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DG: So can you tell me about the history of the Filipino American Hall, how it got started?

DR: Well, there was... the five main founders were Felix Narte, Felix Almazon, Toby Membrere, Dan Bucsit, and Anacleto Corpuz. And they did put the money down here on this hall to start the community to bring everything together, for the Filipinos. And it did, and then all, everybody else joined. So there was quite a few of the Filipinos on the island at one time.

DG: So can you put that in a time perspective? What, what was going on in the community at the time that they wanted to form the Filipino American Hall? What spurred that on?

DR: Well, this, this... they started in 1941 when they were first on the island and a lot of them had farms, too. Like my dad already was farming on the island when the war broke out. 'Cause his partner was Tom Almojuela. They just leased that land and did berries and stuff. And then there was quite a few, quite a few Filipinos on the island, too. And a lot of them married, so, so that's when they formed this. They got together and, first it was the Filipino farmers. Then after they sold that to Strawberry Hill for the army, the Nike site -- they sold that. Now it's Strawberry Hill Park -- but after they sold that part, then they regrouped and called their self the Filipino Community. And I know they got so much money from the army for the land that they took for the Nike site. So they took that money at the time and they invested it in Town and Country, it was being built then. So, the five invested in that, bought stock in that.

DG: Do you know why they bought stock in that, in the...

DR: I really don't know. They just got together and they did it. There was, like I say, there was Felix Narte, Felix Almazon, my dad, and Anacleto Corpuz, and Toby Membrere. Yeah. They just all went and did that.

DG: And why was it important... these five men put money down. So it was quite an investment to form the Filipino American Hall and the Filipino American Farmers Association. What spurred them to invest in this for the community?

DR: So they could have a place to go socially. Before, where they were having dances for the Filipino community, they were doing it down at Stanley Park down... was it Mrs. Stanley? They used to have that hall down there? That's where they were meeting before they got this hall.

DG: And so can you describe what... the events that occurred in the Filipino American Hall when it first started up?

DR: Oh, there was the, there was dances, they all had dances every Saturday night here. And then they just did things like having parties or weddings or birthdays. We had, always had a Christmas party here for the kids and the Filipino kids. And we got candy and oranges and apples or peanuts and whatever. They always managed to do that and get a Santa Claus for us, or we had our Easter party here, too. Different events that would come up.

DG: And so you have many childhood memories of the hall.

DR: Yes, I do. [Laughs]

DG: And how about for your children? Was the hall...

DR: About that time, I mean, the community just kind of seemed to come to a standstill after the older ones passed away. And I don't know, it's just, it's here and it's startin' to come back again. Everybody is startin' to realize what, this is our roots, you know. So, it's gettin' better and the kids got to understand that, too. And they are startin' to come around.

DG: And can you tell me about, I think you said it was 1949, when the delegation from the Philippines came to Bainbridge?

DR: Oh, yeah. That was in 1949. That was over at the Toby Membrere farm. And actually, Toby Membrere owned 50 acres and it started where Commodore Lane is now, all the way down to where the Stanleys, where Weaver Road is. And he... and that's where they had it. And a delegate came from the Philippines and so they decided to have a great big party. So they had a... so they killed pig and everything, they had all the different kind of Filipino foods cooking over there and the tables out. And my mom and them were all there helping, and it was just, there was a great big... it's, a great big group that was there. And they had a, it was really nice. And that's probably the only pictures that we really have. And my mom had them because my cousin had a photography shop in Seattle, and he came over and got on top of there and took pictures of it. So I donated that to the museum in my mom's name.

DG: And do you know why the delegation from the Philippines chose to come to Bainbridge Island?

DR: Probably heard they had a lot of Filipinos here. [Laughs] And I really don't know. My dad and Toby and Felix and all them, they got together and all of them... I don't know how that happened, but it did.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2007 Densho. All Rights Reserved.