Market Street in Stanwood looked like this during one of the town's gala days in 1913.
Built in 1879 by J. H. Irvine, and later sold to S. A. Thompson & Co., Stanwood's second general merchandise store has had many changes of ownership, and undergone numerous remodels. Carl Ryan, one of the owners, and Anna Gilchrist, who was employed there in the early 1900's, are standing near the entrance.
Sometime in the decade after the Folly Theatre (extreme left) opened in 1912, Stanwood's mainstem, then Market Street, presented this appearance. Knudson Building at left with drug store ("Ice Cream Soda" sign) and rest of structures on the block have vanished. Stanwood Hotel still stands.
Hotel Bartz, built in 1911 at a cost of about $4,000 in East Stanwood, is shown here in a sliced-off, east view taken several years after its opening and the coming of paved roads.
Ketchum's Store, like others of that era, was practically a one-stop shopping center. Almost everything from pickled herring in barrels to shoes and trunks was available. Established in 1888, at the corner of Market and Irvine Streets, it was later purchased by Ketchum. Many years later, it became Rosser's and in the 40s, was converted to Allan's Cash Grocery. From left, in this 1911 view, are Olive Gilchrist, George and Charles Ketchum.
East Stanwood had not been long on the map when this pictu.re was taken. This view is looking eastward toward a still-wooded hillside.
K. Knudson, who learned his watchmaking expertise in his native Norway, is pictured here in front of his first store on upper Market Street. Note the reflection of the Stanwood Hotel on the store windows and the long-gone 5 cent cigar sign.
The Stanwood waterfront seen from the Stillaguamish River in 1886.
Starting in the early 2000s, the Stanwood Area Historical Society began adding decorative street signs below the numbered street signs to preserve a sense of history. For example, 102 Avenue NW was known as Market, 270 Street NW was known as Main as seen here on the Sanborn insurance maps of Stanwood from 1908.
Market Street in Stanwood looked like this during one of the town's gala days in 1913.
Built in 1879 by J. H. Irvine, and later sold to S. A. Thompson & Co., Stanwood's second general merchandise store has had many changes of ownership, and undergone numerous remodels. Carl Ryan, one of the owners, and Anna Gilchrist, who was employed there in the early 1900's, are standing near the entrance.
Ketchum's Store, like others of that era, was practically a one-stop shopping center. Almost everything from pickled herring in barrels to shoes and trunks was available. Established in 1888, at the corner of Market and Irvine Streets, it was later purchased by Ketchum. Many years later, it became Rosser's and in the 40s, was converted to Allan's Cash Grocery. From left, in this 1911 view, are Olive Gilchrist, George and Charles Ketchum.
East Stanwood had not been long on the map when this pictu.re was taken. This view is looking eastward toward a still-wooded hillside.
The Stanwood waterfront seen from the Stillaguamish River in 1886.
Driving through Stanwood on Highway 532, shoppers find an assortment of familiar chain stores like QFC, Haggen, Grocery Outlet, Rite Aid and Dollar Tree.
But just a block or so north of the highway are the main streets of Stanwood’s historic commercial core, which for decades was the most-used route through town.
In the first half of the 20th century, shoppers and visitors could stroll the streets finding myriad stores, restaurants, hotels and other businesses.
Like so many communities affected by installation of the federal interstate system, the vitality of the downtown business scene was forever changed when traffic patterns shifted in the 1960s with the construction of Highway 532, connecting the Stanwood and Camano area to Interstate 5.
The area’s increasing population, which according to U.S. Census Bureau data has nearly tripled in the last 30 years, has meant more traffic flowing along Highway 532 that has resulted in more commercial development along the route — not so much downtown.
At times, it feels like shoppers may have forgotten the historic part of Stanwood, which still has a collection of engaging stores and businesses.
Nonetheless, the City of Stanwood has a project in the works that would revitalize the charming downtown streets of this 156-year-old town.
In the early 1800s, massive Douglas fir and western red cedar trees beckoned those seeking their fortunes to the Stillaguamish River valley.
A significant change to the economic construct of the area was the signing of the 1855 Treaty of Point Elliott, where the embattled Indigenous people ceded land and many moved to reservations.
