ADMIRAL'S COVE HISTORY

Development of the Community

The community was started  in 1963 when  Robert Detrick and Kenneth Sanwick  formed Admiral's Cove, Inc. and completed  real estate transactions for a tract of land of about 80 acres. This also included tidelands. In 1967 Mr. Sanwick departed the Corporation and Craig Harmon replaced him as the new principle.

Breaking Land

Herman Rorrer and his brother Hobart were employed to help prepare the land for development. The land had been logged in the 20's and 30's and still had huge stumps some as tall as 6 to 7 feet across. Some stumps were removed with a bulldozer. Others required dynamite. They used about 200 cases of dynamite to blast out the stumps. On one occasion, one of the brothers had his pickup on site with 2 cases of dynamite and blasting caps in the back. Stumps were burning and sparks flying. A spark landed in the back of the pickup and exploded the dynamite, destroying the pickup. The owner said he didn't mind losing the pickup, but he sure hated to lose the full bottle of whiskey he had under the seat.

Water District Founded and Well Water System Established

A well water system was completed  in 1963 to support the community. This was owned and managed by Admiral's Cove, Inc. until 1992.  That year a special election was  held and  residents voted  in favor  of establishing Admiral's Cove Water District Three commissioners were elected.
​See next column...
Continued... ACWD negotiated to purchase the existing system from Mrs. Ella Jane Detrick (wife of the deceased Robert Detrick) for $17,500. At the time of the purchase a moratorium  on  building  permits  was in  effect established  by Washington State Department of Health for non-compliance with Washington State Rules and Regulations governing public water supplies. In a short time major improvements were made including the installation of new booster pumps, expanded storage capacity and  construction  of 2.400 feet of new water mains.

Building Roads

The first road put in was Admiral's Drive. It originally extended from the entrance at the highway down to where Faragut is now. Later a work road was extended down to the  pool area.

Lot Division

Arrangements were made to sell lots through McPherson Realty with Bob Holmes in charge of the sales staff. Originally lots sold for $4,250 with waterfront going for $10,000. Mr. Holmes purchased a lot and constructed his own home here. The first Real Estate office was located at what is now 1250 Admirals Drive. The Real Estate office was moved to Farragut and the first office was sold as a home.

Bulkhead Built

In 1963 the developer constructed a bulkhead  for the water front lots with buried logs 2 to 3 feet high. At the  high end, glacier rocks were placed in front to protect the bulkhead. The bulkheads held up until the winter of 1998/1999 when  major storms washed  out the  bulkheads for several of the residences. For some homes, repairs were made with quarry rocks and others used a new corrugated vinyl called Shove Guard.

Setting Up Admiral's Cove Beach Club and its Role in Community Life

ACBC was established in October of 1970. Membership was to be of 2 classes: Active Membership was restricted to those owning property in Admiral's Cove. Associate Members are those not having property here, but applying for membership to use recreational facilities and meeting requirements set forth by the Beach Club. The object of the Club was to provide and operate the maximum recreational facilities possible within budget constraints. At the annual membership meeting in October 2007, the membership voted to move from the Recreational status to a Homeowner's association.

​Subsequently, in a 2011 Island County court ruling (the Roger Close case), it was determined that Admiral’s Cove Beach Club could not be an HOA because it allows Associate Members who do not own land in the Admiral’s Cove community, so Admiral's Cove was moved back to recreational status. It was also confirmed in this case that the Admiral’s Cove Beach Club governing documents run with the land, binding property owners in the Admiral’s Cove community to these governing documents, and that property owners in the Admiral's Cove community can't opt out of belonging to the Club.

Updates

 In 1995, arrangements were made to transfer the responsibility of the Architectural Control Committee to ACBC. Prior to that, this function was one retained by Admiral's Cove, Inc. under the direction of Ella Mae Detrick (wife of Robert). ACBC then established an Architectural Control Committee under the jurisdiction of the Board. Island County is now in charge of building permits.