Work on the Snohomish Carnegie Building, as seen in November.
Doug Ramsay
SNOHOMISH — The City Council began discussing the future plans for the newly renovated Carnegie building at the Dec. 1 council meeting.
The city wants to use the Carnegie as a venue rental operation for events such as weddings, receptions, meetings, banquets, celebrations of life, craft fairs and more. Wendy Poischbeg, the city’s economic development and communications manager, who also took the role of Carnegie operations manager, said that there has been a lot of interest in including the Carnegie plaza in the Snohomish Farmers Market as well.
The elegant and modern amenities in the Carnegie building provide a different option for a small intimate public space, compared to the vast majority of rustic and rural event venues within and around Snohomish.
The rental rates for the Carnegie building, according to the operations plan, is as follows: The main level is priced at $85 per hour and $95 per hour on weekends and holidays. Plaza rentals will be priced at $150 per hour and the lower level can be rented for $75 per hour. Rental rates are reduced for nonprofit and government organizations.
The building has a maximum capacity of 210 people and has plans for an outdoor plaza with the Veterans Memorial that can be rented as well. The larger main floor can comfortably seat 92, the lower level can seat 75.
The operations plan has accounted for alcohol sales as well for special events. Council member Steve Dana questioned how alcohol will be served because of the current ban on alcohol on city property. Poischbeg responded stating “special events” are an exception to the rule but she will “look into that and talk with (city administrator Steve Schuller) on how to resolve that.”
Rentals at the Carnegie are projected to cover the city’s operational costs at about $220,000 a year with an estimated revenue of $225,000 each year in 2021 and 2022.
A Carnegie plan lists the goals for the number of rentals per month, aiming for 30 rentals a month in the months of May through December, 20 rentals per month during March and April, and 16 per month in January and February.
Consultants provided a market analysis and operation study in 2019 with 14 recommendations reflected in the draft operations plan to be financially successful.
Council President Linda Redmon remarked at last week’s meeting that she thinks the project is a very doable and realistic plan.
Prior coverage:
Snohomish's Carnegie building is practically complete - Nov. 18 Tribune by Jake Berg
SNOHOMISH — After a tedious process spanning over a decade, including a number of grants and three master plans, the Carnegie building in the historic Snohomish Downtown is almost fully restored. Now 110 years old, the building still stands on Cedar Avenue, nearly identical to the original building constructed in 1910.
The Carnegie Public Library in Snohomish was originally funded by the national Carnegie Foundation, which funded public libraries across the country from 1886 to 1923. The building served the community as a library for nearly a century until 2003, when the current Snohomish public library was built on Maple Avenue.
From 2003 to 2017, the Carnegie building served as a community space, being rented out by the city for events until it was deemed unsafe for use. In that time the city held public hearings and created three different master plans for the future of the Carnegie building.
In the multiple public hearings, many ideas were offered up. Although some suggested demolishing the Carnegie building to construct a parking lot, it was clear the majority of the community wanted to restore the building for public use.
City project manager Brennan Collins began working on the Carnegie restoration in November of 2019 and said he was not at the hearings but knows “it was overwhelmingly in favor of restoring the Carnegie to what it was in 1910.”
Restoration on the Carnegie building began with two crucial components: a seismic retrofitting and a new roof. In order to make the building safe for public use, it had to be upgraded to current earthquake codes which included a new roof.
Snohomish Carnegie Foundation chair Melody Clemans said in order to even begin the seismic retrofitting, a study of the property had to be done.
The annex, which was added in 1968 for additional space, was also removed after finding it to be cheaper than attempting to restore it. The building was also made ADA accessible in the process and painted to match the original building as close as possible which included exposing four “printer’s marks” or “publisher’s marks” made from decorative tiles. The printer’s marks, located under the roofline on the west side of the building, were fully restored by removing multiple layers of paint.
Clemans has lived in Snohomish her entire life and said she never remembered seeing the marks.
“When I was growing up, which is a long time ago, they were still painted over,” Clemans said. “My sister is 10 years older than me and I asked her, ‘Have you ever seen those tiles and the printers marks revealed?’ and she said ‘no,’ and she was a child of the Depression.”
Printer’s marks, the signature of a publisher for the earliest of books, were often used as decoration for educational buildings like libraries in the 1800s and early 1900s, including the Congressional Library in Washington, D.C.
A letter written in 1910 from the architecture firm involved, addressed to the Secretary of Library Board in Snohomish, depicts the marks and their meanings.
“The marks used in the Snohomish Library were chosen partly to indicate the cosmopolitan character of the American people and their literature: the French (Janot) and Dutch (Leen) marks being chosen more because they adapted themselves more easily to the decorative use and not because of any feeling that the Spanish, German, or Italian elements in our composition were less evident. Two English marks were chosen because perhaps we still feel Anglo-Saxon,” the letter reads.
It went on to explain the most noteworthy mark of the four displayed. Farthest to the right is the mark of William Caxton, the man who first printed the Bible in English.
Clemans said the marks wouldn’t have been exposed if it wasn’t for Collins finding a solution for restoring the tiles to their original glory.
