I have followed the episode of the proposed Everett Events Center with interest and sometimes mixed emotions. I was a history major in my college, interested in regional and local history, and captain of its hockey team in my senior year.

After college and graduate school I worked in two organizations that had older buildings torn down, buildings that were loved and remembered by the people who lived and worked in them. Both were orphanages, distinctive stone and brick structures that held historic significance and cherished memories. Periodic reunions helped to sustain these memories as people gathered to visit old friends and trade stories. One common theme of the events was often a lament about the now missing buildings and asking the question, “How could they have let this happen?”

At one fall gathering there was a banquet with a speaker who had grown up in “the home,” as orphanages were frequently referred to. Ozzie talked with fondness about the old building and its people, sharing memories of his growing years in it. After all the nostalgia, however, he concluded that as much as he missed the beautiful structure that he and his friends called home, he understood it had outlived its purpose. In its place was something more appropriate to the current needs of children and families. The important thing for us to remember, he said, was that people create buildings, both old and new, for their use. We need to keep our priorities straight; we should love people and use buildings, not the other way around.

I am not privy to all of the reasons the Everett Events Center was planned, but I believe a paramount purpose is to serve people of this community, giving us, our children, our grandchildren and others after them an enjoyable place to use. Some day, after its use has been outlived, it too will be torn down because, while we want it to be attractive, we are not constructing a monument. On behalf of people we love, the city of Everett is creating a place for us to use.

Everett