Historic Preservation Month began on May 1st with a proclamation by Mayor Woodards during a city council meeting. The real kickoff party was a few days later though on the 5th when Earthwise Architectural Salvage held a handmade craft fair and salvage sculpture competition.
Local artists and crafters sold their goods while Squirrel Butter set the mood with some quality string band music. The Historic Preservation Office was on site with Historic Tacoma to talk about this year’s theme of adaptive reuse. If you’ve ever seen an old building in Tacoma repurposed instead of torn down, there’s a good chance these two organizations played a part.
The Iron Chef style sculpture contest was the highlight of the event with five teams competing for a $100 gift card to Earthwise Salvage. The teams were each given a sack of materials, basic hand tools, and 30 minutes to come up with something impressive.
Of the five teams, four of them completed the challenge. “A Major Award,” built by a father-sons team ended up taking first place. The sculptures will be on display at Earthwise and a crowd favorite contest will underway soon. Keep an eye out on the Earthwise Facebook and Instagram pages for more details.
Historic Preservation Month has a lot more in store so be sure to check out their calendar of events and follow along on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Images by Sierra Hartman
