One-acre Old Man House Park is but a fragment of the Kitsap peninsula land occupied by the Suquamish people. The Tribe’s “mother village” had been located here, as was Chief Seattle’s 600-foot-long cedar longhouse, known as Old Man House. After the US military burned the longhouse in 1870, the Tribe rebuilt the village, only to have the US acquire the land in 1904 and then sell it in the 1930s for residential development. Small beach cabins gave way to larger houses, and the area became known as Suquamish. Washington’s state park system purchased the remaining single acre in 1950 and named it Old Man House Park.
The Suquamish Tribe petitioned for return of the land several times, and on August 12, 2004, the Washington Parks & Recreation Commission voted unanimously to return Old Man House Park to the Suquamish. The move was not without controversy. Some residents supported the transfer; others feared that the Tribe would eventually keep them from using the park or use it for noisy purposes. The Tribe pledged to work with the neighborhood to ensure that these things did not happen.
In this view, Old Man House Park stretches down to the waters of Agate Pass. The land in the distance is the north end of Bainbridge Island, Agate Point.
Caption information source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer, “Big debate over tiny park,” by Lewis Kamb, June 14, 2004, p. B3; “Return Old Man House to its tribal roots,” Editorial, August 1, 2004, p. C2; “State decides to turn park over to tribe,” by Sam Skolnik, August 13, 2004, pp. B1, B5.
