Photo by Diane Guthrie
Duvall Historical Society members stand in front of the Dougherty House: (l-r) Ruth Bellamy, Don Williams, Mae Kosters, Kathleen Williams, Dolores Shroeder, Tove Burhen, Velma Hill, Verle Bowe and Ray Burhen.

Photo courtesy of the Duvall Historical Society
The Dougherty House in the late 1980s.

Community invited to April 22 celebration

Street names, buildings and books bear the imprint of the Duvall Historical Society. Since 1976 its members have been working to preserve history.

Many streets in Duvall running east and west have names, not numbers. In 1982 and 1983 the Society submitted a list of names of early settlers to the city to propose street names. Names such as Allen, Anderson, Beadonhall, Comegys, Dougherty, Miller, Roney.

A seven-foot-long bench with reinforced cast concrete ends and four planks sits outside the Post Office. In 1985 then-President Bob Weller and founding member Ray Burhen designed it and had the Monroe Reformatory cast it. They donated it so that older people who walked to the Post Office could rest. “Bob was the mainspring that made it work,” Ray said.

Perhaps it’s not surprising that this bench is there. Velma Hill, a founding member, was Duvall’s postmaster from 1940 to 1978.

During Duvall Days the Historical Society participates in the parade and usually wins awards.

At 26526 NE Cherry Valley Road sits a two-story house that would not be there today if not for the Society. It was built in 1888 and since 1983 the Duvall Historical Society has worked to save, stabilize, restore and maintain this house called Dougherty House and the surrounding acreage.

Ray wrote an article for the April 2001 edition of the “Wagon Wheel” titled “The Long, Tenuous Saga of Saving the Dougherty House.” Mary Lampson, the editor, noted, “The source of his knowledge is all the blood, sweat, and tears he has put into this project over many, many years.”

Ray said, “The Dougherty House is a standard, old typical house. There aren’t many left anymore.” He is glad that now the city of Duvall owns the Dougherty House and that King County owns the surrounding acreage and that it is on the National Register of Historic Places. “That means that it will remain for the public’s use and stay in perpetuity,” he said.

The interior of the Dougherty House is maintained and furnished by the Society. Secretary Ruth Bellamy is in charge of maintaining the yard.

Members of the Society research, record and publish history.

They publish a newsletter called the “Wagon Wheel” which has articles in it about the history of Duvall and notices of the activities of the Society. From its first publication in 1981 they’ve had four editors: Dolores Schroeder, Mary Lampson, Bob Kosters and Tove Burhen.

“Bob Kosters was never satisfied until he had established the truth,” said Vice President Tove Burhen. He did research all over King County, collected census and birth and death records.

His widow, Mae, has a large collection of historic photographs that were, and still are being, used.

Books that they’ve published are available at the Duvall Family Drugs. Mae saved student newspapers from the 1930s and they are published in “Hi Times.” Other publications are “Duvall Immigrant” by Ralph S. Taylor, “Wagon Wheel Vignettes of Duvall’s Historical Past” volumes one (November 1981 to December 1991) and two (February 1992 to April 2001), “Jist Cogitatin” by Don Funk and “Digging Duvall’s Past” by Allen Miller, president of the Society in 1981 and 1982.

President Don Williams and Miller are writing a book about the history of Duvall from the time when American Indian tribes were the only ones here to the current day. Williams said, “Some history is never written. Each time someone writes about it they can add something new.”

In 2005 Williams designed bronze plaques to place on historic building entryways on Main Street. Cyril Heavens, a woodworker, helped install them. The plaque at P & G Speakeasy Café reads “1911. Formerly Franke’s Shoes, Judge Wright’s Office, Carnavall Reporter Office.”

Members of the Society invite people to join them in helping preserve history. Here are some ways.

Celebrate the Society’s 30-year anniversary with them on Saturday, April 22nd, from 12 noon to 4 p.m. at the Dougherty Farmstead at 26526 NE Cherry Valley Road. View outdoor pioneer demonstrations of horse-drawn machinery, butter churning, rope making, cider pressing, scrub-board laundry, ax and handsaw use. Tour the inside of the house and enjoy cake and coffee.

During Duvall Days on June 3rd, watch the parade and applaud the Society entry. Browse their display of logging photographs at the Depot near McCormick Park.

Attend a Society meeting. It meets the first Monday of every month but July and August at 7:30 p.m. at the Dougherty House.

Tour the Dougherty House on Sunday from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., May through September.

Join the Society and receive their monthly “Wagon Wheel” newsletter. Annual membership is $5.

Pick up the brochure “Historic Places in Duvall” from City Hall that the Society created with the help of a grant from the King County Landmark and Heritage Commission and walk the historic downtown.

Learn about the history of Duvall via tours and presentations from members. Go further. Learn more about Duvall’s history and give tours, be a docent, for the Society.

Several Eagle Scouts have completed projects for the Society. Contact Alana McCoy, City of Duvall liaison to the Society, for Scout participation. Her phone number is 425-788-3434.

The Society owns Cherry Valley Pioneer Cemetery just west of the Dougherty House. Offer to mow the lawn and do yard work.

Help renovate the eight-man logger bunk house near Dougherty House. Build bunks. Donate furnishings such as a small old table and wood stove, wooden chairs and stools, kerosene lamps, saws, ax, logging clothing.

Make use of the materials that the Society has collected over the years to research your family history. Williams is currently helping a descendant of the Bird family do research. She lives in West Australia.

Contribute funds. The Duvall Historical Society is a non-profit corporation and registered with the Internal Revenue Service as a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) corporation.

  Contribute a photo to their photo collection. In the January 2000 newsletter the Society encouraged people to submit a photograph to “show folks of the future what Duvall residents did and what things looked like in the year 2000.” They wrote, “Someday we’ll be history too!”

Be a part of Duvall’s history.