The Port Gardner Peninsula has been inhabited by theSnohomish people for thousands of years, whose main settlement,hibulb, was located at Preston Point near the mouth of the river. Modern settlement in the area began with loggers and homesteaders arriving in the 1860s, but plans to build a city were not conceived until 1890. A consortium of East Coast investors seeking to build a major industrial city acquired land in the area and filed aplat for "Everett", which they named in honor ofEverett Colby, the son of investorCharles L. Colby. The city wasincorporated in 1893, shortly after the arrival of theGreat Northern Railway, and prospered as a major lumber center with several largesawmills. Everett became the county seat in 1897 after a dispute withSnohomish contested over several elections and aSupreme Court case. The city was the site of labor unrest during the 1910s, which culminated in theEverett massacre in 1916 that killed several members of theIndustrial Workers of the World.
The area was connected by newinterurban railways and highway bridges in the 1920s, transforming it into a major commercial hub, and gained an airport atPaine Field in 1936. The city's economy transitioned away from lumber and towards aerospace afterWorld War II, with the construction ofBoeing'saircraft assembly plant at Paine Field in 1967. Boeing's presence brought additional industrial and commercial development to Everett, as well as new residential neighborhoods to the south and west of the peninsula that wasannexed by the city. Boeing remains the city's largest employer, alongside theU.S. Navy, which has operatedNaval Station Everett since 1994.
The earliest humans entered thePuget Sound region approximately 12,000 yearsbefore present after the recession of theVashon Glacier.[6] The earliest evidence of human habitation on the Port Gardner Peninsula dates back to approximately 2,000 years before present.[7] TheSnohomish people, who had many villages along theSnohomish River and aroundPossession Sound, had their principal settlement at Preston Point, known in theLushootseed language ashibulb (pronouncedHEE-bulb).[8][9][10] The village of Hibulb, located below the bluff at the mouth of the Snohomish River, was one of the largest Snohomish settlements and the tribe's most important. It held considerable influence over other settlements and had the largestpotlatch house in the Snohomish's territory; it was also heavily fortified by a large cedarpalisade to deter attackers. The village also had four large cedarlonghouses, each around 100 feet (30 m) long, and smaller structures.[11][12]
The Snohomish considerhibulb to be their place of origin and references it in thecreation myth for the deitydukʷibəɬ.[12] The tribe's population was estimated to be over 6,000 prior to several smallpox and measles epidemics in the early 19th century that severely affected the Puget Sound region.[13] A massive landslide at Camano Head (Lushootseed:x̌ʷuyšəd)[8] in the 1820s destroyed several villages and caused atidal wave that washed away portions of Hibulb.[14]
In Lushootseed, the modern city of Everett has two names:dᶻəɬigʷəd,[8][9] the name of Forgotten Creek near the waterfront;[15] orhibulb,[8] which comes from the name of Preston Point and the village.[9] The namehibulb itself originates fromhibuləb, which means "water bubbling out of the ground." It is related to the wordbələwəb, meaning "boiling" or "bubbling."[9][15] In 2013, the City of Everett andTulalip Tribes installed signage at Legion Park to display illustrations of the Hibulb village and its history; the park is atop the bluff that overlooks the village site.[16]
The Snohomish were one of the signatory tribes of theTreaty of Point Elliott in 1855, which ceded their lands to theWashington territorial government and established the nearbyTulalip Indian Reservation, to which many of the Snohomish would be removed.[20] The first permanent American settler to arrive on the peninsula was Dennis Brigham, a carpenter fromWorcester, Massachusetts, who claimed a 160-acre (65 ha)homestead and built a cabin for himself. Several other families established their own homesteads, as well as a general store and asawmill that quickly went out of business.[19] Over the next several years a handful of loggers moved to the area, but plans for a settlement were not conceived until 1890.[21]
During an Alaskan cruise via theInside Passage aboard the steamshipQueen of the Pacific in July 1890, lumbermanHenry Hewitt Jr. and railroad executiveCharles L. Colby drew up plans for an industrial city on Port Gardner Bay. Hewitt and Colby had previously met inWisconsin, where they operated lumber and maritime businesses, respectively, and inTacoma, Washington, from which the voyage began. The pair sought to build an industrial center at a site they speculated would be the first ocean port forGreat Northern Railway, to be constructed byJames J. Hill, and turn it into a "Pittsburgh of the West".[22][23] On August 22, 1890, theplat for a 50-acre (20 ha) townsite on the peninsula was filed by theRucker Brothers, who had moved north from Tacoma and had more modest plans for the area.[22]
By September, Colby had secured $800,000 in funding (equivalent to $25.4 million in 2024 dollars)[24] from oil magnateJohn D. Rockefeller and his railroad associateColgate Hoyt to begin acquiring land while avoiding property speculators.[22] The Hewitt–Colby syndicate decided to use a name that would not identify a specific location, naming their planned city afterEverett Colby, the fifteen-year-old son of investor Charles L. Colby, who had displayed a "prodigious appetite" at a group dinner.[23] TheEverett Land Company was incorporated inPierce County on November 19, 1890, and acquired 434.15 acres (175.69 ha) of property from the Rucker Brothers a week later.[25] Several businesses had already been established on the peninsula, generally dividing themselves between the Bayside facing Port Gardner and Riverside facing the Snohomish River.[26] The Rucker Brothers' plat was withdrawn after an agreement to donate half of their holdings was reached with Hewitt, who promised a series of industrial developments under the "Remarkable Document", which was also used to acquire property from other landowners in the area.[27][28]
Everett gained its first businesses in early 1891, as the new settlement on the Snohomish River attracted land speculators and commitments to build lumber mills and other industrial enterprises.[29] The firstpost office opened in July at ageneral store on the bayfront, where theSeattle and Montana Railroad was built in October. By the end of the year, Everett had gained its first school,saloon, church, and sawmill.[30] The Swalwell Brothers had begun selling property in Riverside along Hewitt Avenue, which was laid 100 feet (30 m) wide and became the main east–west thoroughfare from the riverfront when it was completed in June 1892.[31][32] The Everett Land Company did not initially organize a municipal government, leaving local issues to be resolved by a "citizen's committee" formed by 21 residents on March 21, 1892.[33] The area had an estimated population of 5,000 by the end of the year, shortly before the completion of the Great Northern Railway acrossStevens Pass on January 6, 1893. The railroad did not terminate in Everett as originally hoped by land speculators, instead continuing along the shoreline of Puget Sound toSeattle.[34]
The townplat filed by the Everett Land Company in 1892
Following the acquisition of tidelands on the waterfront, which had been in dispute, the Everett Land Company allowed for a municipal government to be formed.[34] The initial city boundaries were set by the company to avoid taxing the industrial areas and exclude the town ofLowell, which predated Everett.[34] On April 27, 1893, the citizens of Everett voted 670–99 in favor ofincorporating as a city, and elected Thomas Dwyer asmayor.[35] The incorporation was certified by theSnohomish County government on May 4, 1893.[34][36] The city's privately ownedstreetcar system launched on July 3, 1893, with lines connecting the Hewitt Avenue commercial district to mills,smelters, and areas as far as Lowell.[37]
The Everett Land Company ran into financial trouble within months of the city's incorporation as the impact of thePanic of 1893 was felt in the region. The company's investment in theMonte Cristo area yieldedore of poorer quality than expected and it was unable to meet the promises in the "Remarkable Document", which was amended several times with the Rucker Brothers, by then junior partners in the company.[38] Rockefeller called his investment into question and appointed Frederick Gates to begin divestment while Colby and Hoyt remained as the leaders of the company.[38] Several of the major businesses in Everett closed or failed during the three-year peak of the economic depression, but work onAlexander McDougall'sWhaleback was finished with the launch ofSS City of Everett in October 1894, the largest to be built on Puget Sound at the time.[39] The Everett Women's Book Club was established in 1894 and opened the city's firsthospital andpublic library, which would later expand into theEverett Public Library system.[40]
Despite the economic turmoil, Everett continued to grow with the addition of new businesses as the area's lumber activities increased.[41] Other industries also expanded in Everett, including a localcannery, abrick factory, and several ore smelters.[42] The discovery of new mineral deposits in Monte Cristo fueled a population boom, along with the completion of theEverett and Monte Cristo Railway under the ownership of Rockefeller.[43] The city also benefited from theKlondike Gold Rush, building severalsteamboats to transport prospectors and entrepreneurs.[43]
