Park Place ExodusUpdated April 18, 2004 |
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When the Great Northern Railroad finalized their route through Snohomish County, the new post office of Monroe at Park Place was over a mile from the railroad line and from the town that was rapidly developing there, Tye City. So in the Fall of 1892, according H. E. Pearsall who helped with the move and left an eyewitness account, Postmaster John Vanasdlen moved his store with the post office to next to the railroad tracks.*
Loggers Crowe and McChane vowed they could haul the post office building to Tye City on runners using their six yoke of oxen. H.E. Pearsall was hired to make the runners, jack up the building and mount it on the runners. Then skids were placed in front of the runners.
McChane said they'd have the building moved by nightfall, but the oxen only went about fifty feet before stopping. The building was too heavy. They lightened the load by removing the post office safe to a sled and by removing all of the heavy goods from the store room. The oxen pulled the building another twenty feet before stopping again.
The building had been doubled in size sometime before this, so it was easy to split it into two halves. The runners were also cut in half to hold each half of the building. The next morning, the oxen tried again with some success, but it took two weeks before the building was reassembled on the southeast corner of Main and Ferry Streets and the post office safe was still in Park Place. A team of horses eventually brought the safe to its new home.
The following year, more buildings from Park Place followed Vanasdlen's lead. The Odd Fellows moved their community hall to South Lewis Street as did the the blacksmith. The Johnson Hotel was moved to North Lewis Street, and the Elliot Brothers' saloon moved to the north side of East Main. The moving of buildings from Park Place continued over the next decade. Businesses in Tye City just north of the tracks also began relocating south of the tracks creating today's city center.
*Official records show that it was not until 1893 that Vanasdlen filed and received permission from the U.S. Postal Department to move the post office, which was important because contracts to carry the mail were based upon the distance covered.
--from information compiled by Nellie Robertson