Save the Tofu House
Donation protected
We're the South Pierce County Historical Society, based in Eatonville, Washington, near Mount Rainier. We are working to move and restore an historic building - the old spring house from the former Eatonville Lumber Company dairy.
Why is this important? Because this is the only remaining structure from the days when young Eatonville was a booming mill town, with the help of Japanese Americans who worked the mill and its adjacent dairy, which supplied the mill store, and all the town's citizens, with dairy and farm products. This was from about 1908 to 1942, when these citizens were rounded up by presidential order, along with over 110,000 other west coast Japanese Americans, and placed in concentration camps, as a security measure after the attack on Pearl Harbor by the nation of Japan.
This building will help Eatonville of today, and its visitors, to remember and appreciate the time when our Japanese American citizens helped our town to become a prosperous little community.
We've already raised enough funds from individual donors and foundations to pay for moving the building across town, placing it on a foundation, installing electrical service and constructing paved access - a huge step for us! Many generous donors believe in the importance of our goal, and have stepped up to help. The move should be completed in the next several weeks.
Now we'll need to restore it, and install exhibits interpreting this story for perpetuity. That is what this campaign will accomplish. In the next few months we hope to raise enough funds to finish the job and display this singular symbol of Eatonville's early history and growth, and the people whose labor and sweat fueled it. This is the story of individuals who helped make our community what it is, and who, for legitimate reasons, felt it would not be prudent to return with their families to live here, as there was a vocal contingent of anti-Japanese activists in area communities, even though many local citizens missed their old friends and schoolmates, stayed in touch, and still correspond.
This project will right that wrong! And we will be forever grateful for the support of people like you who help to make it happen!
#GoBeyondGiving
Why is this important? Because this is the only remaining structure from the days when young Eatonville was a booming mill town, with the help of Japanese Americans who worked the mill and its adjacent dairy, which supplied the mill store, and all the town's citizens, with dairy and farm products. This was from about 1908 to 1942, when these citizens were rounded up by presidential order, along with over 110,000 other west coast Japanese Americans, and placed in concentration camps, as a security measure after the attack on Pearl Harbor by the nation of Japan.
This building will help Eatonville of today, and its visitors, to remember and appreciate the time when our Japanese American citizens helped our town to become a prosperous little community.
We've already raised enough funds from individual donors and foundations to pay for moving the building across town, placing it on a foundation, installing electrical service and constructing paved access - a huge step for us! Many generous donors believe in the importance of our goal, and have stepped up to help. The move should be completed in the next several weeks.
Now we'll need to restore it, and install exhibits interpreting this story for perpetuity. That is what this campaign will accomplish. In the next few months we hope to raise enough funds to finish the job and display this singular symbol of Eatonville's early history and growth, and the people whose labor and sweat fueled it. This is the story of individuals who helped make our community what it is, and who, for legitimate reasons, felt it would not be prudent to return with their families to live here, as there was a vocal contingent of anti-Japanese activists in area communities, even though many local citizens missed their old friends and schoolmates, stayed in touch, and still correspond.
This project will right that wrong! And we will be forever grateful for the support of people like you who help to make it happen!
#GoBeyondGiving
Organizer
Bob Walter
Organizer
Eatonville, WA
