The history behind many of Langley’s downtown buildings is now just a few clicks away.
The Langley Historic Preservation Commission recently launched its new website, “Historic Langley,” which provides background information and photos of downtown commercial buildings such as The Dog House and The Clyde Theater. Users of the website, which was crafted by high school student Avrey Scharwat, can access an aerial map of Langley and click on highlighted buildings to find out its history in a timeline format. The website’s home page also has composite photos, which blends pictures from Langley’s past and present into one image.
The website is still a work in progress, but Langley Historic Preservation Commission board member Jim Sundberg said it’s turning out to be a “goldmine” of historical information and a “wonderful” collection of historical photos. The information on website was gathered by the South Whidbey Historical Society and historic preservation commission.
Sundberg, a Langley resident, said it can be read with enjoyment while sitting on the sofa or while walking from building to building.
“That’s a pretty interesting combination,” Sundberg said.
Scharwat, who lives in Coupeville, is a member of the Boy Scout’s 4H-D Technology Club. He took on the project as a way of fulfilling his requirements of becoming an Eagle Scout, which requires Boy Scouts to find ways to help the community and learn management skills. Scharwat said he didn’t expect to enjoy his work as much as he did.
“I think it will benefit the community because people didn’t really know about the history of their community and their buildings,” Scharwat said. “If there’s any easy way for people to access that, it will be very easy to learn about the community and preserve the history.”
Scharwat said the historic preservation commission’s members were essentially his clients and that he spent time modifying the website to fulfill their wishes and needs. Scharwat, with the help of three other Boy Scouts, built the home page and crafted the HTML coding for 20 buildings.
“I’m happy with how its turned out,” Scharwat said. “I like the look and it’s easy to access.”
Scharwat said he based the design off Coupeville’s “Front Street” history website, which has similar capabilities. Scharwat said he may even consider pursuing a career in coding and website building.
Robert Elphick, a Coupeville resident who leads the 4H-D Technology Club, said the Eagle Scout projects have made positive impacts on Central Whidbey and that Scharwat’s work is no different. He also said the project challenged him to design the website using only HTML, as opposed to ready-made development programs such as Wix.
“This was pushing him in the direction where he wanted to go,” Elphick said.
The historic preservation commission’s members are pleased with the result. Bob Waterman, president of the commission, was impressed with the amount of information he was able to transfer into HTML format.
Waterman said Coupeville’s Front Street website is a useful tool for tourists. He hopes Langley’s website will be used by not only visitors, but city officials, the Langley City Council and the community. Waterman said the commission has also toyed with the idea of approaching businesses to see if they would be interested in putting up QR codes.
A QR code stores website links or other information that can be accessed with a smartphone. The business would have a QR code that leads to the historical information of their building.
Sundberg also said the website’s information allowed him to see the ebbs and flows of small businesses in the downtown area in a clearer way.
“The buildings stay, but the variety of businesses that have been in each of the buildings on First and Second Street is interesting,” Sundberg said. “It puts it in perspective that businesses today come and go, and that it’s not anything too worrisome.”
The website can be found at http://langleyhistory.org/index.html.
