People with backpacks and one with a cart of clothing in a beige shopping cart hang around the Clark Park gazebo the afternoon of Friday, Feb. 2.
Photo by Michael Whitney.
EVERETT — Parks officials are clear the 103-year-old Clark Park gazebo will be demolished.
Since it’s within a historic park, though, last week city officials requested the city’s Historical Commission to informally bless the idea with directions on how to retain some of the gazebo’s history.
The city’s Historical Commission voted 4-3 Feb. 27 to pause on deciding, stating it wants further information. They felt last week’s request was thrust on them last-minute.
Commissioners themselves were mixed about demolishing the gazebo. Commissioners keen for keeping it intact asked whether the city sought grants for its rehabilitation.
The parks department has an idea to try to salvage parts of the gazebo and use them to accentuate the park, and add signs noting the gazebo stood at the park, parks director Bob Leonard said.
Plans are for a new 2,700-square-foot dog park. No trees will be taken out, Leonard said.
Leonard said it never was originally the intent to remove the gazebo for the dog park, “It’s not one or the other.”
The Historical Commission is involved because Clark Park is on Everett’s Register of Historic Places.
The whole park, that is, not just the gazebo. The park site in the 2400 block of Lombard Avenue was put on the register in 1993.
Formally, City Hall is asking the commission for a certificate where the commission vouches it is appropriate to alter the Clark Park property.
Whether or not a certificate is given has no actual weight on its ability to demolish the gazebo, the city confirmed to the Tribune.
A few historical commissioners said the action should require a different, more stringent type of approval called a waiver — that one requires the Historical Commission’s formal approval as well as the City Council’s to alter any of the places on the city’s historic register.
City officials characterize demolishing the gazebo as a change to the larger Clark Park, Leonard and city planning director Yorik Stevens-Wajda both said.
Loitering by people, and drug calls, are deterring the park’s use.
Everett Police statistics show half the calls to the park are over drugs.
But taking away the gazebo won’t solve problems with people experiencing homelessness hanging around, commissioners such as Teresa Gemmer said.
Commission Chair Patrick Hall encouraged analyzing why this gazebo has issues with crime and homelessness. The gazebo at Drew Nielsen Park doesn’t have these issues, he pointed out.
After the city condemned the Waits Motel in 2023, a move Hall publicly supported, Hall said last week he is concerned “the city’s new public safety solution is just to erase” places so no-one can hide.
Hall said the commission would have a high bar to justify the demolition of a historic structure such as the gazebo.
For years the gazebo was fenced off. When the fence is down, crime goes up.
The city was pursuing an idea to build security shutters onto the gazebo, but the price tag to do this gave Leonard pause.
Plus, ”the neighborhood no longer wants the gazebo in the park,” Leonard said.
Leonard said they ended up with three options:
• To build a shutter system, which would cost an estimated between $300,000 to $400,000.
• To relocate the gazebo, which the city found out would cost an estimated $160,000 to $200,000.
or
• To fence off the gazebo, which means nobody could use it.
The joint dog park and gazebo project has a budget of $190,000.
The unexpected cost of the shutter system made Leonard uncomfortable to go back to the City Council for a budget adjustment for more money, he said last week.
Demolishing the gazebo would cost an estimated $20,000.
One solution commissioners offered is to keep the gazebo, build the dog park and see if the dog park brings in enough activity to ward off criminals.
Bayside Neighborhood Association member Jane McClure said that “Bayside never entertained the removal” of the gazebo, McClure said, saying that was the city’s idea, although neighborhood leaders support the idea.
The neighborhood petitioned for the dog park. McClure noted the neighborhood’s annual Bark In The Park event is a huge draw.
The gazebo’s in disrepair and with what goes on, “I don’t feel welcome in my own neighborhood park,” neighbor Betsy Mullen said.
A couple of historical commissioners said the gazebo is the last historic thing about the park. The music bandshell was demolished in 1979, and the cannon was taken away years ago and last known to be in storage.
“Without the gazebo, the park has no historical value,” one commissioner said.
