Visit Benston Hall on a Wednesday, and you’ll find a senior group meeting for lunch in the kitchen.
On a Saturday, you might walk into an outdoor farmer’s market.
On other days of the week, step aerobics, tai chi, line dancing, or swing dancing might be in full swing in the main hall.
Benston Hall, a community gathering space off 304th Street in Graham, is becoming Graham’s new hub for local events that are affordable and inviting. Learn all about this historic space and how founder Anne Garvin is improving it a little at a time with materials like gravel from Washington Rock Quarries.
The Road to Benston Hall
Anne Garvin is no stranger to hard work.
During the 1990s, she worked as a mechanic for Boeing and volunteered for a nonprofit organization. She noticed that people in need lacked personal care items, so she eventually started her own nonprofit, providing crucial things like soap, shampoo, laundry detergent, and feminine hygiene products.
Soon after Anne’s nonprofit began, 9/11 sent the aerospace industry reeling. Travel slowed down, and so did orders for planes. Boeing laid off Anne along with thousands of other employees. Anne used the unfortunate incident to her advantage: she completed a bachelor’s degree and then a master’s degree in management. She rejoined Boeing in a management role before retiring in 2018.
Over nearly 20 years, the nonprofit grew, and Anne gained experience hosting events for coworkers at Boeing. The COVID-19 pandemic impressed her with the need for local spaces where the community could gather.
“I think it’s just really, really important to build community and to encourage people to get to know each other and interact socially,” Anne explained. “And I just think that’s how you have a healthy community.”
She began looking for a permanent space where she could create community in the countryside.
After one opportunity fell through, Benston Hall came up for sale in 2021.
Restoring Benston Hall
Benston Hall is a white country-style building that started out as a grange in the 1920s. It’s been a familiar landmark on 304th Street ever since. It hearkens back to the days when the surrounding agricultural community was known as Benston.
A 1946 article in The Eatonville Dispatch reported on a meeting at Benston Hall, which was then known as Benston Grange No. 892: “A group of dancing pupils and girl tumblers from Tacoma danced and put on a tumbling act. The youngsters were talented and clever and were greatly enjoyed.”
Benston Grange appears to have merged with Elk Plain Grange No. 782 in the mid-1990s. Elk Plain Grange sold the building to a church in 1997.
Anne and her husband, John, bought the building from the church in 2021. Anne renamed the building Benston Hall a few years later to pay tribute to its heritage and her connection to the Benston pioneer family.
At first, Anne’s family was a little skeptical of the purchase. But it didn’t take long for them to fall in love.
Anne’s youngest daughter, Jamie, remembers having a family Christmas dinner in the building not long after the purchase was finalized. “We had a big seafood boil,” Jamie recalled. “We explored the building and realized it was just an old building with a ton of character!”
From the beginning, bringing Benston Hall back to life has been a family affair. As a child, Jamie had ridden alongside Anne as she picked up and distributed donations in the early days of the nonprofit. Now as an adult and a seasoned market vendor, Jamie coordinates events.
“When [my mom] first bought Benston Hall, I had just done my first vendor market at The Great Junk Hunt at the Washington State Fairgrounds and was hooked,” Jamie explained. “[Benston Hall offered] the perfect transition from being a vendor to starting markets in rural Pierce County where there weren’t a lot of markets happening yet.”
Jamie’s fiancé, Chase, helps her plan events, checks on guests, manages parking, and helps keep renovation projects moving forward.
“The three of us together have put a lot of effort, ideas, discussions, and blood, sweat, and tears into making Benston Hall what it is today,” Jamie said. “We make a pretty good team!”
Located between a fire station and Lucky Spur Ranch, Benston Hall is one of the few rural event centers of its kind.
“We provide a low-cost venue and try to keep everything very affordable,” Anne said.
True to its grange heritage, Benston Hall features a main event hall, bathrooms near the entrance, and a dining area and kitchen.
Two doors beckon visitors into a lobby with stairs that lead up to the main event hall. The spaces are still named based on the church’s descriptions. So the main hall, which features a big, polished wood floor and a stage, is called “The Sanctuary.”
The dining-kitchen area behind it is called “The Fellowship Hall.” It’s currently being transformed into a commercial kitchen. Anne hopes this space will eventually be used by food trucks, local bakers, and other food professionals looking for affordable ways to grow their businesses.
The photos above show carpenters replacing the windows on Benston Hall.
In the past five years, Anne, Jamie, and Chase—with help from the community—have put a lot of energy and money into bringing Benston Hall back into working order.
“When we bought the place, the roof was leaking, it had an original oil furnace, and the ductwork underneath was falling apart,” Anne explained. “And so I was spending a thousand dollars a month just trying to keep it from freezing.”
Every year features a new project. After the kitchen is complete, Anne plans to add doors from the Fellowship Hall to the deck and attach a small bar and TV so guests can enjoy socializing within view of Mt. Rainier and the foothills.
Expanding the parking area is also on the list.
Gravel Parking
“The events have been getting bigger and more popular,” Anne explained, “and one of our biggest struggles has been parking.”
When parking spaces at Benston Hall were filled to capacity, guests were parking alongside 304th Street, which is a fast-moving road that connects travelers and large trucks on State Route 161 to State Route 7.
The gravel in Benston Hall’s small parking lot had compacted over time. The rest of the outdoor space was covered in grass. The combination led to a muddy, slippery mess in the wet Washington weather.
Anne called Washington Rock Quarries for gravel, and everything fell into place. Washington Rock provided 10 loads of 1¼” Minus gravel.
“Being able to extend the gravel has just been a life changer,” Anne said.
The photos above on the left show the parking lot in February. The photos above on the right show the parking lot after gravel was spread in March.
A step aerobics instructor told Anne, “We couldn’t have had that gravel delivered at a more perfect time with all this rain.”
Anne agree. “[The gravel has] just made a world of difference,” she said.
A Dream Come True
A new farmhouse-style sign out front says, “Benston Hall: A Community Gathering Place.” A sign hanging underneath adds, “Markets, Private Events, Weddings, and More.”
The “and More” in the subheading is doing a lot of work. As mentioned in the introduction, Benston Hall hosts a senior group, step aerobics, tai chi, emporiums (small markets), bingo, dance classes, and Jamie’s signature event, Bad Moms Brunch.
Jamie has been working hard to schedule a colorful array of activities, including doormat painting classes, paint nights, and candle making.
Benston Hall also hosts programs like Girl Scouts and 4H as well as a biweekly food distribution program called Mountain Country Pantry. The space can be rented for weddings, birthday parties, celebrations of life, and family dinners.
Despite the hard work of renovating, overseeing events, and managing the nonprofit, Anne is exactly where she wants to be.
“I’m living my dream. This is what I want to do long-term,” Anne said.
Recently an elderly woman, her oxygen tank in tow, came up to Anne after a talent show at Benston Hall. In tears, the woman told Anne that this was the first time she had been able to see her granddaughter dance.
“This was the first time that she could participate, because it was close enough to home,” Anne explained.
That story is just one of many that inspire Anne to keep going and to keep making Benston Hall better and better.
“We’ve got a long way to go to renovate it, to get it looking really good. But we’ve come a long way,” Anne said.
Learn more about Benston Hall on their website, or follow them on Facebook or Instagram to learn about upcoming events.
Washington Rock Quarries is a family-owned business that produces rock, sand, and soil products at Kapowsin Quarry and King Creek Pit in Orting, Washington. We look for opportunities to give back to the community through our Giving Back Program.
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