Yellow Pages
March 4, 1909
The city council met Tuesday evening with Mayor Wells in the chair. The council chamber was filled with spectators and those interested in two important measures. One was a reconsideration of the revocation of the license of P.H. O’Brien, owner of the Senate Bar, the other the presentation to the council of a petition to eliminate the so-called restricted area of Anacortes.
Rev. D.S. Kerr, on behalf of the petitioners, presented a paper signed by 580 residents asking the council to take action relative to eliminatination of the so-called “Red Light District.”
March 6, 1919
The first airplane mail to be received in Anacortes was a letter from Vancouver, B.C., directed to W.A. Lowman. The letter went from Vancouver to Seattle in a pouch carried by W.A. Boeing and Eddie Hubbard in their return trip from across the border after leaving Anacortes Friday and was delivered here from Seattle through the regular channels. The envelope carried a 6 cent stamp. Boeing carried 60 letters on the trip and this mail is said to be the first ever brought by airplane across the international boundary. The hydroplane was seen passing over Anacortes on its way to Seattle.
March 7, 1929
Fire, of undetermined origin, gutted the McCracken building at Fourth and Commercial, Monday morning at about 1:15 o’clock, causing a loss estimated at $24,000. Tenants of the building were the Maryland cafe, Wagner’s pool hall, the Independent meat market and Murdock’s barber shop. George Marinokos, proprietor of the Maryland cafe, was the heaviest loser of the tenants. He carried no insurance.
March 5, 1959
Anacortes Girl Scouts who have named their first troop campsite Timber Trails already are preparing for a busy summer of outdoor activities. The 15-acre site is now being planned at the soutwest end of Little Cranberry Lake under the supervision of Mel Estvold. Initial development includes a small rustic 24- by 32-foot lodge. Work will begin as soon as weather permits. The City of Anacortes is loaning the property to the local organization.
March 6, 1969
Members and volunteers of the Humanities Committee of the Anacortes Arts and Crafts Festival board have been devoting hundreds of hours working on a new Art and Sales Gallery set to open April 20 on the lower level of the old Carnegie Library building. With the exception of the extensive lighting arrangements, the gallery area has been remodeled completely by volunteers.
March 7, 1979
A special postmark commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Anacortes post office will be used beginning March 13, 1979.
According to Postmaster Laverne Deane, use of the special centennial cancellation will begin 100 years to the day that a post office was first established in Anacortes.
March 1, 1989
Because the planned $28 million secondary sewage plant cannot accommodate their industrial wastes, local fish plants must find alternative methods of pretreatment and disposal if they plan to continue operating in Anacortes, city officials have said. And this new development may mean at least a scaling back of those operations, fish company spokesmen said this week, with a resultant loss of jobs.
— From the archives of the Anacortes American
