Panorama of Monroe c1913

Click on the above thumbnail image for the full-size image (206k).

For a look at Monroe twenty years earlier, see the 1893 photo.

Also compare with this 1907 birdseye view.

This panorama of Monroe by Erich Martin taken around 1913 is arguably the single most important photo in the Monroe Historical Society's Photographic Image Collection because of its wealth of historic detail. Click on the above thumbnail to see a full-size version (206k). Even this low quality version for the web shows amazing detail. To see a high quality version, visit the Monroe Library and ask for the Monroe Historical Society Photo CD at the Reference Desk.

When you look at the full-size copy, you will see a white building at the far left, which is the Carnation Condensery. All that is left of it today is the tall concrete smokestack in the old Monroe Shopping Center parking lot, but the smokestack was not yet built when this photo was taken. The smoke in the background beyond the Condensery is from the Monroe Mill Company, which was then at the confluence of Woods Creek and the Skykomish River, which came much closer to town then. Monroe had two sets of railroad tracks at this time. The Milwuakee Road line is closest to the front edge of the photo. Note the two people walking from its Depot toward the Great Northern tracks and Lewis Street. A block further to the right, you should be able to pick out the Hallan or Triangle Building, which still stands today, on the southeast corner of Main and Blakely. Continuing to the right, you should be able to see a large, three-story brick building. This is the old Monroe Union High School, which was torn down in 1965 after the earthquake and is today the site of Monroe Middle School. Behind it and slightly to the right is Reformatory Hill. Further right in the distance is Park Place.

Monroe Historical Society photo #280 (cropped for the web).