Time & Again: From gathering spot to grocery store

Published 12:52 pm Wednesday, September 3, 2025

Late last year, King County Historic Preservation designated an old north end building as the only landmarked former Grange hall in King County — a major milestone for the building’s current owner, Jennifer Potter, who plans to soon open a neighborhood store named Heights Grocery in the historic building.

A celebration of the building’s landmark status will take place from 4-6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 6, on the building’s site at 10365 Cowan Rd SW, with plenty of parking available in the adjacent north end ferry dock’s parking lot.

For more than 70 years, the building has stood as an island gathering spot — first as the North End Community Center, then as the Vashon-Maury Grange Hall starting in early 1960s.

Heights Grocery will carry on that tradition, Potter said, with a community-centered market where islanders can find thoughtfully sourced food and chat with their neighbors including local growers.

The landmark celebration on Sept. 6, she added, will be a preview and celebration of what’s to come — a event boasting fresh lemonade and juicy watermelon, grilled hotdogs, live music from VasHonk band, face painting, corn-hole, and putt-putt golf for the kids.

Potter, who bought the Grange building in 2021, says she hopes to open her grocery store by next spring — fulfilling a long-time dream of creating a space for her community.

“This project has been a labor of love — and one of the longest love stories I have ever experienced,” she said.

So what is the deeper history of this old building and it’s place in the community?

Neighborhood stores

In the early 1900s, there were 16 community stores on Vashon and Maury Islands. These stores, oriented to the local community, were often at Mosquito Fleet steamer docks, and usually served as local post offices. Most are now gone, with the Harbor Mercantile Store in Burton, and The Minglement, at Center, the only remaining stores outside the collection of stores in Vashon’s town core.

This consolidation of stores from many to a few was a feature during much of the first half of the 20th century. The island also saw the consolidation of schools from more than 25 local primary and secondary schools to the current handful, the consolidation of post offices from 16 to 1, and most strikingly, the consolidation of ferry docks from 32 steamer docks and three auto ferry docks in the early 1920s to the current two docks, one at the north end and one at the south end of the island.

The original Heights Grocery — a name that Potter said she chose for her store without knowing its history — was one of these stores, located just down the hill from Cowan Road on the highway leading to the north end ferry dock. It opened in 1913 when the Broussard family constructed a store at the Heights steamer dock.

When the dock became the primary automobile ferry route to Seattle in 1919, Broussard’s Heights grocery store became a frequent stop for those traveling between Seattle and Vashon.

With the paving of Vashon Highway from Center to the Heights Dock in 1920, and the installation of a gasoline pump, the store flourished. Heights Grocery remained in business until the building slid into Puget Sound in January 1950. After being rebuilt, though, it was destroyed by fire in December of that same year. The store was rebuilt again and reopened later in several incarnations under different owners — including as a waterfront restaurant. It now serves as an apartment building, and was also in recent years the site of the Mermaid Market.

Grange building

The Grange building on Cowan Road that will house Potter’s new Heights Grocery was originally built in 1953 as a new home for the Vashon Heights Community Club.

The club was developed as the Heights area became more densely populated and provided a place for the community to meet and socialize. It had several fitful starts in the 1920s but it was not until after World War II, with the influx of new residents, that the club became a reality.

It was incorporated in 1947 with 37 charted members, including officers Mable and Joe Rand, Ken McGregor, June Woodward, and Joe Micelli. In October 1947, the club acquired property to build a clubhouse.

Dorthea and Dean Miller, who converted a garage into a temporary clubhouse, hosted club meeting, dances, and parties until enough funds were raised to begin construction of the clubhouse in 1951. By 1952, the foundation and floor were constructed, and in September 1953, the first dinner and dance were held in the new building.

The building is distinctive on Vashon because it is constructed of peeled logs set vertically. The Sportsman’s Club and the Rand Realty building (most recently occupied by Island Quilter and located just north of AJ’s coffee stand on Vashon Highway) are the only other known vertical log structures on the island. (The Rand Realty building has long been covered with siding.) Joe Rand and builder Deb Harrington were involved in the design and construction of all three buildings.

The Vashon-Maury Grange #1105 was charted in 1941 and first met at the Island Club (in Ober Park), and after World War II moved to the Oddfellows Hall (The Blue Heron Education Center). In 1961, the Grange accepted ownership of the Heights Community Club building for $1.

It is not clear why the Heights Community Club gave up the building, but like many community clubs at the time they were dealing with changing attitudes and interests. The club donated the $640 they had remaining in their treasury to the Vashon Ambulance Fund. The next year, the Grange remodeled the building, adding a kitchen, heating, and restrooms. And in 1970, the Grange expanded the building adding a 36 x 14-foot addition along the south side of the original building.

The Grange remained active until the 1990s and into the early 2000s, providing a venue for classes, meetings, concerts, and an annual “Hippie Thanksgiving” gathering. But by the mid-2010s, there were only four or five active “characters” involved in the Grange, according to rental manager Will Forester, and in 2018 it closed.

In 2021, The Washington State Grange sold the building to north end resident Jennifer Potter, who continued the tradition of hosting events in the building. But Potter also announced her intent to open a her grocery store in the former clubhouse, stating that hers was one of of multiple households on the north end that “have desired to have access to basic goods in an otherwise food desert.”

“A cozy, well-stocked market can be the heart and hub of a neighborhood,” she said at the time of her purchase. “And we islanders love to gather — for a cup of coffee or just a good old chat in the aisles.”

According to Potter, the island’s old buildings can — and should be — renovated rather than demolished once they’ve outlived their original purpose — calling her project “the epitome of adaptive use.”

Holly Taylor, of Past Forward NW Cultural Services, developed the King County Landmark nomination for the Grange building , and will give an online talk at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 9, sponsored by the Vashon Heritage Museum. Visit vashonheritagemuseum.org to register for the free talk, which will discuss the two newest King County Landmarks on the island, the Vashon-Grange Hall and the Fujioka Farm.

Taylor will also focus on past historic preservation efforts on the island and how islanders can get involved in preserving historic places.

When the new Heights Grocery finally opens, it will be a return to older island traditions, and “a place that belongs to this community,” said Potter.

Bruce Haulman is an island historian. Terry Donnelly is an island photographer. This article is part of their ongoing “Time & Again” series of history article in The Beachcomber.