Iconic photo honors library’s ‘caring spirit’

Brian Meagher remembers. It was March 23, 1984. Meagher was on the job as bridge tender when the ornate 1923-vintage Weyerhaeuser office building made its way by barge under the Snohomish River bridge.

“I can still hear the diesel engines from the three tugs,” said Meagher, 66, who’s still the bridge tender on Highway 529. He recalls tugboats nudging the massive building toward its new home near the Everett Marina.

James Arrabito remembers, too. A photographer named one of two 2015 Artists of the Year by the Schack Arts Center, Arrabito was in a boat when the venerable building went down river. With his Hasselblad camera, he captured an iconic image. “Everybody did their job that day,” Arrabito said.

His photo shows the bridge, its geometric angles against a cloudy sky, as tugs move what looks like a giant gingerbread house.

Titled “Chamber on the Move” because the building once housed the Everett Area Chamber of Commerce, the picture is quintessentially Everett.

Soon, Arrabito’s hand-colored large print of the photo will hang in the downtown Everett Public Library.

He is donating the picture in honor of Michelle “Mickey” Meagher, Brian Meagher’s wife. A senior page at the library, she died Oct. 25. She was 64.

“Everybody in the library loved Mickey, she was just so positive,” said Fran Habicht, the library’s circulation manager. “She was such a caring spirit, just delightful.”

Amazingly, the Meaghers and Arrabito crossed paths for the first time little more than a month before Mickey died. The bridge picture brought them together.

Brian Meagher recalled how his wife first spotted the photo on the Schack Arts Center website. It was publicizing an art show featuring works by the Schack’s artists of the year, Arrabito and Verena Schwippert. The display was on view Aug. 13 through Sept. 19.

Meagher said that after his wife recognized his workplace in the photo, they went to the exhibit. There, they bought a print of Arrabito’s photo. “It was the last art we bought together,” he said.

They returned to the Schack on a Sunday when Arrabito was there. Meeting the photographer, the bridge tender shared that he was at work the day the Weyerhaeuser building was moved. Meagher is visible in the picture — a tiny figure at the very center of the bridge.

Arrabito recalled asking Mickey Meagher why she bought the photo. “She said it was to honor her husband’s work,” he said.

After they met, the photographer and the bridge tender exchanged email. In the online guest book accompanying Mickey Meagher’s obituary, Arrabito shared a message he had received from Meagher right after they met.

“Mickey can’t believe how lucky she was to come across your bridge photograph, by chance,” Meagher wrote. “Mickey loves all art forms. … She truly was having a hard time trying to wrap her mind around how difficult your shot must have been, from a moving boat, a target slipping away.”

Arrabito said he cried when he learned from Everett Public Library Director Eileen Simmons that Mickey had died. “I was just devastated,” he said.

Habicht said Mickey’s co-workers raised money to buy Arrabito’s photo, which is roughly a 24-inch square. He is donating the picture, so the money will be used for a frame and plaque.

Mickey Meagher oversaw and trained the library’s pages. “She was a good mentor,” Habicht said. Brian Meagher said his wife read the Narnia and Harry Potter books. “She always had to be ahead of the kids when they were talking about books,” he said. “She was a cheerleader for that whole department.”

Arrabito, 63, has lately been thinking about that day in 1984. The building was being moved from Weyerhaeuser’s old Mill B to Port of Everett property near the marina. Arrabito, a Marine Corps veteran and former combat photographer, was new to Everett and working for Pete Kinch. Then the owner of a local photo studio, Kinch served as Everett’s mayor from 1990 to 1994.

When Arrabito took the picture, he was on a boat owned by Bud Haines, a friend of Kinch’s.

He waited to take the picture until a bit of sky was showing between the bridge and the chimney. After getting four black-and-white shots, he knew he had what he wanted.

When he quit working for Kinch, Arrabito said he had one request: “The four negatives I shot of the bridge. He was such a gentleman, he turned the negatives over to me. He didn’t have to.”

Arrabito will never forget taking that image. And he’ll always remember meeting Mickey Meagher and her bridge-tender husband all these years later.

“They were an interesting couple — and made for each other,” he said.

Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460; jmuhlstein@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.

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 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)
Search underway to find missing Everett child, 4

Ariel Garcia was last seen Wednesday morning at an apartment in the 4800 block of Vesper Drive.

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.

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.