Mount Vernon, Washington Mount Vernon Location of Mount Vernon in Washington State Location of Mount Vernon in Washington State Mount Vernon is a town/city in Skagit County, Washington, United States.
It is one of two principal metros/cities of and encompassed in the Mount Vernon-Anacortes, Washington Metropolitan Statistical Area.
It is the governmental center of county of Skagit County.
Downtown Mount Vernon is known for its annual Tulip Festival Street Fair, which is part of the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival.
The climate of Skagit County is similar to that of Northern France, with millions of tulips grown in the Skagit Valley.
In 1998, Mount Vernon was rated the #1 "Best Small City in America" by the New Rating Guide to Life in America's Small Cities. Jasper Gates and Joseph Dwelley first settled on the banks of the Skagit River, where the town/city of Mount Vernon now lies, in 1870.
The town/city was titled after Mount Vernon, the plantation estate and resting place of George Washington. The two men laid out the city's first plan while the region was still heavily timbered. Mount Vernon's first trade was logging; camps were set up to log the townsite.
Mail carriers instead had to paddle canoes down-stream to close-by Skagit City.
The quarrying activity at close-by Ruby Creek spurred expansion for a short time in 1880, gaining the town/city a new hotel, but little else was accomplished when the mines proved to be shallow.
By 1881, Mount Vernon's permanent populace was 75. In November 1884, Mount Vernon's future was secured when it was chosen for the new Skagit County seat, taking the designation from La Conner.
Mount Vernon's expansion was helped by its central locale in reference to the mining, logging and farming communities of the easterly and central parts of the county as well as its access to Puget Sound.
Their accomplishments paid off when the Great Northern Railway agreed to lay their line through the city.
The barns 's arrival caused great commotion in Mount Vernon, bringing hundreds of new businesses and residents.
Mount Vernon was officially incorporated on July 5, 1893.
Due to the area's stable economy, Mount Vernon never boomed in the 1890s like many other speculative booms in the region.
1891 also saw the assembly of a several large civic structures such as a large brick schoolhouse on the hill above the town/city as well as the Mount Vernon Opera House, designed by Peacock & Dalton.
Following a large flood in 1894, the first dike was assembled along the Skagit River.
Another great fire in 1900 wiped out all of Mount Vernon's initial structures including English & Clothiers' store and the Ruby Hotel.
The town/city again interval in the 1910s when it became the southern end for the Bellingham & Skagit Railway's interurban barns line, which would carry travelers as well as freight between Bellingham and Mount Vernon as well as Burlington and Sedro-Woolley.
Mount Vernon company owners soon began pressuring the stockyards company, since retitled the Pacific Northwest Traction Company, to extend the rails south to connect with the interurban line in Everett.
After a series of accidents and bridge wash outs, traveler service on the cash-losing line was permanently suspended in June 1930. In 1969, Interstate 5 was assembled through downtown, severing it from most of the residentiary precinct and opening the farm lands north of the town/city to urban development, where many of Mount Vernon's downtown businesses moved.
The Historic Lincoln Theatre on First Street in downtown Mount Vernon was originally assembled in 1926 as a vaudeville and silent movie home.
According to the United States Enumeration Bureau, the town/city has a total region of 12.61 square miles (32.66 km2), of which, 12.30 square miles (31.86 km2) is territory and 0.31 square miles (0.80 km2) is water. Like much of the Pacific Northwest, as stated to the Koppen climate classification, Mount Vernon falls inside a cool dry-summer subtropical zone (Csb), with "cool"-summer Mediterranean characteristics.
Climate data for Mount Vernon (1971 2000) The Skagit River, which flows through Mount Vernon, is apt to flooding amid periods of heavy precipitation in the Cascades.
In October 2003 the townspeople of Mount Vernon turned out to build a sandbag dike along the river in anticipation of a flood.
Since this town/city was founded, the downtown region of Mount Vernon bordering the Skagit River has been plagued by flooding, especially amid times of heavy rain.
Each time the water rises above a definite level, people must join to build a sandbag wall that stretches six town/city blocks and can be as high as 5 feet (1.5 m).
