Rexville Grange has long had a focus on community
There is no shortage of stories about the Rexville Grange.
They are on the pink walls in the upper hall that were painted by a community member who worked for weeks to give the formerly drab walls new life.
They are on the beams in the basement, which were decorated with painted vines for a Grange member's wedding 60 years after his grandparents were married in the same place.
They hang on the walls behind the stage's curtain, where paper flyers with curling corners advertise dances and other events from past decades.
They line the pathway that leads to the Black Rock Amphitheater, where every summer for 20 years people have crowded the small clearing to listen to performances of plays by Shakespeare echo off the walls of the old basalt quarry.
A place to gather
In 1927, the upper hall of the Rexville Grange was built entirely by volunteers. The Grange existed that way until 1946, when a foundation was built and the upper hall was moved on top of it.
The land the building sits on was donated by the Summers family to the Lenning family, both of which are still involved with the Grange today.
VIDEO: Restoration of the Rexville Grange
Rexville Grange President Talea Lenning talks about the importance of the local Grange hall. With her is husband Todd Lenning.
The building sits above the Skagit River floodplain, providing a safe place for farmers to bring their equipment during floods.
When it was first formed, the Grange had 300 members and served as the hub for community building.
Free classes ranged from cooking and canning to business support for farmers, helping them learn about how to stay profitable.
Granges throughout the country helped create a network for farmer support.
Over the years, those services, both big and small, became more streamlined, creating less reliance on individual Grange halls.
"All these other services the Grange helped create started doing the very projects that the Grange had originally started out doing," said Rexville Grange President Talea Lenning.
Although the Rexville Grange remains an important historical place for Skagit County residents, particularly those between Mount Vernon and La Conner, its function has changed.
For Lenning, this creates an opportunity for the Grange to "reinvent itself."
Lenning's husband, Todd Lenning, grew up next to the Grange, riding bikes with his friends up Pleasant Ridge.
"Connecting the past and the future is how we have to move forward, because we don't want to let go of that," Todd Lenning said.
The Lennings own Beaver Marsh Blueberry Company just down the road from the Grange.
Gale Fiege, former Rexville Grange secretary and a resident of Beaver Marsh Road, wants the Grange to remain a hotspot for the community.
Fiege married her husband Jon Bauer at the Grange in 2002.
"People feel very connected to the Rexville Grange," she said.
Grange membership
Cathy Savage joined the Rexville Grange in 1996, and eventually served as president for nearly 15 years.
When Savage joined, the family running the Grange no longer had the time or resources to continue doing so, and it was at risk of closing for good until neighbors came together to keep it open.
At the time Savage joined, there were 10 Grange halls in Skagit County. Today, there are five: Rexville, Summit Park, Fredonia, Skagit Valley, and Samish Valley.
"Their membership is aging," Savage said. "All of us are just hoping that young people will join and have an interest in the community hall that is part of their community and they can have for weddings, memorial services and gatherings."
Though Rexville Grange membership has dropped over the years, it now has 41 members, including 20 new members in the past two months.
"Having more members at the Grange just makes us be able to take a breath and not feel like we're always at the end of the road," Savage said. "When you have members, you can say, ‘People want us to be here.'"
The Grange and the arts
Fiege and Savage stressed the importance of arts organizations such Shakespeare Northwest, a local theater group that uses the Grange's Black Rock Amphitheater.
The plays bring younger generations into the space, they said, creating experiences that will keep them coming back.
Shakespeare Northwest used to stage its performances at Edgewater Park in Mount Vernon.
When the fees to use the park went up, Shakespeare Northwest went looking for a new outdoor location for performances and a place to store its equipment.
Savage, who was a member of Shakespeare Northwest at the time, told the group that the Grange's furnace room was empty and available for storage.
While Shakespeare Northwest was holding rehearsals for a summer performance in the upper hall, founder and Vice President Carolyn Hatch ventured down the pathway off the parking area and discovered the amphitheater.
"There's just something really special about the space," Hatch said.
Every summer, cast members and staff help clean up the amphitheater and ready the space for performances, which run from early July until mid-August.
Another longtime connection between the Grange and the local arts community has been the Grange's annual art show.
The shows began when a group of local artists, including potter Marguerite Goff, came together to showcase their work.
Goff expressed appreciation for the building and the sense of place it brings to artists.
"It feels sort of like a natural fit, where the sense of support and the physical structure can encompass other parts of the community," Goff said.
Dances
Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, the Rexville Grange hosted regular community dances.
The family events, which have been described by many as having a "hippie" vibe to them, served as a way for locals to come together.
Multiple bands would circulate through, including one called Rivertalk.
The band's name can be spotted on flyers behind the stage curtain in the upper hall, where the band played during the dances.
Vince Fejeran, a musician who joined Rivertalk in the late 1980s, said the band's style of reggae and Latin music were kid-friendly and easy to dance to.
"The rhythm was pretty infectious," Fejeran said.
He said that during dances the band would keep songs going for longer than intended, leaning into the sound and the enjoyment of the audience.
"I think that was kind of the best part about it," Fejeran said. "It didn't have to be polished."
Fejeran said the dances created a nice sense of community for young people.
Fiege said of the dances, "That was a really special time."
Savage's late husband, Alan Savage, played dances while in a band called Stone Tones.
During performances, the Savages' children would run around upstairs in the Grange hall, eventually tiring and falling asleep on the benches under blankets.
"All the adults knew not to sit on the lumpy blankets, because there were children underneath there," Savage said.
About 10 years ago, Savage said, the bands and audiences changed, making it difficult to raise money through the dances.
Bands naturally grew apart, Fejeran said, and the events weren't what they used to be.
The once-popular dances became fewer and farther between, eventually going away altogether.
The future
When it comes to what the future looks like for the Rexville Grange, the Lennings are leaving that to those who live near the Grange.
"We can really write it however our community wants to," Talea Lenning said.
Fundraising events are on the horizon.
The Grange's recent spring garage sale helped raise money for kitchen renovations, and helped increase membership.
The renovations are underway thanks to fundraising and a Home Depot Community Impact Grant.
The Grange also received a $50,000 appropriation from the state that is meant for capital projects. The money will be used to build a lift for Americans with Disabilities Act access.
Right now, the only way to access the upper hall is by climbing a flight of stairs from either the basement or the front entrance.
Shakespeare Northwest will begin rehearsing for its summer shows soon.
This year, the company will be performing "Hamlet" and "The Comedy of Errors."
The Grange also has a flag retirement program that serves as a service project.
Community members with worn or damaged flags can donate them to the Grange, which will honorably retire them.
Those interested in getting involved with the Rexville Grange can contact Talea Lenning at talealenning@gmail.com.
Fiege said, "We welcome everybody and anybody to join and participate. 100 years later, we are still here."
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