Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Quiet Brier Business

I remember, years ago, riding my bike through Brier and stumbling upon a loading dock and set of buildings just off Vine Road. There's precious little marking the spot, and it seems very quiet during the day. Over time, I would drive by in the mornings and see the place pretty busy. Anyway, for years, every time I passed the place I wondered what was there, but not with enough intensity to actually get off my butt and do something. Well, with today's technology, I don't need to get off my butt to learn more.

Turns out this is Northgate Egg Farm, a part of E. C. Wilson Produce CO., INC. According to the WA State DOL, they've been on file since 1968, but according to Manta, they've been around since 1906. I'm willing to bet there's a bit of murkiness to records predating the '60s, but I really don't know. Either way, they've been in the area for quite some time. They are listed as an "egg distributor", whether that expands on the obvious, I don't know.

What I find cool is that this is a living part of this area's history. Much of South Snohomish County early economic roots were egg farms. At one point we had 200,000 egg laying hens. Most of that has died out. But we have a little piece of it still living, quietly, in the heart of Brier.

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