The Grange? What? When? Why?

||| BY STEVE HENIGSON |||

Nowadays, the National Grange is almost an antique curiosity, and the Orcas Island Grange serves mostly as a community theater. But the Grange wasn’t always quite so mundane. In its time, it was the farmers’ lobby in the halls of government, a very effective opponent of the predatory railroad barons of the late 1800s, a source of culture and entertainment, and a driving force in the education of rural children. From its very beginning, the Grange accepted women as full and equal members, and it helped give Washington State’s women the vote 10 years before federal law brought women’s suffrage to the entire nation.

By the early 1900s, the Washington State Grange offered farmers and other members the leveraged purchasing power of a large, centralized goods-distribution cöoperative, a mutual life insurance company, a livestock-marketing association, and a grain-milling company. By 1940, the National Grange had successfully pushed the federal government to help provide rural America with electricity and plentiful, good-quality water. However, Orcasians were far too isolated to benefit from many of these developments.

The Orcas Island Grange first met in the small building that is now the West Sound Yacht Club. Then school district consolidation left vacant the larger building that we now know as our Grange, and the money to purchase it was raised starting with the auction of a bar of soap for 65¢. The full purchase price, land and all, was $126.00, and the cancelled check for that amount, dated June 7, 1938, still exists. You will recognize some of the names on a list of the Grange members of that bygone time: Coffelt, Willis, Pinneo, and Kerchoff.

Even the newly purchased Grange building turned out to be too small for the many members and their activities, so an extension was built to expand it. This expansion included the fine maple floor which is still in use today, and the completed building was “broken in” by the community on October 13, 1945, with a costume party and dance.

Forty years later, the Orcas Island Grange had become moribund, and its building decrepit. Even so, Orcasian Terry Anderson revitalized it as a center where young people could gather, enjoy their music, and feel comfortable and safe. Ten years later, the new Orcas Island Community Foundation contributed money for repair and refurbishment, and willing volunteers did the work. Then the few remaining Grange members began a successful campaign to recruit new blood, and the Grange began to live again.

Actors’ Theater of Orcas Island moved in, and, under the strong and dedicated direction of Doug Bechtel, rebuilt the stage, installed theater lighting, and added comfortable seating. Today, the beautiful floor has been refinished, the kitchen has been remodelled, more toilets have been added, and the Orcas Island Grange is back as a place for the entire community to gather to enjoy cultural entertainment, and to hold social and private events.

Sources for this short essay include a concise history of the Orcas Grange written by current member Linda Peth, as well as articles found on the HistoryLink website and in Orcas Issues itself.