Congratulations to the City of Everett and The Herald for the wonderful news concerning the Artspace organization’s choice of Everett for a major artists living and workspace project. Reporter Jennifer Warnick’s stories of Feb. 23 and Feb. 24 brought another rainbow of light and color to our once drab working-class town. How things have changed around here! Everett is being reborn.
Conspiculously absent in these reports was the slightest mention of the very best potential site for Artspace’s affordable living and working space for artists. This site is the Collins Building located at 12th Street and W. Marine View Drive. The site of casket factories from 1925 through 1996, the distinctive red-with-white-trim Collins Building was built by the Hulbert Mill Co. family when Hulbert’s was one of Everett’s prominent mills. This robustly preserved structure contains 60,000 square feet on three floors, it perfectly represents industrial building styles from the early 20th century, it is in very good condition due to Port of Everett care, and it’s still in use today as a rental facility for light industry.
The Collins Building, robust and suitable as it stands for various applications such as farmers markets, shops, museums, artists’ lofts, bookstores, cafes and even residential spaces, may not be standing much longer, it turns out. This wonderful old structure, truly the very last piece of Everett’s milltown past, is slated for demolition by its current owner, the Port of Everett. Why? Simple. It’s in the way of progress, in the form of yacht moorages and high-priced condos, which the port plans as part of its major North Marina Redevelopment Project.
I speak for the Alliance to Save The Collins Building (www.collinsbuilding.org) when I request that the city administration, the port commissioners, the City Council members and Artspace executives take a good look at The Collins Building with regard to potential working and living spaces for artists in Everett. They will not be disappointed. The Collins Building offers scores of possible uses.
David A. Ramstad
Alliance Steering Committee
Everett
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