(Edited with the correct date.) The Edmonds Historical Museum shared this video on Facebook Thursday that proves many of Edmonds’ holiday events are steeped in tradition and history. “Take a journey back to Edmonds 1932, and discover how much effort and determination it took to get our popular holiday tree up and lit,” the museum said.
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This is awesome. Thank you for preserving this!!
Great old film. However, take it from a very old-time Edmonds resident, the date is several years off the mark. The film was taken many years before 1942. The first thing I noticed was the vehicles shown are all from a much earlier time. The most telling clue is what is missing behind the 2-story brick Fourtner Building as seen on the right in several of the views. In 1942, we would have seen Ray Cloud’s 2-story brick building housing the Edmonds Tribune-Review, built in 1938–the building is missing. Also, across the intersection on the left, the northeast corner of Main and Fifth, that one-story brick building was built in 1926, and sometime before 1930 it was called Skaggs-Safeway. In 1931 the name on the building was changed to simply Safeway, The Christmas tree event as shown in this event has to be sometime between 1926 and 1931–probably 1928-1929. Because we were well into WWII in 1942–blackout procedures were enforced. We wouldn’t have had a lighted Christmas tree in the middle of town. Even so, the film is still a great bit of Edmonds history.
Thank you Betty Lou!
I hope that you are labeling old time photo’s! 🙂
Betty, you are correct! We accidentally mislabeled this, it should actually be 1932. Thank you for catching it!
We just corrected the date in the caption and headline.
Loved the form of the combatants in the stick fight. Plus style points for the doing it with a “smoke” .
I enjoyed watching this film very much chuckling all the way. Kind of overkill on the size of the tree and hysterical to see the guy running along to keep the tree off the ground as it was being dragged into town. Thanks for sharing. Amazing!
What a great film! And thank you Betty for providing the extra story behind the tree.
Great nostalgic film to watch. I think I saw Ed Scott among the men. He was the owner of the last operating shingle mill in Edmonds and was later the Postmaster for Edmonds. Great guy who lived to be 102. He and wife Tyra lived their entire married lives in the house they bought on Sunset Ave.
I am still trying to piece together the film to find the actual date. It is so jumpy and doesn’t stay in one place very long. However, I did manage to make out the sign on the building on the northeast corner of the intersection of Fifth and Main–it says Safeway Stores. That name was changed in early 1931 from Skaggs-Safeway. So, judging by the ages of the vehicles — I am going with December 1931/32. As I mentioned about lights on Christmas trees during WWII, directly following December 7, 1941, Edmonds and the surrounding communities went into full blackout procedures–no lights showing, and that included outside Christmas lights. Those readiness plans were formulated in September of 1941, and my father was one of the three men appointed to head the program. After December 7th, air raid wardens patroled the streets of Edmonds checking for violators. The wardens also stood guard at air raid observation posts. The winter nights in Edmonds were very dark, and Edmonds also had a curfew.
Betty – thank you for your gifts about Edmonds history. I love the attention to detail in the narratives you write.
Katie — I thought that might have happened. Great piece of Edmonds history. Thanks for posting it. Oh, how I miss Edmonds. When I moved to Alaska, I thought I would be able to visit my old home as often as I liked, and then COVID happened to change all of our lives.
This film is a great reminder of a time local Edmonds townsfolk banding together during difficult times (1932 Depression) with honesty and integrity for the community.
My name is June Sorensen Crump, Born in Edmonds in 1925 and grew up in Edmonds, lived there as did my parents and Grandparents. I saw part of this video and recognized in the first picture Slim Rittenhouse (with cigar)who worked at Yost Motor Co.,Charlie Beinz who had Beinz Confectionery, he is in zipped black jacket and in the left hand corner it looks like my Dad, Ralph Sorensen who worked at Quality shingle mill. In one of the other pictures it was Ernie Hubbard who had Hubbard Real Estate, I can always remember the Christmas tree in the center of the town.
I enjoy your contributions in the comments Betty Lou. I’d assume the tree was cut from the Yost Park area. Do you know if that’s accurate?
Great video, thank you so much for sharing.
Hello, June Sorensen Crump from Betty Deebach Gaeng. It has been a long time since I saw you last. I thought I recognized Slim Rittenhouse and Ernie Hubbard. Do you know who the older man posing in front of the tree was? He was also standing at the corner of the old Reece Building (Hubbard’s Realty), with his hands in his pockets. Was that George Durbin, the mayor at the time? He seemed to be keeping a sharp eye on the tree raising as if he had a big interest in the proceedings. 1932 was 5 years before we moved to Edmonds. The film was sure a nice look at the history of Edmonds.
Betty Lou, your brother Walter was in my class of 1943 I believe. I have two sons, Bob and Eric, who live in Edmonds and follow this web site and told me about it. I believe the person you were mentioning looked like Ernie Hubbard to me. It is hard to recognize the individuals as the movie moves too quickly. So many of my classmates are no longer around but when Bill was active in Edmonds he interviewed Dr. kretzler, Frances Anderson and I think either Ed or Tyra Scott and the tapes were put in time capsules someplace. I loved living and growing up in Edmonds and knowing everyone. I am sure the people there influenced my life and my values in life.
Egan, I have no idea where they found the tree, except to note the film shows they were taking it north down Fifth to the intersection of Main Street and Fifth.
June, yes Edmonds was a great place to grow up. All four of my children graduated from Edmonds High School. When I was in the 8th grade, my assignment was to interview Amanda Yost. I was scared to death, but she was vey nice.
I can’t resist commenting on behalf of the George Yost family. Rita sent this to me and I’m Nona’s daughter. My entire family loved watching this video (several times actually) and Rita thought Grandpa George filmed it. What a fun annual adventure and Rita remembers being part of it in later years. On another note, I must let June know we make the spritz wreaths every Christmas and the recipe card credits Mrs. Sorensen. I have such fond memories of all our visits to Edmonds. Happy 2021 to all!