EVERETT — A historic building near the Snohomish County lockup has a varied past.
The Everett Carnegie Building was last used a few years ago for the jail’s work-release program. A new life could begin soon for the 1905 structure at Oakes Avenue and Wall Street.
Officials with Snohomish County, the landlord, are working on a lease agreement that could make the building home to the Snohomish County Museum of History, a private, nonprofit museum. Renovations have been underway for years and earthquake upgrades are likely to begin soon.
“It’s been used for a little bit of everything,” county facilities director Mark Thunberg said. “It was used for office space for the county. It was a funeral home, and of course, a library. It’s had a pretty varied life.”
The scaled-down version of the 19th-century Boston Public Library building was built with a grant from industrialist Andrew Carnegie.
It first opened as the city’s library. It was converted into a mortuary in the 1930s. That was still its use when it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.
It’s been vacant for a few years now.
The county replaced the building’s roof in 2009, using about $300,000 from the capital budget, Thunberg said.
Now, the county is readying to spend a $665,000 grant from the Washington State Historical Society for seismic improvements. The county applied for the grant in 2008 through the Heritage Capital Projects Fund.
The Snohomish County Council is scheduled to authorize the use of the grant money at a public hearing at 10:30 a.m. March 2.
Council hearings take place on the eighth floor of the county administration building east, 3000 Rockefeller Ave., Everett.
Noah Haglund: 425-339-3465, nhaglund@heraldnet.com.
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