The treaty resulted in more land opening to development and an increasing number of Euro-Americans who logged the abundant forests.
According to local historian Dave Eldridge, by the 1860s, as the population flourished, centers of commerce were soon established.
“Loggers coming from camps nearby needed places to stay and buy supplies,” he said. “Towns sprang up as a way to meet those needs.”
In 1866, Stanwood was founded and much of the town was built on a wharf on the Stillaguamish River, near where Twin City Foods stands today at 10130 269th Place NW.
At that time, travel largely occurred over the area’s many waterways, and constructing the town on and near the waterfront made economic sense.
Sometime in the decade after the Folly Theatre (extreme left) opened in 1912, Stanwood's mainstem, then Market Street, presented this appearance. Knudson Building at left with drug store ("Ice Cream Soda" sign) and rest of structures on the block have vanished. Stanwood Hotel still stands.
As the town grew, shops selling general merchandise, jewelry, medicines, hardware and other goods were established.
In 1877, the first general store in the area was opened on the wharf by D.O. Pearson, who would go on to become Stanwood’s first mayor.
Author Alice Essex wrote in The Stanwood Story, Volume I, that Pearson’s store “soon became the shopping center for river residents and had the distinction of being the first on Puget Sound without a bar attached.”
Other general stores soon followed, including the Irvine store in 1879 near the wharf and a mercantile established by Louis Smith in 1888. That one later moved uptown and became the Ketchum Store.
Also in 1888, the second drug store established in Snohomish County was opened by A.E. Klaeboe, likely near the Pearson Store.
In 1889, Knud Knudson opened the first jewelry, which Essex wrote was “here on the wharf opposite D.O. Pearson store.”
Building materials were a necessity for a growing community, and the first hardware store was opened by Al Goodykuntz on the wharf in 1888.
Starting in the early 2000s, the Stanwood Area Historical Society began adding decorative street signs below the numbered street signs to preserve a sense of history. For example, 102 Avenue NW was known as Market, 270 Street NW was known as Main as seen here on the Sanborn insurance maps of Stanwood from 1908.
According to Stanwood Camano News archives, a massive fire on May 2, 1892, burned much of the wharf and many of Stanwood’s first stores.
The town rebounded and, as road travel became more common, many businesses moved uptown near where the Stanwood Hotel stands today at 26926 102nd Avenue NW.
As the 20th century moved along, Stanwood’s commerce continued to grow.
The 1918 Sanborn Map Co. map of Stanwood depicts a town covering over 20 blocks filled with various stores.
Shoppers could find everyday items such as clothing, furniture, hardware and peruse several general merchandise stores for groceries and staples.
There were also hotels, restaurants, banks, pool halls and the Liberty Theater, where tickets in August 1917 were 75 cents to see “The Birth of a Nation,” according to the Stanwood Camano News archives.
The thriving town pretty much had it all with such amenities as the Stanwood Hospital, Stanwood Light and Power Co., Stanwood Laundry, Stanwood Auto Repair & Garage and Wisconsin Timber on the waterfront.
Hotel Bartz, built in 1911 at a cost of about $4,000 in East Stanwood, is shown here in a sliced-off, east view taken several years after its opening and the coming of paved roads.
As more businesses popped up on the west side of town, the community of East Stanwood, near the railroad tracks, also grew.
On East Stanwood’s State Street, known as 271st Street today, Essex wrote that shops in the 1920s included Stillaguamish Iron Works, Stanwood Blacksmith Shop, Braaten Shoe Repair, Bungalow Café, Homeplate Billiards, the Bank of East Stanwood, Meadowmoor Dairy Store and a general merchandise store.
There was also the Bartz Hotel near the train depot and a service station, known as East Stanwood’s Busy Corner, at the opposite end of State Street.
In 1960, East Stanwood consolidated with Stanwood, but for decades the town boasted its own variety of businesses to satisfy local residents.
Well into the 1900s, Stanwood and East Stanwood’s retail cores remained vibrant with new stores and businesses opening.
Patterns changed with the enactment of the 1956 Interstate Highway Act, which sought to streamline travel by auto across the country.
