History can be ugly.

Arlington sometime at the turn of the 19th/20th century, when it truly was a farming, logging and railroad town.

It's easy to sanitize history. Typically when an image of "Old Town" Arlington comes to mind, it's of the postcard images that depict a tidy Railroad/Olympic Avenue lined with young trees and Victorian/Old West architecture.

This postcard view shows something a little different -- the Arlington that was a grimy (and probably at times, grim) mill town and railroad town.

Here we see the town around the turn of the 19th/20th century, looking north, probably from the residential bluff along what is now E. Union Street. To the left, you can see the muddy curve of West Avenue, paralleling the railroad tracks of either the Seattle & International or Northern Pacific Railroad, depending on the actual date this was taken.

This view also shows West Avenue's residential layout before what became Highway 9 eventually cut through (the origins of Highway 9 being another topic for another day). The mostly treeless view on the far left side provides a glimpse of the Stillaguamish River flood plain and agricultural lands.

In the bottom right of the photo is a road that I'm assuming is E. Maple Street, which intersects with Olympic Avenue (where the Les Schwab Tire Center now resides).