Cigars and Candy
When passengers exited the Edmonds wharf after arriving on a steamboat in 1902, one of the first establishments they would have seen was The Lotstrom Cigar and Candy Store located on the south side of George Street, two blocks up from the wharf.
In 1912, Fred Fourtner — who was a future mayor of Edmonds and who previously had attended Edmonds’ earliest schools — returned to Edmonds from Lynden and purchased the store. A month later Fourtner sold the business to C. F. Freese, but Mr. Freese died four months later, and Fourtner took back ownership of the business.
The following year Fourtner converted the building into a small eatery. The Edmonds Cafe served passengers waiting for or arriving off steamboats traversing Puget Sound, as well as loggers and mill employees who worked along the waterfront.
Over the next two decades, Fred Fourtner leased the building out as a local eatery to several owners including Mr. Pearce in 1915 and Mr. and Mrs. O’Neill in 1926. The 1927 Edmonds Telephone book lists The Henson Cafe as the last eatery to reside in the building…