Category Archives: Historic Sites Tour

Stanwood City Hall

Click to enlarge.

The news-clipping reproduction on the left shows a photograph of the original Stanwood Town Hall built in 1904 soon after Stanwood incorporated in 1903.  It faced the same direction (north) as the front entrance on Irvine (270th) as the current City Hall.
At the time, there was no S. R. 532.  It had three houses behind it and the large Stanwood Lumber Co to the southwest. .
According to the 1910 Anderson Plat book of Snohomish County, there was a jail behind this building and it was labeled “Court Room and Jail”.

It was located at the corner of Oliver (102nd Dr) and Irvine Street (270th St NW)

Oliver was the first homesteader here whose land became Stanwood. Irvine owned the Thompson House before S. A. Thompson and had a ranch just east of the Oliver land.

 

 

The “new/current” Stanwood City Hall building was completed in 1936 and was a special project of 5-term Mayor Charles Dockendorf. It was partially funded by the Work Progress Administration (WPA). In 1944 it was paid off “with virtually no extra cost to the taxpayers, representing an investment of about $20,000.” (Twin City News, Jan 6, 1944)

Stanwood City Hall, 2012;      In 2012 Stanwood made many interior and exterior improvements with assistance and planning by Dave Eldridge, Rebecca Lind, Pearl Schaar, and Mayor Dianne White. Contractors included Tom Regney of Snohomish and Pioneer Masonry of Seattle repairing and sealing cracks in the stucco and repainting.

Taftezon Memorial

In 1939 the Crown Prince Olav and Queen Marthe visited the United States. They stopped in Stanwood to place a wreath at the memorial for their Norwegian emigrant who came to the United States.

Taftezon Memorial and Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church Cemetery, Snohomish County – 1849

Zacharias Martin Taftezon and his family came from Trondelag, Troms and Finnmark area of northern Norway.  After learning the shoemaking trade in Germany and returning to Norway to find life not to his liking, he traveled via England to New Orleans and then on to the Pacific Coast in search of a better life.  He sailed up to Whidbey Island and landed in what is now Oak Harbor with two other men in December 1849 or January 1850.  It was paradise to him.  He adapted well to life here and was a friend to many.  He liked it so well that many in his family came to join him.

For more information on his amazing journey,

see the Historylink.org article

and check out the other stories and sites on the 2020 Stanwood Camano Historic Sites Tour.
The Memorial is not officially on the tour, but it is place to go if you are interested.
There is also a walking tour in Oak Harbor waterfront that includes a little of his history there.