EVERGREEN SQUARE at Third and Railroad was a hopping place in the late 1950s when it included McConkey Drug Center, Heinie's Broiler and the five-and-dime Sprouse Reitz. Across the street, on the corner later occupied by J.C. Penney and now the site of Treasures thrift store, the Chatterbox Cafe offered home cooking.

1985: Downtown Shelton renewal

Shelton's streetscape also reflected change. The old Irene S. Reed High School was demolished for a new Timberland library named for William G. Reed. Across the street from Evergreen Square, the old Prairie Market building was replaced by Puget Sound Bank. The Baptist Church began an $800,000 addition to its building at Fifth and Cota. And across Cota Street, the Lincoln Gym, drafty, heater and showers broken, buckets scattered to collect leaks, finally fouled out to the wrecking crew. The site became a parking lot. The Dairy Queen at First and Cedar replaced its old walk-up service window with a restaurant-style building.

A downtown task force proposed a local improvement district to replace 1920s sidewalks, narrow traffic on Railroad Avenue and create a post office plaza. The LID failed, but the reason for the improvements remained. The city and the Mason County Historical Society joined to open a museum in the original city hall and library building at Fifth and Railroad.

On Mountain View, the hospital added on, and Olympic College Shelton was built nearby off North 13th Street. Simpson donated the 27.7 acres of land, and Olympic College pledged $500,000, but residents had to raise another $500,000, and did.

Then, in 1994, Wal-Mart built a 102,000-square-foot store on a new Wallace Kneeland Boulevard slicing through vacant land on Mountain View from a new North Shelton Interchange on Highway 101 to Johns Prairie Road. The Kneeland Plaza mall sprang up across the street, and soon more than a dozen businesses were built in the vicinity. Downtown, vacant store windows looked back at the declining number of pedestrians. Rob Wotton closed his shoe and apparel store. The remaining chain stores, Sprouse-Reitz and J.C. Penney, closed, reflecting the national retailing move from downtowns to malls. Earlier Miller's department store, the longtime tenant in the old Lumbermen's Mercantile, had closed.

To counteract the impact of Wal-Mart, another effort at downtown renewal emerged. City commissioners successfully revived the LID effort, and crews repaved Railroad Avenue, poured new sidewalks and added period streetlights. An old grocery store at Fifth and Cota was remodeled into a new city hall, incorporating design features from Lincoln School, which formerly occupied the site. Anderson's old Shelton bank at Second and Railroad was restored, and the design of new buildings on Alder Street reflected Shelton's graceful architecture of the 1920s. Lynch Creek Floral filled the space left by Wotton's closure. The Lumbermen's Mercantile was renovated and renamed the 1912 Building. The old Shelton Hotel was remodeled into small apartments and a restaurant, again to offer lodging and fare.

Residents chipped in by passing a $30-million bond for two elementary schools and a new middle school plus remodeling at other schools. The Angle Building at Ninth and Franklin was demolished and replaced by a new Evergreen Elementary. Bordeaux Ele-mentary was built anew. The bond kept the schools in their neighborhoods, as each remained on original sites. Olympic Middle School was built next to Mountain View Elementary.

In 2000, after 54 years of operation under the CSYA, Simpson negotiated the pact's end. Another landmark deal, this time between the company, city, state and federal officials, removed Goldsborough Dam to open up miles of salmon habitat.

Today 42 percent of residents commute to work; 16 percent are retirees. Allyn has a new hotel planned. Belfair is emerging as a vibrant community of vacationers, retirees and commuters. Hoodsport has become a diving center. On Hood Canal's South Shore, Alderbrook has been rebuilt as a luxury resort by Microsoft executives.

Now the county population has grown to 50,800, including 8,695 Shelton residents. The Kneeland Plaza employs more people than Simpson. In 2003, the prison was the county's leading employer. Now, with its new $23-million hotel open next to its Little Creek Casino, the Squaxin Island Tribe employs 862 in its various enterprises, again hosting guests and gamblers.

In 2003, Shelton boosters erected a clock tower on Evergreen Square featuring scenes of local history. History-loving Mason County residents celebrated 150 years in 2004 by remembering the area's heritage.

In 2005, as the county's second 150 years got under way, they were busy countywide, working to move the old Dalby Waterwheel back to a publicly accessible place in Union, organizing the Old Timers Fair in Matlock and enjoying events in the historic Harstine Island Community Hall.

In 2006, lovers of our heritage were still at it, starting a foundation to restore Union's McReavy House into a museum and cultural arts center, hiking in those Olympics that O'Neill explored and hosting tens of thousands of people at the conserved Theler Wetlands in Belfair.

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