1907 Panorama of Monroe
Monroe Historical Society photo #211

Click on the above thumbnail image for the full-size photo (239k).

Compare this to the 1913 Martin panorama.

This panorama photo of Monroe taken from the hills to the north looking south (from about point E on this detail of the 1910 platmap and on this keyed copy of the panorama photo) gives a sense of the rapid growth that took place in Monroe during the first decade of the twentieth century. Fifteen years previously, all that would have been seen from this viewpoint would have been forests and stumps, but now it was a town of over 1,000 residents and by the end of the decade it would almost double after attracting in 1908 both the Carnation Condensery and the Washington State Reformatory. The street cutting down the center of the photo is Lewis Street. The two-story building on the west side of North Lewis Street is the new IOOF Hall (point 5) that was built to replace the one that burned in the 1901 fire and is now the present site of the Monroe Eagles. The pair of two-story buildings at the back center of the photo are the Grammar Schools located at the southeast corner of Ferry and Fremont Streets (point 4), the current site of Old Central School. At the left back of the photo by the Monroe Mill is the Skykomish River (point 3). Today the river flows further to the south along the south side of Buck Island, and Woods Creek now runs through the old river channel.