Historic Faraway

Our Story

Historic Faraway was a sadly neglected waterfront estate when it went on the market in December of 2015.

I had just gotten my real estate license and had been looking for a farm property within 100 miles of Seattle. I started watching the real estate listing for Far-A-Way* every day from the beginning but I was afraid to tell my husband about it because of the condition of the property. The ad stated it was a fixer-upper, and without having ever heard of it, it seemed like too much money for what it had to offer. I could only go by the listing photos and they were terrible! Plus my husband was already busy enough without adding "restore a house and repair several outbuildings and replace a 250 foot seawall" to his to-do lists. Because of where it sits, it’s not exactly a drive-by, so I tried to forget about the listing, but couldn’t. Every time the price dropped it popped up in my real estate search.

So despite our concerns, we finally toured Faraway on the 4th of July, 2016, which was coincidentally the 10 year anniversary of our first date. At that point the property had sat on the market for over a year. The price had dropped considerably, making it more tempting, and after walking the grounds and feeling the magic of this place, we realized we may have found our dream project. As we walked the grounds the sellers agent told us that everyone who had looked at it was going to tear everything down - no one was crazy enough to try to restore it, apparently! He looked at us in disbelief as my husband and I chatted about how we could piece the place back together.

While negotiating with the seller, the Archdiocese of Seattle, I continued to do some research. With each day that passed I learned more and more about the history of Far-A-Way from neighbors, internet searches and museum exhibits, and we realized someone needed to bring it back to it's former glory. It HAD to happen.

When we took possession on August 16, 2016 Far-A-Way consisted of several buildings, but most were barely usable. The various structures had countless issues including leaky roofs, plumbing problems, flooding, sinking foundations, and if there were gutters to be found, they were broken or ineffective. In other words, all of the buildings were in various states of disrepair, and all were full of cast-off furniture and / or trash. The fact that these buildings were situated on on almost 7 acres of land, on several hundred feet of waterfront on peaceful Filucy Bay made it hard to resist, however. Even though the grounds were in terrible condition, we knew there was a diamond (or a few diamonds) hiding under all of the blackberry vines and dying trees. The rodent and raccoon infestations were daunting as well, and the deer had pretty much eaten every single rose where there used to be hundreds. We definitely had our work cut out for us.

Built by Frank & Josephine McDermott, the founders of the Bon Marché department stores, Far-A-Way was originally only accessible by boat, but that didn't stop William Randolph Hearst from visiting, or Bill Boeing either - he arrived in style in his float plane!

Far-A-Way was the site of legendary parties - not just for the rich & famous, but for Longbranch community members too. Bon Marche employees were also welcomed there. The McDermotts brought their employees and their families to Far-A-Way via steamships decked out with Dixieland Jazz bands to keep them entertained for the 3-4 hour trip.
Once at Far-A-Way, the food and drinks were always plentiful, and Frank McDermott enjoyed hosting games and races of all types, especially those involving swimming, diving and boating.

The estate was originally 60+ acres, and Frank had lookout and treehouses built to better capture the views of the Olympics, Mt Rainier and the surrounding waters. Those 60 acres have been pared down to 6, but it still feel quite grandiose.

People message me often, wanting to rent our property for weddings or reunions. For now, it is our private home. I am hoping to someday open a wholesale flower farm here, but there is still so much to do to make it liveable. In the future we hope to open parts of the property for events, such as the Key Peninsula Farm Tour, held the first Saturday in October.

Follow along and watch as we restore this historic estate...it's sure to be interesting and full of surprises!

Brook Hurst Stephens

*Along the way I took the hyphens out of “Far-A-Way” for the sake of simplicity. Modern technology, like computer-generated autofill when completing address forms does not recognize them.

The photo of the historic sign at the entrance to the 200 foot long pergola taken October 2017, the day after the 100+ year old sign was given a paint make-over.