Category Archives: Historical Places

Harvest Jubilee History

During the 1930s the Stanwood Commercial Club held a Harvest Jubilee parade.  It was held until about 1942.  The above photograph is from a collection of snapshots taken over the years and donated to SAHS by Viola Schmidt Michael.  It shows an elaborate float along the brick street (270th) in front of what was then the First National Bank building (now the First National Professional Building.) A short history was published in one of our past newsletters for you to read.

D. O. Pearson’s gardens

Flaval Pearson, daughter of Fred Pearson, granddaughter of D. O. Pearson in their garden north of the FNCC.   2004.79.01

Our recent clearance of the lot on 102nd Ave just north of the Floyd Norgaard Cultural Center has opened up a large city lot that apparently had been empty until 1971 when the house was built.   Just by chance we happened to discover these two photographs in our collection and some notes that show this garden on lot in the 1920s – 40s.

Apparently D. O. Pearson and perhaps his son Fred, used this lot as a garden.  Here are two photograph of his Fred’s daughers, Claire and Flaval in the garden.

The snapshots were donated by Claire Payne in one of her visits to the Pearson House from her home in Spokane.  The lower photograph is her sister Flaval who became the Anacortes librarian in 1939.

1948 cropped aerial photograph of the gardens north of the FNCC (former I.O.O.F. Hall ) Photographer: J. Boyd Ellis.   By 1948 the roofline of the FNCC is no longer peaked.  The house in the top right photograph was moved one lot north of the gardens in 1976.