Renton Historical Society moves into new building in late May

Published 10:00 am Friday, May 8, 2026

The Renton Historical Society and Genealogy is moving into a new-but-old building, just across the street from the Renton History Museum, which is still undergoing renovations.

Located in downtown Renton at 1025 South 3rd Street, the three-story red brick building was once a shell, according to Carrie Bergquist, current president of the Renton Historical Society (which has now added “Genealogy” to its title).

“This building was built in 1898, and it was the Snoqualmie Falls Substation. In the 1950s, Holmes Electric purchased this building and they made a second story,” said Bergquist. “They had the building until the early 1980s, and that’s when they sold it to the Renton Area Youth Services […] and they added the third floor. In the ’50s, the one story portion was built and we own that, too. During different times, there was a jewelry store there, there was a dental office down at the other end. So a lot of different organizations have touched this building.”

The RHSG is different from the Renton History Museum, which occupies a former fire station across the street at 235 Mill Avenue South with artifacts currently being housed at Renton Technical College while the museum is under renovation. The new RHSG location will house a main office, a space for the organization’s new genealogy services and scanning, comprehensive research services, historical education programs and space for thousands of artifacts.

”We’re so excited to have an actual home that we can store, I think we have over 50,000 artifacts, so we have photographs, we have scrapbooks, we have tools, we have toys, we have dishes, we have furniture, we have coal cars, we have a [Ford] Model A. I mean, we have so many artifacts and now we have a home for them, a permanent home. We’re saving this for the greater community of Renton, and Renton has such a great history,” said Bergquist, whose family has lived in Renton for five generations.

Renovations will be made over the next few weeks and the RHSG is expected to be fully moved into the new building at the end of May, just in time for the organization’s annual member meeting on Sunday, May 31. The meeting begins at 2 p.m. and all are invited.

To learn more about The Renton Historical Society and Genealogy and to keep up with upcoming events, visit rentonhistory.org.