When the City Of Edmonds was platted by the Minneapolis Realty Company in 1890, the city’s commercial district was to run from the waterfront eastward up the hill to what is today 5th Avenue. The plat showed a narrow business district extending one block north from the wharf at the foot of Main Street (George Street in 1890) to Bell Street, and one to two blocks south of Main Street to Dayton Street. The areas outside of the three-block-wide strip of land were deemed to be residential and largely rural.

Thirty six years later, in 1926, the city’s business center had not grown much beyond the original plat. The Edmonds Feed Store and Ole Sorensen’s blacksmith shop had been built on 2nd and 3rd Avenues, one block north of Bell Street on Edmonds Street, but there was little development to the north of Main Street.

This 1926 map shows that almost everything east (up the hill) from 5th Avenue was residential, and that was also true to the north of Bell and south of Dayton Street. But on Jan. 22, 1926, the Edmonds Tribune-Review announced the development of a new business block on the northeast corner of 5th and Main. It was to be the first brick commercial retail building built north of Main Street, and it was positioned across the street from the brick Fourtner Building that had been completed in July 1924.  The new building was to be named for the property owner, Fred Schneider, and would provide commercial space for four businesses (denoted in yellow on the map).

Due to the shape of the property the building was constructed in a quasi-triangular shape to take up most of the lot. The building was to be 120 feet in length facing 5th Avenue. The space at the south end of the building, facing Main Street, was to be 80 feet wide, while the north end facing the Edmonds Library and City Hall/Police Department would be 20 feet wide.

The first tenant to sign a lease was the Skaggs United Stores, which moved into the building in April 1926. The grocery store chain leased the southernmost space, on the corner of 5th and Main.  The store’s name was soon changed to Skagg’s Safeway, and the store remained a tenant for the next 40 years.

Two months later, in June 1926, the Edmonds Post Office moved from the Edmonds Bank Building to the northernmost space, directly across the alley from the library and city hall. The post office was to remain a tenant until Dec 31, 1950.

In November 1926 the Edmonds Tribune-Review reported that Mrs. Hamilton and Mrs. Bell were opening a beauty shop in the space next to the post office, and in January 1927 the paper reported that Harold Storm was opening an electric repair shop in the space next to the Skaggs Safeway grocery store.

During the later part of the decade the Edmonds economy was solid, and the building’s tenants remained constant. But when the Great Depression hit in the early 1930s, the tenants in the two middle spaces were numerous.

The 1930s

Edmonds downtown businesses suffered greatly like most of the country during the early days of the great depression. The timber industry buffered some of the tough times, but many of the local businesses had short lives.

In regards to the Schneider Building, the space just north of the Skaggs Safeway grocery store from 1930-1934 housed numerous businesses including Storm’s Electric Services, the Edmonds/Schneider Drug Company, and finally the Hebe Ben Franklin Stove Store.

Author’s note: Skaggs Safeway had changed its name to simply “Safeway” in 1931.

The business space south of the Post Office also had multiple tenants between 1930 and 1934. The original beauty shop was replaced by the Bouquet Flower Shop. A year later, the flower shop was replaced by the Edmonds Cleaners, and the cleaners was then replaced by Hebe’s Ben Franklin Stove Store when the cleaners moved to the Fourtner Building.

With the departure of the Edmonds Cleaners, Hebe’s Franklin Stove Store moved north into the cleaners’ old space, and the Safeway store expanded into where the stove store had been. In so doing, the Safeway store doubled its physical size, adding a meat market in the new space.

On the human interest side, the Schneider Building seemed to have been a favorite target of Halloween pranksters during the early 1930s. Newspaper accounts detailed the fact that a sheep had been hoisted up and tied to the roof of the post office. The fire department had to be called to get the sheep down. On a couple of other occasions, the windows of the building were “white washed” by Halloween mischief makers.

But things settled down in the latter 1930s and the building’s tenants remained the same. The post office occupied the northernmost space, with the Ben Franklin Stove Store to the south, and the expanded Safeway store on the south end of the building.

Early 1940s

The early 1940s and the World War II years were economically and emotionally tough on the nation and the Edmonds area. Those years proved to be an interesting time for both the building and its tenants.

In April 1941, a massive fire broke out in the auto mechanics shop at Edmonds High School, then located in the current Edmonds Center for the Arts building. People as usual rushed to the scene of the fire. But Mrs. Fred Fourtner, who was the wife of the mayor, was observing the fire from her second-floor apartment, when she saw the silhouette of a man crawling through the window of the Safeway store. She immediately contacted the authorities. Upon entering the store with a store employee, Patrolman Vaurs caught the man trying to break into the cash register. After further questioning, the man admitted to setting the fire to divert attention, while he plundered the store.

In May 1941, the post office expanded its footprint, adding 600 square feet to its original location by having the external eastern wall moved further east. This modification widened the original northern wall from 20 feet to 70 feet. As a condition of this expansion, the post office signed an additional 10-year lease for the enlarged space.

