This photo of a torched Four Corners Tavern marked the dismal end to a popular lunch counter first built by Guy and Myrtle (Neal) Belleman in 1945. Previous columns told the story of its evolution through the Belleman family to Ray and Luella Spurgeon’s ownership and expansion into the Four Corners Café and Tavern.
By the late 1960s, the business had changed hands several times and was now primarily a tavern with little more than bar fare for food. The building’s near total destruction came on Tuesday, June 10, 1980 at 2:30 am. About 50 firemen fought flames for 90 minutes before gaining control.
Highway 169 was closed until 5:30 that morning. King County’s Fire Investigation Unit determined the blaze had multiple points of origin with arson the definitive cause. Gasoline was poured throughout the building and the inferno started after a Molotov cocktail was tossed through a window.
Occupants of an apartment above the tavern luckily escaped with their lives, otherwise an arson murder would have resulted. The beauty shop at the south end of the building also sustained damage, which Ken Marshall, owner and landlord estimated at $150,000. Marshall described the arson “as vicious a thing as I have ever seen.”
A $7,500 arson reward fund was soon offered. Local scuttlebutt suggested the tavern’s operators set blaze to their business to collect insurance money, but those rumors were never substantiated. The remains of the 35-year-old building were soon torn down. Former tavern patrons soon found their way next door to the more refined setting of Schumsky’s Four Corners restaurant and bar which opened in 1979.
This photo comes courtesy of the Maple Valley Historical Society with research by JoAnne Matsumura of Issaquah. On a personal note, the first legal drink served to this column’s author came on the occasion of his 21st birthday, shortly after midnight on the Fourth of July, 1974 when my Aunt Joan Morris bought me a beer at the Four Corners Tavern.
