Jennifer Osborne’s daily job immerses her in a cube of light.
Business manager for the Snoqualmie Valley Chamber of Commerce, Osborn comes in each morning and sits at her desk under eight-foot-tall windows of antique French glass and an 18-foot ceiling. Modern lamps and celestory lighting accent a wide-open room, offset by a dim, thick-walled vault and spindled balcony.
Osborn’s surroundings are some of the oldest, and most charming, in Snoqualmie. Where bank tellers once stood handling money and growing the financial roots of the community, she now directs visitors hungry for local attractions.
“I feel so blessed to work in this building,” Osborn said. “It’s an absolute gem.”
The building at 109 River Street has had more lives than a cat. The most recent incarnation began this past May, when the Snoqualmie Valley Chamber moved in from cramped second-floor digs down Falls Avenue.
Financial hub
The building’s bones are those of a bank. When the Snoqualmie Falls Lumber Company mill opened across the river in 1917, the local economy began to grow. In April 1919, W. L. Peters and Associates founded the Sate Bank of Snoqualmie. By1923, the Peters enterprise had coupled with several Eastside banks, and decided to construct a new headquarters in Snoqualmie.
The brick building had walls a foot thick, with a 14-foot-wide balcony and a eight-by-12-foot vault with 18-inch walls.
In 1929, local banker C. Beadon Hall bought the State Bank of Snoqualmie. He and his sister Isadore had founded the Duvall State Bank in 1912. Local historian Dave Battey writes that they “carefully added seven more banks to their chain until they covered the Eastside all the way to Bellevue.
Hall, or C.B., as he was known, worked to bridge together the varied Valley communities. A Mason and an American Legion commander, Hall looked after his Valley all his life, according to Battey.
“A handshake with C.B. was worth more than a signature on a contract,” one of his employees, Myrtle Magnochi, remembered.
Many stories about Hall abounded. Once, a young World War II veteran robbed Hall’s bank. The money was quickly recovered, and rather than holding a grudge, Hall went out of his way to help the young man get his life back on track.
He frequently loaned or gave his own money to help others. A staunch Methodist, he was church treasurer, and was sworn to secrecy because he knew so much about the donations made to the church. Hall never let the church books get into the red, and used his own quiet personal donations to make certain. A plaque mounted in the church’s social hall reads “C. Beadon Hall: He trusted in God, believed in people, supported his church, served his Valley.”
When the Halls consolidated their chain as Washington State Bank in 1943, the Snoqualmie building was their headquarters. Hall’s chain was purchased by Seattle First National Bank in 1956. Seafirst continued operations in Snoqualmie Seafirst became Bank of America in 2000. The Snoqualmie branch closed in 2005.
In the early 1970s, SeaFirst decided to build a new Snoqualmie branch. This modern building, now vacant, was finished in 1976. But long before it was finished, the city of Snoqualmie began negotiating with the bank for control of the old River Street building.
When the new Snoqualmie SeaFirst was dedicated in July of 1976, the donation of the old brick building became part of the ceremony. Mayor Charles Peterson pulled a dollar bill from his own pocket to pay SeaFirst for the building.
Snoqualmie wanted the building as a new City Hall. It was transformed from a bank to a municipal building thanks to the efforts of a task force of citizen volunteers.
Local architect Richard Burhans and his wife Sallie helped design the new council chambers. Burhans also created five historic timber industry paintings which were mounted behind the council tables.
When SeaFirst recycled the 6,000-pound door, a jagged edge was left in the wall. Bart Mueller carefully fitted a form and poured a new concrete door frame.
The building was hit hard by 1990’s Thanksgiving floods. A citizens committee was organized by the mayor to renovate the building. Led my mayor Jeanne Hansen, dozens of locals worked hundreds of hours to restore it to its former glory. The major challenge was to preserve its legacy of history and architecture while making it useful once again.
As city hall, it survived time and floods until the administrative offices moved to a former credit union building down the street. The planning department then moved in, departing when the purpose-built City Hall opened in 2009.
Welcome to Snoqualmie
Today, Osborn and her chamber co-workers are helping the building find its new role. Besides the chamber business-development functions, the place is now a budding art gallery and visitor’s center.
Osborn regularly welcomes sightseers from around the globe—this month, she helped visitors from Germany, Denmark, Korea, Canada and all over the United States—and helps them find hiking venues, picnic spots and lodging. The most frequently asked question: Where can I get something to eat?
Osborn talks with visitors to understand their wants and needs, and then helps them connect with local businesses and discover “the oohs and ahs of the Valley.”
To Susan Livingston, operations manager of the chamber, the little touches, like a flag or a pumpkin, have proved surprising draws for businesspeople and visitors alike.
“It’s a hub,” she said of the building. “It’s a visual symbol of what the chamber offers. It’s a gathering place.”
Her own office is a former city police station.
“It may have been a jail at one time,” she said. Her cell phone doesn’t always get reception through the thick 1920s-era bricks.
“It’s a really special place,” Livingston said. “We’re grateful to have the chance to use it.”
The chamber and its partners want to make the building an even better hub.
Livingston and company are working with the City of Snoqualmie, interior designer Kristi Wood, Puget Sound Energy and the Northwest Railway Museum to broaden the visitor center’s appeal. The chamber doesn’t want its globetrekking visitors simply popping in and out again.
“We want them to stay,” Livingston said. “We want to make it warm and inviting.”
Starting this fall, the center will be open year-round, allowing autumn and winter Valley explorers to make the best of their time here.
Wood has come up with a phased plan to make the center more inviting, with furniture and amenities to appeal to the weary traveler.
Future plans include a touchscreen kiosk, electric charging station and funding for an intern to help run the place. Business have donated a wireless router to create a wi-fi hub in the building.
The chamber has applied for a grant from the city’s Lodging Tax Advisory Committee to start the first phase of its visitor- and business-oriented improvements at the former bank office. A decision is expected in November.
The former bank manager’s office on the second floor is now available as a community conference room.
“We want people to use it,” said Livingston. “Our committees are using it right now. It’s cool to have s pace to get stuff done!
“We’re making it an asset for the community,” said Livingston.
Voice from the past
C.B. Hall, the banker whose Washington State Bank did business from Snoqualmie for nearly 30 years, would probably have approved of the chamber’s mission in his building.
In a 1924 letter to the Snoqualmie Valley Record, Hall heartily endorsed the formation of a local chamber.
“We are taught that competition is essential to the health a progress of the race; but the truth of the matter is that cooperation is GOOD,” he wrote. Livingston would heartily agree.
• You can learn more about the Snoqualmie Valley Chamber of Commerce by visiting www.snovalley.org. Or, stop by the visitor’s center at 109 River Street.
