Our Towns Snapshot: Meet Everett’s architect
Published 11:18 pm Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Living in a tent in 1891, Frederick A. Sexton was eager to offer his services to builders in Everett.
He barely had time to boil water over the fire because town planners loved his ideas.
His architectural legacy is still around town and is celebrated in a third-annual limited-edition Historic Everett calendar by Historic Everett; the 2008 edition is available at local shops.
The calendar features the buildings of Sexton, who designed the first Bank of Everett in 1892. It includes a self-guided tour map of the buildings he designed in Everett’s Riverside district and a chronology of historic Everett dates by historian Jack O’Donnell.
Sexton was born in 1851 at Thurning Hall, a country manor house on the River Bure in England. He was the son of the estate gamekeeper. The family came to America when Sexton was 8 years old, settling on a farm in Illinois, said David Chrisman, Historic Everett board member.
“Through his teens, the future architect labored faithfully as a farmhand, but he was soon studying architecture in Chicago and Minneapolis,” Chrisman said. “Shortly after Washington statehood, he arrived in Tacoma, base of operations for entrepreneur Henry Hewitt, whose ambitious plans for the peninsula at the mouth of the Snohomish River enticed Sexton northward to the Everett town site.”
The first large commission he secured was for Rudebeck Hall on Everett Avenue, followed by the Rice-McFarland Building at 3211 Hewitt Ave., and Hotel Everett, Chrisman said.
“His brick-veneered Brue Building, completed in March of 1892, still stands at 3010 Everett Ave., though altered extensively over the years,” he said. “Sexton’s ornate Bank of Everett at Hewitt and Pine, finished in February of 1892, was the town’s first structural brick building.”
Early in 1892, Sexton designed an impressive house for banker and newspaperman John McManus in the Mitchell Addition.
Each month of the calendar features a different picture of Sexton’s work, furnished by the Everett Library.
— Kristi O’Harran, Herald columnist
Buy the calendar
The third annual Historic Everett calendar is available at Pilchuck Books, 2821 Wetmore Ave.; Pilchuck Books II, 2207 Everett Ave.; and Matheson Kitchen &Gourmet, 2609 Colby Ave. The calendar costs $16.50 and funds go to support annual educational programs and tours.
About the organizers
Historic Everett is a nonprofit preservation group formed in 2003 to support the sense of pride people have in Everett.
“They provide programs, tours, and activities for members and the public to learn and enjoy,” said David Chrisman, Historic Everett board member. “And they advocate for preservation and renovation of local landmarks and historic register buildings.”
They offer educational tours, home tours and a cemetery walk showing early movers and shakers in Everett. The last two years, members have ventured on an “Out of Town” series to Snohomish and Tulalip to learn about history and architecture.
They also offer programs with tips on home restoration, finding a building’s history, renovation successes, Everett schools and Everett waterfront history.