In the spring of 2007, the town/city council authorized the mayor to purchase a mobile flood wall from Norway-based business Aqua - Fence, the first such flood wall sold in the United States. The flood wall is 4 feet (1.2 m) high and can be assembled in as little as three hours by a handful of volunteers as opposed to the up to 12 hours and hundreds of volunteers required by the traditional sandbag wall.
The flood wall is meant to be a temporary solution while the town/city explores ways to build a permanent flood wall to remove the downtown region from the Federal Emergency Management Agency's 100-year flood plain maps.
After adequate flood control is in place, a Citizens' Advisory Committee plans to movement the city's use of the revetment, which is presently used mostly for parking and a cyclic farmer's market. Current plans call for a promenade with condos or mixed-use evolution facing the river.
Main article: Mount Vernon (Amtrak station) The new Skagit Station, assembled in 2004, brings true multimodal transit to a quickly growing region. Commuters and passengers can switch between modes of transit in downtown Mount Vernon.
It joins Mount Vernon to Seattle, Portland, Eugene, Redding, Sacramento, Los Angeles and San Diego.
WA-9.svg State Route 9 runs alongside to Interstate 5, linking Mount Vernon with Snohomish and Arlington to the south and Sedro-Woolley and the Canada US border near Sumas to the north.
Route 101 on the Olympic Peninsula to Washington-Idaho State Line at Newport, Washington.
State Route 20 crosses Admiralty Inlet via the Port Townsend-Keystone ferry and passes just northwest of the city.
WA-536.svg State Route 536 runs from SR 20 into downtown Mount Vernon and Interstate 5.
WA-538.svg State Route 538 runs east-west from Interstate 5 to SR 9 at the Baker Heights neighborhood of Mount Vernon.
The median income for a homehold in the town/city was $53,496. Males had a median income of $33,724 versus $27,244 for females.
About 10.8% of families and 15.9% of the populace were below the poverty line, including 18.9% of those under age 18 and 7.1% of those age 65 or over.
As of the census of 2010, there were 31,743 citizens , 11,342 homeholds, and 7,443 families living in the city.
There were 11,342 homeholds of which 37.1% had kids under the age of 18 residing with them, 47.6% were married couples residing together, 12.2% had a female homeholder with no husband present, 5.8% had a male homeholder with no wife present, and 34.4% were non-families.
The median age in the town/city was 32.3 years.
28.2% of inhabitants were under the age of 18; 10.1% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 27.5% were from 25 to 44; 21.4% were from 45 to 64; and 12.7% were 65 years of age or older.
As of the census of 2000, there were 26,232 citizens , 9,276 homeholds, and 6,205 families living in the city.
There were 9,276 homeholds out of which 36.5% had kids under the age of 18 residing with them, 51.3% were married couples residing together, 11.4% had a female homeholder with no husband present, and 33.1% were non-families.
In the city, the age distribution of the populace shows 29.0% under the age of 18, 11.9% from 18 to 24, 29.0% from 25 to 44, 17.6% from 45 to 64, and 12.5% who were 65 years of age or older.
Mount Vernon has the following Sister Cities, as stated to the Washington State Lt.
Governor's list of Washington Sister Cities: The Mount Vernon Cafe & Lounge Downtown as seen from west side of Skagit River with view of Mt.
Mount Vernon High School - Old Main Skagit City United States Enumeration Bureau.
"Mount Vernon Live".
An Illustrated history of Skagit and Snohomish Counties : their citizens , their commerce and their resources : with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington.
"Climatography of the United States NO.81" (PDF).
"Annual Estimates of the Resident Population for Incorporated Places: April 1, 2010 to July 1, 2015".
United States Enumeration Bureau.
Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Mount Vernon (Washington).
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mount Vernon, Washington.
Mount Vernon's annual Tulip Festival Municipalities and communities of Skagit County, Washington, United States
Categories:
Cities in Washington (state)Cities in Skagit County, Washington - Mount Vernon, Washington - County seats in Washington (state)Populated places established in 1870
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