Bothell residents for decades, their memories range from the long lines that used to be in evidence outside the Keener Meat Market to local football games.
All talk about how the city has grown. They remember when the Canyon Park neighborhood consisted entirely of farms. But they all also contend that despite the transformation of Bothell into a more urban environment, the city has remained a small town in spirit.
“If you ask anybody who lives in Bothell what it is they like about Bothell, they’ll tell you it’s the small-town feel,” said Leigh Henderson, who is not only a longtime resident, but long has operated Alexa’s Cafe on Main Street.
“It has proximity to everything, yet it doesn’t seem to be enticed into the hustle and bustle of bigger cities,” said Al Haynes, who grew up in Bothell and is the grandson of famed local high-school coach Harold Stevens “Pop” Keeney, whose name, of course, adorns Bothell’s football stadium.
Henderson, Haynes and others shared their memories of Bothell as the city gets ready to mark its centennial beginning with celebrations April 18 downtown and in the Park at Bothell Landing.
Longtime president of the Bothell Historical Society and Museum and a resident of the city for 39 years, Sue Kienast noted the centennial marks the day Bothell was incorporated as a city, April 14, 1909. The city was founded earlier, in 1889, the same year Washington became a state. Kienast said Bothell was one of the first communities in the area to incorporate, noting that neighboring Woodinville was settled years earlier, but didn’t incorporate until the 1990s.
“Bothell was more forward-looking,” said Kienast, who first became interested in local history in the 1970s when she attended a meeting of the historical society.
“I was talking to ladies who remembered when Main Street was a dirt road,” Kienast said.
For her and others, history is alive and well in Bothell and should be, making the centennial an occasion well worth noting.
“The history of Bothell is so present, so to speak,” Kienast said.
“I think history is extremely important, it’s part of the fabric of the city,” said Pat Pierce, a former City Council member who helped create Bothell’s Landmark Preservation Board. She still serves on the board, which helps protect significant buildings and locations.
According to Pierce, a total of 18 Bothell properties are listed on local, state or national registers of historic places. For example, Bothell Pioneer Cemetery is one spot that is on all three lists.
Pierce clearly considers the landmark board’s work with historical locations important, but she is especially proud of the group’s 160-page history of the city, “Bothell: Then and Now,” which comes complete with a DVD, “Bothell: A Sense of Time and Place.”
For Haynes, not surprisingly, many of his memories revolve around his famous grandfather. He admits having the local football stadium named after a member of his family means more to him now than it did when he was younger.
“He influenced quite a few people and I’ve come to appreciate that quite a bit,” Haynes said.
The Haynes family has other claims to fame locally, owning a Union 76 service station in Bothell for many years, but probably more importantly, Haynes’ father, Lowell Haynes, served on both City Council and the Planning Commission.
Lowell Haynes died in December at age 85.
Having arrived in Bothell in the fourth grade, George Selg said one of the first things he remembers about Bothell is wandering around the stores on Main. He rattled off the names of several well-known local shop owners, including Lowell Haynes and Alex Sidie.
“You could walk in and they would come and say, ‘Hi,’ and they would chat with you,” Selg said. “The city still has a lot of that quality.”
While they clearly believe the past is important, several of these longtime Bothell supporters also are looking forward to the city’s future, particularly the planned rebuilding of the downtown.
“I’m very much in favor of the redevelopment of the downtown,” said Henderson. “We have a lot going in our favor, but we’re so small.”
Haynes said a couple of previous plans to redo the city’s main retail sector died for a couple of reasons, in his opinion, one being a lack of attention to parking issues. He hopes that doesn’t happen again.
Selg is looking to the city’s future in a slightly different way, the driving force behind a $150,000 effort to replace the scoreboard at Pop Keeney Field. He only recently announced the new, state-of-the-art amenity should arrive in Bothell in the next few weeks.
