Kingston Firehouse sparks inspiration, anticipation

News that an all-in-one movie theater, breakfast diner and downtown video store is opening as the Kingston Firehouse next spring has an audible buzz humming through town. Just the thought of cinema on the big screen here sends the mind reeling with endless possibilities of film series, independent flicks, documentaries, newly released foreign and indie movies and a place to screen local homegrown videos.

Add to that the availability of the 100-seat theater for plays, music, lectures and conferences, and all of a sudden the dreary state of the economy, short arc of the sun across the sky before Solstice and the deluge of rainy season can be nudged aside and replaced with the effervescing vibe of something new coming to town. And finally there will be a place “of, by and for the people of Kingston” for all ages to settle into in the evenings, between the bars, restaurants and coffee house culture.

Ian Forrester summed up the feeling of many residents here:

“It sounds like a great, great community thing,” said Forrester, 17, a senior at Spectrum Community School. “I’m really looking for something off the beaten path.”

The Kingston Firehouse is anticipated to open March 1.

A world within a building

Within minutes after Dave Wetter drove up to the firehouse Nov. 3, the ink still drying on the building permit he had just picked up in Port Orchard, the steely, serrated jaws of an excavator tore into the side of the building, pulling away aluminum siding and yellowed insulation. In less than an hour, the left side of the building was gone, loaded into a truck and hauled away. Over the next two weeks, the rest of the structure, former headquarters station of North Kitsap Fire & Rescue, was pulled apart, leaving just a sparse skeleton of framing.

Concrete inside and out is being replaced now. After that, as Rick Lanning described it, new walls will begin to take shape and “an entire world within a building, within a building, within a wooden structure” will take shape, reminiscent of the fire station with the old pull-down garage doors still in place.

Lanning pointed out it’s only the second commercial building in 20 years to be constructed in downtown Kingston (not counting the rebuilt Kingston Thriftway shopping center).

“It’s also notable because we’re taking an old, abandoned building and making it a current, viable use,” Wetter said.

The Kingston Firehouse will total 6,208 square feet, according to Wetter, including 3,200 square feet for the theater and video store (excluding a second-floor mezzanine for an office and projection room), 1,803 square feet for the restaurant, 570 square feet for a multi-purpose meeting room that after a year may be turned over to the restaurant to use for private banquet and conference seating, and a 635 square foot commons area including restrooms, entryway and hallways.

A tenant to open a restaurant serving breakfast and lunch has yet to be found, in what will have a state-of-the-art commercial kitchen and patio seating overlooking Kola Kole Park.

From bar napkins to ribbon cuttings

Lanning, with his Sandy Beach Holdings, and Wetter’s Wetter Family LLC created the Firehouse Partners to purchase the building and site from North Kitsap Fire & Rescue last June for $935,000, a deal negotiated by local John L. Scott Realtor Sonny Woodward.

Woodward, who grew up in Kingston, remembers when Dean Elkins and Paul Nichols decided to move the fire station to the location on Highway 104 in the 1970s (the original fire station still stands, now an attorney’s office). Before the fire station was there, it was the site of the original Kingston community center.

“It feels good, things like this,” Woodward said as he watched the excavator tear down remnants of the old fire station. “Things like this have to happen to keep people inspired. Things are actually happening here, things that were just ideas on bar napkins years ago. We’re much farther ahead than we were. Ten years ago we were all fighting each other. Now we’ll have a community facility that’s a real measure of the people in the community. ”

From celluloid to Shakespeare

Craig Smith, who owns Peninsula Video in Kingston Crossing shopping center adjacent to Albertsons and works double-time as soccer coach for Kingston High School teams, will move his video store into the new building and own and manage the theater.

In March, Smith said he will be marking 25 years in business with his Peninsula Video, which was the first tenant in Kingston Crossing 10 years ago and before that located for six years at Kountry Korner where Sakura Teriyaki is now.

He said the theater would be similar to art house cinemas such as the Rose Theatre in Port Townsend and the Lynwood Theater on Bainbridge Island. In addition to showing movies, it will be available to rent for special events. The movie schedule he has in mind has about 16 screenings per week and may include midnight shows on weekends, Saturday matinees and Sunday afternoon classics.

In addition to films, Smith is excited to provide Kingston with a “black-box” theater venue. “That’s the mark of a real community,” Smith said. “It isn’t just about community, but an evolution of how we’re trying to live our lives more locally.”

The newly formed Kingston Repertory Theater, the KHS Drama Club and Spectrum students hope to get involved with the new theater as well.

Forrester is taking a video production class at Spectrum and has talked to Smith about using the theater as a way to share their work with a larger audience. Smith said he might offer residents a chance to show short films before regular features are shown.

“The students here are interested, and excited they won’t have to go far to engage in a social activity with friends,” Forrester said. “It seems to spark inspiration to do stuff instead of wandering the town aimlessly.”

For more information, go to www.kingstonfirehouse.com.

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