Community Government

Neighbors lodge their opinions about former Masonic hall

Yellow sticky notes littered the broad board of the Crescent Creek Park master plan Gig Harbor co-presented at an open house on the evening of Sept. 18.

About 40 to 50 people attended the event, hosted by the city alongside HBB Landscape Architecture, a Seattle-based architecture firm the city has contracted to revamp the park. The city and firm were soliciting feedback and opinion on the redesign. 

Many of those notes regarded the Masonic Lodge, which the city Parks Commission recommended demolishing.

Sticky note comments support preserving the former Masonic Lodge during an open house about a planned Crescent Creek Park revamp on Thursday, Sept. 18. Photo by John McMillan

John McMillan, who has advocated for keeping the lodge, shared photos of the sign boards with Gig Harbor Now. He belongs to a group of Gig Harborites who support preserving the Masonic Lodge in some fashion.

Apparent support for lodge

The city won’t complete an assessment of the total feedback it received that night until later. But many of the notes the public left appeared to support keeping the Masonic Lodge — a hot-button issue in the park’s redesign — in some form.

Opinions plastered on the master plan board included:

“Save the lodge!”

“We need the lodge for a community meeting center”

“Hold off on demolition of the lodge”

“The lodge needs to be saved in some form.”

“Please don’t put a shelter up instead of the lodge. If the cost of saving the lodge is too much, please replace it with the 1-story building.”

Only one note on the master plan board supported eliminating the lodge: “NO MONEY UNFORTUNATELY Please demolish it. Other parks need help.”

People examine the city of Gig Harbor’s plans for Crescent Creek Park during an open house on Thursday, Sept. 18, 2025. At least one dog seemed less than thrilled to be there. Photo by Julie Warrick Ammann

Another survey

Notes on the comment board included one wondering how much everything else costs — not just the lodge. A few notes on the comment board asked that the city not spend the money to keep the lodge.

The city will also collect feedback in a third park survey, which remains open until Oct. 5. The survey presents the preferred master plan, which involves demolishing the lodge and replacing it with a covered but open-sided shelter. The city estimated this would cost between $750,000 and $1 million.

Page 3 of the survey states that the “majority of feedback received did not support renovating the Masonic Lodge into a community event space,” citing the cost to remodel the building. It offers an alternative on page 4 that suggests a middle ground: Modifying the lodge to a one-story building to serve as a rentable meeting space.

Comments on the Crescent Creek Park plan and the future of the Masonic Lodge. Photo by Julie Warrick Ammann

Community fundraising?

While some of this falls in with what McMillan had proposed, this alternative also includes expanding the building footprint. The city estimates this will cost between $3 million and $4 million. However, the survey also states that if “community fundraising efforts are successful, the vacant building could still be renovated into a rentable community event space instead of the covered picnic shelter.”

“The proposed phasing for park improvements has been developed to allow time for community fundraising efforts, so this option is not precluded while other park improvements are implemented,” the survey continues.

McMillan and other supporters of preserving the lodge urged those who would like to see the building stick around to comment at the end of the city’s survey with a “Do not demolish the lodge” statement. He said that this might encourage the city to provide time for “designing a suitable plan, getting bids on costs, fundraising, AND, most importantly, listen to what the Historic Preservation Commission has to say on this matter.”

The city’s Historic Preservation Commission will take up the matter of the keeping or demolishing the lodge during a meeting on Oct. 28.

The Parks Department will present compiled public opinions at future study sessions where Crescent Creek Park is on the agenda.

Lita Dawn Ancich Stanton, Gig Harbor’s former preservation officer, discusses her view of the Masonic Lodge with Councilmember Roger Henderson. Photo by Julie Warrick Ammann