Everett Archives: The Everett Station Connects Us
Before there were cars in Everett, there were the rails.
The first train station in Everett was on Bond Street on the bayside of the city. A brick building on the northwest corner of Pacific and Colby was the northern terminus of the Interurban line. Streetcars cruised Colby, 23rd and 19th Streets.
Then came the cars. Highway 99 came through the city in 1926. Then Interstate 5 cleft the Riverside Neighborhood in the 1960s.
Cars were the new norm.
Then, in 2002, a multi-modal transit center opened. Centrally located in Washington’s I-5 corridor at the north end of the Greater Seattle Area, it connected the city to the region and to the nation by bus line and rail.
Maybe the planners foresaw a greener era -- a time of urban density when people would forgo their single-occupancy vehicles for public transportation and bicycle travel.
The Everett Station, a $44 million edifice, was an investment in the future of transportation.
The American Institute of Architects jury said it best when they gave an award to the building in 2006:
"[T]his transportation center .... houses an innovative mix of transit, educational functions, and community spaces; delights travelers; and is welcoming to the public for classes, public meetings, and banquets ... This elegant and monumental building wisely anticipates a less automobile-dependent future."
Art meets functionality
The station brings bus service from Everett Transit, Snohomish County's Community Transit, regional Sound Transit, and Greyhound together.
The four-story building is full of art.
There’s a giant two-story steel and glass clock on the three-story glass wall to the east. It’s often backlit by the rising sun, and features art glass by Jack Archibald. It calls to mind the look of your classic depot in a train station, Hollywood movie-style.
Terrazzo floors draw the eye up the atrium to a ceiling crisscrossed by steel arches.
Upstairs, in the Weyerhaeuser Room, are the two enormous Paul Bunyon murals painted by famed muralist Kenneth Callahan. The murals originally appeared on the walls of the cafeteria at Weyerhaeuser Mill B on the Everett waterfront. They depict a large, strangely beardless Paul Bunyan, as well as the various industrial aspects of Everett as a mill town.
(Callahan, who lived in rural Snohomish County near Robe Canyon, went on to become an influential Northwest artist, who worked at the Seattle art Museum).
The floor is inlaid with a map of Everett. Travelers sit on oak benches that recall a Steinbeckian era of rail and bus travel. The station sees business commuters returning on the Sounder train from King Street Station in Seattle. It sees Vancouver-bound international tourists, grabbing a cup of coffee on a layover between the legs of their journey. It sees regular folks going about their civic business: taking busses to go shopping, to mail packages, and to visit loved ones.
It also hosts a seasonal pop-up farmers market, providing additional value to the local community.
Connecting the past to the future
One thing is for sure. The Everett Station makes a great first impression on regional, national, or international travelers. As Everett becomes more dense and urban, this corner of Everett will play an important role as a major hub for regional travel.
Our city, joined to the region by rail? It’s not a new idea. As always, the best way to look to the future is to take some cues from the past.
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