You Can Live in This WWII-Era Navy Command Center for Just Under $10 Million  

The 12,018-square-foot mansion for sale on Bainbridge Island in Washington state was once the hub for a vital World War II mission. (Image courtesy Realtor.com)

 

July 17, 2019--- Military.com | By Gina Harkins

 

If you miss living on a military installation but want a bit of an upgrade to that old barracks room, this might be your chance. A 12,018-square-foot mansion for sale on Bainbridge Island in Washington state was once the hub for a vital World War II mission. Now, the 4-bedroom home with 5 full bathrooms is on the market for $9.75 million.

 

"Building 39 was built by the U.S. Navy in 1941 as the radio receiving and control building of the Bainbridge Naval Radio Station, whose purpose was to intercept Japanese diplomatic and military radio messages before and during World War II," said Shawn O'Neill, who has lived in the house for 16 years.

 

While an old operational command center might not evoke a homey vibe, O'Neill describes the property as "a touch of Tuscany imported to the Northwest." The master suite alone is more than 1,000 square feet, according to the listing with Realogics Sotheby's International Realty. There's an indoor pool and a 5-car garage on the 10-acre property.

 

Considered to be one of the most historic properties on the West Coast, "Building 39" has been transformed into a timeless island estate, the listing states. "While retaining its historic appeal, classic design and modern amenities fill the estate, creating an unprecedented level of luxury," it adds.

 

 

The 12,018-square-foot mansion for sale on Bainbridge Island in Washington state was once the hub for a vital World War II mission. (Image courtesy Realtor.com)

 

According to a document on early naval radio communications in Washington, Oregon and Alaska from U.S. Naval Communications, Naval Radio, Bainbridge Island in Washington was taken over from an abandoned Army site in 1938. Its intended mission: to serve as a receiving station, intercept station and high-frequency direction-finder station.

 

Commander B. C. Purrington became the officer in charge there in 1940, according to the document. A video tour of the home shows the decades-old military facility now features crystal chandeliers, a library, a theater room, and a modern, sleek kitchen. To move into the Navy building, the perfect buyer just needs to sail in with their checkbook.

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The Declaration of Independence

                 The Want, Will, and Hopes of the People

                               

                                IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776

  The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America

 

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

 

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their Safety and Happiness.

 

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly, all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

 

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.

 

The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

 

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

 

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

 

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

 

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose, obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands. He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers. He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

 

He has erected a multitude of New Offices and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance. He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures. He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

 

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

·       For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

·       For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

·       For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

·       For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

·       For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

·       For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

·       For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

·       For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

·       For suspending our own Legislatures and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

 

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

 

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

 

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands. He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

 

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

 

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here.

 

We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

 

We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do.

 

— And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

 

New Hampshire:

Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton [Any West Wing fans?]

Massachusetts:

John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:

Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:

Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:

William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:

Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:

Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware:

Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland:

Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:

George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina:

William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:

Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:

Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

                                          ===============

 

 

June 29, 2019 --- Wow. The Editor of the Shoreline Area News (Diane Hettrick) really did a job with what I submitted to her yesterday. Somehow our 25 gift cards ($50 each) became a $2,500 check but that can’t hurt. I cut out just the portion she put online which is about our Post.

 

Diane did an amazing job --- she added some other photos from her own files:

 

• Ken & Tiffany at the Shoreline Fred Meyer
• a nice shot of the Compass Veterans Center in Shoreline facility
• a photo a group including King County Councilman Bob Ferguson when they donated a surplus van to Compass Veterans Center in Shoreline

 

That is known as good PR for our Post, not to mention VFW😊

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Today's Shoreline Area News
Where your Buddy Poppy donations went Posted: 28 Jun 2019 10:41 PM PDT Chris Christophersen presents a $2500 check to Shree Vigil, Program Manager, Compass Veterans Center and Jennifer Marquette, Community Resource Coordinator,  Compass Housing Alliance  Photo courtesy VFW     By Carl "Chris" Christophersen Twice a year, Blackburn-Aurora VFW Post 3348 (Shoreline) holds their VFW Buddy Poppy (red poppies) fundraiser: Memorial Day and Veterans Day. We get permission to utilize three stores in the area on the Friday and Saturday prior to each of the above-named holidays.   Veterans Tiffany Bothell and Ken Christophersen with Buddy Poppies at the Shoreline Fred Meyer Photo by Steven H. Robinson There are two or more VFW Post 3348 members at each store, taking donations for each VFW Buddy Poppy.    There is no set price --- it is whatever you choose to donate.    Every dime that is donated goes to help veterans in need. We recently concluded our 2019 Memorial Day event.    Discussions about who to donate to are ongoing amongst the Post members. We made one decision early on because donating to this facility is a perennial favorite --- our donation directly helps veterans.    That facility is the Shoreline Veterans Center (affiliated with the Compass Housing Alliance) located right across the street (N 200th St) from Costco in Shoreline.    They permanently house 25 veterans --- yet any veteran can leave when s/he feels prepared and ready to get their own place. On Friday, June 28, 2019 we presented 25 gift cards ($50 each) to Shree Vigil, Program Manager, Compass Veterans Center – Shoreline.    Each gift card is in an envelope along with a note from VFW Post 3348 for each veteran who resides there. The envelopes were numbered 1 – 25. The photo above shows Shree on the left and Jennifer Marquette on the right. I am in the middle. Jennifer is the Community Resource Coordinator, Compass Housing Alliance (CHA) --- she is based in their HQ in downtown Seattle but is often at the Shoreline facility. Each woman was given a box of chocolates.   Compass Veterans Center in Shoreline houses 25 veterans Photo by Steven H. Robinson There is at least one CHA employee on site 24/7. The male residents live in a separate area from the female residents.    No children are allowed but pets are allowed.    They each have their own room which is connected to the internet. Each room has a bed, nightstand, dresser, closet and desk and chair. The men and women each have their own shared bathroom/shower facilities. To qualify to live there, each resident most make less than 30% of the median income in Greater Seattle. Right now, that 30% equates to $23,000. Most of the residents have jobs but do not make enough to have their own place, which is why a training facility with computers is in place. Most of them do not have cars.   Bob Ferguson, right, was on the County Council in 2010 and gave Compass one of their surplus County vans. There is one van, given to them in 2010 by King County, to provide transportation but otherwise they use public buses to get to the VA hospital or wherever. If they have income, they pay 33% of their Net.  There is a common kitchen area. The residents are not provided meals but Shree cooks one meal for them each week; another woman comes once a week and makes another meal for them; yet another patriot drops off a large donation of food once a week.    So nobody goes hungry. One resident "Dave” said that he uses the $50 for whatever he happens to need at the time e.g. socks, underwear, food, clothes, etc. Shree told us about one female veteran who showed up, whose apartment had just burnt down. The woman had lost everything --- she came with just the clothes she was wearing. After our prior visit (following our 2018 Veterans Day Buddy Poppy event), Shree had handed this woman a $50 gift card --- the woman teared up (she had not yet thought about what she needed to do) --- her eyes opened wide and she said "oh my, thank you. I have nothing.” It helped a little right then. The story repeats from each veteran. ~~~~~ Carl ”Chris” Christophersen is the Post Commander for Blackburn-Aurora VFW Post 3348; and the District Commander for VFW District #2, Department of Washington Web site: www.vfw3348.org                                   ===================