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Before the oars dip their blades signaling the beginning of the Windemere Cup, before hundreds of flag-draped boats parade from Portage Bay to Lake Washington to open the boating season, the campaign to save the ASÌÇÐÄÉÙÅ®Shell House at the ÌÇÐÄÉÙÅ® already can be called a winner. 

Perched on the southeast corner of the ÌÇÐÄÉÙÅ® campus, where the Montlake Cut meets Union Bay, the ASÌÇÐÄÉÙÅ®Shell House looks as vulnerable as it does majestic. Over the course of a century, the structure built as a critical wartime post later was the home to a group of rowers who captured the nation’s imagination before becoming an all-but-forgotten artifact of the past. Now, propelled by a wave of renewed interest, the 12,000-square-foot wooden structure is the focus of an $18.5 million campaign that will restore and renovate the space.