Centennial bricks get tossed in Everett plaza project

Something’s missing outside the Everett Performing Arts Center. The brick entryway is gone — and those aren’t just any old bricks.

They were sold, during a citizen-sponsored effort, to raise money for Everett’s 1993 centennial celebration. Those were bricks inscribed with donors’ names, their loved ones’ or companies’ names, and some with anonymous sentiments.

Each donated brick came with a certificate saying it “will be permanently installed in the Community Theater Plaza in recognition of your contribution to the City of Everett Centennial.”

Those bricks are gone — permanently — to make way for the new City Plaza park on Wetmore Avenue just south of the Everett Performing Arts Center. Why?

“Basically, when the plaza construction began it was discovered the bricks could not be salvaged,” said Kate Reardon, spokeswoman for the city. “To try to remove them, they could not do it without breaking them, the way they were embedded into the ground.

“The city of Everett was not involved in the original fund-raising effort that created the entryway,” Reardon said Thursday. She said the city doesn’t have contact information for brick donors.

The bricks became construction debris, but Reardon said the information was saved. “We created a very detailed record of all the different bricks, with the concept that at some point after the plaza was done, we could create a new way to recognize the contributions all those people made,” Reardon said. Possibilities, she said, include a wall or plaque at the theater.

A month ago, I wrote about the City Plaza. I visited the construction site, but somehow overlooked the missing bricks. After Aileen Langhans read that article, she had a question: “What about the bricks?”

Langhans, 59, is on the board of trustees for the nonprofit group Historic Everett. In 1993, she paid for several bricks to be placed outside the theater, which opened in Everett’s centennial year.

Along with a brick in her name, she made donations for one to be inscribed “Bayside Neighborhood” and another with the names of her grandparents, Aram and Aileen Nazarethian. In 1992 and 1993, according to several articles in Herald archives, bricks were being sold for $45 for one 20-space line of type, and $15 for an additional line of type on the brick.

From the brick proceeds, an Everett Centennial Commission made grants to pay for “centennial projects and activities initiated by private citizens,” The Herald reported in 1992. In February 1993, a public event was held to unveil plans for the community theater’s “centennial brick walk.”

Reardon said there were about 470 bricks. “Many had names, some had sayings, some had logos, and some had stage production titles,” Reardon said. Along with family names, others had these inscriptions: Sovetskaya, Russia Everett Sister City; Iwakuni, Japan Everett Sister City; Sound Elevator, Frontier Bank, Washington Mutual, Fluke, Associated Sand and Gravel, Barbershop Chorus chartered 1948, Happy Anniversary, To my family I love you, and Thank You!

Historic Everett board member Dave Ramstad is also on the Everett Historical Commission. Members of that city commission are volunteers, but are appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the City Council. Ramstad said the issue of the missing bricks came up at the Historical Commission’s meeting a couple weeks ago.

Ramstad is understanding about the loss of the bricks. “I’m an engineer. Maybe they tried to pry some up and they broke,” he said. He said he isn’t happy about the lack of communication from the city about the problem — “how it was handled.”

“If they came out to citizens and said, ‘We know you think a lot of your EPAC (Everett Performing Arts Center) and the families named on the bricks. We did our darnedest to save them. We’ll buy bricks with those same names.’ Instead, they didn’t say anything,” Ramstad said. “The irony is, almost the entire historical community is all in favor of the plaza.”

He hopes the city invites people who bought bricks to have a say in what becomes of those names. “It should be, ‘We’re sorry this happened, now give us some suggestions,’” Ramstad said.

“Having your name engraved on a brick and cemented on a place, that’s next to being carved in granite. You want to take your grandchildren to see it,” Ramstad said.

Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460, muhlstein@heraldnet.com.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

A firefighter stands in silence before a panel bearing the names of L. John Regelbrugge and Kris Regelbrugge during the ten-year remembrance of the Oso landslide on Friday, March 22, 2024, at the Oso Landslide Memorial in Oso, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘Flood of emotions’ as Oso Landslide Memorial opens on 10th anniversary

Friends, family and first responders held a moment of silence at 10:37 a.m. at the new 2-acre memorial off Highway 530.

Julie Petersen poses for a photo with images of her sister Christina Jefferds and Jefferds’ grand daughter Sanoah Violet Huestis next to a memorial for Sanoah at her home on March 20, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. Peterson wears her sister’s favorite color and one of her bangles. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
‘It just all came down’: An oral history of the Oso mudslide

Ten years later, The Daily Herald spoke with dozens of people — first responders, family, survivors — touched by the deadliest slide in U.S. history.

Victims of the Oso mudslide on March 22, 2014. (Courtesy photos)
Remembering the 43 lives lost in the Oso mudslide

The slide wiped out a neighborhood along Highway 530 in 2014. “Even though you feel like you’re alone in your grief, you’re really not.”

Director Lucia Schmit, right, and Deputy Director Dara Salmon inside the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management on Friday, March 8, 2024, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
How Oso slide changed local emergency response ‘on virtually every level’

“In a decade, we have just really, really advanced,” through hard-earned lessons applied to the pandemic, floods and opioids.

Ron and Gail Thompson at their home on Monday, March 4, 2024 in Oso, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
In shadow of scarred Oso hillside, mudslide’s wounds still feel fresh

Locals reflected on living with grief and finding meaning in the wake of a catastrophe “nothing like you can ever imagine” in 2014.

Imagine Children's Museum's incoming CEO, Elizabeth "Elee" Wood. (Photo provided by Imagine Children's Museum)
Imagine Children’s Museum will welcome new CEO in June

Nancy Johnson, who has led Imagine Children’s Museum in Everett for 25 years, will retire in June.

Kelli Littlejohn, who was 11 when her older sister Melissa Lee was murdered, speaks to a group of investigators and deputies to thank them for bringing closure to her family after over 30 years on Thursday, March 28, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘She can rest in peace’: Jury convicts Bothell man in 1993 killing

Even after police arrested Alan Dean in 2020, it was unclear if he would stand trial. He was convicted Thursday in the murder of Melissa Lee, 15.

Ariel Garcia, 4, was last seen Wednesday morning in an apartment in the 4800 block of Vesper Dr. (Photo provided by Everett Police)
Everett police searching for missing child, 4

Ariel Garcia was last seen Wednesday at an apartment in the 4800 block of Vesper Drive. The child was missing under “suspicious circumstances.”

The rezoned property, seen here from the Hillside Vista luxury development, is surrounded on two sides by modern neighborhoods Monday, March 25, 2024, in Lake Stevens, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Despite petition, Lake Stevens OKs rezone for new 96-home development

The change faced resistance from some residents, who worried about the effects of more density in the neighborhood.

Rep. Suzan DelBene, left, introduces Xichitl Torres Small, center, Undersecretary for Rural Development with the U.S. Department of Agriculture during a talk at Thomas Family Farms on Monday, April 3, 2023, in Snohomish, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Under new federal program, Washingtonians can file taxes for free

At a press conference Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene called the Direct File program safe, easy and secure.

Former Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy Jeremie Zeller appears in court for sentencing on multiple counts of misdemeanor theft Wednesday, March 27, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Ex-sheriff’s deputy sentenced to 1 week of jail time for hardware theft

Jeremie Zeller, 47, stole merchandise from Home Depot in south Everett, where he worked overtime as a security guard.

Everett
11 months later, Lake Stevens man charged in fatal Casino Road shooting

Malik Fulson is accused of shooting Joseph Haderlie to death in the parking lot at the Crystal Springs Apartments last April.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.