Community Corner
The Royal Hotel: A Bustling Spot For Travelers Before Fires Destroy It
One of several "wharf district" establishments at the foot of Main Street, the Royal Hotel offered comfortable rooms and accommodations to early 20th century visitors to Edmonds.
At the turn of the 20th century, passenger steamers with names like The City of Everett, the SS Buckeye and the Virginia V provided the only conveyance to Edmonds. By the end of the first decade these steamers were making daily stops in Edmonds, bringing in workers, visitors and transplants from all over the world.
And all landed at the wharf at the foot of Main Street.
These were boom times for the young mill town, and the new prosperity drew throngs of outsiders. Some were looking for work, others for opportunity, and a few for a place to settle down. Regardless of why they came, they all needed food and accommodations, and the "wharf district" soon filled with cafés, hotels, saloons, and mercantile establishments geared to the traveling public (see Patch article “”).
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The advent of cross-sound auto ferry service in 1923 gave yet another boost to the various business establishments at the foot of Main Street, and by all reports the wharf district had become a pretty wild place (see Patch article “").
One of the earliest hotels in this area was built at the corner of Second and Main. Named the Commercial Hotel, it occupied the space where the Edmonds Post Office stands today. While I have been unable to verify the Commercial’s date of construction, the presence of utility poles and unpaved roads in the earliest photo suggest that it dates from between 1905 and 1910 (see Patch article "").
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The building next shows up in the historical records in 1915 when it was leased by a man named Whit Hayworth. At that time, it had been renamed The Royal Hotel and appears as such in the second photo. No subsequent operator can be found, so it may be assumed that Hayworth and his wife operated the hotel until it was later destroyed by fire.
The Royal Hotel was beset by fires in the early 1930s. Ray Cloud, in his book Edmonds, the Gem of Puget Sound, reports that the hotel was damaged by fire in May 1931. A subsequent fire in March 1932 “almost destroyed” it. Another in November of that year finished the job, taking several adjoining buildings with it.
Today the site is occupied by the Edmonds Post Office. Built in the early 1960s, it offers counter service during business hours and automated 24-hour mail and package service in the lobby.