Arts & Entertainment Community

Day Tripper | Snohomish, at the confluence of antique and historic

Posted on December 21st, 2023 By: Mary Williams

Gas prices are sky high, and a night in a hotel is approaching astronomically expensive. So, for the foreseeable future, I imagine many of you are going to find yourselves taking day trips rather than the road trip vacations we’ve grown to love.

This beautiful region in which we live is ripe with opportunities to explore new places, see new things, and learn a little something at the same time. I promise to keep the longest journeys to a one-way distance of under 200 miles. Whether you want to make it an overnight trip, a weekend, or just a very long day trip, we should be able to pull it off.

We will also check out some places that tourists flock to see in our beautiful community but most of us either take for granted or have never heard of. If a staycation is on your horizon, I’m here to help you make the most of it.

I hope you’ll grant me the honor of your virtual company as we travel these roads together. Happy trails!

Three years ago, I knew virtually nothing about Snohomish County, particularly the area east of the I-5 corridor. Then HGTV started airing “Unsellable Houses,” which is filmed in Snohomish, a small town about 10 miles east of Everett. Now, primarily because I have a teenaged granddaughter who is intrigued by the show, I’ve been to the city of Snohomish several times. More about that later.

The first time I visited the city of Snohomish was smack-dab in the middle of the pandemic. My daughter and I were looking for a destination about halfway between her home in Bellingham and Gig Harbor where we could meet for a Mother’s Day picnic. On a Sunday afternoon in May, the two of us and my then 3- and 5-year-old granddaughters met at one of the many lush parks that dot the town.

The author’s granddaughters in Snohomish.

We walked a bit on the Centennial Trail, and quite a bit more around the Historic District. With the kids in tow, and wanting to stay outside, visiting the Historic Shopping District didn’t seem like a great idea.

I knew when I headed home that I wanted to go back again to investigate all of the inviting shops and check out the history that is everywhere you look. I’ve now been back three more times, two for the primary purpose of visiting Lamb & Co. with one of my older granddaughters. I’m sure the two of us will be making more visits whenever she’s in town.

Antique Capital

I decided to make the most recent trip because I keep coming across information about the many other things there are to do in Snohomish. Just recently, I ran across a couple of articles referring to the town as the Antique Capital of the Northwest (Washington state, the Pacific Northwest, or the entire West — pick one, I’ve seen them all). It seemed incredible that a little town with about 10,000 residents could support that many antique stores.

I used to love antiques, but for some time now I’ve struggled with the whole idea. The internet and many magazines are peppered with articles about the psychological impact of clutter.

Two recent bestsellers, Marie Kondo’s “The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up” and “The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning,” stress the importance of getting rid of “stuff” you don’t love.

On the other hand, magazine racks are filled with guides to decorating using flea market finds or vintage farmhouse accessories. And it’s not uncommon to hear about the $10 plate or $25 vase picked up in an antique store that later sold for $100,000 or more.

What’s a girl to do? My curiosity about how a town full of antique stores was doing in these contradictory times lead to the decision to make a return trip to Snohomish.

Snohomish’s thriving antique district

My first stop was Star Center Antique Mall. Coming into town on 2^nd Street, Star Center comes up quickly. It appears to be a medium-sized, unassuming store, not much different than all of the other antique or vintage stores that are in every small town. Wrong.

The Star Center Antique Mall in Snohomish.

Just drive around the block and you’ll see that the building sits on the side of a hill, with entrances on both First and 2^nd Streets. The fourth level of the building is what you see when you approach from 2^nd Street. The lowest level is on First Street. A word of warning: if you are at all mobility challenged, this store is not easy to navigate. It has no elevator and many of the aisles and doorways are narrow.

The inside of the Star Center building can be difficult to navigate for those with mobility issues.

The 5^th floor is a bookstore featuring one of the nation’s largest collections of antique reference books. Interestingly, when I first heard that, I looked forward to a collection of very old reference books, not over 10,000 books referencing hundreds of different kinds of old collectibles, which is what you’ll actually find.

Never fear. If you don’t find what you’re looking for at Star Center, you have nearly a dozen other options.

My Eclectic Home

One of my favorites was My Eclectic Home. A seemingly newer store, located in the heart of the Historic Shopping District at 916 First Street, it consists of several hundred booths containing wares offered by the proprietor and approximately 30 other vendors. It is not strictly an antique store, since it contains many items that are either vintage or new.

My Eclectic Home in Snohomish.

Several other noteworthy antique malls dot the area and are worth a visit if you have the time and energy, or choose to make a return visit on a different day. Among them are Remember When Antique Mall, Victoria Village Antique Mall, Troybeck Antiques, and Annies on First.

If, like me, you are someone who is more overwhelmed than energized after several hours of shopping, you have lots of other options for things to do in Snohomish. If you’ve spent your morning picking through antiques, you may be ready for lunch. First Street is lined with any number of restaurants and cafes, none more intriguing than the Oxford Saloon.