In its early years, Everett launched a campaign to becomecounty seat by replacingSnohomish, which had waned in importance following the completion of several railroads serving other cities in the county. An election to determine which city would be named county seat was scheduled for November 6, 1894, beginning a heated debate by citizens and newspapers.[44] The initial count by the commissioners was announced on December 19 in Everett's favor, amid accusations of fraud and bought votes from both sides. Following an appeal from Snohomish, theWashington Supreme Court declared the result to be invalid and blocked the move, but a recount by the commissioners in October 1895 remained in Everett's favor.[45] A long legal battle was fought between the two cities and was decided in October 1895 by the Supreme Court, who ruled that Everett would become county seat per the legal and binding recount.[46] In January 1897, the county government's records were moved by wagons from Snohomish to Everett, where a three-storycourthouse was opened on February 1, 1898.[44][47]
After outside investors withdrew their shares in the Everett Land Company, its holdings were transferred in 1899 to theEverett Improvement Company, controlled by James J. Hill and his trusted associate John T. McChesney.[48]Friedrich Weyerhäuser acquired Hill's timberland holdings in the Pacific Northwest and chose Everett for the site of his major lumber mill, which opened in 1902. By the end of the decade, Everett had 11 lumber mills, 16shingle mills, and 17 combined mills—surpassing every other city in the state and earning it the nicknames of "Milltown" and the "City of Smokestacks".[49] TheWeyerhaeuser Company opened its larger second mill, named Mill B, on the Snohomish River in April 1915 with a 203-foot (62 m) smokestack and the ability to process 1,000,000board feet of timber.[50]
The city gained its firstinterurban railway in 1903 with the opening of theSnohomish Interurban. This was followed by theSeattle Interurban on May 2, 1910, which ran hourly on an inland route viaAlderwood Manor.[51] Everett became a first-class city in 1907 and had a population of nearly 25,000 residents by 1910, a quarter of whom were foreign-born. The local lumber economy prospered during the rebuilding ofSan Francisco following the1906 earthquake, which created a high demand for West Coast wood products.[19] Everett itself suffered from a major fire on August 2, 1909, that destroyed 12 commercial buildings and the county courthouse.[52] The city's growth was not hindered by the fire and anew county courthouse opened in 1910 alongside theEverett High School campus.[53] Everett voters approved a new city charter in 1912 that reorganized the city government into a three-commissioner council with a ceremonial mayor.[54]
During the first decade of the 20th century, workers at mills and other factories began organizinglabor unions under the Everett Central Trades Council, which had 27 member trades and six unions by 1901. The council had 25 unions by 1907 and became affiliated with theAmerican Federation of Labor, using its influence to stage strikes and work stoppages that resulted in wage increases and safer conditions at mills, where 35 workers had died in 1909.[55][56] Everett was also home to localsocialist groups and organizers, who published theLabor Journal andThe Commonwealth on a weekly basis until 1914.[57] Several survivors of the September 1907anti-Indian riots inBellingham settled in Everett for two months, but were beaten and forcefully evicted by a mob.[58]
The city's labor unrest culminated in theEverett massacre on November 5, 1916, the deadliest event in Pacific Northwest labor history. A strike ofshingle weavers began at local mills in May 1916 and continued for months with violent attacks from mill owners, which attracted attention from theIndustrial Workers of the World (IWW), a radical socialist union who provided speakers at Everett events.[57][59] The city government passed a new ordinance to restrict street speaking as a result of tensions between the IWW and county sheriffDonald McRae, who armed a local militia and beat 41 union members who were attempting to enter the city by boat on October 30, 1916.[60] The beatings drew anger from union members and other Everett citizens, prompting 300 IWW members to travel on the steamersVerona andCalista from Seattle to Everett on November 5, when they were confronted at the docks by McRae and his posse of 200 citizen deputies, who feared violence and arson from the group.[57][61] After a heated debate followed by several minutes of gunfire, five people on theVerona were killed and two deputies on the dock had been mortally wounded fromfriendly fire; an unofficial death toll of twelve IWW members was determined from the recovery of underwater bodies.[57] At least 50 people were injured, including McRae, and 297 were arrested in Everett and Seattle; only one IWW member, Thomas Tracy, was ultimately tried and found not guilty offirst-degree murder after a two-month trial.[60][62]
The shingle weavers strike ended on November 10, 1916, with no concessions from the mill owners, and local residents turned against the IWW for escalating the dispute.[59] The labor tensions subsided with the entry of the U.S. intoWorld War I, despite an attempted comeback by the IWW in disrupting logging for the war effort.[63] As a result of the massacre, the state government passed laws to prohibit citizens from advocating foranarchy or violent overthrow, which were not repealed until 1999.[64] The massacre was largely unacknowledged by local residents until the late 20th century, when book accounts were published and ahistoric marker was installed overlooking the former docks.[60][61]
The local timber industry continued its boom and bust cycle into the 1920s, suffering from price swings but benefiting from the1923 Japanese earthquake to supply lumber and the opening of thePanama Canal. The Clough-Hartley shingle mill claimed to be the largest in the world, producing 1.5 million wood shingles per day; the city produced approximately 4.5 million shingles and 3.5 million board feet of lumber per day in 1920.[65] ThePort of Everett was created on July 13, 1918, to enable public ownership of the waterfront and promote economic development in the city. By the end of the 1920s, the port had opened the county's first airport onEbey Island and acquired the 14th Street Dock andJetty Island from the Everett Improvement Company.[66][67] The city also acquired the private water system in 1915 and replaced it with a new supply from theSultan River basin that was fully activated four years later.[68]
Everett's centralcommercial district grew from a handful of businesses into a busy downtown during the 1920s, including the construction of several multi-story office and retail buildings, twojunior high schools, amodern city hall, and additions to the city's two hospitals.[69] The six-storyMonte Cristo Hotel opened in 1925 with 140 guest rooms, elaborate furnishings, and abanquet hall that would host civic functions for several decades.[69][70] The county's first radio station, KFBL (nowKRKO), began broadcasting on August 25, 1922, and was among the earliest in the state.[71] In 1924, a third mill at the Weyerhaeuser complex, which employed 1,500 people and contributed to $28.125 million (equivalent to $403 million in 2024 dollars)[24] in annual timber output by the end of the decade.[72]
The widespread adoption of the automobile lead to the construction of new roads out of Everett and Snohomish County to neighboring regions. The earliest iteration of theStevens Pass Highway opened in 1925, providing the second automobile crossing of theCascade Mountains in the state and access to new timberland and other resources.[73] The highway was later improved with the opening of theHewitt Avenue Trestle in 1939, crossing the Snohomish River and Ebey Island on an elevatedviaduct.[74] ThePacific Highway (part ofU.S. Route 99) was completed in 1927 with the opening of four bridges across the Snohomish River delta toMarysville.[75] Everett was also among the first cities in the U.S. to replace its streetcars withbuses, doing so in 1923,[73] and the last train on the Seattle–Everett Interurban ran on February 20, 1939.[76]
Everett experienced a major rise in unemployment as demand for lumber products dropped, with an estimated 32 percent ofproperty taxes left unpaid in 1932. Charitable organizations in the area set up relief programs and provided work for unemployed residents, including commencing work on a 185-acre (75 ha) park andgolf course in North Everett that later becameAmerican Legion Memorial Park.[77] The federalWorks Progress Administration employed local workers to construct a new downtown public library, develop parks, expand schools, and improve streets.[78] The works program also built a new county airport, later namedPaine Field, that opened southwest of Everett in 1936 to serve commercial uses. The airport was appropriated for military use duringWorld War II, but was later turned over to county ownership.[19][79] The war also brought a newshipyard operated by theEverett-Pacific Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company, which employed 6,000 workers and closed in 1949.[80]
Downtown Everett continued to grow as the regional commercial center following the end of the war, with four largedepartment stores and dozens of smaller retailers and restaurants in a six-block radius of Hewitt Avenue and Colby Avenue. The population boom triggered construction of new housing areas around the peninsula and new schools, with enrollment in theEverett School District increasing from 6,000 in 1941 to 11,600 in 1951.[81] The school district also builtEverett Memorial Stadium in 1947 to host high school sports and civic events.[82] A newpublic housing complex, Baker Heights, was built in 1943 to house military personnel amid a local shortage, providing 1,275 apartments that later went to low-income families.[83]
The first suburban-stylesupermarket opened on Evergreen Way (part of U.S. Route 99) in 1950 and was followed bystrip malls and similarbig box stores along the highway by the end of the decade.[84] The areas surrounding the highway were developed into suburban housing and made up the bulk of the city's then-largestannexation, of 900 acres (360 ha) near Madison Street on December 31, 1959. A second round of South Everett annexations completed in 1961 and 1972 added 10,300 acres (4,200 ha) to the city, including the Lowell area, and boosted its population to over 50,000.[84][85] Everett's second high school,Cascade High School, opened in 1961 to serve the annexed areas.[84] The new suburban neighborhoods were linked viaInterstate 5, which opened from North Seattle to Everett in February 1965 and bypassed U.S. Route 99 with a six-lane freeway roughly following the former interurban railway.[86][87] The freeway was extended around the east side of Downtown Everett in January 1968 and Interstate 5 was completed within Washington with the opening of the section connecting the city to Marysville in May 1969.[88][89]
