Marysville’s Original Main Street
The image of Main Street America is something that is familiar to everyone. Even those who grew up or live in large cities that don’t have a small-town feel understand the sentiment that is expressed when authors refer to “Main Street.” Cities across the country and in Snohomish County not only have these corridors that are teeming with commercial activity but many also still carry that name, Main Street. This image of Main Street includes small businesses, community gatherings, and friendly faces. Everything out of a Hallmark movie. That being said many of them fit this bill, there are Main Streets in Western Washington that harken back to a time when large box stores did not dominate the landscape. Marysville however, does not have a designated Main Street. Many could argue that State Ave, acts as a Main Street being the principal north-south thoroughfare. To that point, someone could argue Fourth Street is, as it does the same east to west. Even still, someone could argue Third Street is Marysville’s Main Street, as it is home to our classic small businesses and brings with it that old American vibe. While these could all be right depending on the criteria used to assess them, the fact is that at one time Marysville did have a designated Main Street, it was called Front Street. Front Street was the hub for commerce and community gatherings in the years following Marysville’s incorporation and helped Marysville grow into the city it is today. Many Marysville residents would be very confused if asked about Front Street, that's because today it is better known as First Street. This street has seen an unimaginable amount of change over the better part of a century, and this month it has taken center stage once again, with a new purpose to serve the citizens of Marysville.
This month, a new chapter was opened for Marysville’s original main street. Over the past few years, City leaders have been planning the “First Street Bypass” which extends First Street from Alder Ave where is previously ended to 47th Ave (Liberty Ave, or John Regan Ave). The idea is that this extension will take the pressure off Fourth Street which handles a majority of Marysville’s east-west traffic during peak travel times. On Friday, October 2nd, 2020 the ribbon was cut, officially opening the new extended street to traffic. The last time that any such extensions or additions were constructed on First Street was 1908 when First and Third were connected by Alder Ave being extended south. For the next 112 years, First Street would remain the same from Ash Ave to Alder Ave, its purpose however would change drastically over that time.
When James Comeford platted Marysville in 1885, the town had eight streets total: Ash, Beach (Beech), Cedar, and Delta running North to South and Front, Second, Third, and Fourth running east to west. Comeford chose this area for many reasons, the most important being its proximity to Ebey Slough. Because Front street had direct water access it would become the hub for commerce, entertainment, and civic life in the fledgling town. Ships could easily access the city dock at the end of Beach Ave to deliver goods that Marysville needed to run and grow. This allowed Marysville to welcome new residents and new businesses very quickly. As the town grew, however, businesses and houses began to move north and Front Street, now renamed First Street took on a new role, one centered around industry. Front Streets' position along the slough had been crucial to commerce through the 1890s and early 20th century. Now this position along the water made it ideal for the logging industry that would become anchored at the southern end of the now-adolescent Marysville. Things would again change drastically for First Street in the 1970s when city leaders approved the Marysville Mall project, which removed all buildings on First Street between the railroad tracks and State Ave. With this major change to the corridor and the decline of logging regionally, First Street would go through somewhat of an identity crisis. For a couple of decades, the few mills left operated, along with Baxter’s automotive, but this part of the town began to be seen as a potential for recreation. Ebey Slough had established itself as a boating destination in the 1950s, and the Geddes Marina was a popular spot for local boaters. This is where the eventual dream of First Street being a recreation hub was born. This dream is still in the works, but with the opening of Ebey Slough park in 2005 this next chapter in the life of Marysville’s Main Street was realized and this chapter along with the story of this important street has much more to be written.
Commerce
In the beginning, Front Street was Marysville. Every service that a resident needed could be found on Front Street. Steamships coming from the Sound delivered goods to the city dock at the end of Beach Ave, which meant businesses were concentrated in this area. In addition to this, Front Street for many years was the only street in Marysville graded to allow a wagon to pass through. The hub of business upon incorporation in 1892 was the corner of Front Street and Ash Ave. From there, businesses gradually moved east down Front, and houses were built north in neighborhoods along Second, Third, and Fourth. In 1892 the following businesses had already been opened along Front Street between Ash and Cedar:
A bank
A General Store (Owned and Operated by the first Mayor Mark Swinnerton)
A Barber
A Livery
The Oddfellows Hall
A Drug Store
A Telephone Office
Two Saloons
By the turn of the century, the Marysville population had grown from nearly 300 at the time of incorporation to almost 800 within the city limits. With this increase in population new businesses opened along Front Street, including four hotels, a cigar shop, a cobbler. In addition to this, a drug store, a hardware store, and another saloon opened east of Cedar Ave, extending the “business district” of the now decade-old town. All city celebrations took place on Front Street from Labor Day Celebrations to the Fourth of July Parade, it was not only a place of commerce but now a community gathering spot.
