09/05/2026
FROM THE ARCHIVE: The Class of 1931 shares some memories during their 70th reunion.
IN THE NEWS: 9/5/2001.The Class of 1931 shares some memories during their 70th reunion.
As Freshmen they scaled Mt Pilchuck, the last class to carry on this tradition. They voted to choose the Viking mascot, organized the first Junior Prom (at Lundeen’s Resort with a swing band) and sold enough subscriptions to Country Gentleman, Ladies Home Journal and the Saturday Evening Post to finance construction of the (old) gymnasium.
Before the gymnasium was built, functions like graduation and school plays were held at the Sunshine Movie Theater in downtown Lake Stevens, owned by Esther’s (Marquardt) family."
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9/5/2001
LS Journal
Class of ’31 recalls high school years
By Jennifer Madison Davis
Journal News Editor
Seventy years ago, twenty-one young people from the class of 1931 graduated from Lake Stevens High School, the first class to graduate from what was then a brand new school.
On Saturday, Aug. 23, five surviving members of the class of ’31 gathered for their 70th annual reunion. A sixth member, Albert Shipton of Vancouver, B.C., suffers from Alzheimer’s and was unable to attend.
Ida Hofstatter, Alta Brodie, Emmett Loth, Esther Stephens and Lillian Lowell (Class of ’31) were joined by Harry Whitford (Class of ’31 and a half) and several friends and family. The annual get-together is planned by Esther Stephens and Anna Sebring (’37), whose late husband was a ’31 grad.
All are over 80 years old and in very good health. Emmett and Alta still live in Lake Stevens, Ida in Bothell and Esther in Hillsboro, Oregon. Lillian traveled all the way from Ubly, Michigan for the get-together.
The grads took a break from the festivities to reminisce with the Journal about their high school years.
“We moved from the old high school, a chicken coop, into the new building which had indoor plumbing,” said Lillian. Although the high school building later became known as the “pink palace” after it was painted with surplus paint in the 40’s, to the class of ’31 it was a palace in the truest sense of the word.
As freshmen the class of ’31 scaled Mt. Pilchuck, the last class to carry on this tradition. Later they voted to choose the Viking mascot, organized the first junior prom (at Lundeen’s resort with a swing band), and sold enough magazine subscriptions to Country Gentleman, Ladies Home Journal and the Saturday Evening Post to finance construction of the gymnasium.
Before the gymnasium was built, functions like graduation and school plays were held at the Sunshine Movie Theater in downtown Lake Stevens, owned by Esther’s family.
For Esther and Alta, sports were a big part of the high school experience. They played softball, volleyball, and basketball, with Alta running home to milk the family cow and then running back for practice.
Sports were the primary reason Ida came to LSHS. Her family lived in Machias and a Snohomish School District bus went by her house – but girls’ sports weren’t offered in Snohomish. So every day Ida walked three miles to Lake Stevens High.
Harry and Emmett played 11-man football, and were glad they came up with 11 players to field a team. “Every time we won a game Ben Mitchell (owner of Mitchell’s Pharmacy) would give us a milkshake… fortunately for him we didn’t win too many games,” said Harry.
Lillian remembered that the football games were played in the evenings and were often rushed to finish before dark since there were no lights. “Sometimes you could hardly see across the field at all,” she said.
The baby of the class at 86, Lillian graduated when she was only 15 and spent much of her spare time taking care of the family chicken farm after her older brother died of pneumonia and her father became ill. But she still found time to enjoy swimming at the lake and dances at Lundeen’s resort.
Although Emmett said he was “just a little shaver” and didn’t partake in any mischief as a youngster, he told stories of several Halloween-night pranks. One Halloween a group of boys “borrowed” a wagon, took it apart and put it back together on the roof of the theater. Another year they set a logging teamster’s shack on fire. As Emmett tells it, “Here comes the fire department with the old push wagon. They jumped in the ditch and waited until the wagon passed by, then came up behind and helped to put it out and no-one was the wiser.”
The Class of ’31 plans to meet again next year for their 71st.:
Note incorrect information: The high school was painted pink the summer of 1958, not in the 1940's.
