Our preview of pioneer photographer Gilbert Horton’s images, now on exhibit at the Blackman House Gallery, continues this month with a picture worth way more than a thousand words.
It was found in the UW Library’s Special Collections while researching the book Early Snohomish, and it took an extra effort of self-restraint to keep from cheering. The focus of Horton’s image is clearly the new Blackman General Store located on the corner of First and Avenue C. On page 240 of “History of Snohomish County,” author Whitfield describes the opening of the store as one of the “major events” of 1885; and this was the first image I had ever seen of it. Exiting moment.
The June 18, 1885 issue of the Snohomish Eye describes the building; “It is two stories in height, has a frontage of 40 feet on Main Street, and is 80 feet deep.” And Whitfield goes on to judge its location as “one of the handsomest business blocks in the city.”
Referring to a Sanborn Insurance map dated 1888, it’s listed as a grocery store on the first floor and offices on the second. Next door is labeled “Fruit and Grocery, Lodging, Restaurant.” Then a “Harness Shop,” another “Grocery,” and a “Meat” store before arriving at the three-story “City Hotel.”
The corner building I recognized immediately as the Atheneum or Cathcart Opera House, (newspaper ads used the names interchangeably depending on the activity), but labeled on the insurance map as “Public Hall on the 2nd Floor” and “Stage Scenery Dressing Rooms” at the north end of the floor plan. Across Avenue D is the rarely photographed Exchange Hotel, built in 1872, by Isaac Cathcart with his earnings saved as a logger.
None of these early buildings are included in our Now image. The Exchange Hotel site is currently home to a burger place, the existing Cathcart Building dates from 1910 and the two-story New Brunswick Hotel replaced the City Hotel. The corner of First and C was the first location of a small, upstart automobile showroom and service garage started by Lawrence Bickford.
Across the street, on the right-hand side of the Then image, you will note two neatly stacks of milled lumber, which most likely was used to build the first Otten store as reported in another 1885 issue of the Snohomish Eye. And that building (not shown) is still with us as home to the Sun Song store at 1122 First.
Published in the Snohomish County Tribune, July 16, 2008.