SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES
Historic Everett building on track to become parking lot
Dec 28, 2016, 7:05 AM
Everett's Longfellow Elementary is slated to be demolished over the coming year. It is too expensive to keep up and selling the building has proven difficult for the school district. (Joe Mabel, Wikimedia Commons)
(Joe Mabel, Wikimedia Commons)
A historic Everett building could be replaced with a parking lot next year.
After an attempt to sell Longfellow Elementary, KING 5 reports the Everett School District is making plans to demolish the 105-year-old building.
It’s a move that was opposed by the Everett Historical Commission. A Save the Longfellow School page was even set up on Facebook. A little over 100 people “liked” the page.
Without any buyers, there’s few options.
Back-and-forth on Everett school
The Snohomish County Tribune reports the school district was offered $2 million from the Hand Up Project. A year later, it skipped a $1 million offer from a developer.
A lack of interest may have come from “too many restrictions,” the Tribune reports. That includes the district being unwilling to give up an adjacent parking lot.
The building needs at least $8 million in restoration work. That includes earthquake retrofitting.
The school district’s head of facilities and operations told KING 5 that “realistically,” the roof is the only “decent part” of the old school.
So, unless a suitable buyer can save the aging structure, the former Longfellow school and a building next to it will become a 64-stall parking lot for the Everett Veterans Memorial Stadium — home of the AquaSox.
The demolition will cost around $780,000.
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