“The Interstate system often bypassed the old two-lane roads that had previously brought travelers through on their way elsewhere,” Seattle historian Feliks Banel said. “With new commercial areas arising near freeways and the connecting routes, old main streets suddenly became backwaters and eddies, at least commercially-speaking.”
Local historian Richard Hanks said the Stanwood area was not exempt from this change.
“There is little doubt that the construction of Highway 532 between 1962 and 1969 in the Stanwood area greatly changed the cultural landscape of Stanwood,” Hanks said.
As traffic shifted to the new route connecting the area to I-5, Stanwood’s historic core was bypassed and commercial development began migrating to Highway 532 during the following decades.
One of the first groups of stores near the roadway was the Viking Village shopping center on the northwest corner of Highway 532 and Viking Way.
Local attorney Bob Cole said his father Charles bought out the original developers of Viking Village shortly after the project started in 1964.
The shopping center, which opened in 1965, was anchored by a full-service grocery store.
“The initial grocery store, Hanson Market, became, by far, the premier grocery store in Stanwood,” Cole said.
Viking Village was also filled with a variety of shops.
“Some of the other first tenants included Scandia Home Furnishings, Viking Motors, Bessie Bellinger’s Giftland Variety, the laundromat and the Country Kitchen, which is now the Duck In Café,” Cole said.
Two blocks to the north, the Thrifty Foods shopping complex, which was established in 1972, then became the town’s largest grocery store, drug store and clothing shop when it opened. The shopping center closed in 2005. Today, it is the location of Skagit Farmers Supply Country Store.
Other Stanwood retail centers on Highway 532 include:
Although many retail development projects along Highway 532 have become a reality, one that would have been a game-changer was stopped in its tracks.
In 2002, a developer initiated a rezone process on 23 acres near Stanwood High School at the northeast corner of Highway 532 and 72nd Avenue NW that was presumed to be a grocery store and strip mall.
Diane White, who served on the City of Stanwood Planning Committee and City Council and was mayor from 2006-13, remembers the proposed project well.
“After the developer revealed that Walmart would be the anchor store, over 3,000 locals, who feared that the big-box, corporate retail giant would crush small businesses, signed a petition opposing the project,” she said.
White said the developer was fairly surprised at how organized the Stanwood community was in its opposition, and in 2005, the rezone request was withdrawn.
K. Knudson, who learned his watchmaking expertise in his native Norway, is pictured here in front of his first store on upper Market Street. Note the reflection of the Stanwood Hotel on the store windows and the long-gone 5 cent cigar sign.
Stanwood is now in the process of updating its comprehensive plan — a long-range planning document that guides future growth over the next 20-year horizon as required by the state's Growth Management Act.
Patricia Love, community planning director, said the comprehensive plan looks at important growth-related factors such as transportation, housing, economic development, shoreline management and climate change. The document also plans for how a city will look and feel.
“Through the plan, the city decides such issues community character, open space and recreational opportunities, and traffic management,” Love said. “Our goal is to identify growth areas while preserving Stanwood's quality of life.”
In light of keeping the historic, small-town character of Stanwood, Love said Stanwood is working on the Twin City Mile Downtown Revitalization Project.
“The project invests in downtown business district infrastructure in such ways as creating pedestrian-friendly streets, encouraging use of streets for community festivals and promoting the concept of buying local,” she said.
The Stanwood City Council approved the plan for the Twin City Mile project in late July.
White, who recently relocated to Mount Vernon, said she still keeps up with all that is going on in Stanwood.
She often reminisces on her experience when she was a part of Stanwood’s city government and all the challenges the ever-expanding city faced.
“Growth absolutely needs to be managed appropriately, and if you don’t move forward, you will go backward,” White said.
This is an installment in our "Exploring History" series, which takes a deeper look at the fabric of the Stanwood-Camano area. Send suggestions for future articles in our history series to newsroom@scnews.com
A collection of all the installments from our "Exploring History" series, which takes a deeper look at the fabric of the Stanwood-Camano area.
Stanwood is honing an ambitious plan officials hope will connect and revitalize its two historical downtown cores. The effort, dubbed the Twin City Mile project, is the largest part of the city’s beautification action plan.
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