NOTE: “Today” and “tonight” refer to Friday, Aug. 28.
PORT ANGELES — The Clallam County Historical Society’s 21st annual department-store-style garage sale begins this weekend.
The sale is at the old Lincoln School site at the corner of Eighth and C streets.
Regular sale days are today and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Next weekend will offer marked-down bargains of what is left. Half-price day will be Friday, Sept. 4, and Buck-a-Bag Day will be Saturday, Sept. 5. Hours for the second weekend also will be from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Parking for the sale is in the west lot, which is accessed off Ninth and C streets.
Annual fundraiser
The sale is the historical society’s biggest annual fundraiser,
Proceeds go toward improvements of the 1916 brick schoolhouse, the historical society headquarters.
Departments created in what once were classrooms and hallways of the old school feature antiques and collectibles, tools, clothing, fabric and bed linens, jewelry, games and toys, and other items.
Some are gently used.
“Some of it’s never been used before,” said Kathy Monds, executive director of the historical society.
“Everything comes from members of the community, and each year, the stuff just gets better,” she said.
“People think about us and send us their good items.”
Every year, the sale is different, Monds said.
“This year, we have a lot of chairs,” she said, laughing.
The collectibles department offerings include “beautiful glassware and jewelry,” she said.
The sale also features folk art, “as usual a ton of stuff” in the kitchen and holidays departments, and a large selection of fiction and nonfiction books — especially books related to the Pacific Northwest.
Volunteers have been working on the sale since March.
Last year, the sale raised $38,000.
“We hope to do at least that much this year,” Monds said.
Proceeds from the past two years of sales paid for the renovation of the research library, now finished.
Proceeds earmarked
Funds raised this year will go toward a sprinkler system inside the old building, a project that will cost an estimated $160,000 and which will no doubt take a few years to accomplish.
The historical society is slowly but steadily renovating the old building it purchased in 1991 at a cost of $210,000 and moved into in 1998 — and the end is not yet in sight.
“We make a goal, and we raise money to pay for it,” Monds said.
Completion of all that needs to be done is “several years away.”
“Getting the library finished over the last two years was a huge project for us,” Monds said.
“The research library is a busy place,” she said, adding that most visitors don’t come just once.
Those who return now “are just blown away by how beautiful it is,” she said.
“That’s our aim: to be always be improving the site and improving the services we provide to people.”
Members and volunteers who worked at least 10 hours in preparation for the sale were allowed to purchase items during a members-only sale Thursday.
Memberships can be purchased at the event.
Membership applications can be picked up at the society’s administration office at the Lincoln School site or at www.clallamhistoricalsociety.com.
For more information about the garage sale, phone the historical society’s office at 360-452-2662 or email artifact@olypen.com.
