While the age of technology has allowed people to transition away from the tools and concepts of the past, preserving parts of history is a common staple in most societies. Whether it be automobiles, video game consoles or fashion styles, many items can be tracked back to their creation and sometimes found in their mint condition. For one city in Grays Harbor County, preserving history doesn’t come in the form of an item but a place.
The city of Hoquiam is looking to continue its Historic Olympic Stadium Preservation Project. Since 2018, Hoquiam has made nearly $3 million in improvements at Olympic Stadium including a new fire suppression system, new front entryway, structural repairs, new siding and a new Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliant restroom as well as on-field enhancements. On Friday, Oct. 28, Hoquiam city officials met with Rep. Derek Kilmer (D-Gig Harbor) and District 24 Position 1 Democrat Rep. Mike Chapman to discuss future phases of improvement and funding opportunities.
“I think with $2 million, we could do almost everything outside of turf and we may never do turf,” said Brian Shay, the Hoquiam city administrator, during a presentation of the stadium. “If we were to do turf, that’s probably a $3 to $4 million project out here and we’d need a lot of help.”
According to Shay, the city is looking to convert the current field lighting, which costs a flat fee of $100 to simply turn on, to the more cost-effective and less energy-required LED variety. The project would cost around $700,000. The city is also looking at adding more restrooms, repairs to the seating area and improving ADA accessibility among other things.
“You look at the current seating and it’s hard for a lot of people to get up and down to their seats,” Shay said. “So, we’d like to make some changes to have certain sections that are a lot more accessible for people to get to.”
Kilmer and Chapman, who are both up for re-election in the upcoming midterms, were both eager to see more funding go to the stadium and said that they could co-opt bills that could help the stadium achieve up to $2 million in funding, but that the city of Hoquiam would have to apply for the grants through the proper channels.
“Some of the most critical things we have now are done. Representative Chapman helped us get the funding for the fire suppression system in 2019 so there is nothing more critical than having that to help protect the stadium from burning down,” Shay said.
Conveniently enough, it was the $500,000 fire suppression system that prevented the stadium from suffering any major damage a week ago by a string of fires suspected to be arson. Shay noted that while the city hasn’t made any attempts to seek help from the taxpayers, it could be an option if more funding can’t be obtained through the government.
“We’ve tried to do everything on this facility with grants. We haven’t done a bond measure or a tax increase or anything like that for 20 years on the stadium,” Shay said. “If everything goes as smoothly as it can, we would love to see this renovation project done in five years or less.”
After opening in 1938, Olympic Stadium holds a spot on the National Register of Historic Places. With funding from a federal Civil Works Administration grant in 1932, the city of Hoquiam was able to construct the 9,000-seat all-wood stadium. It currently resides as the last all-wood stadium in the United States.
Olympic Stadium hosts Hoquiam High School football, baseball and soccer, as well as Grays Harbor College baseball games. Besides hosting community events such as the annual Logger’s Play Day, the stadium has been home to musical festivals, semi-professional football and minor league professional baseball.
