The Suburban Times

A community bulletin board for Western Pierce County.

Around Town: Construction boom coming in early December

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Photo by Nancy Covert

Photo by Nancy Covert

By Nancy Covert

A flurry of housing construction in Pierce County is expected to begin on Dec. 4 and continue through Dec. 18.

An estimated 80+ new homes are likely to be built during the first two weeks of the month, according to a flyer, issued by Pierce County’s Library System.

Be warned: these houses are teeny-tiny ones—one large room at most—with unusual exterior trim adorning its fragrant cookie walls, consisting of icing, sprinkles and pieces of candy. The cozy and warm dwellings are ideal for this time of year.

These mini-residences are made of gingerbread, and just three of the 14 Gingerbread House-making workshops that are scheduled around the County during early December. Three workshops are being held at libraries in Lakewood, Steilacoom, and DuPont.

Library Friends are sponsoring this special holiday season house building session—no word, though, whether official city building inspectors will be checking on the work.

No word, either, about which realtors will be handling sales.

Local house-building times are:

  • Lakewood: 1 p.m., Sat. Dec. 14
  • Steilacoom: 3-5 p.m., Wed., Dec. 18
  • DuPont: 11 a.m., Wed., Dec. 11 and 10 a.m., Saturday, Dec. 14

Check each library for specific details.

The cookie house represents the Walker Ames house displayed in the Pt. Gamble General Store. (Pt. Gamble, not surprisingly, has ties to Steilacoom!) The town, north of Kingston, is on the National Historic Register.

Some Gingerbread trivia (gleaned from Wikipedia)

An early form of gingerbread can be traced to the ancient Greeks and Egyptians who used it for ceremonial purposes. Eleventh Century Crusaders brought ginger back from the Middle East so wealthy folks’ cooks could experiment with the new spice. Ginger caught on, and it’s said that Queen Elizabeth I created the first gingerbread man—as treats for visiting dignitaries. The Gingerbread House-making custom began in the early 19th century, inspired by the famous Fairy Tale Writers, the Brothers Grimm, who wrote the classic, Hansel and Gretel—not to be confused with the recent film, “Hansel and Gretel—Witch Hunters”

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