As can happen during the summer months of vacations, last Thursday’s meeting of the Cheney Historic Preservation Commission was canceled due to lack of a quorum. In an email, commission administrative assistant Susan Beeman said all of the agenda items for the Aug. 4 meeting will transfer to a Sept. 1 meeting, including review of an application for consideration of including the Cheney School District’s Fisher Building on the local historic register.
A public hearing on the application and nomination will also be scheduled for the September meeting, which begins at 5:15 p.m. in the City Hall Council Chambers.
The registry applicant, Sean Barnes of Eastmark Capital Group in Seattle, is currently in the process of purchasing the Fisher Building from the school district. The building first opened in 1931 as Cheney High School, and later served as the district’s junior high school and then administrative offices before being declared surplus in May 2013 as the district began moving administrative functions to its new property on Needham Hill northeast of the city.
Eastmark is the fourth group to enter into a contract with the school district to purchase the Fisher Building, which was originally appraised at a sale value of $1.055 million in 2013. The resale amount has decreased each year since then, with Eastmark’s purchase price set at $750,000.
Beeman said Barnes is working with the state’s Department of Archeology and Historic Preservation in getting the Fisher Building qualified to receive federal tax credits for historic preservation.
“To do so, he has to meet more stringent standards for historic preservation than what is typically required at the local level,” Beeman added.
In a lengthy building description on the Cheney application, Barnes notes the Fisher Building “is an excellent example of institutional architecture employing elements of the Collegiate Gothic Style.” Citing Eastern Washington University Archeological and Historical Preservation Services program director’s Stephen Emerson’s “Central Cheney Historic National Registry District,” Barnes notes the building was designed by Spokane’s George Rasque, a prominent and “favored builder of public structures in Washington State” at the time.
The application also notes the Fisher Building has been previously determined to be eligible for inclusion on the Cheney registry, and is recorded in the Cheney Inventory of Historic Places, being within the bounds of the historic district and a “contributing property within the district.”
The building is named after George Fisher, who “spent 36 years working at Cheney High School,” serving as principal from 1945 until retirement in 1969. Fisher was also Cheney mayor from 1966 – 1972.
John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.
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