Skansie Net Shed and House to Join National Historic Register

Mayor Chuck Hunter announced Tuesday the has received word that the Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation has listed the Andrew and Bertha Skansie Net Shed and House on the National Register of Historic Places. 

The Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation said “the Skansie Net Shed and House are historically significant as a direct link to the Gig Harbor’s fishing industry, and for its connection to the city’s Croatian heritage of many of its earliest settlers.” The house and net shed join other state properties that exemplify the rich cultural heritage of Washington.

Peter Skansie immigrated to Gig Harbor from Croatia in 1886. He established a homestead and then convinced his family to join him, specifically his brothers Mitchell, Joseph and Andrew.

Andrew Skansie, a stone mason in Croatia, was born in 1876. In 1907, he arrived in Tacoma and built the Skansie home in 1908 and the net shed two years later. His wife, Bertha, joined him in Gig harbor in 1909.

Together, the Skansie brothers developed a shipyard. “The Skansie Shipyard was begun in the late 1880s and evolved into a major boat building establishment for the Puget Sound purse seine fishing fleet…The Skansie family would fish in the spring and summer and build boats in the winter.” 

The Skansie family owned and maintained their original property from the late 1880s to its purchase by the City of Gig Harbor in 2002. Andrew and Bertha's son, Anton and Vince, maintained the property from the 1960s until its sale.

The City of Gig Harbor is currently in the process of developing the net shed and surrounding property as a historic attraction, .

Next month the net shed will undergo a restoration of the pilings and underpinnings thanks to a grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation during an American Express sponsored competition that took place throughout Western Washington in 2010. 

The non-profit Coastal Heritage Alliance will work with the city to provide public program and education once the net shed is stabilized for public access in 2012.

Learn more about the Skansie Net Shed at http://www.cityofgigharbor.net/page.php?id=1127. For more information contact Lita Dawn Stanton, City of Gig Harbor Historic Preservation at 253-853-7609 or Allyson Brooks, Ph.D. Washington State Historic Preservation Officer 360-586-3065.

Information courtesy of City of Gig Harbor.