The Oxford Saloon

I actually considered making a run up to Snohomish this fall while researching Washington state’s most haunted places for the Halloween Day Tripper story but ended up going to Port Gamble instead. I realized that during our Snohomish visit this past summer we’d unwittingly had lunch at the famed Oxford Saloon, reputed to be one of the most haunted places in Washington. Our schedule brought us to town on a Monday, and it was about the only place open. We weren’t disappointed. Lunch was great, and the ambiance was nothing if not unusual.

The Oxford Saloon in Snohomish.

The Oxford Tavern was built in 1900 as a dry-goods store but was most likely also a high-class bordello. Legend has it that several of the ladies now haunt the upstairs rooms.

A policeman was killed on the stairway between the main floor and the basement. His spirit reportedly still hangs out there, and a number of women have reported unwelcome pinches to their posteriors while visiting the ladies room.

Photos and artifacts adorn the walls of the Oxford Saloon.

The Saloon of today is a walk down memory lane. There are many pictures of old town Snohomish adorning the walls, as well as early 1900s signs and memorabilia. Two of the most interesting are a lady of the evening, dressed in pink, hanging from the ceiling, and a knight in not-so-shiny armor who is attached to the ceiling and looks down on diners.

The Pink Lady inside the Oxford Saloon.

Strolling in Snohomish

After lunch, you’re probably ready for a walk. Snohomish is a very walkable city, but the highlight has to be the Centennial Trail.

This 30-mile trail starts in Snohomish and ends north of Arlington in Skagit County. It is a paved recreational trail for walking biking, hiking and horseback riding that was built on the old Burlington-Northern railroad line. Development of the trail began in 1989 as part of the state’s centennial celebration and more than 500,000 people per year use it.

The Centennial Trailhead in Snohomish.

Other nearby trails of interest are the Riverfront Trail, a 1-mile loop with the First Street Historic District and Maple Avenue as anchors, the Interurban Trail, and the Powerline Trail. A half-mile crushed rock trail stretches along the levees on the Snohomish River and Cemetery Creek.

If trees are your thing, Snohomish doesn’t disappoint. If you’re interested in finding big and/or historic trees while you’re walking, the City has developed a brochure to help you find them. Get the printable version here.

Historic Snohomish

Snohomish is located at the confluence of the Pilchuck River with the Snohomish River. Originally Native American fishermen, hunters, and gathers lived there, but the Point Elliott Treaty of 1855 relocated them to the Tulalip Reservation. The town was originally called Cadyville, named for Edson Cady, one of the original white settlers.

Snohomish County was established in 1861. At that time, the county seat was relocated from Mukilteo to Cadyville, home to 49 people, all men.

Cadyville became Snohomish in 1871. It had transitioned from supporting the local agricultural community to a logging town with the arrival of the Blackman brothers, who migrated from Maine through Port Gamble. Competing sawmills operated, one on each river.

By 1895, over 3,000 people called Snohomish home. A disputed election in 1897 moved the county seat to Everett. In 1910 a Carnegie Library was built. It is the oldest public building in the city.

In the 1960s, the community became concerned about preserving its heritage and unique character. The Snohomish Historical Society was founded in 1969 and is housed at the Blackman House Museum.

Hensel House on Avenue B in Snohomish.

In 1973, Snohomish passed an ordinance establishing a Historic District, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is a 26-block area along the Snohomish River, and contains a mix of commercial and residential buildings.

The area is dotted with informational and directional signs guiding visitors to areas of interest.

A directory sign points visitors to historic landmarks in Snohomish.

History and future

Historic Downtown Snohomish was established in 2004 to promote, preserve, and improve the City’s historic downtown business district.

If you’d like to learn more about Snohomish and the surrounding area, there are a number of websites providing information. One of the best is Snohomish Walks which provides a great deal of reference information and great maps.

One of the best known businesses in Historic Downtown Snohomish is also one of the newest. In conjunction with the success of Unsellable Houses (HGTV), a retail outlet was established to market some of the furnishings and accessories featured on the show. Operated by Lyndsy Lamb and Leslie Davis, the hosts of the show, the storefront has become the public face of the show.

Lamb & Co. in Snohomish.

Detour: Back to the falls

Way back in mid-November, Day Tripper stopped by Snoqualmie Falls to take a look at the fall colors and see how much water really made the trek over the falls in late autumn.

In early December, I realized that a slight deviation in my planned route home from Snohomish would take me by the falls once again at almost exactly the same time of day.

It was about 3:30 p.m. Dec. 8, and we were just winding up a full week of rain. The falls area received 7 inches, flooding nearby roads. Here are before and after shots (taken 20 days apart) where you can see for yourself what difference a week of unseasonably heavy rain makes.

Snoqualmie Falls on Nov. 18.

Snoqualmie Falls on Dec. 8.

Getting there

Time and distance: About 1 hour and 25 minutes, according to Google Maps

Route: Take Highway 16 to northbound I-5 and I-5 to northbound I-405. Exit I-405 to eastbound Highway 522. Exit Highway 522 on Highway 9/Woodinville-Snohomish Road. Exit Highway 9 on Second Street in Snohomish.