100 Years of Community: Celebrating the Bayview Cash Store

Positioned on a key crossroad for anyone traveling from Clinton, Langley or Coupeville, and featuring general merchandise and farm supplies, it quickly became a social and geographic center of Bayview and South Whidbey.

Harold Johnston bought the store from its original builder in 1930. When the Great Depression hit, Johnston went out of his way to help his Bayview neighbors, letting bags and boxes of groceries go out the door that were never paid for. The community must have supported Johnston right back, because he owned the store for another 45 years before selling it in 1975 to Jack and Grace Cortes!

We’re not sure why, but adults and children alike enjoyed having their picture taken in front of the Cash Store.

After that, the store became home to a feed and tack shop, a bicycle shop, art store & gallery, and a diner. As the building and grounds began deteriorating, Goosefoot purchased the Cash Store and surrounding properties in 2000, and undertook major renovations to protect this important historic location. Learn more about the history of the Cash Store here.

If you’d like to help our preservation efforts, please consider donating to ensure the Cash Store serves our community for another 100 years. And join us for this summer’s final Street Dance on September 4 for celebratory cake and some of the finest dance moves in the PNW!