Sometimes you don't see the full picture...

At first glimpse, you might think this is the original Seattle Lake Shore & Eastern depot in Arlington. But it's not.

Lesson #1 of historical research: double check your "facts."

It seemed legitimate. I purchased this photo at an antique store in Arlington a few years back, where a fellow sells reproduction enlargements of antique photos. I was told by a shop employee that these photos are derived from old glass negatives which this gentleman purchased from the Arlington Times at some point in the past.

So it would be easy to assume this is a turn of the century photo of a trainwreck at the Arlington Seattle Lake Shore & Eastern/Northern Pacific depot, right?

To someone without an expert eye, yes.

But to my fellow members at the Northern Pacific Railway TellTale discussion group, there are several red flags. Roger Barrow best summed it up:

Prominent in the picture is an N&W [Norfolk & Western Railway] coal hopper. The depot is board and batten with gingerbread on the gable, and a lower-quadrant train order semaphore. The station platform is brick and a water tank appears in the (south?) distance. Helping to date the picture, we see a mix of steel and wooden hopper cars, and
rail with no tie plates.

So face bright red with embarrassment, I went to do some additional digging, and it turns out this is a postcard view of NOT the SLS&E/NP depot in Arlington, WASHINGTON, it's of a 1913 derailment at the depot in Arlington, OHIO.

Now it is possible the photo did come from The Arlington Times -- from other research I've done, the paper did publish news photos from other parts of the country, and many of them have been related to railroading.

I was excited about this photo when I bought it because I really thought it could be connected to a 1910 Northern Pacific blueprint which shows a (proposed) remodel or rebuild of the Arlington depot. Could it be a picture of the original SLS&E depot built in 1890?

Well, no. I should have looked more carefully at this photo of the depot, from the Stillaguamish Pioneer Museum:

Or this one, taken by former NPR employee Jim Fredrickson:

 Or this one:

Or this one, by former NPR employee Russell C. Johnson:

OR, just take a look at any other photo of original SLS&E depots, and you'll see the siding is horizontal, not vertical.

This might also be a lesson in what happens when you've been away for awhile from writing and research, and possibly what they call "chemo brain."

I'm just grateful that the folks at the TellTale group were so kind and helpful about my gaffe. With all  sincerity, they are truly a valuable resource for details on local railroad history -- which I will certainly call upon in the future. :)

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).

Edgecomb: Arlington's neighbor to the south

You wouldn't know now that at the turn of the 19th/20th century, Edgecomb, located three miles south of Arlington, was once a bustling little burg with 350 residents, with its own depot, water tank, shake mill, two stores, an elementary school, a dance hall, a saloon, and several residences -- including the famous stump house (which as a history of its own, which we'll get to another time).

Cedar stump house, near Edgecomb, Washington. Tinted color postcard by H.S. Waters.

The Origin of Washington Geographic Names (1923), says Edgecomb came into existence when Carl Ostrand filed a homestead there in 1888. "The next year, the Northern Pacific Railroad was built and John Edgecomb opened up a logging camp in 1890. The spur was named for him and the name has continued."

Edgecomb depot, photo courtesy NPRHA.org.

C.E. Farrell, Gen. Merchandise, located at Edgecomb, WA., circa 1900.

For more than 100 years, the Edgecomb store stood at the corner of 67th Avenue and 172nd Street, what is now the southernmost border of the city of Arlington. But let an intrepid local geocacher at Geocaching.com tell the following history about the store:

One of the two stores was built on this location by John and Charles Farrell about 1900. After a few years, brother John moved on leaving Charles E. Farrell as sole proprietor.

Farrell's Edgecomb store served the community for years even after the co-op store went under. With the advent of the automobile a gas pump was installed out front.

The store was enough for the Farrell family to eke out a living but did not leave Charles a wealthy man. The Farrell's eventually sold the store and moved on but the new owners continued operations mainly as a second hand store.

The old building gradually lost a battle to decay and was torn down. The property was purchased by Dean Case who had the John L. Scott Real Estate office built on the footprint of the old store. Edgecomb is now a part of Arlington which has grown south to absorb it.

(Source material: Stillaguamish Valley Genealogical Society, Edgecomb Notebook; Bob Bovee Oral History Series, Center for Pacific Northwest Studies; Wikipedia.)

Sadly, I no longer seem to have the photos I took of the store before it was sold and torn down in 2007. What I do have is this image of a fine watercolor by Camano Island artist Jack Dorsey, who captured the structure in its later years as a second hand store. View his other wonderful art pieces at his website.

"Edgecomb Store" by Jack Dorsey. Thanks to the artist for permission to share the image.