MOD MABANA BEACH HOUSE
On the site of an historic dock, a stylish 70’s Beach Palace in a coastal corner of the Pacific Northwest. Sandy playground for all ages on Puget Sound, fully stocked for inspiration and celebration.
3239 Mabana Road, Camano Island, WA
Stylish 70s no bank waterfront beach palace, 75-minutes by car with no ferry wait. 140-front feet, rare sandy beach, 180 degree unobstructed westerly Sound & Mountain views. Open floor plan, soaring vaulted cedar ceilings, wraparound entertaining deck, hot tub. Celebrated in Getty Images fashion shoot & featured in Seattle Met Magazine. Landscaping by Brandon Peterson, mooring buoy, adjacent boat launch. Pristine retreat fully stocked for inspiration ideal for Seattle commuter or weekender.
Sold for $849,000
Historic Port of Mabana
3 bedrooms*
3.25 bathrooms
3,221 SF
Open floor plan
Soaring cedar ceilings
Sunken living room
Low bank waterfront feet: 140
Long flat sandy beach
Drive-on Island, no ferry
Olympics, Mt Rainier Views
2-car attached garage
Seaside hot tub
Hurricane and security shades
Four-season amenities
MLS #956093
*Septic designed for 2 Bedrooms
BEACH HOUSE
Think Boogie Nights. The days of key parties, glam and earth shoes. Candy-colored excess. Feathered hair and wide leg jeans. A time when friendship and romance were cemented with mix tapes.
The pristine 3,000 SF+ 1970’s beach house still stands, with expansive, fashionable and casual quarters for family and friends, up to 30 if they unroll sleeping bags on the high pile living room carpet or pitch tents on the sea-sheltered lawn.
Manicured yet fundamentally unchanged through the years. A magic carpet ride, where vintage lamps cast their amber glow on acid-hued pillows.
70’s chic overlooking Saratoga Passage, a 75- minute drive from Seattle on 140 feet of saltwater frontage adjacent to a boat launch, ideal as either a sophisticated escape or home base for the Seattle commuter.
The massive stone fireplace, inspired by the Rat Pack era of its original owner, still beckons on stormy winter nights.
From a cozy loveseat, vistas of waves, miles of coastline, and the horizon where pleasure craft sway and gray whales make their stately progress.
Roll the dice. Parcheesi, backgammon, and cribbage await in the game closet. Shuffle and deal the cards and roll through the evening listening to the stereo as the sun sets over the Olympics.
Memories have been captured here, sepia-tinted or Polaroid. Snap your own.
Styled for today’s fashion shoots. The scene of hip parties and the next generation of cool.
Short boat ride to Langley restaurants
Vibrant artistic community
Close to charming Bow Edison and antiquing in LaConner
Skagit Valley birding and tulips
Extensively showcased in media
Private setting at end of road
Water-facing deck
Sheltered in winter
Up to 30% less rain than Seattle
Fun for all ages
BEACHFRONT
A sandy playground for all ages on Puget Sound.
Stash year-round outdoor gear in the oversized garage: Kayak, fishing poles, crab pots, skis, boogie boards, beach game sets, volleyball, croquet, horseshoes.
Relax in the hot tub with family or friends while watching the tide come in, the waves breaking and racing up the beach.
Later, swirl beer or brandy on the wraparound deck as sunsets paint the sky red, or watch the alpenglow as the sun rises and the Olympics glimmer.
After dark, enjoy the twinkling lights of Langley and Payne Field during endless summer evenings with 10 pm sunsets. The sky above, a vast theater. The sea a cinema, front-row seats for your friends and family both inside and out of doors. The moon and sand your ever-present guests.
Low native plantings, punctuated by stepping stones and a driftwood bench define the beach setting, which includes a flat lawn sheltered from the Sound.
The landscaping, by acclaimed garden designer Brandon Peterson (of The Palm Room in Ballard), leads your eye naturally to the flat expanse of water, and the long line of land on the horizon.
Linear no-bank waterfront feet: 140
Accessible setting, no cliffs or bluffs
Flat, sandy and swimmable beach
Neighboring public boat launch
Mooring buoy
Subtle, low-maintenance, naturalistic landscaping
Huge wraparound ocean side deck
Driftwood bench
Sheltered ocean side hot tub
Outdoor speakers
“I love feeling that these things had a life before me,”
Kyla Fairchild, in Seattle Metropolitan Magazine
LEGACIES
An historic port with logging camp and railway. Island art studios. And a Seattle Tastemaker.
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The Swedish immigrant and logger Nils Anderson (know as “Peg Leg” due to a permanent logging accident) moves his family from South Whidbey to South Camano, joining the existing Swinomish & Lummi inhabitants.
