The Early Years in Riverside

The community of Riverside sits on the bluff above the Snohomish River and grew from a disreputable dockside community into a solid working class neighborhood of immigrant mill workers. The homes that these mill workers built among the muddy streets were simple one to one and a half story cottages on small lots close to the mills.

*In Riverside a long-lost ghost street once called Market street, now Highland between Hewitt & I-5, was the site of scores of bordellos and cribs where fallen women committed suicide, where Everett's first homicide occurred and where the first fatal fire in the community happened. The new bridge cuts over part of this street. Market Street became synonymous with sin and shame and was subsequently erased from city maps.

The early years in Riverside, though not historically exciting, were memorable. It was a working man's side of town, sprinkled with a little wealth of mill owners and executives on choice pieces of property. The working man was the backbone of the community and with the regular ritual of six days each week and often ten hours a day, he would wake to the tone of the five o'clock whistle of the mills, telling him it was time to rise and prepare for his day of labor.

*The doors of most homes would open around 5:30 a.m. and, as if the event had been planned, each would take his place on the sidewalk, rain or shine, lunch pail under arm, head down, and often times not acknowledging his neighbor, as they trudged off to their days labor knowing their days endeavor would only provide the necessity of the day for his family. The older of the sidewalk trudgers were often bent from their years as the provider and the younger were only thankful that the City of Smokestacks provided them the opportunity to become family men.

Riverside was already an established community by the time the City of Everett was incorporated in 1893 and is the second oldest community in Everett. The Lowell Neighborhood being the oldest. Unlike Riverside, Lowell was not part of a planned community, but grew from a logging camp to a paper mill town.

 Riverside Today

Riverside reveals a beauty with views from the coast of the Pacific Ocean and the Olympic Mountain range to the west, and to the east lies the Snohomish river and breathtaking views of the Cascade Mountains. To the north towers a handsome view of Mount Baker, and on a clear day a splendid view of Mount Rainier stands out in the distant south.

 The People

They moved to Riverside as emigrants from Norway, Sweden, Canada, Scotland, Europe, Italy and Greece. They came with families and a dream. The population greatly expanded from 8,000 in 1900 to 24,000 in 1910. Canadian and German newcomers accounted for the greatest number. Today the population of Everett is approximately 90,000, with the total pushing 150,000 on an average work day.

One man whose roots and love grew deep for Riverside was Max Carlton Miller whose books of the early 1900's highlighted the romance of a river area. Of his 27 titles it was I Cover The Waterfront that made him famous.

Max Carlton Miller, (1899-1967), was born in Traverse City, Michigan and spent his youth in Riverside. It was Max who as a young teen claimed to have seen a sea serpent at the mouth of the Snohomish River in 1914. He attended the University of Washington, traveled to the South Seas, and worked as a waterfront reporter for the San Diego Sun.

He was a reporter on the waterfront beat for six years when he first typed, "I have been here so long that even the seagulls must recognize me...."

He soon published his best-selling book, I Cover the Waterfront. Two movies were made from the book. The major one starred Claudette Colbert and Ben Lyon, and is credited with the phrase, "Not tonight, Josephine." The title also inspired a popular jazz tune by Cannonball Adderly.

Carlo Domonico Padula de Belliseco was an artist. He realized that his long name would cost him a fortune in neon lights so one day while touring a cemetary he saw IRWIN on a tombstone and figured this individual would not be needing it anymore so he claimed it for himself. Although his friends called him Jack, he signed his paintings as Irwin Pedula.

*Excerpts from the book "Riverside Remembers, 1985", which may be loaned from the Everett Public Library. Also available for sale at Pilchuck Books.

A thumbnail history of Everett, Washington www.historylink.org