The fate of historic farmhouses on federal property is up in the air as the Navy considers what to do with the century-old structures.

Among the structures that have garnered the most interest is the home built by Henry Riksen in 1900.

Kathy Lunsford, a Riksen descendent, is hoping to preserve the Riksen farm and perhaps turn it into a museum.

Lundsford and about 30 other Riksen descendants, their spouses and others, were invited by the Navy to tour the home and barn in March.

Remodeled and used for decades as base housing, the aging structures have gradually been phased out, leaving their future up in the air.

Kendall Campbell, cultural resource program manager for Whidbey Island Naval Air Station, is working with Forest City Enterprises and the Washington State Historic Preservation Office to determine the fate of the farmhouses.

She’s done extensive research on the properties in the past year, including speaking to relatives and others to better understand their importance to the community.

The review includes consulting with the state to determine if the eight farmhouses being looked at are eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places, Campbell said.

So far, the Riksen farm has emerged as the property with the most community interest in it being saved.

Greg Raap, vice president for Forest City’s Northwest Region, said a review of the properties could take up to a year. Forest City Enterprises owns the buildings and leases the land from the federal government.

“We have no intention to use them as housing,” Raap said. “We just have to figure out what the right thing to do is. We want to do the right thing.”

Many of the other seven farmhouses are no longer at their original sites.

Another farmhouse was restored and is being used for military housing, Raap said.

“We wanted to keep one representative example of the farmhouses operating,” Raap said. “The big question is, ‘What is appropriate for those remaining eight houses?’ I don’t know what the answer is.”

So far, much of the preservation efforts have focused on the Riksen farm, which includes a farmhouse and massive barn, among other structures.

Henry Riksen was among the first group of immigrants of Dutch descent who came to Whidbey Island from Michigan in the late 1800s, attracted to the fertile farm lands. He settled in Clover Valley, built the farmhouse around 1900 and had a massive round top barn constructed using timber from the property.

Among those who visited the property was Oak Harbor’s Karen Van Dam, whose great-great-aunt Jane married Henry Riksen.

“This is a piece of our history,” Van Dam said. “It would be so neat if we could preserve it.”

Feedback from the tour is part of the process to measure the property’s local historic importance.

These measures are sometimes difficult to determine.

“When you look at what makes a building significant, it’s feeling, characteristic, integrity,” Campbell said. “So what’s feeling?

“When I drive into Oak Harbor and I see something on the Seaplane Base, does it evoke a feeling, a memory? That’s hard to do.”

The Riksen farm visit stirred up plenty of memories and served as somewhat of a family reunion for those who attended.

Van Dam and Lunsford both would like to see consideration made to turn the farmhouse into a museum to honor both the early pioneers who farmed the land there and naval history. The property is on federal land but is located outside of the Langley gate with the sights and sounds of aircraft nearby.

“It would be great for people to have a chance to see part of naval history and pioneer history,” Van Dam said.