Jimbo’s, the burger joint on Highway 99 that closed in March 2007, wasn’t a beautiful building.
But it was a Lynnwood institution and a family hangout for more than 40 years.
The building that housed Jimbo’s was demolished earlier this year, leaving only the Jimbo’s sign standing. Sterling Real Estate Organization is redeveloping a 13-acre site it owns along Highway 99.
Jimbo’s came down so that a new strip mall can go up.
Now that sign is gone, sold for scrap metal earlier this month.
Why?
No one offered to save it, which is a shame.
Lynnwood has had the foresight to save and restore several historic buildings. Heritage Park, created in 1997 when an I-5 construction project threatened it, is a testament to that effort. Just off of 36th Avenue West, you can see other remnants of Alderwood Manor, such as Manor Hardware.
The Jimbo’s sign could have been saved. It wasn’t.
Some will say there wasn’t a place to put it, and that may be true.
Others will say saving a burger joint’s sign is just nostalgia run amok. Nostalgia isn’t the main motivation for saving the sign — honoring the city’s past is. How we honor that past is exemplified by our efforts at preserving it.
Every city has its preservation moments, those times when the wrecking crew moves in and an old building is either preserved or mowed down. All too often, because of cost or for lack of space, remnants of history are destroyed.
Our history is a part of who we are. Neglecting it means we deny a part of who we are.
This is a case where we missed a golden opportunity to preserve one more piece of our past. And on the eve of the city’s 50th anniversary, that makes little sense.
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