!Welcome to Everett!

Everett, Washington

The City of Everett is beautifully situated on a peninsula bordered by the Snohomish River to the east and Port Gardner Bay and Puget Sound on the west. Today we can view two mountain rangesthe Cascades to the east and the Olympics to the west. But before this area was heavily settled, the forests were so thick with huge trees that you would not have been able to see the mountains from here.

Everett was named for the son of one of the original founders, Charles Colby. Its population, as of the 2010 census, is 103,000, making it the 6th largest city in the state. The city limits include a total area of nearly 50 square miles (125.29 km2), of which 15 square miles (38.95 km2) is water.

!A Quick Look Into Our Past...

The Hibulb tribe, or People of the Salmon, were the original people to inhabit the Everett Peninsula. They lived next to the river where it emptied into a deep-water bay, which provided both abundant food and transportation.

On June 4, 1792, George Vancouver landed on the beach south of the village and claimed the entire area for the King of England. He named the bay Port Gardner for a member of his party.

The first permanent settler in the area that would become Everett came in 1861. He built a cabin on 160 acres along Port Gardner Bay and lived alone, cut o from his nearest neighbors by the deep forests.

Settlement continued, the main industry being related to the rich timber resources. By 1903, Everett boasted 10 sawmills and 12 shingle mills with industry employing 2835 men.

Everett incorporated in 1893. Some of the earliest citizens were Bible Students, who met at Wall Street and Wetmore.

Sisters Bible Study Group 1905

Lumber Industry

Meeting Invitation Circa 1922

!Preaching Methods...In subsequent years, local Witnesses used many methods to preach including a sound car, phonograph testimony cards, street witnessing with canvas magazine bags and sandwich boards.

Two zealous preachers fondly remembered from the 1940s are Lincoln Temple and his sister Dee Ponds. As two of the few African Americans in the area, they would have faced considerable prejudice. Added to this would be the prejudice felt toward Jehovahs Witnesses in that intensely patriotic time.

Sister Adela Kooper recalled that her first introduction to the truth was Brother Temple playing the phonograph at her door in the early 40s. She didnt understand what the recording was about, but when her brother and sister-in-law began studying with the Witnesses, she thought there must be something to it and began studying herself.

Dee Ponds & Lincoln Temple

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Spiritual Growth...Many accepted the truth and made progress, and the Everett company grew. In 1942, a baptism was held at a sisters farm in Monroe. Candidates were immersed in a large watering trough. Another baptism was held at Silver Lake in 1955.

Over time, the congregations divided and grew and divided again. Today, there are more than 30 congregations in Snohomish County, meeting in 14 Kingdom Halls.

Baptism Day 1942

Baptism 1955

Everett Company, early 1930s

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Time to travel...

Many of our local brothers and sisters had great appreciation for spiritual food. They traveled long distances at great expense to attend conventions. They would take several weeks o work, or even quit their jobs. Some constructed camping trailers to travel 6,000 miles round trip to New York for landmark conventions in 1950, 1953, and 1958.

1947 Convention

1950 Convention1958 Convention

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Kingdom Ha#s...For many years before a Kingdom Hall was built, the Everett congregation met in a rented room above Deans Drug Store. One of our sisters recalls visiting in the stairwell after the friday night meeting and hearing the music and noise of the neighboring taverns.

The first Kingdom Hall in Everett, on Wetmore Avenue, was built during World War II. It took about two years to build and was completed in 1944. Poorly constructed without rafters, it presented problems for the brothers. They installed iron rods with turnbuckles to hold the building together. Nevertheless, it served our brothers until a replacement was built on Madison Street in 1980. In the early 1950s, a second Kingdom Hall was built in south Everett.

Deans Drug Store

South Everett Ha# Construction, 1950s

Wetmore Avenue Ha#

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North Everett...The North Everett Hall was completed on this site in 1976 after about a year of construction. It was destroyed by an electrical fire in 1985, so preparation was made to replace it by means of a 48-hour Quick Build. Hundreds of volunteers came to participate and witness a miracle.

They began at 7am Saturday morning. In minutes, the walls were framed and lifted. Nine hours later, the roof was on. By Sunday evening the interior and exterior were complete and the landscaping was in. It has been remodeled a few times since, most recently to install equipment for the ASL congregation.

1976 Kingdom Ha#

1985 Quick BuildNorth Everett Today

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Expanding our preaching work in recent times...The variety of people to whom we preach in Everett and surrounding Snohomish Count have shifted over time. The Spanish-speaking field is growing quickly. Currently, there are 30,000-50,000 Spanish speakers living in the county. The local Spanish congregation, the first in Snohomish county, began as a group in 1991, and became a congregation in 1993. Seven more have been formed since.

Not to be overlooked is the sign language field. Sign Language (ASL) congregations are the third most numerous in the US Branch. The Everett Sign Language congregation formed about two years ago to reach deaf people in Snohomish County and beyond.

About 13% of the population of Snohomish County were born outside the US, and upwards of 70,000 people speak a language other than English or Spanish at home. The third largest language group in the county is Korean, served by a Korean congregation in Lynnwood. There are 10 Korean congregations in the Pacific NW (including British Columbia, Canada.)

The North Everett Congregation hosted an Arabic group for a few years (it has since moved closer to Seattle), and the Bayside congregation hosts a Russian Group. There is a Tagalog (a Philippine language) congregation in Marysville, and speakers of Cambodian, Chinese, Romanian, Vietnamese, Punjabi, and several other languages are reached by congregations or groups in the Seattle Metro area. About 3 years ago, the first Nepali Public Meeting on the West Coast was held here, attended by people from as far away as Spokane (300 miles / 483 km from Everett). Language classes have been held in Arabic, ASL, Russian, and Spanish to help publishers preach in those languages.

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Alternative Witnessing...

Even foreign-language speakers outside the area are reached in the Port Witnessing program, where brothers are approved to board ships docked at the Port of Everett. The brothers present the Bibles message to sailors from many countries, such as the Philippines, Russia, and China, using Bibles, books, and videos in the appropriate languages. The Bayside congregation serves as the local hub for this assignment, with literature stocked in approximately 30 dierent languages.

Of course, door-to-door preaching is still the primary method to reach people with the good news. But, following the counsel from Jehovahs organization, the Everett congregations have expanded their preaching to include other methods. North Everett English regularly stas literature carts at Everetts Transit Center and near the County Courthouse, while Bayside sets up at the Everett Community College. The Sign Language congregation also uses carts for public witnessing in their territory. Other publishers visit businesses, make phone calls, and write letters to reach those inaccessible by door-to-door activity.

Public Witnessing

Port Witnessing

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Bayside congregation

Russian Group

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North English congregation

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Sign Language congregation

Thank you...... for joining us in the ministry and for the upbuilding association. We rejoice in having a taste

of our worldwide brotherhood, and look forward to serving Jehovah alongside our whole association of brothers through this system and into Gods new world!

- North Everett congregations

I wi# change the language of the peoples to a pure language, so that a# of them may ca# on the name of Jehovah, to serve him shoulder to shoulder.

- Zephaniah 3:9