Bothell’s Landmark Preservation Board celebrates Preservation Month in May

The members of Bothell's Landmark Preservation Board (LPB) invite citizens to help celebrate Preservation Month 2011 this May with a local event from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. May 14. Boardmembers will serve grilled hot dogs and soft drinks at the designated city landmark, North Creek School in Centennial Park, 1129 208th St. S.E. The school will be open for viewing and the LPB will offer its local history book, "Then and Now," for sale at $20 each. Also featured at the event will be Bothell’s newest designated landmark, and the pride of the Bothell Fire Department, the 1929 Ford Model A Fire Truck.

April 21, 2011 5:21 pm
Bothell Fire Department Lt. Randy Parkhurst displays the city’s 1929 Ford Model A fire truck.
Bothell Fire Department Lt. Randy Parkhurst displays the city’s 1929 Ford Model A fire truck.

The members of Bothell’s Landmark Preservation Board (LPB) invite citizens to help celebrate Preservation Month 2011 this May with a local event from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. May 14. Boardmembers will serve grilled hot dogs and soft drinks at the designated city landmark, North Creek School in Centennial Park, 1129 208th St. S.E. The school will be open for viewing and the LPB will offer its local history book, “Then and Now,” for sale at $20 each.  Also featured at the event will be Bothell’s newest designated landmark, and the pride of the Bothell Fire Department, the 1929 Ford Model A Fire Truck.

Bothell’s North Creek School was constructed circa 1902 and remains as a rare intact example of an early 20th-century pioneer school building.  The one-room vernacular school embodies the characteristics of such historic structures including a front-gable roof, symmetrical design, decorative porch details and wood-frame construction.  Surviving significant interior details include a raised platform for the teacher’s desk, molded wood chalk trays, symmetrical cloakrooms, beaded wainscoting and molded window frames.  After educating a generation of local children, the school closed in 1920 and the building served as the Canyon Park Community Club until 1950.  After that, it was used for storage.

Bothell’s 1929 Ford Model A Fire Truck is an intact example of a historic firefighting vehicle and apparatus.  The 1.5-ton truck retains a high degree of integrity and features a self-priming Waterous rotary pump capable of 300 gallons per minute, and a 100-gallon water tank.  This pump was innovative in its day and has no valves, pistons or connecting rods.  The Ford engine in the truck still operates, with a top speed of 35 mph.  The fire truck arrived in Bothell when the community comprised 900 residents.  The municipal government took possession with an initial payment of $500 and contracted to make additional annual payments through 1932.  The city’s 12 volunteer firefighters conducted a series of community fund-raisers with summer carnivals to help pay for the truck.