If all the stars align, the city of Granger could have a new museum built by this time next year. 

Construction crews broke ground this fall on the 3,900-square-foot facility next to the Granger Community Center, just north of Radio KDNA at 223 Second Ave. Once completed next fall or early winter, most of the cavernous new facility will be dedicated to display space, with an office and restrooms also part of the plan. 

Plans for a Granger-focused museum have been a long time coming for Jon Klarich and other members of the Granger Historical Society. Klarich is chair of the five-person museum committee, which first started pooling together funds for the project about five years ago.

Members of the local community have combined to put $100,000 toward the museum project since the fundraising effort got underway, while state Sen. Jim Honeyford helped secure nearly $800,000 through four separate funding bills in the Washington Legislature.

“We really appreciate all of the local support, and now we’re getting close to our goal of having a museum in Granger,” said Klarich, who is helping lead the effort along with others on the Historical Society, including Pam Fleming, and community advocates like Helen Dodd. “But we couldn’t have done it alone. Senator Honeyford, Sea Mar (Community Health Centers), and many other folks have helped get us to this point.”

Sea Mar owns the land next to the community center and donated it to the Historical Society for the museum build after the original plot of land became unavailable. The Seattle-based company has also agreed to contribute nearly $700,000 to cover the remaining cost of the museum (resulting from the rising cost of labor and materials) and has offered the board a 25-year, cost-free lease. 

The company — which specializes in serving low-income, underserved and primarily Latino communities across the state — also has offered a second 25-year lease that would require the museum operators to pay only utility costs. Talk about a good deal.

“It’s nice to know we are going to have this spot for at least 50 years, and hopefully much longer,” said Klarich, a native of Granger who moved away in 1987 and returned to town nearly 20 years ago. “Sea Mar has just been huge for us throughout this entire process.”

Everything is beginning to take shape, but it wasn’t long ago that the museum project was in limbo. Just last year, the original plot of land that state lawmakers had agreed to became unavailable, and the Historical Society was scrambling for an alternative. Fortunately, Honeyford was able to change some language in the funding bill so it could go toward a spacious new building next to the community center.

“It took a little while, but Senator Honeyford was able to get it switched form an acquisition grant to a building grant,” Klarich said. “Once we took care of all the permitting and got approval from the state, we were able to get started.”

Bellevue-based architect and Granger High alumnus Jose Bazan has been another key partner throughout the project, contributing the design services of his firm, Bazan and Associates.

Everyone involved in planning the new museum is looking forward to the finished product, which will house a wide range of displays, including local art, historical photos and books, Granger Cherry Festival memorabilia, artifacts from the historic Granger Brick manufacturer, and more. 

Among the artists who will be featured in the museum is Larry George, a Granger High graduate who also served as an educator for many years. Klarich said the Historical Society has more than 40 of his works, which they will rotate regularly “to keep things fresh.”

“We have a lot of stuff, so it’s good that we’re going to have so much space to work with,” he said. “The original location would have been pretty small, so we are glad that everything worked out the way it did.”

Updates about the project will be posted at grangerhistoricalsociety.org.