TheBoeing Company opened its first Everett factory in 1943 as part of its wartime production for theB-17 program. The company moved to the Everett–Pacific Shipyard in 1956 and grew to be the city's largest single employer by 1965, with 1,728 employees.[90] Boeing approved early development of itsBoeing 747 passenger jetliner in March 1966 and purchased 780 acres (320 ha) near Paine Field in June to build itsassembly plant for the plane, which would become the world's first "jumbo jet".[91] Work on the first 747 plane, named the "City of Everett", began at the unfinished factory in January 1967.[92] It was unveiled in September 1968 and made its maiden flight on February 9, 1969.[93] The Everett factory was expanded several times to accommodate later Boeing programs, including the767,777, and787 Dreamliner.[92]
The impending construction of the Boeing plant triggered a new residential and commercial development in Everett and surrounding communities in the late 1960s.[94] By the end of the decade, Everett had annexed additional areas to stretch the city boundaries west to Mukilteo and south to Silver Lake.[85] A new freeway,State Route 526, was built to connect the plant to Interstate 5 at the Eastmont Interchange, where theEverett Mall was planned to be built.[88] The mall was built in stages, beginning with aSears store in February 1969 and ending with a grand opening on October 9, 1974, with 14 stores.[95] The development of the mall was slowed by a local economic crash that began with the cancellation of Boeing'ssupersonic jetliner program in 1971 and financial issues for airlines that affected sales of the Boeing 747. The Everett factory reduced its number of employees from 25,000 to 4,700, causing a spike in local unemployment rates and an exodus of former employees; the Everett School District closed three of its elementary schools as enrollment dropped by 3,000 students.[95][96]
During the 1970s, several of Everett's surviving lumber and pulp mills closed as they were too costly to renovate or replace, marking the end of the "Mill Town". Lowell's pulp mill closed in 1972 and was followed by Weyerhaeuser's Mill B in 1979 and Mill A in 1981.[97] The final Weyerhaeuser mill closed in 1992, leaving theScott Paper Company as the last remaining paper mill in Everett until its closure in 2012.[97][98] The city instead deepened its connections to the aerospace and high-tech industry, opening facilities in the 1980s forHewlett-Packard,Fluke, and other electronics firms.[99] Downtown Everett also declined as an activity center as retailers and car dealerships moved to suburban areas, despite the opening of a largehotel and several high-rise office building.[100] A city landfill southeast of Downtown Everett was turned into a recycling plant for millions of rubbertires, nicknamed "Mount Firestone", which caught fire in September 1984 and burned for seven months as the incident gained national media attention.[101]
Boeing recovered from its sales slump and increased employment at its Everett plant to 18,000 people in 1980 as it prepared to unveil the Boeing 767, the second family of jetliners to be produced in Everett. A neighboringindustrial park along Seaway Boulevard was developed in the 1980s as demand for commercial space in the city grew.[100] The Port of Everett began developing a new shopping and retail complex on Port Gardner Bay as it looked to diversify away from industrial uses, but the project ran into financial issues as Everett-area employers failed or laid off workers amid an aerospace slump in 1981–82.[100] TheU.S. Navy selected the former shipyard site on Port Gardner Bay as the site of a new military base in 1984 under theStrategic Homeport program.[102]Naval Station Everett and its 1,600-foot (490 m) pier were constructed between 1987 and 1994 alongside auxiliary facilities located to the north inSmokey Point.[103][104] The first ships arrived in September 1994. Naval Station Everett was the long-term home of severalaircraft carriers, including theUSS Abraham Lincoln.[105]
The city underwent an urban revival in the 1990s, fueled by the upcoming centennial celebrations and a third expansion of the Boeing plant for the Boeing 777 program. The plant expansion was completed in 1993, enlarging the world's largest building by volume to 472,000,000 cubic feet (13,400,000 m3) covering 96 acres (39 ha).[106][107][108] Everett's inner neighborhoods grew with new residential and commercial development, including Downtown Everett, where a beautification and restoration program had begun in the 1980s.[109] The downtown program included aroad diet for Colby Avenue,planter boxes on widened sidewalks, and new parks.[110][111] Several new office buildings were completed in Downtown Everett, including the 11-storyEverett Mutual Tower, and other historic buildings were renovated or restored.[110][112] The city also annexed 465 acres (188 ha) near Paine Field in March 2000, bringing Everett's population to over 91,000.[113] Everett was recognized as anAll-America City by theNational Civic League in 2002 and has been a member of theTree City USA program since 1993.[114][115] The city's Delta neighborhood underwent extensive environmental cleanup that began in the 2000s with funds fromAsarco after the discovery ofsoil contamination from the shuttered smelter.[116][117]
Everett was identified as a key transport hub under the regionalSound Transit system, which was approved in a ballot measure in 1996 after an earlier failed attempt. The transit agency opened a multimodal train and bus center,Everett Station, in February 2003 to replace scattered downtown facilities forAmtrak,Greyhound, and local transit. It would also serve as the northern terminus forSounder commuter rail andSound Transit Express buses, which both connect Everett to Seattle.[118] A six-mile (9.7 km) section of Interstate 5 was rebuilt by the state government from 2005 to 2008 by adding new lanes and improving several interchanges at a cost of $263 million.[119] Everett remains home to one of the most congested stretches of I-5, which is also among the worst in the United States for travel delays.[120]
Downtown Everett remained a center for new development in the 2000s and 2010s, with several projects completed by local governments and private developers. TheEverett Events Center (now Angels of the Winds Arena) opened in 2003 as an indoor sports venue,convention center, and communityice rink.[121] The county government redeveloped its Everett office campus by building a new administrative center, jail,parking garage, and publicplaza that opened in 2005.[122][123] In the 2010s, two new downtown hotels were opened along with several apartment buildings that were encouraged by relaxed zoning policies.[124][125] As the region'shomeless population grew, Everett added twosupportive housing buildings in downtown to provide 150 units of low-income housing with access to social services.[126]
Boeing selected Everett as the main site of its 787 Dreamliner and747-8 programs, which did not require major building expansions.[90] The company also partnered with the county government to create theFuture of Flight Aviation Center & Boeing Tour, an aviation museum at Paine Field that opened in 2005.[127] TheBoeing 777X program launched in 2013 with plans to build a wing assembly center adjacent to the Everett plant, which opened in 2016.[128] Commercial passenger service at Paine Field resumed at a new terminal on March 4, 2019, after earlier plans from the 1980s onward were blocked by nearby residents.[129][130]
The city government began planning for a major redevelopment of a former landfill on the Snohomish River waterfront in the late 1990s, but the project was stalled as private developers declined to move the project forward.[131] The original concept for the 139-acre (56 ha) property was an entertainment center with shopping, housing, offices, and parks. Theriverfront project was ultimately divided into three sections: a southern portion for 235single-family homes that was constructed in 2016; a center portion with commercial space, apartments, a movie theater, and a small park; and a northern portion with 190townhomes.[132] A similar redevelopment plan for the Port of Everett's 65 acres (26 ha) on the bayside waterfront, known as Port Gardner Wharf, was shelved in 2007 by the developer's financial issues.[133] A new development, named Waterfront Place, began construction in 2018 with a hotel, apartments, restaurants, and shops adjacent to the city's publicmarina.[134]
Providence Regional Medical Center, formed from a merger of Everett's two hospitals in 1994, completed a major expansion of its North Everett campus in 2011 by opening a 12-story medical tower.[135] Thefirst U.S. case ofcoronavirus disease 2019 was identified in a Snohomish County resident at Providence Regional Medical Center on January 20, 2020.[136] As the coronavirus pandemic worsened in the state, mayor Cassie Franklin declared the firstshelter-in-place order for Washington state on March 21, 2020.[137] In response to a projected revenue shortfall of $14 million caused by the shelter-in-place order, which later spread statewide, the city government laid off 160 employees in May 2020 and plans to cut services.[138] The city's original 2020 budget had already been constrained due to a projected deficit caused by a spending gap identified in 2017.[139]
