SEQUIM — Keep it close to home, and this little red house could be yours for a song. Or somewhere in the neighborhood of $1,000.

The city of Sequim is auctioning its 92-year-old Public Works Department building.

The 1914 structure, on the Washington Heritage Register was once Sequim City Hall.

But at about 1,200 square feet, it’s too small for this mushrooming municipality.

The planning and public works staff moved out last month and went to the much larger offices at 615 N. Fifth Ave.

Sealed bids in the silent auction will be accepted at the new Public Works offices until 2 p.m. next Friday, Oct. 20.

Move it, but not far

It’s not that city leaders don’t want the house.

They just want it to be somewhere else in Sequim, so they can do something else with that piece of downtown land.

The city plans to demolish the old firehouse next door.

“Somebody who’ll keep [the old Public Works building] intact and keep it in the Sequim area, and make it into a restaurant,” or some other gathering place, “will have priority over someone who will dismantle it and move it to Port Angeles,” said Jeff Edwards, public works office manager.

For instance, if a potential buyer bids $1,000 and intends to move it to another location in town, that person has a better chance in the auction than somebody who bids $5,000 and plans to take it far away.

After a buyer is selected, he or she will have to pick up the building and move it off its site at 144 W. Cedar St. within 30 days.

Although prices vary, James Connelly of Nickel Bros., a house-moving company based in Victoria, said it would cost $20,000 to $25,000 to move the red house to another location inside Sequim.

That includes the moving, the lowering and the insurance.