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On the WaterfrontWaterfront Living in the Pacific Northwest

On the Waterfront: Shelton, WA

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By Russ Young

If you’ve ever wondered about the pros and cons of living in an iconic waterfront home, you might want to chat with Lee and Marlene Zuker about their house at the edge of Hammersley Inlet, near Shelton, Washington.

“It’s not uncommon for people to refer to our home as ‘ol’ Doc Collier’s house,’ even though we’ve owned it since 1992, and have lived here full-time since 2010,” said Lee.

However, rather than bury the past, the Zukers have embraced it, taking time to research their home’s history and to learn more about the man whose name is still associated with it by some area residents.

“Ol’ Doc Collier” was actually Boy Norfleet Collier, MD, a native Texan who came to Shelton after graduat-ing from the University of Texas’ medical school. He practiced medi-cine in Shelton for 50 years, retiring in 1982.

Dr. Collier’s house was designed to accommodate one of his true loves, which was flying. The basement was a hangar for his Taylorcraft float-plane; sliding doors opened so that the airplane could be rolled via a dol-ly on railroad tracks into the inlet.

The basement has been modified to house Lee’s workshop, although reminders of its original purpose re-

A Peaceful Place, With Views Galore

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main, including the winch used to launch and recover the floatplane. Lee is no stranger to flying; he’s an MIT-educated engineer who was a research-and-development pilot in the U.S. Air Force who later worked for Boeing, Cessna and other aero-space companies. Some of his handi-work is on display in the living room, in the form of a replica of a 1776 French double manual harp-sichord that he built. Marlene, who has a fascinating pair of college de-gree—in home economics and art —is a painter; her first oil also graces the living room. She has a water-front studio adjacent to the house, although it has been alternately used for storage, and for hosting friends

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and neighbors for a glass of wine while enjoying the view.

It’s hard to talk with the Zuk-ers about their five-bedroom, 6,400 square-foot house and its two acres without the conversation coming back to the view. “It’s heavenly ... the beauty of this place” said Mar-

lene. “We never get tired of looking across the inlet, both at the boat traf-fic and the wildlife,” which includes orcas, seals, otters, eagles and heron, among others. The local waterfowl often use the former floatplane ramp as a surface on which to drop clams and oysters in order to break them open and devour their contents.

Dr. Collier built the home in 1939, and—engineer that he is —Lee mar-vels at the quality of the materials and the construction. “He spared no expense, and everything is still dead-square,” Lee said.

The Zukers have made only mi-nor changes to the original home, replacing all the windows, turning the floatplane hangar into the work-shop and converting the original one-car garage into a magnificent cherry-shelved library. French doors lead onto a brick patio which was the garage entrance; it’s now where Marlene and Lee enjoy sunny out-door breakfasts. (They also built an adjacent garage with a roomy apart-ment and office above—and space for five cars below. The Zukers are avid restorers and collectors of vin-tage automobiles; Lee was one of the founders of Club Auto in Kirkland, Washington and was a longtime

Dr. Collier’s house wasdesigned to accommodate

one of his true loves, which was flying

his seaplane.

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board member of the Pacific North-west Concours d’Elegance.)

Despite their love of the house, its history, the Shelton community and, yes, the view, Marlene and Lee have decided they’ve reached a point in their lives where its time to live in a retirement community. They’re actively looking for the right place to live, although they’re not yet sure where: “La Jolla? Yakima? Issaquah?”

Regardless of where their next home may be located they’ll retain fond, lifelong memories of Ham-mersley Inlet and “Ol’ Doc Collier’s house.” And who knows—perhaps the home’s next owners will be such appreciators of its history, and its ge-nial second owners, that it will be-come known as the “Collier-Zuker house.”