A piece of Enumclaw history is now no more than rubble.

On Aug. 28, demolition crews worked from the afternoon through the evening taking down the old Paulson Chevrolet building on the corner of Griffin Avenue and Railroad Street.

This was not an arbitrary decision by the city or the building owner; just two days earlier, around noon, building owner Mike Severeid contacted Enumclaw officials after noticing the building’s roof has collapsed and part of the wall was beginning to lean over the Railroad Street sidewalk, according to City Administrator Chris Searcy.

The city and the Enumclaw Police Department immediately responded by evacuating people from nearby businesses and closing off the two streets near the building. Other agencies that responded were the Enumclaw Fire Department, Puget Sound Energy, the Department of Transportation, and the Washington State Patrol.

Demolition was scheduled for 7 a.m. on Aug. 28, but it was delayed while workers performed work inside the building, mostly out of sight from the public.

Bricks started to hit the ground around 2:13 p.m. as crews started cutting through the building in various spots to aid a claw excavator, which was deployed an hour later.

Because of asbestos contamination, most bricks inside the construction site will be disposed of. However, the EPD said some bricks will be given to Severeid.

Severeid declined to be interviewed at this time.

Griffin Avenue was opened on Aug. 29, but Railroad Street remained closed as of Aug. 30, according to the EPD Facebook page. This was at print deadline.

A historical photo of the Hoffman dealership, before Leonard Paulson bought it. Contributed photo

150 YEARS OF HISTORY

According to Courier-Herald records, the Enumclaw History Museum, and other sources, the Paulson Chevrolet building wasn’t always a car dealership.

The building that occupied what was to be the intersection Griffin and Railroad was built in 1885, 28 years before the city of Enumclaw became incorporated; it was the city’s first general store.

The store later moved up to Griffin and Cole, and the older building became the Rialto Opera House around 1904.

The opera house was demolished and another building was constructed, though it’s unclear what occupied the building between 1904 and 1939, which was when Al Hoffman opened the Hoffman Chevrolet car dealership.

Hoffman sold the dealership to Leonard Paulson in 1953, but not before extending the building with a garage and additional bays along Railroad.

Gary Paulson, son of Al, followed the news about the building’s imminent collapse and demolition. He worked with his father in multiple positions for about four years in his early adulthood until Paulson sold the dealership.

“It’s sad to see it go,” Gary said, somewhat lamenting how the town has changed. “… My high school’s down, my grade school’s down, and now the business is down. It’s sad to see the whole thing go away.”

Paulson then sold the dealership to Enumclaw community pillar Art Gamblin in 1969, who operated at that site until moving to the SR 410 location (near the Enumclaw Expo Center’s Field House) in 1987.

“I felt sad that this happened, but it hurt even worse to drive by everyday and see the condition it was left in,” said Alan Gamblin, Art’s son. “There were a lot of great memories in that building for myself and family. When they first started to fix it up, I took pictures and sent it to my kids all excited. As time went on it was just a hurt to drive by it when progress halted.”

The building then housed Plateau Floors To Go until around 2018, and it’s been empty ever since.

Other locals also grieved for the building on social media and to other news agencies that camped out to watch the action.

“I loved that building,” someone commented in a community forum on Facebook. “So unfortunate that some people don’t care about our towns (sic) history like we do.”

“Today was more than just losing some buildings……it was losing a piece of enumclaw (sic) history and that’s what’s heartbreaking,” another posted.

“Lots of memories in that building,” a third wrote. “Sad to see it go.