“Stories at the Blackman House: A Visit with Bill Bates,” was an oral history event held by the Snohomish Historical Society, March 16, 2008.
Publisher and editor of the Snohomish County Tribune from 1955 until 1983, Bill talks about his first visit to First Street where he discovers a block of condemned buildings on the river side of First between Avenues B and C, and tracks down the story.
Later, serving as Chair of the Snohomish Planning Committee, he talks about Urban Renewal, or as he points out, the difference with lower case urban renewal!
“We soon began to understand the obvious: Downtown Snohomish’s future actually resided in its past. Those old buildings, all of them were like Gold. They stood as a beacon, a siren call ready to attract the tens of thousands of those who already dwelled in super-modern cities who would flock to the kind of town that their grandparents used to talk about. The buildings were saved and the people came, end of story.”
Dedicated to the Memory of William Lawrence Bates, 1922-2018.
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