By 1901, city leaders constructed a new City Hall along the Southside of Front Street between Beach and Cedar. To this point, city business was conducted in a small building along an Alley between Third and Fourth. On some maps it is labeled “Town Hall” and in others, it is labeled “Calaboose” an old name for jail. Front street was now the hub for town commerce, town gatherings, and now the town administration. Not long after this move, the city began to make improvements to increase the livability and the economic conditions of the town. The first was to install a waterworks system. Since the town was platted, water was gathered from a well in the middle of Front Street between Beach and Cedar, making it difficult for residents who lived away from the main street to collect water for their homes. The new water system was put into use in 1905, but due to the high demand and increased number of residents, it was deemed obsolete by 1922. Not soon after in 1906, electricity was brought to Marysville as well. This would be the beginning of many changes for the south part of Marysville.
By the middle of the 1900s, city leaders took up the issue of Front Streets' name. When platted, Front Street was quite literally the front of the town, the subsequent names were Second, Third, and Fourth. For the sake of uniformity, the city began to refer to Front Street as First Street. This did not catch on quickly, as there was never any official action from the city council making this change. Many maps and articles as late as 1912 have both names listed, and in the case of the Marysville Globe, a hyphenated Front-First Street titled was used. Even up until the 2010s there was a brown historic road name sign on the corner of Cedar and First, that designated the roadway as Front Street. Around the time of the name change, many city services began to expand to other areas of Marysville. The first school was built on Seventh Street, the library was constructed near present-day Comeford Park, and Third Street turned from a residential road to one that housed more businesses than houses. In 1923 it was even decided to move the City Hall building from its location on Front Street to Delta Ave where the Ken Baxter Senior Center now sits. With city commerce and administration moving north away from First Street, a new chapter was opened, one that relied on an industry that was no stranger to Marysville.
Industry
Even during its hay day, Front Street was home to sawmills. Given its proximity to Ebey Slough, logs could be floated down the Snohomish River from the east, into the slough, and then stored along the waterfront until use. The first mill, owned by E.J. Anderson was opened two years after Marysville’s platting in 1887, from here these large and dangerous facilities began to pop up in the small area of land between Front Street and the Slough. Because of the commercial traffic along Front Street, this industry did not dominate the area in the early days. However, as the commercial attention shifted away from First Street, industrial attention only grew. By the 1920s there were ten mills operating on Ebey Slough, and at some estimates, the combined output was over a million feet of boards per day. Some of the largest mills to call First Street home were the Ebey Mill Company, The Marysville Mill Company, the Smith Mill Company, and the largest of all, the Mutual Mill Company.
From the opening of the first mill along the slough in 1887, through the Great Depression, the lumber industry was immensely successful in Marysville. These facilities employed hundreds of Marysville residents and provided a much-needed product to the area. However, as larger mill companies and cooperatives began to buy up smaller mills and either close them or move them to bigger cities such as Everett the number of mills in Marysville along the shores of the Slough began to dwindle. By the 1940s most Marysville Mills had either closed or been purchased by John McMaster, who ran a large mill cooperative and owned numerous mills along Ebey Slough and throughout Snohomish County. McMaster was not immune to a regional economy that was becoming less favorable to the lumber industry, and in the middle of the decade, he was forced to close all of the facilities he owned, including numerous Marysville Mills. While it appeared that the industry in Marysville was finished, a family that would become key players in the Marysville economy and Marysville politics stepped in and saved what remained.
In 1949 Albert Weiser purchased part of what John McMaster owned between First Street and Ebey Slough from Ash Ave to nearly State Ave and opened the Weiser Cedar Company. While the mill is no longer operating, the company still sells lumber on Cedar Street to this day. Weiser’s mill employed forty people, and specialized in Cedar siding and shakes and for decades was one of the last remnants of an industry that helped build Marysville. The Weiser Mill operated very successfully, even purchasing city-owned land on Beach Ave (the site of the old city dock) in the early 1950s to expand its waterfront holdings. The Weiser Mill grew bigger, and new buildings were added throughout the early 1950s.
One of the single biggest issues for the lumber industry was, and is to this day, fire. Unfortunately, the Weiser Mill fell victim to one of the worst fires in Marysville history on May 6th, 1955. The fire destroyed almost every building on the property, along with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of lumber at the site. Albert Weiser pledged to rebuild the facility, but in December of the same year, he died of cancer. LeRoy Weiser, son of Albert did in fact rebuilt a much smaller mill on the property but due to the worsening economic conditions for lumber mills, the Wesiers sold the mill portion of their business to Seattle-based Garrett-Schaefer in 1961. This new company operated the mill under the name Welco which was meant to honor the original company “The Weiser Lumber Compay.” The Welco Mill would prove to be successful for a time, distributing lumber products to customers around the world and called First Street home for almost fifty years, outlasting nearly every mill in Snohomish County. In 2007 however, due to a nationwide decline in the housing market, The Welco Mill, the last mill in Marysville closed. This ended a 133-year chapter for First Street, but the next one was already in the works.
