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.

Everett mall renderings from Brixton Capital. (Photo provided by the City of Everett)
Topgolf at the Everett Mall? Mayor’s hint still unconfirmed

After Cassie Franklin’s annual address, rumors circled about what “top” entertainment tenant could be landing at Everett Mall.

Everett
Everett man sentenced to 3 years of probation for mutilating animals

In 2022, neighbors reported Blayne Perez, 35, was shooting and torturing wildlife in north Everett.

Dorothy Crossman rides up on her bike to turn in her ballot  on Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Everett leaders plan to ask voters for property tax increase

City officials will spend weeks hammering out details of a ballot measure, as Everett faces a $12.6 million deficit.

Starbucks employee Zach Gabelein outside of the Mill Creek location where he works on Friday, Feb. 23, 2024 in Mill Creek, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Mill Creek Starbucks votes 21-1 to form union

“We obviously are kind of on the high of that win,” store bargaining delegate Zach Gabelein said.

Lynnwood police respond to a collision on highway 99 at 176 street SW. (Photo provided by Lynnwood Police)
Police: Teen in stolen car flees cops, causes crash in Lynnwood

The crash blocked traffic for over an hour at 176th Street SW. The boy, 16, was arrested on felony warrants.

The view of Mountain Loop Mine out the window of a second floor classroom at Fairmount Elementary on Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
County: Everett mining yard violated order to halt work next to school

At least 10 reports accused OMA Construction of violating a stop-work order next to Fairmount Elementary. A judge will hear the case.

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

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

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.