Capsule profiles of Anacortes and
Fidalgo Island pioneers, businesses and place names
Part 2: M-R

This photo of the Very Big Snow in February 1916 is a view looking north-northeast on Commercial Street. That snow completely inundated Skagit County, the Skagit River froze completely over for about three weeks and communication with the outside world was catch as catch can, as they said back then. The white wonderland was of course every child's dream, the answer to boredom and prayers mid-winter that something, anything, would close school for the day, except that in this case they closed for a week or two. Claudia Lowman supplied the photo and she notes that the store across the street was Dodge's Clothes Shop; the Bon Ton Bakery was just up the street from the Mercantile, which was the major retail store of town. The building itself was born as the McNaught building (see below), erected in 1890-91, located seven blocks to the west when attorney James McNaught and his associates were attempting to set up an alternate downtown at what was then referred to as the "West End." After the turn of the 20th century, R. Lee Bradley bought the building and moved it on log rollers to Commercial. We hope someone will find photos of this move because it must have been a phenomenal effort and sight in those early days. The building still stands on Commercial, but you would never know it was the same one. It is now the toney Majestic Hotel, which reopened in 2005 after nearly two years of total remodel following the fire that gutted the original structure in 2001.