HistoryLink Tours

The Blackman Brothers were born into the lumber business in Bradley, Maine, named in honor of their grandfather. In 1872, all three brothers, with their wives, migrated to the Pacific Northwest. Alanson and Elhanan opened the first logging camp at Blackman Lake some two years later, while Hyrcanus minded the books. All three brothers built each other’s homes on Avenue B, but only this one has survived.

Built by Hyrcanus and Ella in 1878, it’s where they raised their two children, Clifford and Eunice. Hyrcanus was active in civic affairs, serving on the school board, several municipal committees, and as a trustee when the town first incorporated as a “village” in 1888. Plus, his entrepreneurial energy created a skating rink at the corner of Avenue B and First Street that he later dismantled in 1886 to make room for his three-story Penobscot Hotel. The Eye reported that Father Michael McCauley purchased the salvaged wood to build the Catholic Church, up Avenue B at Third Street. In 1890, Hyrcanus, a Democrat in a Republican town, upset the city’s founder, E. C. Ferguson, in the election for the first Mayor of the re-incorporated City of Snohomish.

Both Hyrcanus and Ella died in the first-floor bedroom in the 1920s. Daughter Eunice and husband William Ford made it their home for nearly 50 years. The family sold it to the newly formed Snohomish Historical Society in 1969, four years before Eunice’s death in California. It’s usually open weekend afternoons and by appointment for tours.