HistoryLink.org

Snohomish County Tales

This week HistoryLink features some of our new content related to Snohomish County, thanks to a grant from the Snohomish County Historic Preservation Commission. We begin with our new walking tour, Everett’s North Bayside Waterfront, an area that was once home to a significant number of lumber and shingle mills and is now part of the Port of Everett’s Waterfront Place development. Related to this, we also have new timeline essays about the 1944 Kenneth Callahan murals, which used to decorate the Weyerhaeuser Mill B cafeteria and have since been moved to Everett Station, as well as a 1958 visit from the atomic submarine USS Nautilus and how its crewmembers conducted a secret mission around Everett.

Next we look at the history of Snohomish High School, which honored its first graduates in 1894, but has roots that can be traced much earlier. We have also posted a history of the Deaconess Children's Home, which for the greater part of the twentieth century provided residential services and support to Snohomish County children in crisis and transition. The first children arrived there in 1909, and more followed in 1911 when the Deaconess Association assumed operations of the Everett Orphanage.

We also note some of the roles that women have played in Snohomish County history, including women workers in Everett industries. From 1900 through the 1940s, paper mills, laundries, canneries, and World War II-era plane and ship assembly plants employed a significant number of women. In 1910, women laundry workers went on strike for better pay, and won. Next up we look at the county's women mountaineers, including school teacher Mabel McBain, who spent the summer of 1918 as a fire-lookout forest ranger. And finally, we present a biography of Mary Ward Scott, who developed support systems for people with AIDS and was passionate about finding new ways to foster a more connected and empowered LGBTQ community in Snohomish County.

Walla Walla Suites

On December 13, 1905, Walla Walla residents attended the dedication ceremonies for their brand new, Carnegie-funded library. Efforts to establish a public library in the city of Walla Walla date back to January 20, 1865, when the Washington Territorial Legislature incorporated the Walla Walla Library Association. Early attempts at creating a subscription library met with little success, but after Washington became a state, Walla Wallans lobbied the state legislature to pass a law that would authorize municipalities to establish and finance free public libraries.

With support from the Walla Walla Woman's Reading Club, which organized in 1894, funds were raised, and the Walla Walla Public Library opened in 1897 in a rented room in a downtown building. In 1901, local citizens wrote to steel magnate and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie requesting $25,000 to fund construction of a permanent library building. He agreed to their request, and in 1905 the library moved into its own building.

A small orchestra played at the opening, and it's very possible that some Walla Wallans took note of another cultural institution that city residents might enjoy. Two years later, on December 12, 1907, crowds braved rain and wind on their way to the Keylor Grand Theater to see the Walla Walla Symphony Orchestra's first concert. It is now the oldest continually operating symphony orchestra west of the Mississippi River.