The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

WAITSBURG - Few Waitsburgers will forget how on Sunday, Sept. 6 last year, the town sirens wailed in the predawn hours and the sky north of Main Street was lit up with the orange glow of a huge fire.

Many gathered on the bridge to see how the town's largest historic structure and once its economic heartbeat, the abandoned Wait's four mill, was engulfed in flames so big firefighters could only contain the blaze and watch its stories collapse one by one.

Within hours, the 145-year-old building that was about to be restored to some of its former glory and bore the hopes of many as a future tourist attraction lay in smoke and ashes in the morning breeze.

A year later, there are few if any clues about the cause of the fire, which was nonetheless ruled "suspicious" by investigators late last year. Despite citizens' rewards totaling $10,000 for information leading to the arrest of a possible arsonist, lead investigator Walla Walla County Sheriff's Deputy Brian Bush said officials aren't any closer to knowing why or how the mill met its fiery end.

But the city moved on.

Determined to make something out of Waitsburg's economic cradle on the town's edge, city leaders agreed to request a redirect of the foundation funds for the mill's restoration and create a conceptual plan for a new structure.

And just as the town marks the first anniversary of the gut-wrenching fire that took its historic gemin the-rough, the details of the architects' plan are being presented to the council and the community. "The plan is ambitious and, if fully implemented, would be very expensive, but if we were able to do it, it would be second to none," said Jeff Broom, the member of the Waitsburg Community Revitalization Committee that has spearheaded the mill restoration initiative. The vision for the Wait's mill site is that of a multi-level interactive interpre­tive museum that celebrates Waitsburg's history at the heart of Washington's wheat country and includes a place for gatherings, performances and the possible addition of a small working mill. Following several public sessions and redrafts with input from the city's revital­ization committee, Seattle-based architects Jones Jones' concept for the mu­seum grounds proposes a complex of nearly 10,000 square feet of space under various roofs: a central mu­seum

of 4,500 square feet that recalls the history of the town and mill, displays vari­ous exhibits, showcases his­toric milling machinery and has a changing gallery for temporary traveling exhibits; a 1,920-square-foot interpre­tive

center; a 2,535-square-foot lobby with a gift store, ticketing and rest rooms; and a 685-square-foot space for administration offices and meetings. The 5,500-square feet outdoor structures and land­scaping include an entry plaza, outdoor exhibits of big machinery and an events ter­race. The conceptual design includes the possible staging of a wheat-loading exhibit using railroad carts on the track adjacent to the mill and the installation of a replica waterwheel like the one used to power the flour operation in its early years before the arrival of electricity. According to the plan, "visitors arrive in front of a building which is reminiscent of Wait's Mill. "While not a replica, the experience is intended to bring back memories of the original structure - from the types of forms and materials the building is comprised of, to the way the sun reflects off the siding in the late af­ternoon."

Jones Jones also rec­ommend that the site be integrated with other historic attractions in Waitsburg.

"The Wait's Mill facility has a unique opportunity to reconnect its past community and economic building land­scape

north of the river with the town's origin as a place of settlement and commerce south of the river between the Touchet and the Coppei."

In that way, the new mu­seum can be tied in with such landmarks as the downtown core, Bruce Museum, Pres­ton

Hall and the Fairgrounds through maps, interpretive brochures and panels, the architects suggested in their 42-page presentation.

The conceptual plan for the new museum complex is designed to be implemented in phases over a decade or more. Phase I includes the lobby, administration and conference space, changing gallery and events terrace, while Phase II calls for the construction of the interpre­tive center and water/power house, and Phase III ac­commodates the permanent exhibits, large machinery and outdoor exhibits. The possible working mill is envisioned as a private- sector business venture to be sited next to the changing gallery building and could contribute to the facility's revenues through a long-term lease. The architect estimated the total cost of the entire 10-year project to be about $7.5 million, but Broom cautioned that this number includes nearly $500,000 in architec­tural

costs, all the bells and whistles of a turnkey facility, and that it is based on purely commercial rates without any local in-kind contribu­tions. "As we discover what sort of funding is available, we might make adjustments to the project's scope or phas­ing," he said, also pointing out that an important goal for the facility is to become self-sustaining. "Part of the work in the next few months is to re­search similar facilities to learn how they sustain their operations," he said.