Published: Friday, November 19, 2010
Highway 99's neon once called to travelers in north Everett
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Photo courtesy of Jack O'Donnell
This postcard image shows the neon figure of a diver that let passersby on Everett's Highway 99 North know about a pool at the old Evergreen State Motel, which was also called the Everett Motel on a roadside sign. The area is now North Broadway.
She's a diver, her silhouette sleek and slim, with toes pointed to the sky.
A vision in neon, her purpose was to lure weary travelers to a roadside oasis, a place with a swimming pool. It was called the Evergreen State Motel, but its big sign outside — with the neon diver on top — said simply “Everett Motel.”
The diver has disappeared from north Everett. The image exists on a vintage postcard, and also lives in the memories of many who grew up in postwar Everett. They remember when the motels of what's now North Broadway weren't seedy, crime-ridden flophouses.
I went looking for stories of how it used to be after reading in Monday's Herald about the Royal Motor Inn. The Broadway motel, closed and in disrepair, is now owned by Everett Community College. Plans call for the college to build a nursing and health sciences center on the 1-acre site at 952 N. Broadway.
Gene Fosheim hasn't forgotten when the area was part of mid-20th century America's burgeoning car culture. It was a time when prosperous families hopped into big cars and hit the road. The Everett man definitely recalls the eye-catching sign.
“The one with the lady diving I remember as a kid. It really sticks out in my mind,” said Fosheim, a trustee for the Historic Everett organization. “I remember thinking, ‘Jeez, a swimming pool.' I wished we could stay there, but we lived right next door.”
Fosheim, 59, was raised in Everett's Delta neighborhood.
The picture of the long-gone Evergreen State Motel is part of Jack O'Donnell's collection of old postcards. O'Donnell is an Everett historian and retired teacher who compiles The Herald's Seems Like Yesterday column from newspaper archives.
He remembers the cabin-style Evergreen State Motel, which was on Highway 99 North, also called Pacific Highway North. It was across the road from the Hilltop Drive-In.
What's now Broadway was part the old Pacific Highway system, said David Dilgard, an Everett Public Library history specialist. “The Bothell-Everett Highway cut over to Broadway. Highway 99 came a lot later,” Dilgard said.
It was 1927, according to a HistoryLink essay by Phil Dougherty, that a key Pacific Highway link between Everett and Marysville was completed, a stretch that's now Highway 529. In the decades to come, the northern edge of Everett was dotted with motels and drive-in restaurants to serve new travelers.
The Royal Motor Inn was built in 1961, just before the Century 21 Seattle World's Fair in 1962. In 1965, the landscape was forever changed when I-5 came to Everett. Later in the 1960s, the interstate was completed through Marysville, O'Donnell said.
“There would have been some speculative stuff connected with the Seattle World's Fair, but as it turns out the world's fair was a prelude to Interstate 5 opening up,” Dilgard said. “Whatever designs those Everett motels might have had on the market were short-circuited.”
With the freeway bypassing the old North Broadway motels, their clientele changed for the worse.
By 2002, the Everett Police Department had targeted some motels as havens for crime. Police conducted raids and made arrests for prostitution and drug-dealing in the area.
Dilgard said the area became stigmatized because of low-income housing and industry.
In 2007, the Topper Motel, a run-down relic of the 1950s, was demolished. The state had revoked its license because of conditions too dangerous and unsanitary for its poor tenants. That land became EvCC parking.
O'Donnell recalls when North Broadway was a gateway for travelers. He saw similar sights, in state after state, when in 1999 he and his brother, Larry O'Donnell, drove the length of historic Route 66. They drove from Chicago to Santa Monica, Calif., in Jack O'Donnell's 1968 Chevy Impala.
“We stayed in one motel in El Reno, Oklahoma,” Jack O'Donnell said. “We only stayed there because my windshield wiper blade had broken and it was next to a Chevrolet place. It was a bona fide dump. We also stayed in the Blue Swallow Motel in Tucumcari, New Mexico. It's probably the most talked-about motel on the whole route.”
O'Donnell said old Highway 99 “is just Route 66 turned upside-down,” but North Broadway isn't destined to be a touristy replay of an old highway. The college has shiny new plans for the bedraggled area. Most neighbors won't be sad to see ratty old motels go.