Over time Anderson builds a logging camp, a store and a 900-foot dock. A narrow-gauge train runs along the dock to transport logs and other freight, passengers and mail to and from docked freighters.
Anderson names the settlement “Mabana,” combining the first syllable of his oldest daughter’s name (“Mabel”) with the last syllable of his wife’s (“Johanna”). He gives land for a school and Mabana Schoolhouse is built in 1916.
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Island County buys Mabana Dock from Anderson and establishes the Port of Mabana.
In 1949, the Mark Clark Bridge is built (replacing a spindly 1909 swing bridge) across the Stillaguamish River to maintain automotive connection between Seattle and the mainland with the Island.
Mabel Anderson
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By the late 1970’s, the dock built by Nils Peg Leg Anderson has been replaced by a mod beach house, blazing with the well preserved tones of a more recent epoch. Its first owner, Norma Sommers, came from a local family that homesteaded nearby. Along with her husband Johnny, she owned the Red Apple Market chain. by 1980, when construction was complete, it had been Norma’s penchant for opulent interiors and her seemingly unlimited budget for the finest finishes of the era that defined their swank and sophisticated vacation home.
In 2005 a new owner, Kyla Fairchild, discovers the Mabana Beach House, acquiring some of its furnishings and other contents—improbably preserved, thanks to Sommer’s meticulous ownership which included installation of hurricane shades that keep out the sun when the beach house is unoccupied.
Kyla, a music industry professional and Seattle tastemaker, publisher of Americana music magazine No Depression and co-owner of hip Ballard bar Hattie’s Hat, keeps the best of everything at the Mod Beach House: Burnt orange wall-to-wall carpet and custom wallpaper. Burlwood tables and atomic age bric-a-brac.
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n 2010, the Mark Clark Bridge is replaced by the new Camano Gateway Bridge, improving transport for visitors and islanders and continuing the ease of access to this magical place.
Spring 2016, 100 years after the Port of Mabana was proclaimed, the Mabana Schoolhouse is placed on the Washington Heritage Register. It’s now owned and used as an art studio by the oil painter Linda Demetre, an island resident since 1989 and one of over 100 artists who live and work in the area.
The new owner of the Mabana Beach Pad continues to breathe life into the memories made there and creates more with family and friends, adding contemporary artwork by Dan Amell and Susan Dory. She commissions landscaping by acclaimed garden designer Brandon Peterson (of The Palm Room in Ballard) that dramatically accentuates the sky and water. Readying the beloved beach house for its next custodian. The coming chapter in its extraordinary story, yet to be written.
Kyla Fairchild
VINTAGE FEATURES
Built upon site once occupied by historic Mabana Dock
Rare, pristine 1970’s era vintage home
Full height 60’s ranch style home-style stone fireplace
Vintage pinch-pleated draperies
Fab high-pile wall-to-wall carpet
Array of vintage original wallpaper
Groovy built-in black-mirrored wet bar
Time-piece kitchen with customized drop ceiling, vintage appliances including double oven
Some original furnishings, potentially available for purchase
Celebrated for its authentic 60’s & 70’s character, the Beach House is regionally coveted and nationally published. Its recent revelers have included musicians, artists, fashion photographers, and journalists.
COME EXPERIENCE THE VARIED MOODS OF THE BEACH HOUSE FOR YOURSELF.
FLORA AND FAUNA
From field to table, feed your body, nourish your soul.
For millennia the hospitable Puget Sound has invited settlement by hunter-gatherers, thanks to temperate climate, lush forests, and teeming waters.
In our regional earthly paradise you could pick berries off the brambles, harvest oysters and crabs off the beach, forage for delicious mushrooms or wild greens, or pull salmon from the sea. At the Mod Mabana Beach House you still can.
Here, great blue herons wade in shallow waters, forage in eelgrass meadows and nest in big shoreline trees. Bald eagles gracefully circle overhead.
Beyond the shoreline migratory gray whales and orcas swim. Seals and otters make their home in the nearby coves and inlets.
As it has for years, this shoreline retreat will continue to nourish both body and soul.
Fishing, crabbing and shrimping
Short boat ride to Langley restaurants and shops
Nestled among farms, plenty of organic produce and meat
Close to charming Bow Edison and antiquing in LaConner
Skagit Valley birding and tulips
Local sustainable coffee roaster
Local vintners
Images by: Dominic Sherony [CC BY-SA 2.0 (weblink)], via Wikimedia Commons; Cynthia Yock (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (weblink)], via Wikimedia Commons; Joe Mabel [CC BY-SA 3.0 (weblink) or GFDL (weblink)], via Wikimedia Commons
“The gray whales migrate through Saratoga Passage every year. We have seen them breaching and spraying from our windows.”
Kyla Fairchild
Schedule a Private Tour.
Edward Krigsman
Listing Agent
206-387-6789
edwardk@ekreg.com
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