History
The World Kite Museum and Hall of Fame has its roots in the local community. In the mid 1980′s a group of kite enthusiasts began to discuss the idea of forming a museum dedicated to kites and kite flyers. The group met informally and developed a plan of action. They researched building opportunities, nonprofit status requirements, storage facilities, and other basic details that were needed to establish a museum. The group was eager to create a place where people could go to learn about kite history and see kiting displays.
Several auspicious things happened around this time. 1989 was the Washington State’s 100th birthday and there was a lot of influence on supporting historical museums began. There were many workshops encouraging upgrading Museums. Interested local folks picked areas that interested them and attended. Running a gift shop, How to accession artifacts, Writing a mission statement and goals and objectives, Recommended storage techniques, 501 c 3 status – all these topics were of importance.
The State also provided grant money for Museums. Part of the group wrote a grant for display boards for our first exhibit, “The History of Kites in Washington State.” The money was donated and the “only-partly-organized-Kite-Museum opened its first exhibit, a week long affair in the Long Beach City Council rooms during the Washington State International Kite Festival.
Another lucky thing happened. A Japanese man created a kite that would fly backward and forward. He flew many, many in tandem but rather in trains they displayed in arches. Aji Ohashi made 1,989 (in honor of Washington’s Centennial) kites and flew them in multiple dramatic arches on both sides of the Bolstad beach approach.
Mr. Ohashi also brought kite-making materials for kids and with Museum volunteers every Long Beach School kid made a flyable Japanese kite. The Museum had begun with an exhibit, a unique kite display on the beach and a school kite making class.
More fortunate things came to the committee. Soon into 1990, Dorothea Checkley donated her late husband David’s collection of 700 Asian kites. The 300 plus Japanese kites were considered the most complete outside of Japan at that time.
Now a building was imperative. Chairman of the Board of Directors, Jim Buesing, went to the City of Long Beach with a proposal for the use of the Coulter home in the southwest corner of the one half block of property of Coulter’s beach cottage vacation rentals that the City had acquired. Through the largesse of the City of Long Beach this building became the Museum home from 1990-2004.
By August 1990, led by Buesing, the inside of the home plus the two rental rooms attached became a four-room exhibit space. The kitchen morphed into an admission desk and gift shop. The bathroom, tub and sink removed were computer room and print, picture, video and book storage. The laundry room stored kites not on exhibit. One of the exhibit rooms was designated as the Long Beach room. It was a nostalgic place for festival participants. It also had a kite-making table. Admission, which included this material, still exists. Other three rooms varied widely, changing yearly.
These 14 years until 2005 created partnerships with schools – using their gym for adult workshops and bringing cultural experiences to their students. We worked closely with Merchant Associations, provided programs for local clubs and libraries. In house programs included membership drives; quarterly newsletters, demonstrations and exhibits in other places. Little did we know that running into each other in our crowded building would dump us into an active “Making friends attitude.”
For the last 9 maybe more years, we experimented with ideas for more room. The first was building on the coulter Park property. Then some other chips fell into place. We got a lease from WA Stat Parks with the intention of building an architecture designed kite museum. When a glitch occurred in this path, the Board changed its strategy. A 10,360 square foot, two-story building was available on Sid Snyder Drive. By November 2005, the Board of Directors was able to purchase this building that provides over 6,000 square feet of exhibit space, room for storing research artifacts both print and picture plus workshop and office space.
The History of the World Kite Museum and Hall of Fame now proceeds with educating and entertaining visitors, protecting and increasing our collections plus researching and discovering more about the kites past and present.
Interactive Map
