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Skagit River Journal

of History & Folklore
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Burlington coveted Mount Vernon's
courthouse, 1909


(Decatur home and courthouse)
      This photo was taken sometime after 1892, either during the construction of the Skagit county courthouse or shortly thereafter. We look northeast, with the David Decatur mansion and barn in the middle — standing where the Lincoln Theater stands today. The courthouse is at the left of the photo. Photo courtesy of John Pollock, great-grandson of David Decatur. John's grandfather, Elden Pollock, married one of Decatur's daughters and was responsible for construction of the Lincoln and the Cascade Drive-In Theater south of Burlington where the Cascade Mall stands today. See this website for our exclusive Decatur story. We hope that a reader will have documents or photos of the drive-in to copy and share for an upcoming story.

      In 1909, Burlington tried to wrest the original courthouse away from Mount Vernon, but their timing was not very good. The courthouse had been built in 1892-93 on the north end of one of the blocks that Captain David Decatur bought when he moved his family from Boston in December 1887. According to author Tom Robinson, it was located at the southeast corner of Pine at First street at the northernmost point of David Kimble's original 1870 homestead, bordering that of Jasper Gates.
      Just 17 years before the 1909 fight, Anacortes, Sedro and other cities tried to wrest the count seat away from Mount Vernon in the election of November 1892. Anacortes won the election by seven votes, but the rules dictated that such a change had to be approved by two-thirds of the voters.
      Mother Nature helped thwart Burlington's plans. In 1909, the worst flood on the Skagit river in this century left Burlington in the middle of a pond and photographers clicked away. We found this flyer, composed by the anti-Burlington forces, at a garage sale. It appears to be a printer's proof of an advertisement in a newspaper or it was possibly a broadside that was to be handed out on the street. Does anyone have any more information on this? It was not covered in either the Skagit County Historical Society books or the ArgusCentennial editions for Mount Vernon and Burlington. Please email us if you know. The flyer is reproduced with illustrations and photos intact. The flyer is too fragile to reproduce, so we re-set the type to make it more readable and we reproduced the photos as faithfully as possible. These [ ] surround updated information.

The Tax Payers' Reasons

(Courthouse Skagit county 1909)

This cut [above] is made from a photograph of

our present court house

      Area floor space 17,870 square feet. Excellent modern jail which cost $6,500. Splendid heating system, almost new, cost $2,300. Perfect sewers and connections. pavement and concrete walks on three sides. This building we regard as good enough for many years. From 1909 poster
      [Ed. note: Update 2003 — This original courthouse in Mount Vernon was built in 1893 and still stands as the Matheson building. The top story was lopped off and it was remodeled. It is at the southeast corner of Pine and First streets, west of the present courthouse, which was built in 1923. The book, Skagit Settlers, placed it at Third and Montgomery, but that is the old post office. We checked with no less a personage than former judge Walt Deierlein, who knows the Matheson building well.]

(Proposed courthouse in Burlington)
      [left] This is the picture of a building which Burlington advertised in the Burlington Journall of Oct. 16, 1909, and in the Sedro-Woolley Courier of October 17. They proposed to build it and loan it to the county.
       [right] This is the cut of the building they advertised in their circular that they intended to build.

Which will they build?
Will they build two?
Will they build either?


If so, the largest dimensions they suggest
is 12,000 square feet of floor space.
NO JAIL. NO HEATING PLANT. NO SEWERS.


(Burlington flood photos 1909)
[left] Fairhaven Street of Burlington, Wash, November 30, 1909.
       Right: Great Northern track, looking toward Bellingham from outskirts of Bellingham, November 1909.

The above [photographs of Burlington were] published
in the Bellingham Herald, Dec. 4, 1909

We don't want to construct permanent county buildings
at ANY POINT within the flood district.

We can't afford it

      Regardless of our feelings toward either Mt. Vernon or Burlington, we must vote to preserve our own interests, and the interests of our friends. This is a practical question for the taxpayers who can't afford to cut off their noses to spite their faces. We have the kindliest feelings in the world toward Burlington but we can't believe wither her that now is the time to move the county seat, nor that Burlington is the place for it when it is moved.
      As far as Mt. Vernon is concerned we can only say: the county seat is now there. Let it stay there until such times as the population of our county has increased to such proportions that the building of a larger and better court house is a necessity.

Then Let the People, by their vote,
say where it shall be


The flood of 1917 was almost as disastrous as the one of 1909
to Burlington's proposed courthouse location.


(Burlington flood photos 1917)
      A flood filled the Burlington streets with water in this scene. Photo taken December 30, 1917, courtesy of Roger Fox, West Mount Vernon.
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Story posted on April 1, 2001 last updated on Feb. 26, 2004, and on April 24, 2008 with photos
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This article originally appeared in Issue xx of our Subscribers-paid Journal online magazine

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