Vashon’s heritage association hopes to expand its reach in 2015, beginning with the purchase of a historical building next door to the heritage museum.

The Vashon-Maury Island Heritage Association is again under contract to purchase the historical home that was once the parsonage of the Lutheran church where the museum is located. Though the sale hasn’t closed, volunteers are swiftly working to round out fundraising for a down payment and have already envisioned a historical education center that could one day be housed there.

“I have been a huge proponent of this,” said Deb Dammann, president of the heritage association’s board. “I feel strongly that it is something that should happen for Vashon, and in time it’s going to prove itself as being our logical expansion as an institution that is going to move more and more into the heart of this community and be used more and more by people.”

When the 1910-era parsonage just west of the heritage museum on Bank Road went on the market earlier this year, the heritage association jumped on the opportunity and quickly began fundraising to purchase the house and expand the museum’s campus. In the spring, ir negotiated a $450,000 purchase and garnered a $40,000 grant from King County 4Culture to help fund a down payment.

However, just as the heritage association was raising funds from islanders, the sale fell through. The nonprofit asked for a lower purchase price in order to make some needed repairs, but the seller didn’t budge.

“I always had a little glimmer of hope,” Dammann said. “I think there were other people who were less optimistic and more realistic than I am who thought we missed our chance and someone else would buy it.”

But no one else did buy it, and the house, owned by islanders Bruce Kleiman and Nathan Kibler, was eventually listed at a lower price, $399,950, and the heritage association made another offer. Dammann said the heritage association is not yet able to say their final purchase price, but the group is now looking to raise about $160,000 for a down payment. Should all go well, the sale will close late this year or early next year.

Some people who gave to the association’s first fundraising effort have maintained their pledges, and the group sent out another round of fundraising letters last month. As of Monday, the nonprofit had a mortgage loan in place and less than $20,000 left to raise.

“We’re very grateful to everyone who has participated,” Dammann said.

The home’s owners could not be reached for comment. Their realtor, Susan Lofland, noted that the sale is not yet a done deal, but said she believes everyone involved is optimistic.

Should the sale go through, the heritage association will begin renting the house as a private residence to help pay the mortgage while it plans for the future. In the works is a heritage education center that board members say would complement the existing museum and could provide space for children’s activities, classes and historical research.

Retiring the debt on the house and creating such a center will require more fundraising, but volunteers say they hope to be able to open the new center in five to 10 years.

“We’d like to do a better job of reaching some new audiences on the island,” said Kathy Sider, who is on the board of the heritage association. “We’d really like to connect better with families and children. The vision for the parsonage is we will really have an educational center that will be an interactive place.”

Though official planning hasn’t started, board members say the house has been well maintained and its owner has even made upgrades. The nonprofit will make repairs to the roof and foundation before outfitting it to appear as much as possible as it did as a parsonage in the early 1900s.

“When available to the public, it will be one of the few places on the island where kids can go and see what a house looked like in that era, and that’s an unusual thing,” Dammann said. “Especially for kids who haven’t traveled much, to see how people lived back in the day.”

Beyond that, the two-story, 1,400-square-foot building could also include educational and interactive exhibits related to the island’s history, a room for lectures and programs for children and adults and a space for historical research. Dammann said they’d like to partner more with local schools, and there is a big demand from the public to research Vashon history and genealogy, but the cramped museum doesn’t have much space to dedicate to it. It is also running out of space for its archives.

“I think this is really going to expand what the museum can do,” said Bruce Haulman, an island historian and another board member.

The pending purchase comes at a time when Haulman and a committee of volunteers have already been planning a makeover of the heritage museum’s permanent exhibit, which has been mostly unchanged since the museum opened a dozen years ago. Haulman said they plan to unveil a new permanent exhibit as soon as next summer. It will continue to focus on the island’s history, he said, but will hopefully appeal to a wider audience by having more interactive elements.

“It’s not a particularly kid-friendly museum. There’s not a lot you can get your hands on,” he said.

They also hope to better reflect Vashon’s diversity, he said. For instance, more could be included on the history of Vashon’s hispanic population and gay residents.

“Vashon has the highest percentage of LGBT people in the state,” Haulman said. “How do we make it more inclusive and make the exhibits really reflect who we are as a community?”

This time, the museum also has help from Atlas Fine Art Services, a museum design company owned by a couple who recently moved to Vashon. The pair has designed exhibits for museums across the country and recently helped with the heritage museum’s current exhibit on Vashon’s Native people, one of the most well-attended temporary exhibits to date.

“They’re very creative about how to develop exhibits and reach different audiences,” Haulman said. “They’ve already given us a lot of advice.”

As for the parsonage, volunteers say the acquisition isn’t necessary to reach more people, but would help greatly.

“All these ideas about audience and interaction, meaningful education, would be well served by the parsonage,” Sider said.

Dammann said that the heritage association is continuing to fundraise, and extra funds raised will go toward a larger down payment.

“There is the theory that people give at the end of the year for tax reasons,” she said. “I think now that VAA has funding and has broken ground, hopefully the museum is more on the map than it was at the beginning of the year.”