The Lights Going Up on Commercial Avenue Are Staying Up All Year
October 15, 2026
October 15, 2026
On Tuesday, Oct. 6, a Crater Lake Building Company crew worked from a boom lift high on the Platt Building at Commercial Avenue and 4th Street, running a line of lights along the cornice. One block up, the same company was working on the Majestic Inn & Spa at 5th, with owner Bill Chagnon down at street level beside a streetlight.
They look like holiday lights going up a little early, but they are permanent. The Anacortes American reported that the LED accent lighting will stay up all year on the historic buildings along Commercial Avenue between 4th and 11th streets. Most of the cost falls on the people who own or rent those storefronts. Some of them close before dark for most of the year.
The Downtown Anacortes Alliance hired the contractor, and installation started Monday, Oct. 5. The alliance expects about six weeks of work and plans to switch the lights on at dusk on Nov. 20.
Until then, here's what a weekday downtown looks like:
So if you're heading downtown for coffee or an errand, the lunch window is the easiest time to find a curb spot near the active block. Teresa Brum, president of the alliance's board, said the work shouldn't keep anyone away, and added that "it might be kind of fun for people to watch them going up."
The lights are meant for the Commercial Avenue facades, but a few corner buildings are getting lights on their side-street walls too. That includes the buildings at 5th and at 6th. When the lights come on, they'll wrap around those corners instead of stopping at the avenue.
According to the alliance, about 95% of downtown building owners or tenants signed up. That's close to the whole street, and it matters for a lighting project. A cornice line with gaps reads as a few buildings decorating. An unbroken one reads as a district.
The people who explained their reasons came at the project from different places.
Nathan Vanderpool owns Bayshore, the office supply store, and its building at 6th and Commercial. The store closes at 5 p.m., so through most of the dark season its lights will glow over a locked door. He joined anyway. "The fact that the whole downtown is working together to make it happen at the same time was definitely compelling," he told the Anacortes American.
Michael Broome runs Dockside Dogs at 5th and Commercial and doesn't own his building. He signed on because he sees the benefit spreading past any single storefront. "If somebody comes to town and feels charmed, they share that, they talk about it, it shows up in their photos and on their social media," he said. "So, even for businesses that aren't open in the evenings, there's a trickle-down effect."
Corinna Carter owns Red Salon and the 1899 Shannon Building at 6th Street. She tied the lights directly to the season: "It creates warmth, highlights those beautiful old buildings and makes downtown feel like a place where people want to walk, shop, dine and just spend time."
Jennifer Juckett, an alliance board member who also owns a downtown building, is among the participants too.
The cost is split among the businesses, the alliance and the city. Here's how it breaks down, based on the alliance's account to the Anacortes American:
| Cost | Who covers it |
|---|---|
| Installation on each building | The participating owner or tenant, at a 50% discount through the alliance's facade improvement grant program |
| Future repairs | The Downtown Anacortes Alliance |
| Electricity | The City of Anacortes, with the LEDs wired into city-owned streetlights along the sidewalks |
Juckett said the lights shouldn't need repairs for about five years. The streetlight connection is what makes the year-round plan workable. Building owners don't have to run power to their rooflines or pay a monthly bill for their share of the glow.
The idea came from a trip. Steve Jahn, site manager for the installation, said the project was partly inspired by outdoor lighting in downtown Snohomish. Alliance members and city representatives visited earlier this year to see it in person. "Our downtown buildings have so much character, and these lights let people see them illuminated in a bright new way, all year long," Jordan Hay, the alliance's executive director, said in a news release.
The switch-on date is planned for the night before Elves Night Out, the alliance's holiday kickoff. That gives the event a newly lit street on its first night. This year it runs Saturday, Nov. 21, from 4 to 8 p.m. It starts in the Majestic Inn ballroom with nibbles and beverages, and the first 400 guests get a free gift bag. More than 30 shops are decorating for a holiday contest, downtown restaurants are serving holiday drinks and small plates, and elf costumes are encouraged.
The event has grown fast. In 2023 the alliance handed out 200 gift bags. In 2024 and 2025 it handed out 400. At the third annual event on Nov. 22, 2025, more than 220 people were in line by 3:50 p.m., stretching down Commercial Avenue and around the corner onto 5th Street, 10 minutes before the doors opened. With that many people waiting at the start, 400 bags don't last long into a four-hour night.
The 2025 bags held coupons that were good that night and through the end of December. Eleven restaurants and food-and-drink spots along Commercial Avenue offered a "Sip and Sup" menu. The alliance hasn't published a 2026 list of participating businesses yet, so this year's lineup is still to come.
Once the lights are up, the next few weeks downtown are mostly evening events, starting after the street is already dark:
The Port of Anacortes has not yet posted a 2026 date for the Lighted Christmas Boat Parade at Cap Sante. The listing still up is for last year's parade.
The lights will stay on after the December events end, because they were never decorations for one season. They're the first finished project from the city's new Downtown Streetscapes Plan. Consultant First Forty Feet put the plan together over about a year from survey responses and stakeholder meetings, and presented the final version to the city council in July. The alliance went first with lighting because, as Brum put it, "This is something we can do right away because it's both visible and feasible."
The alliance's summary of the plan lists what's next: safer, more welcoming intersections, gathering places, public art and play, facade improvements, parklets, and better walking and biking connections. It describes the plan as a set of smaller projects shared among the City, the alliance, the Creative District, businesses, property owners and volunteers, not one large construction job. The roofline lights followed that same model, with dozens of owners paying for their own section. Future projects may get built the same way, block by block.
If you've been downtown this month and wondered how the Commercial Avenue rooflines got so many lights, or what new lighting on a historic building actually costs its owner, I'm happy to talk it through. My name is Christine Rasmussen, and I help buyers and sellers across Skagit and Whatcom counties understand how changes like this play out in a real place. Let's Connect.
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