Spirits of Hewitt: Everett's Hoppy History

Editor’s note: Originally published January 9, 2018. Republished September 3, 2020.

I like good beer almost as much as I like a good story.

This week I was searching the coolers of Toggle's for something nice and sour.

I was thinking about how Hewitt Avenue has always been a place where the people of Everett go to get a drink.

Pull up a barstool and I'll tell you a short history of Everett's relationship with strong drink.

EVERETT BEER- EARLY 1900s

There was once a brewery near the Port Gardner neighborhood. It was a wooden building and it caught fire. And that was the end of Everett Beer.

Today we have Scuttlebutt.

PROHIBITIONS

There were two prohibitions in Everett: the normal, federally-mandated one, and a second, self-imposed prohibition in the early 1900s.

Nobody suffered too much: homemade hooch was easy enough to come by. The best DIY whiskey was trucked into the city from Granite Falls.

There were speakeasies all over town. Some were passed off as "cafes" (Joe King's* was such a place) but many were simple, spare rooms in downtown. They had a few chairs and served gin and 7 Up. No nonsense.

Or one could go to a local dancehall. At a given dance there were typically bottles floating in the back of the toilet tanks. Compliments of the house.

*Pines Tavern (RIP). 2930 Rockefeller // Image courtesy of the Northwest History Room.*

39 CHURCHES, 39 TAVERNS

As Prohibition ended the millworkers turned to booze with a newfound thirst. At one point in the 1940s, according to local resident and bar owner Florence Brandt Troia, there were 39 taverns and 39 churches.

Here, for fun, is a partial list of Everett taverns from this era:

The Dock Tavern
Longshoreman’s Hall
Port Tavern
New Deal
Anchor Pub
Joe King’s
Sport Center
The Cave Tavern
Commercial
The Hangar
The Milwaukee
The Castle
The Rainier
Central Tavern
The Dog House
The Blue Moon
The Seven Seas
The Pennant
The Plumb Crazy
The Totem
Kentucky Stables
The Windmill
Silver Lake Tavern
The White Elephant

Of these taverns from the 1940s, the Anchor** and the Blue Moon are the only two still in business.

*This photo from the 1970s shows a sign for the Totem Tavern (RIP) on Evergreen Way // Image courtesy of the Northwest History Room.*

LAST CALL

So there it is. A brief history of Milltown highlife.

And now I think it would be cool to open a bar dedicated to Everett itself. You heard it here first. Call it "The Seagull" and make house cocktails with names like "three-fingered miller" and "the logboom."

Too meta?

Well, if it makes you hoppy... it can't be that bad.

*Joe King's Tavern (alternately called Joe King's Cafe) was a popular bar run by the gangster Joe King. The building where Joe King's was is now The Loft Coffee Bar.

** The Anchor's dollar train beer is an old tradition. The first mention I found of train beer of dates to the 1940s.

ANCHOR PUB (best bets: live music, good grub, cheap train beer)

1001 Hewitt Avenue Everett, WA 98201
(425) 374-2580

BLUE MOON TAVERN (best bets: karaoke nights, big smoking patio, Ray's next door)

1331 Broadway Avenue Everett, WA 98201
(425) 259-3573