By AMELIA HEAGERTY

Staff Writer

In less than two months, Vashon Park District will complete renovations at a house at Fern Cove —  but it’s already been booked through the summer, sight unseen.

The home of Belle Baldwin, one of the Northwest’s first female physicians, is a two-story white affair, built in 1912 in the Georgian Revival style. Designed by acclaimed Seattle architect Harlan Thomas, it is one of the only surviving examples of his residential work.

The house sits in a kind of nature’s paradise, perched at the mouth of an ecologically vibrant estuary that attracts thousands of migrating shorebirds and waterfowl each year. Shinglemill Creek meets Puget Sound here, and this is the least developed salmon-bearing creek in the Sound.

Once the $140,000 renovation is completed, the home will be the park district’s third historic, waterfront vacation rental — following the two lighthouse keeper’s quarters at Point Robinson, both of which have been wildly popular. Indeed, so popular are the lighthouse quarters that park staff have directed potential guests to Fern Cove, describing it as an alternate, and equally enchanting, option.

The Baldwin house’s living room and one of its bedrooms enjoy sweeping Puget Sound views, and even with the din of a Bobcat excavator at the home last week, just a few steps away one could hear the murmur of the creek.

Parts of the three-bedroom house have been designated historic by the King County Landmarks Commission — the exterior and the living room/dining room, which has dark, floor-to-ceiling wood paneling — while others have been remodeled several times already. Therefore, the park district’s project has been twofold: restoring the historical parts of the home to their 1912 beauty, and updating the home’s kitchen and bathroom to more modern standards. The plumbing and wiring have had to be redone, said Wendy Braicks, Vashon Park District executive director.

The home still has its original glazed windows, which the district re-glazed recently. And the house was repainted its original color — white.

The bedrooms, although not landmarked, are in fine condition and will be repaired, not drastically altered, according to Braicks.

Last week, a toilet sat on the front porch, a clawfoot bathtub rested near the piano in the living room and the wall coverings in the bathroom and the kitchen were stripped down to their studs. But parks maintenance staff said they were confident they’d get the job done.

The park district opted to “go green” as much as possible when renovating, which Braicks said wasn’t difficult when choosing new appliances. She said the house would also be on the search for “pre-loved” furniture.

The park is paying for the renovation by way of a $300,000 bond the board approved on March 25, some of which will finance the renovation and restoration of the Belle Baldwin house and the rest of which is going to a project at Point Robinson. The actual keeper of the Point Robinson park still lives in half of one of the keeper’s quarters, but park officials plan to relocate him to a new home so they can accrue more rental revenue from the current keeper’s home.

The Belle Baldwin renovation is going to end up costing $130,000 to $140,000, said Braicks, and that includes furnishings, even “right down to the last fork and spoon.”

The 10-year bond has to be paid off in that many years, or less, she said.

Former park commissioner Julie Burman, who was instrumental in the creation of Fern Cove in 1994, will be the first guest in the Baldwin House, during the summer solstice. It’s a way for the park district to say thank you to Burman, and also to make sure everything in the Baldwin House is up to par before they lease it out, Braicks said.

“We thought it would be great for her to stay to make sure everything is OK,” said Braicks. “She’s doing it kind of as a trial run for us. We didn’t want to have a paying guest be the first one down there.”

Fern Cove was one of the first conservation projects Islanders undertook, according to Burman.

Today, Shinglemill Creek is protected, known as the Shinglemill Salmon Preserve, in large part because of cooperation between the park district and the Vashon Maury Island Land Trust, Burman said.

Fisher Pond forms the headwaters of the preserve. From there, the creek flows north to where it meets the Sound at Fern Cove.

“It’s really unparalleled with anything else we have on the Island,” Burman said.

Fern Cove is in the process of becoming a park and a preserve, with two entities watching over it.

The park district owns beachfront property, while the Vashon Maury Island Land Trust owns some joining upland property.

The two organizations are going to enter into a legal agreement — with the park district owning title to the two properties and the land trust owning a conservation easement over both parcels, requiring that it steward the properties in perpetuity.

“It works out well in Fern Cove because the easement will give the land trust responsibility for the natural resources, which is our expertise, and give the park district responsibility for the structures, which is their expertise,” said Tom Dean, the land trust’s executive director.

He said Fern Cove was “very unique on Vashon.”

“There’s nowhere else where you see such a large estuary and delta,” he said. “Even Judd Creek, which is a large delta, doesn’t have such a large estuary and delta associated with it. Pocket deltas are key for a lot of different wildlife — migrating shorebirds, salmon of all kinds from all over Puget Sound, eagles and raptors that live there year-round. It’s a really wide variety of wildlife.”