50 years ago (1955)

Everett Mayor Arvid Johnson cut the ribbon to mark the grand opening of the new Safeway on the 1700 block of Broadway. Looking on were store manager Torchy Ostlund and commissioners George Culmback and Sig McCumby. The store boasted an area of 18,000 square feet. There were 11 check stands, a check cashing department, restrooms and a drinking fountain. Taking up most of a city block there was parking for 200 cars. The 74-foot “sign in the sky,” designed by Keith Neon, was one of the largest neon displays in the Northwest.

25 years ago (1980)

Artist Judy Lee had painted an 8-foot by 44-foot mural on a brick wall at Smokey’s Cascadia Tavern, 210 State St. in Marysville. Done in acrylic paint, it depicted an old-fashioned beer wagon pulled by eight Percheron horses. It took her a year of her spare time to do it. Tavern owner Kelly Harper said it was a fine piece of work.

By Jack O’Donnell from Herald archives at the Everett Public Library