Mary Pigott on Having the Reard House and a Heritage Park on her Property: "It's the Right Thing to do."

When Mary Pigott was a child in Bellingham, she often played in the woods – making forts, discovering nature and just running in open space.

There was awareness and acknowledgment, she said recently, of the natural world around her.

Pigott, a resident of what is now Sammamish since 1972, is taking a big and generous step regarding the Reard House, the city's oldest non-native building. She is offering land that she owns on the 20-acre Tanner property to possibly be its next home.

It needs one: It is sitting on blocks off 212th Avenue Southeast, north of Southeast 20th Street. The Sammamish Heritage Society is trying to raise $70,000 to help save the house. The will match that amount.

The idea is to have the house, built in 1895, be part of a heritage park on the land and sit near the Tanner House, which dates to the 1910s, Pigott said.

She has long supported the idea of having a "green parks idea" in the middle of Sammamish.

“Giving kids an opportunity to reconnect through parks and learning opportunities connected to parks resonates really strongly with me,” she said.

“I have been really lucky and have enjoyed this property in its relatively undeveloped state. And I would like to share this with the rest of Sammamish.”

For now, as Pigott said, it is only an idea.

“It’s in the early phase,” she said. “I am completely committed to this idea.”

Word surfaced publicly last week about the idea, following the recent designation by the King County Landmarks Commission of the city’s historic structure.

Councilwoman Michele Petitti, who has talked with Pigott about the idea, called the possible home for the Reard House another piece of good news, following the landmark designation.

That designation and possible site for the Reard House gives the Sammamish Heritage Society and its goal of saving the structure momentum.

But it highlights the need for the group to raise money, especially for a foundation for the Reard House.

“It can come as soon as they’re ready to move it,” Pigott said.

If that happens, the Reard House would sit on horse pasture land, located in the central part of Sammamish and which Pigott has owned since the late 1990s. The land sits between Southeast Eighth Street and Southeast 20th Street.

Pigott would like to structure an agreement with the Sammamish Heritage Society around some type of long-term lease for a low amount.

At some point in the future, the city of Sammamish would be responsible for the Tanner property, Pigott explained.

“I own all the property free and clear,” she said. “I’m giving it to the city. It’s the right thing to do.”

The idea to have the Reard House sit on property owned by Pigott has been around since at least 2009 or so. It surfaced in casual conversations, she said.

Only in recent months have those discussions become more of a realistic possibility, as the Sammamish Heritage Society looked for a place for the historic structure.

Pigott recalled her thoughts when she again heard the suggestion in recent months. “Without being pushed in any given direction, I immediately volunteered,” she said.

One option – which Pigott never pursued and the Sammamish Heritage Society is likely grateful in hindsight – was to sell the 20 acres to a developer.

“I’ve had tons of offers,” Pigott said. “It’s developable. But they’re not making more land around here.”

Pigott is aware that the idea of moving the house to her land might change.

She realizes that the Reard House has supporters and critics - who believe it should not be saved. But her thinking is more along the lines of melding the outdoors with regional history.

While she has enjoyed the property for more than a decade, she knows that it’s worth sharing with others, especially if it becomes a heritage park.

“When it’s a park, everyone gets to use it,” she said.

“That’s what makes a city interesting and alive is having different groups come together.”