Susan Blalock knows her plan to save Edmonds’ Pink House is far from a sure thing.
“It is a race against time,” she said. “We realize it is a risk. But we are willing to take the gamble.”
Blalock has signed a month-to-month lease for the historic home as she pursues her vision: turning the Pink House into the “Rose House,” a Center for Creative and Humanitarian Endeavors, a non-profit center dedicated to advancing the arts, the environment, and community conversations.
The center has already received preliminary non-profit approval by Washington state, and is working on federal non-profit status. Blalock can accept donations as a non-profit, she said.
But even as she and her supporters grow the Rose House network, the home’s owners are actively trying to sell it. A real-estate sign in the front yard obscures the home’s famous rose bushes.
A sale, Blalock concedes, “could happen any day.”
Someday, Blalock hopes the non-profit can afford to purchase the house itself. Until then, there are reasons for hope, said Blalock, whose resume includes a 30-year long career in non-profit management and fundraising.
First, the ornate 102-year-old, Victorian-style home is still standing.
Last year, the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation listed the home as one of the eight buildings on its Most Endangered Properties list after it was purchased in January 2008 by Edmonds-based MaverickLabel.com, a company that hoped to move the house, and build a new corporate headquarters on the property.
But the tightening credit market eventually put that plan “on pause mode,” company president Rick Kent said in November.
Blalock also puts hope in the community.
As news spread last summer that the Pink House was in danger, community members cobbled together multiple unsuccessful attempts to save it.
Already, Blalock and a newly assembled four-person board of directors for the Rose House have thrown two successful fundraisers.
“It was amazing how many people have a connection to this house. They love it,” said Leah Wall, treasurer of the board.
Coupling that love with a concept that could unite, has excited the community, Wall said.
“Edmonds is ready for something like this,” she said. “There are already a lot of cool little stores, and cool little events, but there’s not a place for everything to come together.”
For now, Blalock is hoping community groups will sponsor the Rose House on a monthly basis, giving her time to pursue major donations that could eventually be used to purchase the home.
She’s made brief presentations to some community groups, like the Downtown Edmonds Merchants Association, and to the city council.
Those have yielded support. Strom Peterson, a past president of DEMA and a current councilmember, said the downtown business community was encouraging.
“It is an ambitious project,” Peterson said. “But if it could work anywhere, that is where it would work.”
Councilmember Dave Orvis said he’s exploring whether the house could be added to the city’s capital project purchase list.
Timing, of course, is Blalock’s issue, she said.
The Rose House’s monthly rent is $2,350, plus utilities, and the clock on first month’s lease started ticking on Valentine’s Day.
Reporter Chris Fyall: 425-673-6525 or cfyall@heraldnet.com
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