Thursday, December 30, 2010

McNeil Island Memoriam

From what my parents have told me, today is the last day that any residents will be living on McNeil Island, and I've been surprisingly weepy about it. It was a weird, lonely place to grow up, but it's also the only place where our family stayed put for more than five years. And I miss it.

McNeil Sketchbook comic 1

McNeil Sketchbook comic 2

I don't have any photos, but here's what I know about our old house:

The Ward House c.1900
South Coast Road Intersection of Buck Road, bldg. 104. This wood frame building, covered with horizontal slats, similar from the front to the Luhr Creek Outpost (no 27) is a one and one-half story residence with embellishments that include some clear-leaded glass windows, two projecting bay windows, a front porch overlooking the water and exposed roof-brackets that are more decorative than functional. An interesting back porch arrangement consists of two open entry areas and two volumetric spaces that function as internal areas. Long sweeping shed-type dormers are located at the front and rear of the house, with asphalt-shingle roof being gabled at both ends of the rectangular house. The front house has been recently rebuilt and a new foundation placed under it, Wood frame outbuildings located at the rear of the house.

And here's another old sketchook comic that I did, and I'm not sure that I ever posted. Drew this one back not long after I'd graduated from CCS, and was homesick for the ocean. BE PREPARED FOR OLD CRAPPY DRAWINGS:

Autiobio1
autobio2
Autobio3
autobio4
autobio5


And HERE is a more recent comic I did for the Daily Catch anthology at SPX, about taking the ferry from Steilacoom to home on the island, getting to see porpoises, and feeling lonely. 

Okay. I feel a little less like crying now. Maybe I can actually get some work done.

1 comment:

  1. Stumbled onto your post and saw residence 104.
    I think I was in Residence 103 from 1971-1973. It was on S. Coast Rd., first house west of the intersection with main road from the prison (marked as N. 10th on USGS maps). Then again, I could be totally wrong about the residence number.

    Unfortunately, since that was 40+ years ago, I don't really remember much. Just that it was a really cool place to be. We called the beach across the road "Sand Dollar Beach", since you couldn't step without breaking one or two.

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