5 Cool Facts You Didn’t Know About Everett

Editor’s note: Originally published June 11, 2018. Republished July 2, 2020.

Everett’s a surprising place. The longer I live here the more stories I hear. Here are some of my favorites.

1. Everett Beer was a thing

Once upon a time there was no such thing as refrigerated semi trucks. All beer was locally brewed. Everett Beer was the rage in mill town at the turn of the 20th century. Check out Everett Beer swag here.

Prohibition killed the brewery, located (as near as I can tell) near the current site of the Everett Station.

I’m hoping Everett Beer makes a retro-hipster comeback. How cool would that be to crack open a cold one with the gals and your can says “Everett Beer”?

I'd drink to that.

2. Ken Griffey, Jr. hit his first home run here

In 1987 a young Ken Griffey, Jr. hit his first semi-pro home run for the Bellingham Mariners at Everett Memorial Stadium. The spot where the homer landed in left field is marked with a plaque. You can still see it today.

The Mariners will come back some day, as good as they were in the 90’s, right?

Right?

3. Elephants in the theatre

The Historic Everett Theatre: it’s been here since 1901. Biggest theatre West of the Mississippi when it was built. Upon opening it could hold 1/3 of the population of Everett.

It hosted vaudeville shows, including dancing elephants who were loaded in through huge backstage doors. You can still see the outline of the back doors on the building, bricked in.

4. Everett was bombed in WW2

In 1942 a paper balloon from Japan landed near Glenwood Avenue. It had a bomb, but didn’t explode. The American government kept it under wraps. This is not a conspiracy theory, it actually happened. Read about the whole story here.