The first portions of the redeveloped Everett waterfront, a 142-room hotel, opened in 2019 and was followed by apartments and restaurants.[140] The opening of the first apartment building was delayed due to a large fire in July 2020 that destroyed the entirety of the unfinished four-story structure.[141] New residential buildings were also completed in downtown Everett and the waterfront, adding 650 apartments in the early 2020s.[142][143] The Everett Housing Authority announced plans in 2024 to redevelop the 16-acre (6.5 ha) Baker Heights public housing complex into a mixed-income neighborhood with 1,500 residential units, offices, and retail with buildings as tall as 15 stories.[144]
Hewitt Avenue in Downtown Everett, looking west from Broadway
Everett is one of the core cities comprising theSeattle metropolitan area and is 25 miles (40 km) north ofSeattle.[145] It is primarily situated on the Port Gardner Peninsula, bordered to the west byPort Gardner Bay (part ofPossession Sound in thePuget Sound estuary), and to the north and east by theSnohomish River delta.[146] The city also encompasses suburban and industrial areas to the south and southwest of the peninsula, which were annexed during the mid-to-late 20th century.[85][147] Everett has 11 miles (18 km) of freshwater shoreline and 11 miles (18 km) of saltwater shoreline, including public access points at parks andboat ramps on Port Gardner Bay and the Snohomish River.[148] According to theUnited States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 48.49 square miles (125.59 km2), of which 33.45 square miles (86.64 km2) is land and 15.04 square miles (38.95 km2) is water.[149]
The city's western boundary withMukilteo is generally defined byJapanese Gulch on the edge of the Boeing Everett Assembly Plant and its auxiliary buildings.[150] The southwestern edge of Everett borders anunincorporated area that includesPaine Field and theLake Stickney/Mariner neighborhoods, which are part of the city's designatedurban growth area that extends south towardsLynnwood.[151] The southern boundary wraps aroundSilver Lake and followsState Route 527 toState Route 96 at Murphy's Corner, where it bordersMill Creek.[152] Everett's boundaries follow various housing subdivisions in theEastmont area before reaching the Snohomish River, which forms the primary eastern border. The northeastern boundary includes portions ofSmith Island in the river delta reaching towardsMarysville;[150] a series of highway bridges connect Everett to Marysville to the north andLake Stevens to the east by crossing the Snohomish River delta.[153][154] The city boundaries also include 3,729 acres (1,509 ha) of forest surroundingLake Chaplain, a reservoir in the Cascade Mountains that provides part of the municipal water supply.[155]
The Port Gardner Peninsula was formed during the northward retreat ofVashon Glaciation during anice age 14,000 years before present.[156] The underlying soil is generallyloamy and includes gravelly sand in theglacial outwash.[157] Everett is near theSouthern Whidbey Island Fault, a shallowearthquake fault zone that runs near the western edge of the city and was discovered in 1994.[158] In the 1990s, local geologists also found evidence of atsunami andsoil liquefaction in deposits under the Snohomish River delta that were not directly connected to the South Whidbey Island Fault.[159] The city government established its emergency management and preparedness office in 2002 and conducts regular disaster drills to simulate a potential response.[160] The southwestern neighborhoods of Everett include severalravines formed by local creeks that drain into Port Gardner Bay. The area is also prone tomudslides that interrupt passenger and freight service on the railroad that runs along the coastline of the bay.[161] Other areas of the city drain into the watersheds of the Snohomish River andLake Washington.[162]
Aerial view of North Everett, with theSnohomish River delta in the center
The city of Everett maintains an Office of Neighborhoods which facilitates communication between the city and recognized neighborhood associations. The neighborhood associations are independent from the city and have elected leaders.[163] Various neighborhoods in Everett have views of theCascade andOlympic mountains, includingMount Baker andMount Rainier.[164][165]
As of 2019[update], Everett's 19 recognized neighborhood associations are:[166]
Bayside, which includes most of Downtown Everett, the Port of Everett, andNaval Station Everett, and surrounding residential areas.[166]
Boulevard Bluffs, a primarily residential area of the city bordering Mukilteo[167]
Cascade View, a residential area in South Everett, north of Everett Mall[166]
Delta, a primarily residential area north of Downtown Everett[168]
Evergreen, a primarily residential area in South Everett[166]
Glacier View, an older residential area south of downtown[166]
Harborview–Seahurst–Glenhaven, consisting of older residential areas south of downtown[166]
Holly, a mix of residential, commercial, and industrial areas on the southern edge of the city[166]
Lowell, a primarily residential area southeast of downtown and formerly an independent town founded in 1863[169]
Northwest Everett, which includes older residential areas northwest of downtown, a historic district, and theEverett Community College campus[170]
Pinehurst–Beverly Park, a mix of residential and commercial areas in South Everett[171]
Port Gardner, which includes parts of Downtown Everett and residential areas on Rucker Hill, a historic district[170]
Riverside, includes residential areas northeast of downtown and a historic district[170]
Silver Lake, includes residential and commercial areas surrounding Silver Lake in the extreme southeastern part of the city[172]
South Forest Park, a residential neighborhood near downtown[173]
Twin Creeks, which includes the area surrounding Everett Mall and a mix of residential and commercial areas.[174]
Valley View–Sylvan Crest–Larimer Ridge, residential areas in southeast Everett[175]
View Ridge–Madison, residential areas west and southwest of Forest Park[166]
Westmont, a primarily multi-family housing area in the southwestern part of the city[166]
Downtown Everett is generally defined as the area north of Pacific Avenue, east of West Marine View Drive, south of Everett Avenue, and west of Broadway.[176] It is home to city and county government offices, high-rise office buildings, hotels, andapartment buildings.[124][125] TheAngel of the Winds Arena is on the west side of Broadway, anchoring a smallhistoric district on Hewitt Avenue.[177] Several downtown streets are named for the founders of the Everett Land Company and their associates, including John D. Rockefeller, the Rucker Brothers, Charles L. Colby, and shipbuilderAlexander McDougall.[178][179]
The city government approved plans in 2018 to allow for high-rise buildings as tall as 25 stories and with reduced parking requirements to encourage denser development in anticipation of a futureLink light rail station.[180] In the early 2020s, several apartment buildings with a combined 650 units were completed in downtown and the waterfront district.[181]
Everett generally has anoceanic climate similar to most of thePuget Sound lowlands, with year-round moderate temperatures influenced by marine air masses. The variation of normal weather between seasons is less extreme than inland areas, with dry summers and mild, rainy winters due to the proximity of thePacific Ocean.[182] Under theKöppen climate classification system, Everett is described as having awarm-summer Mediterranean climate (Csb).[182][183] The city marks the north end of thePuget Sound Convergence Zone, a local weather phenomenon caused by colliding air currents from the region's mountain ranges that produces heavier rain and stronger winds than the rest of the region.[184][185]
The warmest month for Everett is August, with average high temperatures of 72.7 °F (22.6 °C), while January is the coolest, at an average high of 44.9 °F (7.2 °C).[186] The highest recorded temperature at Paine Field, 100 °F (38 °C), first occurred on July 29, 2009; it was tied on August 16, 2020, and tied again on June 28, 2021, during aregional heat wave.[187][188] The lowest, 0 °F (−18 °C), occurred on November 11, 1993.[186] The city receives 35.71 inches (907 mm) of annual rainfall, which mostly falls from October to March and peaks in December.[182][186] Everett rarely receives significant snowfall and its highest total, 26.6 inches (68 cm), occurred in 1965.[157][186]
Climate data for Everett, Washington (1991–2020 normals, extremes 1894–present)
Everett has a workforce population of 88,146 people with 59,599 who are employed, according to a 2018 estimate from the U.S. Census Bureau.[191] The city also had an estimated 7,335 registered businesses in 2012 providing 94,000 jobs.[192][193] Everett's economy is centered aroundaerospace manufacturing, maritime activities, the technology sector, and theservice industry.[193] The largest employer in the city is airplane manufacturerBoeing, with 31 percent of all jobs.[148] The company's main manufacturing plant near Paine Field is the world'slargest building by volume.[194] The local economy of Everett and Snohomish County is heavily affected by Boeing's performance, with layoffs and strikes causing downturns in other industries.[195][196]
The city's economy in the 19th and early 20th centuries was tied to the lumber trade and maritime industries, including fishing and boat manufacturing.[197] Everett's last remaining woodpulp mill, owned byKimberly-Clark, shut down in April 2012 and was demolished a year later, marking the end of the lumber economy's dominance.[98][198] The aerospace industry in Everett began growing in the late 1960s after Boeing began constructing its assembly plant at Paine Field, bringing suppliers and subcontractors to the area.[199] Since the 1990s, the city government has encouraged economic development in other industries to add diversity, particularly in the technology sector.[200] The Port of Everett has also developed its own industrial park in North Everett that is home to an aerospace supplier and distribution centers forAmazon andFedEx.[201][202]
