I have always been interested in all the stages a structure can go though over its life span----often vastly different or unimagined from its original use. Charles Buell, Seattle Home Inspector
Like a lighthouse turned into a bed and breakfast or a school turned into condominiums.
Wars are acted out on giant world-wide stages with much drama and acting much like might be symbolically acted out in a play on a smaller stage of a local theater.
The symbolism and irony of seeing an old World War II gun emplacement at Fort Casey on Whidbey Island, Washington turned into a stage was another example of such a transformation. The surrounding fortifications were fittingly turned into theater seating.
This stage could just as easily be used to celebrate victories in the Pacific Theater or to voice the protests of those that oppose war----or everything between, before, or after. Perhaps a wedding or a rock concert or a poetry reading might get staged. Since this bunker is named after someone named "Thomas Parker" it was only natural that I would do a Google search to learn who the hell Thomas Parker was. I never did find out because I got distracted reading about a group that called themselves the "Thomas Parker Society." Apparently in 1991 people started gathering at this place with flashlights and candles to do poetry readings and story telling which has since morphed into an even wider influence around the country.
There really is no way to know which, if any, of its uses created the most "value" to the culture that built it----perhaps all----perhaps none----depending on the theater goer.
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WA State, Home Inspector Advisory Licensing Board
