Letter to the Editor: One History Book is Enough

The Mercer Island Historical Society is in the final editing stages a new edition of its Mercer Island history book, originally published in 1977. A volunteer editorial committee directed by the Historical Society has been researching, collecting photos and materials, writing and revising the book for the past three years. The book is expected to be published this winter.

All proceeds of the sale of this book will benefit the Historical Society, and in the future will fund a robust, searchable web site that will contain hundreds of photos, memoirs, documents and other historical data about Mercer Island.  

We believe the publication of another Mercer Island history at this time is ill-advised, confusing to the public and detrimental to the fund-raising capacity of the Mercer Island Historical Society. While the two projects are different in scope – the Historical Society’s book will be a complete text of the Island’s history from the 1800s to now, with hundreds of photos, while the Arcadia book will be photos and captions only – they will be competing publications.

We have been on a photo search for three years, so if you think you have some photos to share, we’d be happy to hear from you. Contact us at: Mercer Island Historical Society, 9611 S.E. 36^th Street, Mercer Island; www.mihistory.org; info@mihistory.org; 236-3274.

Our volunteer project will benefit the Mercer Island community, because the money raised here will stay here. 

Sincerely,

Susan Blake, Phil Flash, Kisi Goode, Ed Rice, Rand Ginn, Virginia Anderson, Sally Brown, Dick Decker, Gary Winterstein and Bob Lewis – Mercer Island Historical Society Board of Directors

Jane Meyer Brahm, Nancy Hilliard, Sally Brown, Dick Decker, Laurie McHale, Kris Kelsay, Susan Blake – Editorial Committee

Terry Moreman, Mercer Island Chamber of Commerce director