As of 2018[update], the largest industry in Everett is manufacturing, with 18 percent of residents employed there, followed by educational services (18%), retail (12%), professional services (11%), and entertainment (11%).[191] Electronics manufacturer Fluke Corporation (now part ofFortive) is based in Everett and has 1,000 employees in Washington state.[203] ToymakerFunko is also headquartered in Downtown Everett, where it has its own retail store that opened in 2017, and operates a distribution center in the city.[204][205] Electric motor manufacturerMagniX moved its headquarters from Redmond to Everett in 2021, which was followed by a research facility that was relocated from Australia.[206][207] In 2020, Bellevue-basedTerraPower opened a research facility near Paine Field to develop smallernuclear reactors for use in power plants.[208] Other large employers in Everett include the Providence Regional Medical Center with 4,900 employees, the U.S. Navy with 2,900 employees, andEverett Public Schools with 2,440 employees.[148]
Approximately 28 percent of Everett workers are employed at businesses within the city limits, while 15 percent commute to Seattle.[209] The majority of the city's employed residents (70%) commute to work insingle-occupant vehicles, while 14 percent usecarpools and 6 percent usepublic transportation.[191] Everett workplaces have employees who live across Snohomish and King counties, with 15 percent from within the city, 7 percent from Marysville, 5 percent from Seattle, and 4 percent from Lake Stevens.[209] The changing offirst shift at the Boeing facility in Everett causes a spike in traffic congestion during the mornings and early afternoons that spills out from freeways onto local streets.[210]
The city's retailers had total sales of $2 billion in 2012 and are concentrated along two major highways, Evergreen Way and Everett Mall Way, in strip malls and standalonebig-box stores.[192][193] The intersection of the two corridors is home to a largeauto row that developed in the 1980s after dealerships relocated from Downtown Everett.[211] TheEverett Mall opened in 1974 and has over 100 stores. The mall was expanded in 2005, adding amovie theater and a new set of stores, but has since lost two major retailers and several other tenants.[212][213]
Everett is the largest city in Snohomish County and the seventh largest in Washington state by population, ranking betweenKent andRenton.[216] It had a population of 110,629 at the time of the2020 U.S. census.[2][217] The city'surban growth area has a population of 44,596 residents as of 2016[update] that are part of unincorporated Snohomish County.[218] Everett's population grew by 47 percent from 1990 to 2000 and 13 percent from 2000 to 2010, due to annexations and increased housing development.[219] It is projected to increase by 40,000 to 60,000 residents by 2035 as part of state-mandated growth plans.[220][221] The city's population growth since 1990 has largely been driven by non-Caucasian racial groups, with the white majority decreasing from 92 percent in 1990 to 75 percent in 2010.[219]
The city had 16,394 housing units in 2010, 9,181 of which weresingle-family homes and 7,213 of which were inmulti-family housing.[222] Everett's homeownership rate is among the lowest in Washington, with 44 percent of homes occupied by their owners, and its residents have a low median income relative to the county and Seattle metropolitan area.[223] The average monthlyrent for housing units in Everett in 2013 ranged from $700 for astudio apartment to $2,723 for a five-bedroom home.[222] The city also has severalaffordable housing complexes that provide 2,461 units to low-income households through federal and local grants.[222]
As of the 2020 U.S. census, there were 110,629 people and 44,879 total households living within Everett's city limits. The city'spopulation density was 2,309.1 inhabitants per square mile (891.5/km2). There were 47,193 total housing units, of which 95.1% were occupied and 4.9% were vacant or for occasional use. Theracial makeup of Everett was 61.7%White, 5.4% Black orAfrican American, 1.3%Native American orAlaska Native, 9.6%Asian, 1.3%Native Hawaiian orPacific Islander, and 8.9% from other races. Residents who identified as more than one race were 11.90% of the population.Hispanic or Latino residents of any race were 17.2% of the population.[2]
Of the 865 households in Everett, 27.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 37.4% weremarried couples living together, and 9.7% were cohabitating but unmarried. Households with a male householder with no spouse or partner were 24.8% of the population, while households with a female householder with no spouse or partner were 28.0% of the population. Out of all households, 24.9% had residents who were 65 years of age or older.[2] There were 44,879 occupied housing units in Everett, of which 45.2% were owner-occupied and 54.8% were occupied byrenters.[2]
The median age in the city was 36.7 years old for all sexes, 35.8 years old for males, and 37.8 years old for females. Of the total population, 22.8% of residents were under the age of 19; 7.1% were between the ages of 20 and 24; 31.3% were between the ages of 25 and 44; 24.8% were between the ages of 45 and 64; and 13.7% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 50.5% male and 49.5% female.[2]
As of the2010 U.S. census, there were 103,019 people, 41,312 households, and 23,282 families residing in the city. Thepopulation density was 3,079.8 inhabitants per square mile (1,189.1/km2). There were 44,609 housing units at an average density of 1,333.6 per square mile (514.9/km2). The racial makeup of the city was 74.6% White, 4.1% African American, 1.4% Native American, 7.8% Asian, 0.7% Pacific Islander, 6.1% from other races, and 5.3% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino people of any race were 14.2% of the population.[227]
There were 41,312 households, of which 30.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 38.2% weremarried couples living together, 12.5% had a female householder with no husband present, 5.7% had a male householder with no wife present, and 43.6% were non-families. 34.1% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.39 and the average family size was 3.09.[227]
The median age in the city was 34.4 years. 22.7% of residents were under the age of 18; 11.3% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 30.6% were from 25 to 44; 25% were from 45 to 64; and 10.3% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 50.9% male and 49.1% female.[227]
The Everett Police Department is budgeted for 219 uniformed officers and 37 civilian employees in 2025.[228] The number of reported crimes in Everett has declined since reaching a peak in 2009–10, with 610 violent crimes and 7,672 property crimes.[229] Everett had ranked in the top 20 percent of U.S. cities for reported crimes in reports byCQ Press, which included property crimes and burglary among violent crimes.[230] It was ranked 49th among cities in Washington for crimes per capita in a 2019 study by theNational Council for Home Safety and Security.[231]
The Everett Police Department and Snohomish County Sheriff's Office began criminal investigations against operators and employees of variousbikini barista coffee stands in 2009 for violating adult entertainment laws.[232][233] The city government passed adress code ordinance for food service workers in August 2017, but were met with a lawsuit from stand operators and employees over the constitutionality of the ordinance.[234] The ordinance was suspended by a preliminary injunction from theU.S. District Court of Western Washington in December 2017, but theNinth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the city government in 2019.[235] After theU.S. Supreme Court declined a petition from the plaintiffs to hear the case in March 2020, it was referred back to the U.S. District Court, where the ordinance was ruled unconstitutional in October 2022; both sides settled in April 2023, with the city agreeing to pay $500,000 to the plaintiffs while rolling back the scope of the ordinance to align it with existing municipal legislation on lewd conduct.[236][237]
The city has a high rate ofopioid abuse, particularlyOxyContin andheroin, fueled by cross-state drug trafficking.[238][239] The Providence Regional Medical Center reported 655 patients with opioid overdoses from January to August 2017, while 34 percent of residents booked into the county jail tested positive for opioids.[240] The widespread opioid use also contributed to a 65 percent rise inhomelessness in Everett from 2015 to 2017, straining localshelters and supportive housing systems.[241] The city government filed a lawsuit against OxyContin manufacturerPurdue Pharma in January 2017, claiming that the company had beengrossly negligent in distributing the drug and containing its effect on Everett residents. The lawsuit also identified a drug trafficking ring based inLos Angeles, large prescriptions by doctors to procure the drug, and direct marketing by Purdue Pharma as contributing factors to the rise in opioid cases.[238] Everett's lawsuit was joined by complaints from other jurisdictions, including Snohomish County and the Tulalip Tribes, and was heard in theU.S. District Court of Northern Ohio.[242]
The Everett Municipal Building, which serves as thecity hall
Everett is afirst-class city with an organizedcharter and amayor–council government.[243] The city's mayor and seven councilmembers are elected to four-year terms in staggered elections that take place during odd-numbered years. The city council has five positions elected from the city's districts, which were implemented in 2021, while the remaining two positions areat-large seats.[244] The city council meets weekly on Wednesdays and offers live television and web broadcasts viaThe Everett Channel.[245] The city government is based out of the Everett Municipal Building (formerly known as the Wall Street Building) in Downtown Everett,[246] a 10-story office tower opened in 1980 and also home to other federal and state government agencies.[247] The building is adjacent to the historicEverett City Hall, which is home to the city police department and city council chambers.[248][249]