O'Donnell, though, wishes he knew what happened to that diver.
“That neon sign was for sale once in an antique store on Hewitt Avenue— for $2,500,” he said.
Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460, muhlstein@heraldnet.com.
A vision in neon, her purpose was to lure weary travelers to a roadside oasis, a place with a swimming pool. It was called the Evergreen State Motel, but its big sign outside — with the neon diver on top — said simply “Everett Motel.”
The diver has disappeared from north Everett. The image exists on a vintage postcard, and also lives in the memories of many who grew up in postwar Everett. They remember when the motels of what's now North Broadway weren't seedy, crime-ridden flophouses.
I went looking for stories of how it used to be after reading in Monday's Herald about the Royal Motor Inn. The Broadway motel, closed and in disrepair, is now owned by Everett Community College. Plans call for the college to build a nursing and health sciences center on the 1-acre site at 952 N. Broadway.
Gene Fosheim hasn't forgotten when the area was part of mid-20th century America's burgeoning car culture. It was a time when prosperous families hopped into big cars and hit the road. The Everett man definitely recalls the eye-catching sign.
“The one with the lady diving I remember as a kid. It really sticks out in my mind,” said Fosheim, a trustee for the Historic Everett organization. “I remember thinking, ‘Jeez, a swimming pool.' I wished we could stay there, but we lived right next door.”
Fosheim, 59, was raised in Everett's Delta neighborhood.
The picture of the long-gone Evergreen State Motel is part of Jack O'Donnell's collection of old postcards. O'Donnell is an Everett historian and retired teacher who compiles The Herald's Seems Like Yesterday column from newspaper archives.
He remembers the cabin-style Evergreen State Motel, which was on Highway 99 North, also called Pacific Highway North. It was across the road from the Hilltop Drive-In.
What's now Broadway was part the old Pacific Highway system, said David Dilgard, an Everett Public Library history specialist. “The Bothell-Everett Highway cut over to Broadway. Highway 99 came a lot later,” Dilgard said.
It was 1927, according to a HistoryLink essay by Phil Dougherty, that a key Pacific Highway link between Everett and Marysville was completed, a stretch that's now Highway 529. In the decades to come, the northern edge of Everett was dotted with motels and drive-in restaurants to serve new travelers.
The Royal Motor Inn was built in 1961, just before the Century 21 Seattle World's Fair in 1962. In 1965, the landscape was forever changed when I-5 came to Everett. Later in the 1960s, the interstate was completed through Marysville, O'Donnell said.
“There would have been some speculative stuff connected with the Seattle World's Fair, but as it turns out the world's fair was a prelude to Interstate 5 opening up,” Dilgard said. “Whatever designs those Everett motels might have had on the market were short-circuited.”
With the freeway bypassing the old North Broadway motels, their clientele changed for the worse.
By 2002, the Everett Police Department had targeted some motels as havens for crime. Police conducted raids and made arrests for prostitution and drug-dealing in the area.
Dilgard said the area became stigmatized because of low-income housing and industry.
In 2007, the Topper Motel, a run-down relic of the 1950s, was demolished. The state had revoked its license because of conditions too dangerous and unsanitary for its poor tenants. That land became EvCC parking.
O'Donnell recalls when North Broadway was a gateway for travelers. He saw similar sights, in state after state, when in 1999 he and his brother, Larry O'Donnell, drove the length of historic Route 66. They drove from Chicago to Santa Monica, Calif., in Jack O'Donnell's 1968 Chevy Impala.
“We stayed in one motel in El Reno, Oklahoma,” Jack O'Donnell said. “We only stayed there because my windshield wiper blade had broken and it was next to a Chevrolet place. It was a bona fide dump. We also stayed in the Blue Swallow Motel in Tucumcari, New Mexico. It's probably the most talked-about motel on the whole route.”
O'Donnell said old Highway 99 “is just Route 66 turned upside-down,” but North Broadway isn't destined to be a touristy replay of an old highway. The college has shiny new plans for the bedraggled area. Most neighbors won't be sad to see ratty old motels go.
O'Donnell, though, wishes he knew what happened to that diver.
“That neon sign was for sale once in an antique store on Hewitt Avenue— for $2,500,” he said.
Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460, muhlstein@heraldnet.com.
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