A Sequim home known locally for growing a large agave plant that bloomed in 2023 along Fifth Avenue will go up for sale.

Clallam County Fire District 3’s fire commissioners approved the sale of the two-bedroom, approximately 902 square foot home and 0.18-acre property at 305 North Fifth Ave. at their Jan. 6 meeting. The vote was 2-1, with Bill Miano voting against the sale.

Funds from the sale will go to a capital fund, staff report.

Fire Chief Justin Grider said fire commissioners requested options for the property adjacent to fire station 34 in December, which included renovating the home for office space, demolishing it for a parking lot, selling it, or renting it.

Staff recommended razing it for a parking lot as renovations and permits would have been too costly for the district, he said.

Miano said in an interview he agreed with staff’s recommendation to raze the property and expand parking and create some covered space for additional vehicles.

Fire Commissioner Mike Mingee said in an interview they looked at a number of pros and cons, and he and fellow fire commissioner Jeff Nicholas felt they should sell the property to support the construction of a new Carlsborg fire station on the district’s property by the Operations and Training Center at 255 Carlsborg Road.

“I feel we need to take all the necessary steps in 2026 to allow the district to break ground in 2027,” Mingee said.

Mingee said fire commissioners updated a district policy on Jan. 6 to include references to debt policy for facilities. Staff also have already obtained a conditional use permit through Clallam County to build a new fire station, he said.

The Fifth Avenue home will tentatively be the fourth property the district has sold in recent years to support the Carlsborg station as the existing station at 70 Carlsborg Road has been deemed too small for staff and apparatuses.

The fire district last sold its Lost Mountain Station 36 for $324,000 in November 2024. Two other pieces of property — 1.96 acres on East Anderson Road for $160,000, and 5.2 acres on the 100 block of Sieberts Creek Road for $175,000 — were sold after staff determined they were no longer viable locations for new fire stations.

Clallam County Assessor’s Office last appraised the 305 North Fifth Avenue property built in 1946 at $309,408, while Zillow has it appraised at $340,100 and Realtor.com at $360,561.

The fire district purchased the home in August 2015 from William and Isobel Johnston for $142,000 with the agreement they would live at the home until their deaths, according to fire district staff.

Isobel Johnston, a retired stock clerk for Grays Harbor Chair and Manufacturing Co., lived in the home through early 2025 until her death at age 96, and William Johnston, a Hoquiam Plywood employee, died at the age of 90 in November 2018. They were married nearly 71 years and retired to Sequim in 1991.

The home was a popular sight for passers-by for decades with the large Agave Americana taking over their front yard. It grew from the size of a baseball to the height of their roof through the years. Isobel said in 2020 that seeing it reminded her of William and the time they bought it at a garage sale in the 1990s.

From the summer to fall of 2023, the agave began growing a 22-foot flower stock upwards and outwards with numerous branches.

Isobel, a longtime gardener, had her wish fulfilled to see it bloom before she died.

“I never ever thought it’d get that tall,” she said in December 2023.

The bloom meant the end of the plant’s life cycle, but several smaller agave plants were discovered and recovered by local Master Gardeners who helped remove the larger plant in November 2024.

Isobel watched through her windows as they worked. She suspected the agave, typically better suited for drier climates, saw success because of Sequim’s limited rainfall and the plant’s concrete barrier.

A few agave plants were left to grow in the planter at her request and Master Gardeners took a few plants for their annual plant sale.

Sequim Gazette file photo by Matthew Nash/ Isobel Johnston, an avid gardener, waited 28 years for her agave plant to bloom in 2023 after purchasing it with her husband William at a garage sale. The stalk fell in a winter storm and was later removed by Master Gardeners. Following Johnston’s death in early 2025, the property will go up for sale with proceeds helping Clallam County Fire District 3 replace apparatuses and/or build a new Carlsborg fire station.

Sequim Gazette file photo by Matthew Nash/ Isobel Johnston watches as Master Gardeners Keith Dekker and Gordon Clark take out her agave plant on Nov. 15, 2024 that had sprouted and fallen many months prior.

Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash/ The home at 305 North Fifth Ave. in Sequim is set to be sold by Clallam County Fire District 3. The stump of the popular agave plant that bloomed in 2023 still remains in the property’s front yard.