As anticipation builds for the 2024 National APIA Historic Preservation Forum in Seattle (Sept. 12-15), our ongoing series continues to explore the profound significance of historic preservation within our communities. Reporter Carolyn Bick has been engaging with local partners such as the Wing Luke Museum, Friends of Little Saigon, Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial Association, and Historic South Downtown.
Today, we shine the spotlight on MaryKate Ryan of Historic South Downtown.
Are there any specific areas of historic preservation you specifically focus on?
Since moving to Seattle, my preservation focus has been on unreinforced masonry buildings in the CID and Pioneer Square. These neighborhoods have some of the highest concentrations in the city because of when they were built and because of their local preservation regulations. What I love about them is that they are so rich—brick is a warm material that people generally respond positively to. The buildings are all mixed-use, with commercial, residential, and often office space, too, which adds vibrancy through activity. And because they are older buildings, their smaller commercial and residential spaces do often offer naturally affordable units.
A brick structure built in 1910 to house Chinese laborers, the East Kong Yick Building now houses the Wing Luke Museum.
What makes Seattle’s CID so particularly unique and special?
While the way this question is worded sort of makes me think the natural comparison is to other Chinatowns or the like, I see it more in relation to other Seattle neighborhoods. Only in CID do I see such a wide range of people in public spaces. Seniors do daily shopping and socialize in Hing Hay Park and at the Community Center. Kids, often with their grandparents, use both Hing Hay and Donnie Chin International Children’s Park, and teenagers are all over after school at every bubble tea shop. And there are often tourists. To me, this says that many people, from all different walks of life, are comfortable here, and that’s special.
What makes historic preservation near and dear to your heart? Why is it personal to you?
I studied architectural history because I think buildings are fascinating, but my first job in North Dakota made it personal. People wanted to tell me about the places that were important to them, and why. Small towns in a state that didn’t become a state until 1899 taught me more about preservation than a master’s degree in architectural history. When people care about a place, when it feels like part of them or part of their lives, or it tells stories to or about them, it matters. Their stories made those buildings matter to me—sod homesteads to grand courthouses.
How does your organization make historic preservation accessible? What ways can folks engage with historic preservation, even if they are not part of a committee or a specific group focused on it?
Historic South Downtown is not primarily a preservation organization, even though we exist to support two historic neighborhoods. We’re here to help the people and organizations in these neighborhoods, not the buildings. But the buildings matter, for a variety of reasons, for the streetscapes they create, the smaller affordable commercial spaces, the naturally-occurring affordable housing, and for the 100 years of stories and memories they hold. People engage with historic preservation every time they have dinner in or near Occidental Square or Hing Hay Park and enjoy the parks and buildings, or go to the Wing Luke or Klondike Museum. Appreciation is a great first step.
What is an HSD project or initiative you are excited to share with APIAHiP Forum attendees from around the country?
I am excited that conference participants will get to tour the historic jazz era murals in the basement of the Louisa Hotel, and will at least get to hear about the Eng Homestead purchased by the Wing Luke—those are the most preservation-oriented projects we’ve been part of that will be shared. But I’d love to also talk about Restaurant-to-Garden, a community composting initiative that takes food waste from two restaurants in historic Japantown and turns it into compost for the senior gardeners at the Danny Woo Community Gardens. Or the work we’ve been doing to help demystify the environmental process for the future light rail expansion projects. We’re really a support organization, rather than a leader of projects—and we get to support so many organizations doing the coolest work ever in so many fields.