Cassie Franklin, a former city councilmember, was elected as mayor in 2017 and is the second woman and first non-appointee to hold the office.[250] The mayor of Everett is responsible for appointing the heads of various city departments, the city clerk, the city treasurer, thepolice andfire chiefs, and members of service commissions and boards.[243] The city government has 1,200 employees and an operating budget of $148.7 million for 2020.[251][252] It provides a range of municipal services, including police, fire,emergency medical services, public works, ahousing authority, zoning and planning, parks and recreation, and some utilities.[148][253] Everett also has amunicipal court that was established in 1987 and has two judges who are elected to four-year terms.[254] The city government runs its ownpublic transit andlibrary systems, which are separate from the countywideCommunity Transit andSno-Isle Libraries.[255]
Everett is also thecounty seat of Snohomish County and houses several major government facilities on a campus in Downtown Everett. The campus includes thecounty courthouse, county jail, administrative offices, and the main precinct of thecounty sheriff.[256][257]
Everett is described as a "largelyblue-collar city", but is home to a regional arts scene that includes galleries, community theaters, music, and artwork.[264][265] The city has five majorperforming arts venues that host various groups and traveling events.[266]
The 834-seatHistoric Everett Theatre on Colby Avenue opened in 1901 and hosts community theater productions, musical groups,improv comedy, and film screenings.[267] The city once had a "theater district" in downtown that included the Everett, Granada, Balboa, and Roxy theaters, all opened during the early 20th century, but the district later declined with two closures in the 1950s.[268] The Everett Theatre is the last surviving theater from the era, having been partially rebuilt following a fire in December 1923, renovated into atriplex theater in 1979, closed in 1989, and restored to its original state beginning in 2000.[269][270] The regionalVillage Theatre performs inIssaquah and at the Everett Performing Arts Center, a city-owned facility that opened in 1993 and is also home to the Everett Chorale.[271][272] The Village Theatre opened KidStage, a venue for young performers, in 2011 by converting a formerbank branch building adjacent to the Everett Performing Arts Center.[273] The Everett Civic Auditorium at Everett High School was completed in 1939 and is home to the Everett Philharmonic Orchestra, which was formed in 2010 by musicians from the former Everett Symphony after it ran into financial issues.[264][274]
The city'spublic art program is managed by the Everett Cultural Arts Commission, a citizen advisory board established in 1974 alongside apercent for art program for public projects.[275] In addition to public art, the commission manages 16street pianos in Downtown Everett that are painted by local artists and available for public use every August.[276] Everett's main arts district is on a three-block section of Hoyt Avenue in downtown, which is home to theSchack Art Center and several sculptures installed in the late 2000s.[277] The Schack Art Center opened in 2011 as a multipurpose exhibition space and artist workshop, with facilities for various mediums and housing for artists provided byArtspace.[278][279] The center was originally the Arts Council of Snohomish County and named in honor of John and Idamae Schack, longtime supporters of the organization and arts in the region;[280] in its first year, the Schack Art Center had 265 artists on exhibit and 33,000 visitors, helping to revitalize downtown during theGreat Recession.[281][282] The Everett area has attracted artists and musicians from Seattle due to its relative affordability and incentives from the city government.[283][284]
The Everett area has been featured in several film and television productions, both as a setting and as a film location. It was the setting for the 2014 crime film7 Minutes and the 2000 television seriesThe Fugitive. The television seriesTwin Peaks, which was primarily filmed inNorth Bend, used an Everett house for interior shots.[285]
The city hosts several annual events and festivals, usually during the summer months. The city's waterfront hosts an annualfireworks display onIndependence Day a few hours after a downtown parade.[286][287] Everett has hosted a downtownsausage and street festival annually in September since 1977.[288] Several annual festivals were established in the 1990s, including afilm festival in February,[289] the Cruzin' to Colbyclassic car show in May,[290] the Sorticulture garden festival in June,[291] and the Fresh Paintart show in August.[292] The city's largest annual summer festival, the Salty Sea Days, was established in 1970 and included a parade,hydroplane races, a classic auto show, and other events. It was originally subsidized using citylodging taxes until 2003, and shut down three years later.[293][294]
The EverettFarmers Market began in 1994 and operates on Sundays from May to October with 200 vendors and about 5,000 weekly visitors.[295] It was originally located at the Port of Everett but moved in 2019 to Wetmore Avenue in downtown because of parking and accessibility issues at the waterfront site.[296][297] The farmers market also operates popupbazaars during the off-season and a Wednesday market at Everett Station during the summer.[298] The waterfront remains home to a summerconcert series that has been staged annually since 1991.[299]
Everett's government and the Everett Downtown Association have also launched tourism initiatives that have created new events and promotional branding for Everett.[300] The city government launched alogo design contest in 2014 that had 850 entries and 5,700 votes from local residents.[301] The winning design was later withdrawn due to its similarity to the logo of financial services companyEnvestnet and was replaced by a new brand design in 2019.[302][303] Acraft beer festival was established in 2012 by theWashington Beer Commission and was later renamed to the Upper Left Beerfest in 2017 after the city government took over operations.[304] The Fisherman's Village Music Festival, established in 2014, takes place annually over a three-day weekend in May at four stages in Downtown Everett. The music festival includes performances from 50 local and national artists as well as art exhibitions.[305][306] An annual3-on-3 basketball tournament was established in 2022 and takes place on downtown streets during a July weekend.[307] The city's firstPride parade and block party began in 2023 and is held annually in June.[308]
The Everett area has several major tourist attractions, particularly those themed around aviation. TheFuture of Flight Aviation Center at Paine Field, owned by the county government and operated by Boeing, has several aviation exhibits and includes a tour of the Boeing assembly plant. It is the most popular tourist attraction in Snohomish County, with 495,000 visitors in 2017.[309] TheFlying Heritage & Combat Armor Museum opened in 2008 at a renovated Paine Field hangar and houses a collection of restored 20th century military planes and vehicles.[310] TheImagine Children's Museum opened in 2004 at a renovated bank building in Downtown Everett after relocating from Marysville. It has interactive exhibits designed to teach children about local history, science, and the arts.[311][312]
TheEverett Herald is the city's daily newspaper, providing local and national news for 40,000 subscribers in Snohomish County. It began publication on February 11, 1901, emerging as the city's lone daily newspaper from a field of three competitors established in the early 1890s: theEverett News,Everett Times, andEverett Tribune.[313] The newspaper remained under local ownership until it was purchased byThe Washington Post Company in 1978 and it was sold toSound Publishing in 2013.[313][314] TheHerald launched its online website on January 5, 1997, the monthlyHerald Business Journal in 1998,[315] and began publishing a weekly Spanish-language newspaper,La Raza del Noroeste, in April 2006.[316][317] My Everett News is an independent online news outlet for Everett that was established in 2011 and is affiliated withThe Seattle Times.[318]
The city is part of theSeattle–Tacoma media market, ranked 13th among U.S. metro areas, which includes several major television and radio stations.[319]KONG-TV, a Seattle-based broadcast channel that is affiliated withKING-TV, has been licensed to Everett since 1984 and debuted in 1997.[320] The City of Everett also runs The Everett Channel (formerly Everett TV), agovernment-access television station that broadcasts local events, city meetings, and special programming.[321][322] Everett itself has four radio stations.[323] The Skotdal family owns two stations in Everett that share facilities with the Everett Post:KRKO-AM, which began broadcasting in 1922 and primary playsclassic hits along with local sports;[324] andKKXA-AM, a country music station launched in 2011.[325][326]KSER-FM is an independentpublic radio station founded in 1991 to serve Snohomish County, carrying local news, music programming, and nationally syndicated news.[327] Everett is also home toKWYZ-AM (Radio Hankook), aKorean language news and entertainment station that launched in 1997 and is broadcast fromFederal Way.[328][329]
TheEverett Public Library system has two locations with 258,133 total items and serves 45,205 registered members in the city and surrounding communities as of 2018[update].[330] The library was founded in 1894 and moved into apermanent building in 1905. The current downtown library opened in 1934 and was expanded in 1991;[331] a branch library in South Everett opened in 1985 and was renovated in 2019.[332] In 2017,Sno-Isle Libraries, the countywide library system, opened a demonstration branch at a strip mall in South Everett to serve the Mariner area.[333] Sno-Isle's permanent Mariner branch is planned to begin construction in 2026 as part of a mixed-use development in the neighborhood.[334]
Everett is home to 14 properties listed on theNational Register of Historic Places.[335] The city maintains its own register of historic places that began in 1987 and has 35 listed properties.[336] A non-profit preservation group, Historic Everett, was founded in 2002 and hosts educational events and tours of the city.[336]
