A New Museum is Opening in South King County!

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By Cheri Sayer

The Highline Historical Society has a well-established presence in South King County, and soon it will have a new home and it’s very own Museum!  Founded as the Burien Heritage Society in 1994, it soon merged with the Friends of the Highline School District and became the Highline Historical Society.  They have been an active society, with a small exhibit space at the SeaTac City Hall for quite a few years.  The Highline community has been the largest area in the State of Washington without a local history museum, so this effort has been a long-time goal of the Society.
           
The community of Highline is not a governmental entity, but a school district, known locally as “401” or the Highline School District.  The Society defines Highline as being bounded on the north by Seattle city limits, on the west by Puget Sound, and on the south at 252nd Street, just at Salt Water State Park.  Hwy 5 forms most of the eastern boundary.  It covers White Center, Burien, Normandy Park, SeaTac, part of Des Moines and a portion of unincorporated King County.

The first Seattle-Tacoma highway, which passed through this area, was called the High Line, as opposed to the valley or river route between the two cities.  In 1924, when the high school was built, there was a contest to name the school, and Highline was selected as the winning name.

The Museum is new but they have been preserving stories, collecting artifacts, and providing programs for a very long time under the leadership of Cyndi Upthegrove. They will still maintain their display space at City Hall, with a rotating exhibit each quarter.
                           
Current exhibit at SeaTac City Hall – Angle Lake Light Rail Station

A capital campaign over the last few years has been instrumental in funding the Museum project.  The communities that make up Highline have contributed to the campaign, and many have made smaller donations.  In addition, they received a grant of $328,000 from the Washington Capital Heritage Fund (which required matching funds), and from King County from the final payoff of bonds for the Kingdome.

The opening of the Museum means the Society is taking on a new name – The Highline Heritage Museum.  The staff and volunteers have been busy working with their architect and contractors to design the new museum in an existing building at 819 SW 152nd Street in old town Burien.  They are putting the finishing touches on the space and the exhibits are going in concurrently.  The Museum is planning their grand opening and ribbon-cutting for Friday afternoon, June 14, 2019, from 4-6 pm (bring scissors to help cut the ribbon).  We are all invited!
         
                 
Ribbon cutting, music, and the Strawberry Festival in Burien
           
On April 8 I met up with Jeanie McCain, Director’s Assistant, and she showed me around the new museum.  The entrance space will also have a gift shop.  Spread throughout the museum are four spaces for rotating exhibits, along with many permanent display areas.  One of the rotating exhibit spaces is a display case viewable from the outside to entice visitors into the museum.  The conference room space will also be used for exhibits, and one of the first rotating exhibits will be on WWI.  The Museum collections are wide-ranging, and the displays will be impressive.  Use of the area by Native populations, geology, wildlife, and geography will be covered. There are display areas for some of the local communities, like Normandy Park, and there will be a school section with lockers for different eras like the 50’s and 60’s. The airport, newspapers, and the trolley line will all have exhibit spaces.

The research area is toward the back of the building, providing archival space for their collections on-site.  Community collections, personal collections from families, Burien businesses, the airport, the School District, the Highline Times newspapers, and many more focus areas will have archival space.

Included in this area is a computer station with internet access for genealogy research with Ancestry Library Edition available.  Many other items such as obituaries, oral histories on tape or transcript, and yearbooks may help with your research.

Banner on the new Highline Heritage Museum

The Museum is administered by a Board of Trustees.  The Director of the Museum is Nancy Salguero McKay.  A new Curator, Sarah Bliss, is expected to join the staff in the fall.  The Museum hours will be Tuesday-Sunday, noon to 5:00 pm, and on First Fridays from 5 – 9 pm.   You will be able to access the Museum for research on Wednesdays by contacting the Museum at (206) 402-4209 after June 14 or e-mail info@highlinehistory.org.   The Museum will be located at 819 SW 152nd St., Burien, WA 98166.  If you can’t make the grand opening, do visit this new Museum over the summer.

Check out their webpage and sign up for their newsletter at https://highlinehistory.org/

Follow them on Facebook

Ref: Information for this article was derived from the Highline Heritage Museum website resources, the tour, and interviews with Jeanie McCain.
Cheri Sayer

                                                         

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