EVERYONE IN this Granite Falls tableau is probably thinking about the fire and what to do. Four men have carried a glass showcase from the drugstore to East Stanley Street. And while the other men at the corner seem to be standing idle, most likely they are not.

Inside the drugstore, the commotion must have been dreadful — grabbing and hauling the drugs and sundries while knowing that the roof was on fire. Outside, the volunteer fire brigade has unrolled a hose along South Granite Avenue.

The fire probably started in the morning in the roof of the Cascade Hotel. The hotel sign on the crest is engulfed. Fred Cruger of the Granite Falls Historical Museum suggests that the town's weekly, the Snohomish County Forum, for April 27, 1933, most likely gave detailed front-page coverage of the fire. Unfortunately, what was probably the report has long since been clipped away from the otherwise surviving issue. (You can examine it in the Granite Falls Historical Society's Newspaper archive at http://gfp.stparchive.com.) A week after the fire the Forum reported that the destruction was kept to the hotel, and repairs were ordered.

Granite Falls was first platted in 1891 in anticipation of the 1892 arrival of the Everett to Monte Cristo Railroad. In 1893, this 22-room hostelry over a restaurant opened as the Mountain View Hotel. A new owner later changed the name to Cascade. By 1933 Granite Falls was an important destination in what was promoted as our "charmed land." The Big Four Inn and the Canyon Creek Lodge were both nearby.

The sturdy Cascade building has survived as Cascade Drugs, and continues to serve mixed uses on the northeast corner of Granite and Stanley.

Explore the Granite Falls society's many other historical treasures at www.gfhistory.org.

Check out Paul Dorpat and Jean Sherrard's blog at www.pauldorpat.com.