In addition to historic properties, the city has several designatedhistoric districts:Hewitt Avenue Historic District in Downtown Everett; theRucker Hill Historic District; and theSwalwell Block. Severalhistoric overlay districts are designated by the city government, including the Riverside Overlay, the Norton–Grand Overlay, and the Rucker–Grand Overlay, which includes the home of the former U.S. SenatorHenry M. Jackson.[335][337] Several properties within the historic districts have undergone renovation and restoration work in the 21st century to preserve their historic value, partially in response to the demolition of other buildings for new construction.[338]
The Everett Museum of History was established in 1953 as a countywide historical association and maintained its own museum until 2007. The organization's collections were then moved to several buildings for storage, including the former Everett Carnegie Library and part of the Everett Mall, while a permanent location was sought.[339] A new museum at the former downtown offices of theEverett Herald is planned to open in 2021, using donated funds to purchase and renovate the building.[340][341]
Everett is home to two sports venues that are used by professionalminor league teams and for other events.[342] TheAngel of the Winds Arena, an indoor arena in downtown which seats 8,149, is home to theEverett Silvertips of theWestern Hockey League.[343] It opened in 2003 at a cost of $83 million and includes a community ice rink and a convention center for use by other events.[121] The arena has hosted basketball games for theSeattle Storm of theWNBA,[344] indoor tennis events including the2020 Fed Cup,[345] and two editions of theSkate America figure skating championships in 2008 and 2018.[346]
TheEverett AquaSox (formerly the Giants) are part of theNorthwest League and play at Funko Field, a 3,682-seat baseball stadium that is part of theEverett Memorial Stadium complex.[347] The stadium is also home to the Everett Merchants, a summer collegiate team that plays in thePacific International League.[348] The Memorial Stadium complex was built in 1947 and includes a 12,000-seat football and track stadium that is used by the city's various high school teams.[349][350] The Aquasox announced in 2021 that it plans to renovate Funko Field or build a new ballpark in Downtown Everett with funding from the city government to comply with newMinor League Baseball standards. The new downtown ballpark would be constructed by 2027 and drew interest from theUnited Soccer League for a potential minor-league professional men's and women's teams.[351]
TheSeattle Spartans, a women's football team that plays in theWomen's Football Alliance, was founded in 2012 and originally named the Everett Reign. The team plays its home games at Mariner High School.[363]
Everett has more than 40parks,trails,golf courses, andplaygrounds maintained by the city government's Parks and Recreation Department.[366] The department manages a total of 693 acres (280 ha) of land, with most areas set aside for natureconservation and others developed for use by residents and visitors.[367] The department also organizes recreational activities at city parks and throughout the city, including sports leagues,swimming lessons, hiking trips, and classes oncooking andgardening.[368][369]
The city's first park, now known as Clark Park, was established in 1894 and functioned as atown square with regular concerts and protests until itsbandstand was demolished in 1979.[370] The largest park in Everett, Forest Park, was acquired in late 1894 and was left largely undeveloped until the 1930s.[371] The parks system includes several facilities withsports fields and courts, including Garfield Park, Kasch Park, Henry M. Jackson Park, and Phil Johnson Ballfields.[367] The city operates two public golf courses at American Legion Memorial Park (opened in 1934) and Walter E. Hall Park (opened in 1972).[372] A private golf course, the Everett Golf & Country Club, was established in 1910 on 66 acres (27 ha) south of downtown.[373]
The municipal parks system includes several miles of public shoreline access at Howarth Park on Port Gardner Bay, Rotary Park and Langus Riverfront Park on the Snohomish River, and Thornton A. Sullivan Park on Silver Lake.[374] The shoreline parks have publicbeaches andboat launches for recreational boating.[367] The Port of Everett has a large publicmarina and its own boat launch at 10th Street that also serves a ferry toJetty Island.[375][376] The state and county governments also maintain their own parks in the Everett area, including the jointly maintainedSpencer Island Regional Park.[367][377] The city government is also responsible for maintaining a section of theInterurban Trail, which connects Everett to Lynnwood,Mountlake Terrace,Shoreline, and Seattle.[76][378] North Everett is ringed by theMill Town Trail, a six-mile (9.7 km) multi-use pathway with interpretive signs to commemorate the city's industrial history.[197]
Everett'ssenior center first opened on June 1, 1965, in the Louie's Dance Hall building on Rockefeller Avenue with support from the county chapter ofUnited Good Neighbors.[379][380] The Rockefeller Avenue building was condemned in 1971 and the senior center was moved into the historicLongfellow School.[381] The city government took over operations in 1973 and opened a new senior center on August 31, 1978;[382][383] it was renamed for Carl Gipson, the city's first African American councilmember, in 2009.[384] The city closed the senior center in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent budget crisis; meal deliveries were offered during the closure. The senior center reopened in January 2022 under apublic–private partnership with the Western Washington chapter of theVolunteers of America, which took over its operations.[385][386]
Forest Park, located southwest of Downtown Everett, is the largest park in the city system at 197 acres (80 ha).[367] The park is situated along Pigeon Creek, with recreational facilities on a hilltop overlooking the ravine and several miles of hiking trails. It was acquired by the city in 1894 and named Forest Park in 1913. A publiczoo was established at Forest Park in 1914 by parks director Oden Hall, who collected animals through trades and gifts from other zoos and traveling circuses. The zookeeper position was eliminated in 1958 and the zoo was demolished in 1962 after threebond issues to upgrade the facilities failed.[371][387] Forest Park's main facilities were built during the 1930s by the Works Progress Administration, including the Floral Hall, playgrounds, terrace hillsides, and picnic shelters.[78] The publicswimming pool opened at Forest Park in 1976 and a permanent structure was built around it in 1984.[388][389] Major renovations of the facilities in the park were completed in 1997 and 2020.[390]
The largest park in North Everett isAmerican Legion Memorial Park, a 140-acre (57 ha) open space on the peninsula's northwest bluff at the site of a former Snohomish village and smelter.[391] The majority of the park is occupied by a golf course that was built by theAmerican Legion and transferred to the city government alongside the rest of the park in 1935.[372] TheEvergreen Arboretum was built in 1963 at the northwest edge of the golf course, alongside apicnic shelter and the county's history museum.[391] Ascenic viewpoint on the park grounds with views of the Olympic Mountains was named Hibulb Lookout in 2014, commemorating the historic Snohomish village at the site.[392]
Jetty Island is anartificial island in Port Gardner Bay that is home to sandy beaches and protected wildlife habitats. The two-mile (3.2 km) island was formed from dredging of the Snohomish River in the early 20th century and acquired by the Port of Everett in 1929.[393] The city began operating a seasonal ferry between the island and a waterfront parking area in 1985; the ferry now runs from July to September, serving 50,000 visitors annually.[394][395] Jetty Island is home to more than 115 identified bird species, salmon habitats, and mollusks.[394][396]
The majority of the city lies within the school district forEverett Public Schools (officially the Everett School District), which has 26 schools, 2,000 staff members, and an enrollment of 20,000 students.[397][398] Everett Public Schools is managed by a five-member electedboard and covers 52 square miles (130 km2), including most of Everett, the city ofMill Creek, and the unincorporated area ofSilver Firs.[399][400] The southern and western neighborhoods of Everett are served by theMukilteo School District, which also has its own high school (Mariner) in the area.[401]
Everett Public Schools has three high school campuses:Everett High School near downtown,Cascade High School near Casino Corner, andHenry M. Jackson High School in Mill Creek.[402] The school district was recognized in 2016 for its highgraduation rates of 90 percent for four-year students and 94.5 percent for five-year students.[398] A fourth high school campus, planned to cost $220 million to build, was part of abond measure in February 2018 that was rejected by voters, resulting in boundary changes for the existing schools.[402][403] The school district also has fivemiddle schools and 18elementary schools in Everett and Mill Creek.[404][405] The city is also home to twoalternative schools: Sequoia High School, operated by Everett Public Schools,[406] and ACES High School, operated by the Mukilteo School District.[407]
The Everett area is also home to severalprivate school systems operated by religious organizations and independent educators, including those that cater to commuters from around the county. The largest private high school in the county isArchbishop Murphy High School, a Catholic school in southeastern Everett, with an enrollment of 500 students.[408] Other major private religious schools include theEverett Christian School, Cedar Park Christian School, and Northshore Christian Academy.[409]
