Earmark 'unlikely' for Rainier Club

While descending a tiled staircase into The Rainier Club lobby, U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott said Monday he doubts his request for a $250,000 earmark to cover renovations at the exclusive downtown Seattle club will win approval from federal lawmakers.

"Given what's going on in the country these days, it seems unlikely to me," the Seattle Democrat said, amid a backdrop of fine artwork and antique furniture. "I'm not going to say definitively they won't. That's just my opinion."

McDermott's remarks came after a luncheon at The Rainier Club, one of Seattle's oldest private clubs, which counts among its 1,200 members some of the region's most prominent residents.

The Rainier Club project is among more than 100 requests for federal earmarks that McDermott's office submitted to the House Appropriations Committee in early April. The money would help the club repair eroding limestone windowsills at its historic, five-story brick building on Fourth Avenue.

The earmark — which, if approved, would garner money out of the existing "Save America's Treasures" program for historic-preservation projects — seeks to match $250,000 raised by club members to cover the $500,000 project.

Club officials, who say they have exhausted other grant and fundraising options, say the renovations are of legitimate and immediate need: Windowsill erosion problems threaten structural supports within the building, parts of which date to 1904.

Recognized by the city and state as a historic landmark, the club doesn't qualify for other money because it's not deemed "nationally significant," a requirement for most historical-preservation grants.

"It's not just 'pass the hat' for this specific project," said Bill Grinstein, a retired senior executive of Battelle's Pacific Northwest Laboratory, who serves on the club's board of directors. "This is just one preservation project in a number of ongoing ones we've got constantly going on."

"This is not a ridiculous request," added McDermott, in his 11th term.

The congressman, who is not a club member, was invited there Monday to speak at a previously arranged, members-only luncheon about health care. Before the two-hour event — where about 80 club members dined on sesame-seared chicken salad — McDermott defended the request to a reporter, saying that, at this point, it is just that.

"Everybody assumes if you ask, you get," McDermott said. "People are jumping to conclusions, but they're only seeing the initial steps of the process."

McDermott said the request will go through a stringent vetting process. He said his office routinely submits all requests it receives to the House Appropriations Committee.

"Everybody in the 7th District has the right to make a request — the University of Washington, The Rainier Club, everybody," he said.

The club's request, he added, is not unlike one he submitted for Seattle's African American Museum.

As he talked to a reporter in a corner of the club's lobby, outside, in a crowded private parking lot, valets jockeyed to park arriving members' cars. Among the occasional Honda and Scion, the lot included several BMWs, Mercedes, even a vintage Rolls-Royce.

Anthony Welcher, the club's incoming board president, said that while many of the club's members are people of means, many others are solidly middle class. Despite what the public might think, most members simply can't afford to make large donations for preservation projects, he said.

Members pay $191 per month in dues. Club officials declined Monday to disclose the amount the club requires of new members for an initiation fee. A 2002 story in The Seattle Times stated the club's top initiation fees were $1,500 at that time.

Asked if he felt a private club with wealthy members deserved a federal earmark, McDermott said the same question can be asked of the Seattle Art Museum or the UW, which possesses "a huge endowment."

"I suppose you can raise that question," said McDermott, whose group left the luncheon in a Toyota Prius. "But I believe everyone deserves a public hearing."

Lewis Kamb: 206-464-2341 or lkamb@seattletimes.com