaining Community Hall on the Key Peninsula. The building is currently listed on the Pierce County and Washington State registers of Historic Buildings. We will soon be applying for Federal Historic landmark status. This building is now open for use by the general public. After the COVID-19 pandemic, we have returned to normal operations by serving our community during fiscal year 2024-2025. We constructed a "traveling" education exhibit on the Vaughn Library Hall which demonstrates our restoration progress, describes the historical significance of the building, and reached an additional 200 (estimated) citizens in fiscal year 2024-2025. Our dedicated team of volunteers spent approximately 10,000 hours (estimated) working to restore this building over the past several years. Total expenses for this program service accomplishment during fiscal year 2025-2026 were $343.

Museum displays and exhibits of historical significance to our local communities. Objective: To present the history of the life and times of the people who have lived, worked, and died in all the small communities on the Key Peninsula. Our community displays are created by our dedicated team of volunteers to provide a unique representation of each area on the Key Peninsula and were recently updated to highlight new artifacts and restored photographs and pictures which will serve to educate the general public about our local history for many years to come. Our annual exhibit features a different subject or topic each year. This past year depicted road development on the Key Peninsula from the early days of trails and dirt roads up to today's modern roadways and highlighted information about how each road received its name. Many published maps of the roads on the Key Peninsula were displayed to show how the roads developed and changed over the past 125 years and featured many restored photographs of road construction equipment used to build these roads during different periods of time. Our dedicated team of volunteers spent approximately 150 hours (estimated) researching and developing these displays and exhibits during the current fiscal year. Total expenses for this program service accomplishment during fiscal year 2025-2026 were $1,908.