Everett Community College (EvCC) is a two-year publiccommunity college that has enrolled 19,000 students from around Snohomish County and 463 total faculty members.[410][411] The college's main campus is in North Everett on the south side of Legion Memorial Golf Course.[412] It was established in 1941 at a former downtown elementary school and moved to its North Everett location in 1958, where it has since expanded several times.[413][414]
Civic and business leaders from the Everett area began lobbying the state legislature for a four-year college in the 1990s, proposing a branch of an existing state college to serve Snohomish, Island, and Skagit counties.[415] A site inBothell was instead chosen for anorthern branch campus for theUniversity of Washington (UW), but only 27 percent of its students were from Snohomish County.[416][417] In 2007, the state legislature authorized planning funds for a UW branch campus in Snohomish County and a site near Everett Station was named as a finalist alongside candidates in Lake Stevens and Marysville.[412][418] Thebranch campus project was shelved by the state legislature in 2008 amid a funding shortfall for the education system.[419]
The city is bisected byInterstate 5 (I-5), a major north–south freeway that connects Everett to Seattle andVancouver, British Columbia. The Everett–Seattle section of I-5 is rated as one of the most congested in the United States during commuting hours, with an average of 94 minutes to travel 24 miles (39 km) and 182,000 daily vehicles in South Everett.[120] The city also has several major highways with intercity connections, includingU.S. Route 2 toWenatchee via Stevens Pass;State Route 99 from the Everett Mall to Seattle;State Route 526 to Mukilteo;State Route 527 from the Everett Mall to Mill Creek; andState Route 529 from the waterfront to Marysville.[153]
Everett has several public transit and intercity transport services that intersect atEverett Station, a multimodal train and bus station that opened in 2002.[118] The station is served by twoAmtrak routes:Cascades, which connects Vancouver to Seattle andPortland, Oregon; and theEmpire Builder, which travels from Seattle toChicago.[431] Everett is also the northern terminus of theSounder commuter rail system, which is operated bySound Transit and travels south to Seattle duringpeak hours with stops in Mukilteo and Edmonds.[432] The station is served by intercity buses fromGreyhound Lines,BoltBus, andNorthwestern Trailways, which connect Everett to cities in the Pacific Northwest.[433][434] The passenger trains operate on tracks owned byBNSF Railway, which operates freight service and maintains a major railyard in Northeast Everett.[435]
The city-runEverett Transit system was established in 1969, replacing a private operator that had opened the first streetcar lines in the city in 1893.[436] The countywideCommunity Transit system, based in Everett, connects to surrounding cities and operates a commuter bus network with hubs in the city.[437] Itsbus rapid transit system,Swift, has two lines that travel through the city: theBlue Line from Downtown Everett to Shoreline via State Route 99; and theGreen Line, which connects the Boeing plant to Mill Creek and northern Bothell.[438] Sound Transit also providesexpress bus service toBellevue andDowntown Seattle during peak hours andLynnwood City Center station at all hours.[439][440] The agency plans to extendLink light rail service to Paine Field in 2037 and Downtown Everett by 2041[441] as part of theSound Transit 3 plan passed by voters in 2016.[442] A plan to build ahigh-speed railway in the Pacific Northwest is also under development with a station serving Everett among those proposed.[443]
The city has 53 miles (85 km) of markedbicycle lanes, 13 miles (21 km) of designated bicycle trails, and 16 miles (26 km) of shared spaces for cyclists and other modes. During theCOVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the city government temporarily closed three low-traffic streets to through traffic and converted them to "Healthy Streets" that would encourage cycling and walking.[444][445] TheInterurban Trail, a major inter-city bicycle and pedestrian trail, begins in Everett and continues south towards Seattle on the right-of-way of a former interurban railway that ran from 1910 to 1939.[76] The city has hosted severalscooter-sharing systems since 2019, when it introducedLime scooters.[446] The city permittedBird to operate scooters in 2022; during the first five months of the program, over 26,000 trips were taken on scooters in the city that covered 48,500 miles (78,100 km).[447]
Everett's airport,Paine Field, is operated by Snohomish County primarily for aerospace businesses and general aviation. The airport was opened in 1936 and was used as a military base and commercial airport until 1966, when Boeing selected it for the site of a major assembly plant.[448] Commercial passenger service to Paine Field resumed on March 4, 2019, after the construction of a new terminal operated by a private company.[129] The nearest major airports areBoeing Field in Seattle andSeattle-Tacoma International Airport in southern King County.[129] A private passenger ferry from the Port of Everett provides access toHat Island in Possession Sound.[449]
The City of Everett maintains atap water system that supplies 80 percent of Snohomish County through interlocal agreements with other municipalities andwater districts.[456][457] The system primarily sources its water fromSpada Lake, an artificial reservoir on theSultan River created by theCulmback Dam and located 25 miles (40 km) east of Everett in the Cascade Mountains. The water is treated at afiltration plant at Lake Chaplain, the system's secondary water source, which has a capacity of 134 million US gallons (510 million litres) per day and typically handles 50 million US gal (190 million L) per day.[458] The Sultan River basin has been used as the main source of the city's water since 1917 and uses a 25-mile (40 km) network of pipes to reach Everett; the modern Spada Lake reservoir was formed in 1965 by the construction of the Culmback Dam, co-owned by Everett and the Snohomish County PUD.[68][459] Several reservoirs in the city hold over 25 million US gal (95 million L) of water to supply Everett and surrounding cities.[460]
Everett is home toProvidence Regional Medical Center Everett, a system of two general hospitals operated byProvidence Health & Services. The hospital system was formed in 1994 by the merger of two existing hospitals in Everett: the Everett General Hospital, opened in January 1894 as the city's first hospital; and Providence Hospital, established in 1905 near Downtown Everett.[465][466] The existing Providence Hospital was renamed the Providence Pacific Campus, while the former General Hospital became the Colby Campus, which was expanded in 2011 with a 12-story medical tower.[135] The Providence campuses have a combined 3,300 employees and 571 beds,[467] and are rated as aLevel II trauma center.[135][468]
The city also has several medical services withclinics and specialized facilities operated by Providence and other providers.Kaiser Permanente has a five-story medical tower in Downtown Everett with a walk-in clinic, specialty services, and anurgent care clinic.[469] The building originally opened forGroup Health in 1994 to consolidate its three clinics in Everett and is being expanded with a new building that began construction in 2020.[470][471]The Everett Clinic is based in the city and operates medical facilities across Snohomish County, serving 320,000 patients.[472] The system was founded in 1924 and acquired in 2016 byDaVita Inc.; it was then sold toUnitedHealth Group'sOptum a year later.[473] The non-profit Community Health Center of Snohomish County operates four medical clinics in Everett, providing services to primarily low-income and uninsured patients.[474]
Everett has three officialsister city relationships.[479] The first was formed in 1962 with the Japanese city ofIwakuni inYamaguchi Prefecture as part of a peace campaign organized by schoolchildren in both cities. Everett and Iwakuni have since hostedexchange student programs through, which have been run by Everett Community College since 1996.[480] The eastern Russian city ofSovetskaya Gavan inKhabarovsk Krai became Everett's second sister city in 1991 as part of an exchange between the U.S. andSoviet Union cities.[481]Sligo inCounty Sligo, Ireland, also became a sister city in 1991 based on the similar coastal and mountainous settings of the two cities.[479][482]
^Tweddell, Colin E. (August 1953).A Historical and Ethnological Study of the Snohomish Indian People: A Report Specifically Covering Their Aboriginal and Continued Existence, and Their Effective Occupation of a Definable Territory. Coast Salish and Western Washington Indians. Vol. II. New York City:Garland Publishing (published 1974). p. 166.OCLC41734047.
^abHaeberlin, Hermann;Gunther, Erna (September 1930). "The Indians of Puget Sound".University of Washington Publications in Anthropology.4 (1): 7, 15.ISSN0085-7920.OCLC4380206.
^abcCity of Everett Annexations By Year (Map). City of Everett Department of Community, Planning & Economic Development. March 2019. RetrievedApril 5, 2020.
^Clutter, Stephen (January 9, 1997). "Bringing home the future: The Lincoln, with crew of 3,200 is first carrier permanently assigned to Everett".The Seattle Times. p. B1.
^ab"Chapter 1: Introduction".Everett Comprehensive Plan. City of Everett. June 2015. p. 13. Archived fromthe original on April 13, 2020. RetrievedApril 12, 2020.
^Washington State Redistricting Commission (July 15, 2022)."Legislative District 44"(PDF) (Map).District Maps Booklet 2022. Washington State Legislative Information Center. p. 45. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on May 19, 2024. RetrievedJanuary 15, 2024.
^abBagwell, Steve; Stapilus, Randy (2013).New Editions: The Northwest's newspapers as they were, are, and will be. Carlton, Oregon: Ridenbaugh Press. pp. 212–213.ISBN978-0-945648-10-9.OCLC861618089.
Cameron, David A.; LeWarne, Charles P.; May, M. Allan; O'Donnell, Jack C.; O'Donnell, Lawrence E. (2005).Snohomish County: An Illustrated History. Index, Washington: Kelcema Books LLC.ISBN978-0-9766700-0-1.OCLC62728798.
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