KINGSTON — Kingston Chamber of Commerce member and Kingston Lumber owner Tom Waggoner is hoping to strike gold with a plan he outlined recently for the organization. Quoting a need for a museum and new chamber office with more visibility than the current one — a desk and office space in the Kingston Community Center — last week he launched an idea to rent the cottage on the corner of State Route 104 and West Kingston Road to satisfy the desire for more room.

Though there is a hope for a museum someday, the building, known in another incarnation as Sweetpea Cottage, would not be one in conventional terms, but more a display area for the Kingston Historical Society. The chamber would also have stronger links in the community, including the Port of Kingston, in the new space. Waggoner said he is now circulating the idea to different Kingston groups and organizations in hopes they may help pay the rent, and is receiving positive remarks from many of them.

“First of all, the idea is a combination of an information center for the chamber and also a place for the Kingston Historical Society to show some memorabilia they have been collecting,” he said. Waggoner added he has approached the society once, and members were interested in the idea. “The chamber has been looking to have an information center for the last six months or so… Our goal is to come up with enough money to pay the first year’s rent on it. The Kingston Historical Society is fixing up to display various items.”

There are specific qualifications for a space to be called a museum, said Chamber President Jana Kramberger, including temperature regulations and safety requirements for the items on display. Because of those issues, she said the cottage would be an area to show photos, maps and artifacts from Kingston’s history, but not a museum per se.

“Basically we brought it up at the meeting we had last Wednesday, and the other two commissioners said it was a good idea, but they would wait to see if other people ponied up,” said Port of Kingston Commissioner Pete DeBoer. Waggoner and DeBoer are both hoping the new chamber location will forge a stronger link between the two entities. “We don’t want to wind up funding the whole thing. It’s a start, but I don’t think at the end of the game, it will be the museum to the end of eternity.”

Waggoner said so far the chamber, the Kingston Stakeholders, the Kingston Revitalization Association, the Downtown Kingston Association, the port, Kingston Kiwanis and several individuals have pledged money to help acquire the cottage space.

“It would give us a lot more visibility,” Kramberger said. “A lot of people don’t know we’re in the community center, even though we’ve been there for two years. Some members don’t even know we’re there… We’re hoping to get groups involved. There’s been an amazing amount of support already.”