Dick Robinson of Everett would like to know whether anyone has a wooden cutting board shaped like a pig.
The chunk of plywood would also make a dandy key holder on the kitchen wall. Maybe it’s shoved in the attic and no one knows the origin.
For several years in the 1930s, Robinson Manufacturing in Everett handed out thousands of free plywood pigs at the annual Fourth of July parade in town.
“They brought stacks of the pigs,” Robinson, 75, said. “My dad had a drawerful.”
Employees helped toss the wood off the back of a truck. Hundreds also were given to workers at the plant. Robinson uses his as a cutting board in the beautiful kitchen in his Rucker Hill home.
The house, built in 1953, still has kitschy pink and baby blue tile in one of the bathrooms. Closet doors are mahogany architectural treasures.
Robinson enjoys chatting about the history of his home. The Japanese maid’s quarters are intact, the way Paul Sevenich, who owned a car dealership, built the house. There is a mirrored bar tucked off the living room, like a mansion in an old Hollywood movie, where 5 p.m. martinis were served very dry.
Robinson’s view of Naval Station Everett is wondrous. He can see the property where his grandfather founded Robinson Manufacturing Co. back when Everett was a mill town.
Eric Taylor, executive director of the Museum of Snohomish County History, said lumber, shingle and pulp mills rose to prominence following an 1893 depression in which collapsing industries such as smelters, nail works and shipyards gave way. The new mills eventually dominated Everett’s Bayside and Riverside neighborhoods.
Robinson’s was the first sawmill built in Everett by Irish immigrant Tom Robinson in 1889 on a site now occupied by Kimberly-Clark.
In 1900, it moved two blocks north to 21st Street and Norton Avenue (now W. Marine View Drive), taking advantage of deeper water to construct the company’s shipping pier. The founder practically lived at the plant, experimenting with ways to improve machinery and the manufacturing process, wearing a suit and tie under his coveralls.
His sons, John and Ted Robinson (Dick Robinson’s father) learned the trade. They added their own inventions to their father’s and received more than 50 patents.
The company’s production of door panels led to the manufacture of plywood. At its peak in the late 1930s and 1940s, besides giving away plywood pigs, Robinson Manufacturing Co. occupied 40 acres and employed more than 700 workers.
Finally known as Robinson Plywood and Timber Co., it thrived where Naval Station Everett sits. Some may have Adirondack chairs and children’s playhouses manufactured by Robinson. The Robinsons sold the business in 1951 to Everett Plywood. It closed around 1980.
Dick Robinson’s mother would hang her laundry out to dry at 914 Hoyt Ave. Before she reeled it in, she used a baseball bat to beat off ash from the nearby mills. Her son graduated from Everett High School, spent four years in the Navy, got a degree at the University of Washington, had a varied career in the lumber business and retired from the Snohomish County Department of Corrections.
One lucky cat, named Mayday 4, succeeding Maydays 1, 2 and 3, roams the stately Robinson home. Grandchildren visit and Robinson enjoys the company of old friends around town.
Then there’s that nagging question about the pigs. He said he knows of two other plywood cutting boards, but that’s it. Let me know, at 425-339-3451, if you own a Robinson Manufacturing plywood porker.
And if so, what are you doing with it?
Columnist Kristi O’Harran: 425-339-3451 or oharran@heraldnet.com.
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