Ebey's Landing National Historical Reserve The Land, The People, The Place: An Introduction to the Inventory

INTRODUCTION

Ebey's Landing National Historical Reserve was established by an act of Congress in 1978 in order "to preserve and protect a rural community which provides an unbroken historic record from nineteenth century exploration and settlement of Puget Sound up to the present time . . ." (Public Law 95-625, November 10, 1978). Patterns of settlement beginning with the first Donation Land claims and the subsequent historic development of the area are visible today in the physical landscape. Pioneer homes and landscape remnants reveal a continuous history of man s interaction with the immediate environment, a dynamic and long-lasting process that gives physical expression to the everyday workings of the community.

There are various reasons that account for continuity in Ebey's Landing. One very important one is the land. Of the 17,400 acres that make up the reserve, 5,500 acres or approximately 42 percent is agricultural land. Most of that is concentrated in three natural prairies including Smith Crockett and Ebey's Prairie, the latter containing some of the island's most productive farmland. Other natural land features also influenced original and subsequent settlement. For example, the three major ridges on the reserve are densely wooded and greatly restricted access to farmable land -- a primary need for early settlers. In addition, these ridges physically channelled development into the open lands, shaping broad patterns of settlement and transportation.

Another important reason for the continuity in the reserve is the people. In our historically mobile society, it is rather remarkable to consider that of the nine original white settlers on Ebey's Prairie in the 1850s, eight were still living there in 1810. Even more remarkable, some of their descendents still make the reserve their home today.

The area has special designation -- national historical reserve -- because this kind of visible continuity through time is rare in any contemporary community. Most often change erases traces of the past. We build and add to our environments in a constant effort to renew and replace the old. Preserving the past often means setting something aside and protecting it from change. The reserve is different. It is a community of people that continually reshape their surroundings. They live and work in a place that has been minimally impacted by urban growth pressures and still continues to evolve as a vital living system.

No living system remains static. In nature, seasonal changes are visible. Trees leaf-out in spring and lose their leaves in fall. Old plants die and are replaced by new ones. In cultures and societies, the goals and values of one generation are not the same for another.

Architectural styles, farming practices, and transportation systems all change, reflecting different human needs and purposes. The land itself is a dynamic system that reflects those changes as it is shaped and reshaped over time. In Ebey's Landing, the way settlers farmed and the kinds of crops they grew in 1880 are different than the farming techniques and crops of today. What is of national significance is that after one hundred years, most of that same early pattern of land use -- the mix of farm, forest, village and shoreline -- still remains. There is a strong sense of the past in the present cultural landscape.

This report is an attempt to describe and document the continuing presence of the past in Ebey's Landing National Historical Reserve. It consists of two volumes, this one and a second containing individual inventory cards for every building built within the reserve before World War II, as well as individual cards describing each half-section of land within this rural historic district. Residents seeking to understand the reserve and its historical and landscape evolution will find this a useful, if brief, introduction. For the members of the Trust Board and local governments, this report and the cards will assist in communicating to all the residents of the reserve the past traditions of land use and building styles that they are mandated to help maintain.

One short note about methodology may be appropriate. During the summer of 1983, a team of three historians and two landscape architects photographed and described every pre-World War II building and the entire landscape of the reserve. Those efforts took the form of inventory cards, included in Volume II of this report. During 1984, the National Park Service will complete an amendment to the National Register nomination for Ebey's Landing, adding to the nineteenth century buildings included in the original nomination, the twentieth century buildings that also contribute to the historic integrity of the district. Designation of these contributing buildings may be found on the inventory cards. This report, "The Land, the People, and the Place" is a summary of what that summer team learned about Ebey's Landing National Historical Reserve, about a community of people who came early and stayed, people who lived long and rather gently on the land, shaping a cultural landscape and creating a special sense of place.