Seventeen years ago, Vashon College was reopened as a nonprofit educational organization using the original 1892 Vashon College charter.

The new Vashon College introduced itself with a new interdisciplinary look at Vashon Island in a course called Vashon 101.

The inspiration for reviving Vashon College came from Melissa and Tom Bangasser, Vashon Rotary, and a dedicated group of islanders who became the Board of Trustees for the new college.

Ted Claybaugh served as president, and other board members included Barbara Gylland, Bill Cox, Gov. Booth Gardner, Charon Scott Goldman, Jim English, Jim Warren, Melinda Sontgerath, Mimi Walker, Nick de Steiguer, and Rex Stratton.

The mission of the new college was to “provide lifelong learning opportunities to meet the interest, needs, and requirements of our Island community and beyond.” The College also sought to complement other island programs and organizations.

When Vashon College was formed in 2006, the inaugural course Vashon 101 was created by volunteer faculty who created the course itself, and many other volunteers who took on all the behind-the-scenes efforts needed to register students, plan the boat trip around the island, print the course materials, schedule the classroom sessions, and handle all the myriad details it takes to offer a successful college class.

The success of the initial Vashon 101 class was because of these volunteers. Leading this effort was Melissa Bangasser, with the able help of Nancy Bachant. Others added to the effort, including Pamn Aspiri, George Baxter, Bonnie and Allan DeSteiguer, and others.

The original Vashon College was founded in 1892 as a non-denominational Christian college for “young people of both sexes” who were of “good moral character.”

Miles Hatch, an early island entrepreneur and founder of Burton, spearheaded the group that formed Vashon College. A.C. Jones was hired as the first president and began constructing the campus on land to the west above Burton donated by Hatch.

The first building was Old Main, a four-story building with 46 rooms used as classrooms, offices, a dining hall, and student residences. The three-story commercial building was added in 1894, with classrooms and residences for 90 young men, and then expanded in 1898. The Armory was added in 1901 and was the largest drill hall in the state at that time

None of these buildings remain today.

Following a disastrous fire in 1910, the College sat largely empty and unused until another fire in 1930 led to the buildings being razed and the land used as a farm and orchard before becoming the site for homes it is today.

Early Vashon College catalogs proudly announced: “There are no saloons, gambling houses, dance halls, or other places of evil influence within eight miles of Vashon College.” Which, of course, meant Tacoma. “Not a drop of liquor is for sale on the island” and “The use of tobacco, intoxicants and private card playing are positively forbidden.”

The costs to attend Vashon College were modest, even by 1890 standards, with tuition for a 15-week semester in 1896 costing $22.50 ($736 in 2023 dollars) and tuition, room, board, heating, and lighting costing $72.00 for 15 weeks ($2,358 in 2023 dollars).

The new Vashon College had no such aspirations for the good moral character of its students, but the cost of classes was modest, just enough to cover expenses.

Vashon 101 was offered for the first time, beginning on Sept. 10, 2006 with a narrated cruise around the island. Faculty members Tom Devries, Kevin Freeman, and Bruce Haulman provided insights about the ecological, geological, and historic sites visible from the water. The subsequent sessions delved more deeply into geology, ecology, history, demographics, folklore, and the island’s place in the world, with faculty members including Christine Ingebritsen, Patrick Christie, William Seaberg, and Alice Larson. The entire series was moderated by Rich Wiley.

Following the introductory session of Vashon 101 in 2006, the course was offered numerous times and was last offered in 2014. Vashon College also developed other courses, including an Island Studies seminar directed by Joe Meeker, an oral history class taught by Joe Meeker and Bruce Haulman, and a series of classes taught by Vashon artists that explored “the mysteries of artful creativity” convened by Joe Meeker and titled Artful Vashon.

Vashon College was a successful attempt to bring lifelong learning opportunities to the island, but by the early 2010s, other factors were at work pulling board members and the Bangassers away from their involvement in the College and by 2014, the College offered its last class and essentially stopped operations.

However, the enthusiasm for Vashon 101 never seemed to have faded, and those who had taken the class often talked fondly about how impactful the course was for them to develop a better understanding of the island.

The enthusiasm among the faculty never faded either, and when the Vashon Heritage Museum broached the idea of reviving Vashon 101 as a series of Museum Talks, the group responded enthusiastically to plan for this year’s resumption of Vashon 101, as an online series, accessible to all, began.

In the intervening 10 years since the course was last offered, faculty members sought to change the course to make it more inclusive and more representative of the many voices that make up the Vashon Island community.

The Heritage Museum reached out to Puyallup Tribe members Binah McCloud (Session 3, Fishing War Survivor) and Brandon Reynon (Session 5, The sx̌ʷəbabš or People of the Swift Water) and asked them to become part of Vashon 101 to bring the presence and the voice of Vashon’s original inhabitants to the discussion.

Bianca Perla (Session 4, Contemporary Vashon Ecology), Steve Bergman (Session 1, Vashon Geology), and Tom Devries (Session 2, A History of Vashon’s Ecology) all worked to develop the exhibit “Natural Wonder: An Islanad Shaped by Water, for the Vashon Heritage Museum,” and in the process developed closer connections with the Puyallup Tribe and expanded our knowledge of the Island’s ecology.

Historian Bruce Haulman (Session 6, Vashon History: Contact to Present) will survey the last 200-plus years of Vashon’s history. That talk will be presented at 7 p.m. Thursday, June 8.

Demographer Alice Larson (Session 7, Vashon Demography: A Picture of Us, at 7 p.m. Thursday, July 13 ) works to understand who we are on Vashon by studying census data and other data. Alice is co-director, with Bruce Haulman, of the Vashon Census Project, which digitized and analyzed all the various Vashon censuses beginning with the 1880 census. That digitized census data and analysis is available on the research site vashonhistory.com.

The final session will be led by Patrick Christie (Session 8, Improving Vashon Through Exploring Connections, at 7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 10), who is moderating the series and directing the discussion in the final session to help everyone involved discuss how we can work together to improve Vashon.

Find out more about the series of talks, and view all the talks in the 2023 season, at vashonheritagemuseum.org/museum-talks.

Find out more about Vashon 101 and view all the talks in the 2023 season, at vashonheritagemuseum.org/museum-talks. Register for upcoming talks here.