Suit fails to halt demolition
Published 9:00 pm Monday, March 25, 2002
By Theresa Goffredo
Herald Writer
EVERETT — By the time a court hearing is held on whether a $62.5 million arena and event center should be built on historic Hewitt Avenue, there will be a huge hole — 50 feet deep by one city block wide — right where the building is supposed to go.
Demolition continued Monday at the site as the jaws of a giant yellow backhoe made its way through the old City Drug building at 1908 Hewitt Ave. The building had housed the Cosmopolitan Theater and was listed on the Everett Register of Historic Buildings.
Excavation of the area is expected to start about April 9, and digging the hole could take a month. Concrete could be poured sometime in May, with crews working six days a week, said Don Hale, head of the Everett Public Facilities District, which oversees the project.
Meanwhile, a lawsuit over the arena project’s location is still undecided. On May 10, oral arguments are scheduled to be heard in the lawsuit, Hale said Monday.
Though it may seem odd that the huge hole will be dug even before the lawsuit is decided, the answer seems to be that public facilities district officials are just clearing and preparing the site. They aren’t exactly building at the site, which is what the lawsuit aims to prevent.
Citizens for a Better Arena is trying to force the arena to another location. Earlier this year, the group collected 4,000 signatures, enough to put the issue to a public vote.
The public facilities district sued the city to get a judge to throw out the initiative. If the initiative had been approved, that could have delayed construction of the project and threatened its funding. Much of the arena’s funding comes from a state sales tax rebate, and to qualify for the money construction needs to begin before Jan. 1, 2003.
The Everett City Council rejected the initiative petition earlier this month. But that did not derail the lawsuit, which Citizens for a Better Arena is pursuing.
The pending lawsuit hasn’t stalled demolition of historic buildings on Hewitt. In fact, if work progresses according to schedule, one of the city’s historic landmarks, the Scottish Rite Temple, will be demolished by the end of the week.
The 92-year-old temple at 2935 Oakes Ave. had the late Sen. Henry M. Jackson as a member. His picture has since been taken off the wall and the antique furniture removed. And if the environmental cleanup of the temple goes according to plan, the backhoe will begin its destruction Friday.
To save the classic brick structure, some Everett Historic Commission members unsuccessfully tried to get the temple building moved to another spot. But as far as longtime freemason fraternity member Jerry Kunkle is concerned, the temple is already gone.
"Our stuff is out of there, and it’s an old memory," Kunkle said.
For the time being, Kunkle said the Scottish Rite is renting the Everett Masonic Center on Olympic Drive while fraternity members look for a permanent home.
"It’s a shame they are doing what they are doing," Kunkle said of the city. "But we’ve got a lot of things to look to the future for."
You can call Herald Writer Theresa Goffredo at 425-339-3097 or send e-mail to
