Everett to recreate Clark Park gazebo in new location

Published 1:30 am Monday, March 30, 2026

EVERETT — The city of Everett is planning to build a recreation of the now-disassembled Clark Park gazebo at a new location, city staff confirmed Monday.

In 2024, the city removed the century-old structure to help make room for a new off-leash dog area in the north Everett park. Historical advocates spoke out against its removal, arguing that it was an important piece of Everett history in the city’s oldest park that deserved preserving. But the local neighborhood association and city staff had said it should be removed, citing safety issues, and said removing the structure would help activate the park space.

The new gazebo is planned to be built in Harborview Park, located along Mukilteo Boulevard on the west side of the city. It will be “faithful to local architect Benjamin Turnbull’s original design,” city spokesperson Simone Tarver wrote in a statement Monday. (Turnbull was the man who designed the gazebo, along with other historical buildings in the city).

That park was chosen because of its views of Possession Sound, Tarver wrote. The new structure would provide a covered outdoor space at the park for community celebrations.

“We recognize the importance of preserving our heritage and local history, and the Clark Park gazebo reflects a special element of Everett’s cultural past,” Tarver wrote in an email.

During its heyday, the Clark Park gazebo was a popular place for summer concerts, protests, religious gatherings and more, according to Daily Herald archives. Over the years, however, both vandalism and the passage of time took its toll on the structure.

The city built the gazebo in 1921 at a cost of $20,000. When its planned removal was announced in 2024, historical advocates rallied to keep it in Clark Park — the city’s oldest park, designated in 1894. The city’s Historic Commission wrote a letter to the mayor and city council in 2024, arguing that the gazebo was one of the primary reasons the park was placed on the city’s historic register in 1993 and that removing the gazebo wouldn’t stop crime in the park.

Moving the gazebo to another park, rather than taking it apart, was one of the options the city initially considered. At the time it had deemed it cost-prohibitive, estimating the price of moving the structure — in 2024 dollars — in the $160,000 to $230,000 range. It had also considered remodeling it by making it accessible or creating a shuttering system to close it, but those were also too costly, the city said at the time.

After months of debate, the city council voted in June 2024 to remove the gazebo. The city disassembled the structure later that year and stored the materials for evaluation at a future date. During that process, staff found that many elements of the gazebo were either not original to the structure or too badly damaged to be used in reassembly, Tarver wrote Monday. It also didn’t meet current building codes.

The historic gazebo remains disassembled in storage. The Clark Park off-leash dog area opened in July 2025.

The city plans to meet with the Historic Commission in May regarding the construction of the new gazebo. It’s unclear what the project might cost, as the details of the site and structural design are still being developed, Tarver wrote.

Construction could take place in the summer of 2027.

Will Geschke: 425-339-3443; william.geschke@heraldnet.com; X: @willgeschke.