Recreation…eventually
When asked about First Street or Ebey Slough, many current Marysville residents will instantly bring up the Ebey Slough park. It is one of the most visited locations along Marysville’s original Main Street and offers boaters, walkers, kids, and bird watchers a piece of the outdoors in their hometown. Getting to this point however took a great deal of soul searching, and was not something that happened overnight.
In the early 1950s, Bill Geddes purchased property near the end of Delta Ave along First Street with the intention of creating a marina. He saw the writing on the wall for the lumber industry and envisioned the slough as a place for recreation. He dredged a marina for boats to be moored and he opened a store on the property for boaters to purchase the supplies locally. The one issue that was constantly discussed had been the lack of a boat launch in Marysville. With a marina and boat supply store, a boat launch would seem necessary, but during this same period, the city sold its property at the end of Beach Ave that had been used as a city dock decades earlier to the Weiser Mill. With this option off the table, the Marysville Sportsman Club went to work finding a suitable spot that the city and Geddes agreed on. The site that was ultimately chosen was west of Ash Ave where the present-day I-5 overpass crosses the slough. While boaters and Geddes rejoiced at the new addition to boating in Marysville, there were still many problems with pleasure boats and mill related boats navigating the same waters.
Boating continued to be a draw for Ebey Slough. With a boat launch and the Geddes Marina both finished, Reinell Boat Works next located to First Street Reinell was a boat manufacturer, and many of the boats that would eventually race along the slough were constructed by Reinell. In 1957, many in Marysville expressed an interest in having an official boat race along the Slough and through the Snohomish River Delta. The Marysville Outboard Club was formed with the purpose of planning this event, but nobody really knew how it would go. Articles in the Marysville Globe questioned whether people would show up in little Marysville to watch boat racing in May when the weather is not exactly predictable. Despite these concerns, the event dubbed the Strawberry Cup proved to be a hit. People from all over Western Washington came to join in the fun, and boats came from far and wide to race. The Marysville Outboard Club had struck gold with this event, and two years later it was included with the yearly Strawberry Festival as an annual event.
Recreation and industry lived alongside each other peacefully for many decades on First Street. The recreation side hoping to increase their presence in the south part of town, and the industrial side just hoping to hang on. In the 1970s the city council voted to clear land east of the railroad tracks to State Ave and from First Street to Fourth Street to construct the new Marysville Mall. This meant the buildings along the north side of First Street would be demolished. While there wasn’t much there besides a hardware store and mill parking, it would forever change the landscape of First Street. Many felt it cut this area off from town with the large walls of the mall now blocking the view north from the marina. By the 1990s the Welco Mill was continuing to see a decline in production and orders, so they opted to sell a portion of their property from State Ave to the Marina to the city. Over the next decade, the city went to work clearing the formerly industrial site and constructed a waterfront park complete with a new, safer boat launch, and playground for kids. This helped realize a dream for the city of having recreation along the water, a dream that had been discussed as far back as the 1940s. The city continued adding to this park opening trails that connect neighborhoods with Waterfront access, furthering the vision of First Street being a recreation destination. This chapter is far from over and offers a lot to look forward to for Marysville’s residents.
A Corridor of Convenience
Marysville’s original Main Street has often been forgotten and neglected over the years. A street that played such a crucial role in the development of Marysville was given no more than a second thought for many decades. It can be argued that this was for good reason, as it offered many Marysville residents jobs and served a different, yet important purpose than it did early on. While that may be true, today is a different day. First Street is no longer home to the heavy industry that once dominated the shores of Ebey Slough, and it is ready for a change. There is property on First Street that is ready to enter the rest of First Street in recreation development, and there are plans to do that. However, today is about First Streets roll as a corridor. This new development of First Street from State to 47th will ease traffic and help Marysville’s citizens get home quicker and safer to their families so they can all enjoy the recreation Marysville has to offer. First Street will always be tied to the Slough, and with that recreation, but its use as a new main thoroughfare for Marysville commuters is something historic, and something to be celebrated. What this historian hopes, is that as Marysville’s residents enjoy this newly extended road, they will reflect on what First Street and Front Street did to help make their home the place it is today. Here's to the next century of prosperity on Marysville’s original Main Street.
