By Brian Kelly
Herald Writer
STANWOOD — Battling empty storefronts, rats and the ravages of time, a Camano Island couple is renovating a block in West Stanwood’s commercial core, one building at a time.
Carrie and Pat Richardson have finished a three-lot commercial complex on 270th Street NW, and are now adding another building with century-old roots to their collection of shops on Stanwood’s old brick-lined boulevard.
Although she spent much of her life outside Stanwood, Carrie Richardson’s family history runs back to the town’s pioneer days.
Her grandfather came to West Stanwood in the 1930s, living in a small house across the street from the hardware store on 270th Street NW that’s now home to The Home Center. He struggled to keep the store going through the Depression, working hard enough to squirrel away enough money to buy the building 10 years later.
Richardson grew up in Indianapolis but came west as a child to visit her grandparents, Dick and Gertrude Pusey, who ran the Stanwood Hardware and Furniture Store. Richardson returned after graduating from law school in San Diego, and moved to Stanwood to care for her ailing grandmother.
It was nine years ago. She stood in front of the her family’s former hardware store, eyeing the land burdened by several old and fading homes across the street, wondering if she could develop the property commercially.
"As I grew up as a girl, I remembered hearing my grandparents talking about the land in this area and the hardware store," she said.
"The hardware store was really what saved my grandparents from poverty, because my grandfather’s family lost all their money during the Depression when the banks failed. My grandmother grew up on a homesteader’s farm in Burlington, and the estate went to the oldest brother. Without the hardware store, they really would have had nothing."
With the money from her winnings as a tennis pro — she played on the pro tour for eight years after winning a national collegiate championship for Marymount College in 1974 — Carrie bought her first building in Stanwood, a former post office and butcher’s shop on the west end of the block that was built around 1913. It had later been converted to a four-unit apartment.
"It was," she paused, searching for the right words. "I wouldn’t put a dog in there overnight."
The building had problems, big problems. It had standing water beneath it, wiring a half-century old, rotting wood and rats. Fixing it meant rebuilding at a higher elevation and retrofitting it to meet earthquake requirements and other modern standards. It’s now home to the Eastside Salon.
It was just the beginning, however. Carrie Richardson had plans to rework the whole block, but needed to string together enough lots to prevent a piecemeal approach.
"If we could do that, then perhaps we would have enough that we could really begin to change the neighborhood," she said.
Work on the project’s centerpiece, a restaurant to link the salon building on one end with a rebuilt and enlarged 1896 home on the east end, began in 1997 at the time the couple was married. They met earlier that year when Pat, an employee at Hamilton Lumber, helped Carrie with window work while her grandmother’s home was being renovated. Pat, a Kent native, became the pair’s nuts-and-bolts expert during their rebuilding and expansion projects.
"But what to build?" proved to be a problematic question.
"We know office retail works in this area, and there is a real demand for that. But we decided to go with a restaurant here because we figured that it would increase foot traffic, it would help with vacancies, it would fill up parking," she said.
But potential tenants scoffed at the idea of an upscale restaurant in West Stanwood. Calls were coming in six-to-one in favor of a sports bar, Richardson said.
The couple and the original restaurant operator parted ways. A new restaurant tenant took over in June. Called Maxime’s, it’s run by a former chef from the Bellingham Country Club.
Work then began on the 1896 home that houses Marcy’s, a clothing boutique that anchors the project’s east end. "It probably would have been cheaper if we just would have knocked it down," she said.
Not all of the work is a perfect match with the past because of new regulations.
"We have taken liberties with history," she said. "We’re trying to stay focused on what would be economic revitalization, but under the umbrella of historic flavor."
Many have noticed the great amount of work the couple has poured into their project.
Kim Govaert, manager of Aloha Antiques, said new businesses help bring more people into the area, something that’s needed in West Stanwood.
"We don’t have a lot of walking traffic around here yet like they have at the other end of town, at the east end, where they have shops on both sides of the street," she said.
Although some of the Richardsons’ development is new, Govaert said it’s good that it’s been flavored to fit with the historic feel of Stanwood’s west end.
"They’re keeping the format with what the style is with the other shops," she said.
"I really appreciate what she’s done," said Mark Spencer, owner of All Seasons Spa &Stove. "The woman has single-handedly helped turn this town around, where other people have kind of stood on the sidelines."
Spencer’s store is located in the circa-1911 Follies Theater building just up the street from the couple’s development. It opened in April. Like the Richardsons, Spencer opened the store with an eye on capturing customers driving by from Camano Island.
"We’re betting on the fact that Camano will be the next Mercer Island," he said. "Stanwood needs to improve itself so we can grab some of the dollars coming off the island."
Support has come from other places, as well. The city has worked to quickly issue building permits for the couple’s projects, sometimes as fast as a week.
"They want to see this area uplifted and not be a blighted, depressed area," Carrie Richardson said.
The couple hopes that eventually, their tenants will become so successful that they will buy the properties from the owners.
And someday, when the time is right and the work wouldn’t be disruptive to the successful furniture store that now occupies the family’s old hardware store, the couple plans on restoring that building to its late 1890’s look.
"Before the first hammer hits, we’ll have a real game plan for how we’ll do that," she said.
But so far, so good.
"When you see the tenant’s cash register ring, and dollar signs in their eyes, you know it’s the right thing," she said. "You know the community can support it and it can be done."
You can call Herald Writer Brian Kelly at 425-339-3422 or send e-mail to kelly@heraldnet.com.
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