FREE ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT MAGAZINE | WWW.THEEASTSIDESCENE.COM | NOV 2015
A taste of Bothell’s past
{ { Mike McMenamin, left, and architect Mario Espinosa stand in The Shed, a courtyard bar in McMenamin’s new Anderson School location.
Portland-based brewery, restaurant and hospitality chain McMenamins repurpose historic junior high school as a food and drink wonderland for visitors
Photo by Allison DeAngelis
by Allison DeAngelis
O
n a recent October afternoon, Judy Edmonds examined a set of antique light fixtures and a sturdy wooden door bearing her father, Charles Ashbury’s name. These items sat inside the old Anderson Junior High School in Bothell where Ashbury had been music teacher and marching band director. In the school’s new life as the McMenamins Anderson School, he’s one of many Bothellites whose names have been immortalized in converted hotel rooms. “Its like history has come alive,” Edmonds said, lingering on the gold paint lettering. The second such venture by the Portlandbased McMenamin brothers, the complex and new Bothell hot spot has transformed the community’s former high school, gymnasium and old Northshore pool — built at the height of the art deco period of architecture, in 1931 — into a 72-room hotel with multiple restaurants, bars, a singlescreen movie theater and entertainment space. Patrons can grab one of the 10 to 12 McMenamins branded brews on tap nearly anywhere on the property, whether they’re inside Anderson Junior High’s old principal’s office or the single new building – the Shed – built in the center of the courtyard. The resulting hotel is nearly unrecognizable, although there are small touches of familiarity, said Edmonds, continued on pg 6
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