Rowing Group Catches On -- Abandoned Boathouse Transformed Into Crews' Home On Lake Sammamish

REDMOND

The gravel road is nearly invisible, leading into the woods toward the Sammamish Slough at the south edge of Marymoor Park.

But at the end of the road is a visible reminder that one idea can make a difference. The idea was to bring rowing to Lake Sammamish.

The result is arguably the best rowing facility on the Eastside, a place that offers 30 boats to local residents in a setting that didn't exist three years ago.

What there was at the start was an abandoned boathouse and a shut-down sewage-treatment plant.

What turned that into the Sammamish Rowing Association was Harold (Hod) Fowler and a cooperative effort between the city of Redmond and the King County Parks Department.

Fowler is a third-generation Pacific Northwest rower whose father and grandfather rowed for the University of Washington. Fowler himself crewed at Dartmouth and now has a son rowing at Tufts University in Boston.

He drifted away from rowing after graduation, but found himself in recent years thinking about what a great place Lake Sammamish would be for shells as he made his daily commute from his Sammamish Plateau home to his business in Factoria.

"A very few years ago, there was no community rowing," said Fowler.

From signs to a boathouse

In the fall of 1995, Fowler acted on his idea. He put out some yard signs with the simple message "Sammamish Rowing" and a telephone number and was amazed at the reaction. More than 40 people - young people as well as adults - showed up for initial meetings.

The Sammamish Rowing Association was born.

At about the same time, Fowler learned about an unused boathouse on the Sammamish Slough, hidden in the woods near a former sewage-treatment plant. The discovery came just a week before a comprehensive plan for Marymoor Park was to be adopted.

After some complicated negotiations with the city and county, including decommissioning the former sewage-treatment plant, an agreement was reached allowing the Sammamish rowers to use the old boathouse and the site after a year of final cleanup was completed.

"It's hard for me not to talk about the magic of King County and the city of Redmond," said Fowler, now association president, in recounting how bureaucratic obstacles disappeared.

Public officials echoed those sentiments.

"The partnership was valuable to us, offering programs we otherwise couldn't offer," explained Al Dams, King County Parks Department spokesman.

The fact that Franz Lewis, a board member of the rowing association, also was a member of the civic group Friends of Marymoor Park helped keep negotiations running smoothly, Dams said.

The two-bay, 40-by-76-foot boathouse was built in 1975 and used by the Overlake School rowing program. The roof was falling in, there was no electricity and new gravel was needed on the dirt roadway leading to the boathouse.

A temporary deal was struck to let the association get started at Idylwood Park, south of the slough, until it could move permanently to the new boathouse. A temporary shed was built at Idylwood and floating docks installed.

"We had a barn-raising party," said Fowler.

After a year at Idylwood, the association moved to the slough. The roof was fixed, electricity restored, the road repaired. More than 70 students from eight high schools and about 75 adults now participate in various rowing programs.

The site is sometimes filled with young people heading out on the lake; at other times it's quiet, with just a solitary rower like Frank Sennewald, who's retired and lives nearby.

Sennewald rides down to the boathouse on his bike, then wheels a shell into the water where he can enjoy navigating along a placid slough before heading out onto the lake for a workout.

Sennewald pays $300 for a year's membership and calls it one of the best investments he's ever made.

"It's a hell of a deal," he said. "You don't have to join a team or anything."

The association - Fowler is careful not to call it a club, - is open to anyone. The only membership criterion is the ability to pass a float test.

Volunteer-oriented group

Members have developed a strong volunteer, community-service orientation. Members recently raised $17,000 for a shell that bears the name of Jeff Young, association coach who served in the first year but died prematurely of a heart attack.

The association is holding a fund-raising auction and casual dinner tonight at the Museum of History and Industry in Montlake. Auction items range from seaplane rides to a weekend in San Francisco.

The nonprofit association operates year-round and offers classes ranging from 12-week after-school sessions for high-school students to three-day-a-week adult sessions that cost $75 for six weeks.

Peyton Whitely's phone message number is 206-464-2259. His e-mail address is: pwhitely@seattletimes.com

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The association is at 4990 West Lake Sammamish Parkway N.E., with entrance through a chain-link gate seven-tenths of a mile south of the west entrance to Marymoor Park. Visitors are welcome to stop in if the gate is open. Information on the programs and the auction: 425-557-1455.