A Brief History of Issaquah’s Oldest Commercial Structure | Culture

The July-August issue of our sister publication 425 Business is the Legacy Business Issue. This year, it’s mixing things up by shining a light on local buildings with storied histories. Read last week’s feature here; read on for the third story in the series.

The oldest commercial structure in Issaquah, at 58 Front St. N., was built 136 years ago as The Independent Order of Oddfellows Hall on Front Street North. For its first 81 years, the building belonged to the local IOOF fraternity chapter: Gilman Lodge No. 69.

The nonpolitical fraternity was formed in the U.S. in 1819 to financially support and protect its members in an era before the creation of modern insurance or government-established protections. The Oddfellows pooled their money and resources to help their community, which gave the group the name “odd,” as it was doing something unheard of for the time.

IOOF became one of the oldest and biggest fraternities in the world by the early 20th century, and now the IOOF Lodge directory shows more than 3,000 lodges across the world.

Since its inception in 1888, the IOOF Hall in Issaquah provided an essential social gathering site for its members and their spouses. Notable members included Andy Reynolds, superintendent of the Grand Ridge Coal Mine, and W. W. Sylvester, president of Issaquah State Bank.

The fraternity operated the upper story as a community hall and rented out the lower story. The building has been the site for dances, a grocery store, a trial, a theater, and more. Its stage curtains were adorned in advertisements for hometown merchants. The hall also showcased the first-ever moving pictures in town, offering Saturday afternoon 5- and 10-cent matinees before the Issaquah Theatre building was built in 1913. By the 1960s, the building turned into the workplace for several local businesses, including an ice cream shop, hardware store, bistro, and coffee shop.

Edward Fish illustrated the joy of these community gatherings in the book “The Past at Present.”

“The large affairs held at the Oddfellows Hall are recalled by many old-timers who danced all night there, or when the very young were bedded down on the stage behind the big curtain. Sometimes it was daybreak before the families would pile into their wagons and buggies to head for home, just in time to get breakfast and start the next day’s work,” Fish wrote.

The building that played an essential social role from the end of the 19th century going into the 20th century has withstood the test of time. Almost destroyed by a five-block fire in 1908, the building received only minor charring to its front. Then in the 1930s, severe windstorms threatened the building’s structure. Since then, the building has been fully restored.

Today, three businesses operate inside the historic building: Chopin’s Music Academy, Stan’s Bar-B-Q, and Front Street Salon.

Current Stan’s Bar-B-Q owner Amanda Doughty said that people keep coming back because the food “tastes like home.”

The inside of the restaurant is designed to look modern and clean and is fittingly decked out in red, white, and gold to represent the Kansas City Chiefs and the city where barbecue was born. Yet, despite the contemporary appearance, the building’s historic roots remain throughout.

“Oddfellows Hall is a uniquely intact example of an early pioneer wood frame commercial structure in Issaquah’s original downtown,” reads an Issaquah Historic Society document about the structure.

The building’s architecture illuminates the effort to design a functional building, created with local materials, in an efficient and timely manner. Its two-story rectangular structure, with a front gable roof, a western tiered false front — a popular late 19th-century Italianate style — and the blueprint of the building remain loyal to its original state.

“I am inspired by how our historic downtown businesses embrace the history of the buildings in their businesses today,” said Christina Bruning, president of the Downtown Issaquah Association board.