'Decadent and debaucherous': Looking back at Edmonds' lost roadhouses [View all]
EDMONDS — A white cartoon rabbit with his hand raised in a perpetual wave beckons northbound drivers crossing into Snohomish County on Highway 99.
The neon sign marks Harvey’s Lounge, a local pub that offers billiards, pull tabs and beers.
Set back the clock about 90 years, and customers could still find a stiff drink and chance to gamble here — with a few differences. The hare would be gone, not yet relevant to a tavern known in the 1920s and ’30s as Albright’s Cafe. The pool tables would be absent, swapped for a large dance floor and stage fit for a jazz ensemble. And the betting and drinking would be criminal, outlawed by prohibition and other early temperance laws.
Local prohibition historian Brad Holden said the pub is one “physical remnant” of a rich history of roadside inns, taverns and dance halls — commonly known as roadhouses — that operated along Highway 99 and Bothell-Everett Highway. Centers for sin, dozens of roadhouses popped up in Snohomish County in the 1920s. Only a few still stand today.
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