The Ben Franklin Stove Store closed in late 1941, and the space south of the post office became the home of the Edmonds 10 Cent Store.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, and with the advent of rationing, the downtown Safeway store became the primary grocery store in Edmonds. The store had a hard time operationally, however. Six of the store managers who were brought in to run the store were called into military service at different times during the war years.

On April 29, 1943, a thunder and lightning storm was accompanied by a downpour of rain that had never been seen before. Gutters became rivers, overflowing the sidewalks. The area of 5th and Main became a lake, and water flowed underneath the doors of the Safeway store, severely damaging stock. It took several days before the store reopened.

Mid to late 1940s 

With the end of World War II, the nation and the Edmonds downtown area went through significant changes. There was a huge pent-up demand for consumer goods, and the GI bill provided funding for housing and educational opportunities.  Subdivisions of new housing began to appear above and around the Edmonds Bowl. With it came new customers and also new competition. Multiple grocery stores and radio/appliance stores started to appear. In the Schneider Building, the 10 Cent Store vacated, and the Edmonds Radio Sales And Repair Service moved into their space.

1950 to 1965

In early 1950, the Edmonds Post Office announced it was not going to renew its lease in the Schneider Building, but instead was moving to a larger space on the south side of Main Street between 5th and 6th Avenues.  Postmaster O.N. Sorensen explained that the area’s population had grown so quickly that the post office needed more space to handle the mail. Additionally, a new route was going to be immediately added to service the Mountlake Terrace and Lake Ballinger areas.

One of the human interest stories that surrounded the post office’s move was the discovery of a number of letters/postcards that had fallen behind lock boxes on the wall.

The Edmonds Tribune-Review article’s headline read: “Postal Cards Slightly Delayed at Post Office.”  The article explained: The Edmonds post office carries out the slogan that “the mails must always go through, even if they are delayed 17 years or so.” When the lock box sections were dismantled for removal to the new building, four postal cards were found which years ago, had slipped into tiny crevasses below the boxes and remained hidden. The oldest one had been lost for 17 years, but finally delivered.

With departure of the post office, it was announced that Trafton Furniture and Appliance was moving from the Snoqualmie area, and would be taking over the post office’s old space.

Trafton was to remain a tenant for only a couple of years, exiting at the end of 1952, and moving to the Schumaucher Building on Main Street. (Note: the Schumacher Building was the home of Chanterelle Bistro for nearly 30 years.

With the departure of Trafton, Eddy’s Electric Service took over the northernmost space in 1953. Like Trafton, Eddy’s sold appliances to the growing number of young homeowners that were moving into the area.

From 1950 to the mid 1960s, the space between Eddy’s Electric and Safeway was occupied by several businesses. They included Phelps Shoe Repair, Fred’s Shoe Repair and Osborn Jewelers.

Despite the fact that Edmonds had continued to annex communities, including University Colony to the north, and there had been rapid growth all the way to Highway 99 to the east, the downtown area was suffering. There was little to attract customers to the area when compared with newer shopping alternatives. The Northgate mall, built in 1950, had expanded and was advertised as a one-stop shopping center. James Village with its 15 stores (1961), plus the shopping center at Five Corners, which was anchored by a new Thriftway store (1961), offered nearby alternative coordinated shopping experiences.

Additionally, after World War II a movement was afoot to convert the Edmonds waterfront from an industrial area to one that was recreationally appealing to visitors and citizens. In 1948, the Edmonds Port District had been formed and slowly the waterfront was being transformed. In so doing, companies like Pointe-Willamette — who had employed 200 men in 1953 — was gone by 1961. The Pointe-Willamette closure and others like it resulted in a large loss of customers and revenue to Edmonds downtown merchants.

In talking with longtime residents about the early 1960s, they said they and their friends often heard people refer to Edmonds as “Deadmonds.” The name apparently referred to the fact that the town’s citizens were largely older, and that there were very few establishments open after dark.  One woman said that as a young girl, her parents let her ride her bike over a mile to downtown, since there really wasn’t anything going on, and little to no danger. Another longtime resident said his mother referred to downtown Edmonds as “a one-horse town” where she refused to shop after visiting once.

 Photos courtesy: Edmonds Historical Museum

Faced with these realities, Safeway announced at the end of 1965 that they were going to build a modern new store in the new Parker Plaza Shopping Center on Sunset Avenue, away from the downtown area, and would be moving out of the Schneider Building in  fall 1966.

Soon after the Safeway announcement, Eddy’s Electric, which had occupied the north end of the Schneider Building for the past 12 years, announced that it would be closing after servicing the Edmonds community for over 20 years.

In the same time period, Osborn Jewelers also moved from the Schneider Building to the east side of 5th Ave South, next to where the current Edmonds Bookshop is located.

With the three announced departures, the Schneider building was essentially vacant by the end of 1966.

End of Part I.  Article was researched and written by Byron Wilkes. Full credits will be given at the end of Part II.