November 13, 2024
The Suyematsu Farm Legacy Alliance (SFLA) have entered into an agreement with the City of Bainbridge Island to become operator of the Suyematsu Farm Historic Property on Bainbridge Island. On November 12, the Bainbridge Island City Council voted to approve the management agreement, which has been almost a year in the making, to take over this community and cultural asset.
Founded in 1928, the original forty acres of Suyematsu Family Farm is one of the oldest, continuously farmed working landscapes in the region, and today is the largest production farm in Kitsap County. It is the hub of our Island’s farming community and a treasured and iconic cultural asset.
Since the period of Japanese American Exclusion, Suyematsu Family Farm has been one of the most inclusive places on Bainbridge Island. The farm has become an established historic and cultural site for teaching and learning about the Japanese American experience, and a living bookend to the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Memorial.
The Picker Cabins, once seasonally occupied by Filipino farmworkers and First Nation families who migrated to the Island to pick berries, among others, help to preserve the origins of Bainbridge Island’s Indipino Community.
In 2001, Akio Suyematsu sold to the City of Bainbridge Island (COBI) the remaining fifteen-acres of his family farm. Formal ownership of this property transferred to COBI upon Akio’s death in 2012. In 2016, five-acres of the Suyematsu Farm, including its original farm buildings, were listed in the Bainbridge Island Historic Register and was dedicated as the Island’s first ever Historic Preservation District (HPD). Today the site is known as the Suyematsu Farm Historic Property.
Many of the historic structures on the property have entered into an endangered state since Akio Suyematsu’s passing in 2012. This initial twelve month agreement will provide the opportunity for SFLA to complete a series of urgent repairs to return the original Suyematsu family farmhouse back to a place of occupation, and conduct other needed clean up, maintenance and repairs on the property, which will set the stage for a long term agreement to conduct the larger restoration and preservation work that will transform the Suyematsu Farm Historic Property into a center of interpretation, education, and active farming.
To coincide with this agreement, the City of Bainbridge Island has granted SFLA $60,000 in seed funding to assist with the $180,000 cost of completing the urgently needed repairs the farmhouse, which include replacing the roof, removing severe mold, along with other electrical, heating and plumbing work.
SFLA is honored to have the special responsibility of being entrusted with this historic site, upholding the legacy of Akio Suyematsu, and stewarding this iconic community asset well into the 21st century. We look forward to further cultivating our partnership with the City and community of Bainbridge Island.