This building once housed the Enumclaw Cooperative Creamery which stood on First Street near downtown Enumclaw. The photo by Theo Schmidt dates to September 9, 1900, and captures the crew, delivery wagons, and two standing beside new safety bicycles. Unfortunately the building burned to the ground on October 1, 1901, and was replaced with two buildings. But the Creamery as an organization survived with more to follow in next week’s column. This photo comes courtesy of JoAnne Matsumura, an Issaquah historian and archivist.
During the early years, Enumclaw was known as a community of cooperatives. A June 1, 1914 article in The Ranch touted the little town’s assortment including Enumclaw Co-operative Creamery, Enumclaw Fruit Growers Association, Enumclaw Rochdale Company, People’s State Bank, and Farmer’s Mutual Insurance Company. They were neither corporations nor business partnerships, but mutual companies jointly owned by the producer or consumers of each product. The magazine added, “Perhaps the reason of the great success of these co-operative societies in this community arises largely from the fact that the leading men of different societies are men who were born in foreign countries, where the co-operative spirit has been in successful operation for generations. The leaders of these societies are largely men were who were born in Denmark, Sweden, Holland or Germany.” Only one cooperative of that era survived. Today it’s called Mutual of Enumclaw and is one of town’s largest employers with 312 workers at their downtown headquarters.
