Blackbirds info?

[moose]

Ok, thx. I did get gas there once, only place in the valley I said to myself I won’t be going there again

[farm108]

The Train Station Mini-Mart was owned and operated by Rene and Ambrose Martin. I believe they were of Swiss origin. They also sold some feed store-type items, including animal feed and hay bales. They had wonderful hard ice cream cones for sale and it was fun to get one and go sit on the riverbank while eating it. The next owners added movie rentals -- back when movies were on DVDs. They had quite a large selection. I think that was the last iteration before Craig and Claire Bunney purchased the property, and constructed most of what we see today.

[farm108]

Sorry, I mean when movies were on tapes and played in VCRs (not DVDs). I'm sadly in a time-warp.

[Reapward]

Thanks for the refresher. Yes, they had a train set that was up high, wasn't it? I didn't notice if they were friendly or not. I only cared about the beer cooler. It was a walk in cooler, with plastic flaps you walked through.

When it was Blackbirds, it was Carlos that managed it, of Carlos' 1800 in Winthrop.

[jimbo]

I recall a second owner after Martins. A couple from out of the area….they were always grumpy the few times I was in there. I don’t think they owned it for more than a year or two.

[Reapward]

Yes, the woman said she was not happy here and wanted to move. There went the cold beer!

[maremare]

The train station had gas, convenience goods, a walk-in beverage cooler & the choo choo train up above. After it was broken into by a mischievous & notorious local for something dumb like a pack of smokes & a six pack. Discouraged & over it, the original owners bailed. Bought by Seattle Bunnies, who employed us to transform the property. The Seattle Bunnies were planning to have their business HQ in the top of the two-story part of the building. This was dreamed up to be a grand community hub for all to congregate & swill coffee, eat pastries, buy t-shirts & rock out to all the bands that were supposed to come & play in the band shell. Much time $ & energy were invested into this monstrosity, however coupled with the local lore that the site was cursed, & the fact that the Bunnies upset some locals with their comments towards another local business owner also opening concurrent to Blackbirds, the locals did not take very kindly to dissing the other business. The amount of energy put into the extensive artsy fartsy remodel fiasco did not return much for the investment. Internal diddlings were the last straw, & things folded & the building was rented out to Carlos 1800 before he had moved into the old Palace in Winthrop. This also did not end well, & there it sits empty, neglected, taking up valuable prime real estate, waiting for another rich dreamer to attempt to resurrect it. Attention developers, the building is overly large to maintain & restaurants here do not bring in the kind of revenue required to maintain that large of a space. A creative affordable housing project sounds fun, however it would cost hundreds of thousands of $$$ to make that building into separate housing units, which would no doubt, never be affordable to anyone actually needing affordable housing. A gas can & a pack of matches might purify the land, perhaps release the curse? Park benches can be made & donated by the high schoolers, get a couple of those butt ugly sculptures & turn it into another park that no one ever goes to??

[moose]

Awesome update Mare

[Reapward]

Indeed Mare, that is how it all went down. I just could not put it so eloquently.

[maremare]

We need a thumbs up emoji on here, why has this never been possible??