Avon, Washington is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either hav ...

Skagit County, Washington Skagit County is a county in the U.S. state of Washington. As of the 2020 census, the population was 129,523. The county seat and largest city is Mount Vernon. The county was formed in 1883 from Whatcom County and is named for the Skagit ...

, along the

Skagit River The Skagit River ( ) is a river in southwestern British Columbia in Canada and northwestern Washington in the United States, approximately 150 mi (240 km) long. The river and its tributaries drain an area of 1.7 million acres (690,000 ...

. Its neighboring towns include

Mount Vernon Mount Vernon is an American landmark and former plantation of Founding Father, commander of the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War, and the first president of the United States George Washington and his wife, Martha. The estate is ...

and

Burlington Burlington may refer to: Places Canada Geography * Burlington, Newfoundland and Labrador * Burlington, Nova Scotia * Burlington, Ontario, the most populous city with the name "Burlington" * Burlington, Prince Edward Island * Burlington Bay, ...

. Local historians have speculated that Avon is named after

Stratford-upon-Avon Stratford-upon-Avon (), commonly known as just Stratford, is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon district, in the county of Warwickshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It is situated on the River Avon, north-w ...

. The Avon area was developed as a waterfront town and logging and docking area on the West side of the

. The place of the original waterfront area is East of Bennett road and South of Avon St. Before 1879, two

log jam A log jam is a naturally occurring phenomenon characterized by a dense accumulation of tree trunks and pieces of large wood across a vast section of a river, stream, or lake. ("Large wood" is commonly defined as pieces of wood more than in diame ...

s East of Mount Vernon blocked the

further West. Along the docking area,

Western Red cedar ''Thuja plicata'' is an evergreen coniferous tree in the cypress family Cupressaceae, native to western North America. Its common name is western redcedar (western red cedar in the UK), and it is also called Pacific redcedar, giant arborvitae, w ...

were cut down, harvested for

shingle Shingle may refer to: Construction *Roof shingles or wall shingles, including: **Wood shingle ***Shake (shingle), a wooden shingle that is split from a bolt, with a more rustic appearance than a sawed shingle *** Quercus imbricaria, or shingle oa ...

bolts. After the logging, the land was cleared and Avon became a town. Early

homesteaders The Homestead Acts were several laws in the United States by which an applicant could acquire ownership of government land or the public domain, typically called a homestead. In all, more than of public land, or nearly 10 percent of t ...

of the area were Thomas McCain in 1876 and Charles Conrad in 1881. Arthur Henry Skaling opened a store October 27, 1883, on land he purchased from W.H. Miller who had settled there the year before. According to early resident Ada Hall, W.H. Miller settled this property in 1874 and built the first house there. Soon Avon had a shingle mill, a post office, a boat builder, several stores, an

implement Implement may refer to: * Implements (Java), an abstract type used to specify an interface in Java programming language * Implementation, the process for putting a design, plan or policy into effect * Tool, any physical item that can be used to a ...

company, a newspaper (''The Avon Record''), a restaurant, a hotel, a barber shop, stage line and two

milliner Hat-making or millinery is the design, manufacture and sale of hats and other headwear. A person engaged in this trade is called a milliner or hatter. Historically, milliners, typically women shopkeepers, produced or imported an inventory of g ...

s. Methodists organized a church in 1884, and built the present building dates to 1887 with Rev. Moore giving the dedicatory service. Rev. Vroman was the first regular preacher. The church was originally much closer to the river on the Eastern section of what is now called Avon St. It was moved around 1920 to its present location. By 1889 the population reached 500. The Avon school was at the SW corner of Avon Allen road and Bennett road. It was built in 1892 and the gymnasium structure is still there. There was also an

IOOF The Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF) is a non-political and non-sectarian international fraternal order of Odd Fellowship. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Wildey in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Evolving from the Order of Odd ...

Hall built in 1891 and stood at the SE corner of the town, which is now where Bennett road makes a curve to the West. This building is no longer there. In 1906, the Avon Post Office was closed and transferred to Mount Vernon. After the flooding of 1909 many of the waterfront buildings were moved away from the river to be protected by the newly constructed

dike Dyke (UK) or dike (US) may refer to: General uses * Dyke (slang), a slang word meaning "lesbian" * Dike (geology), a subvertical sheet-like intrusion of magma or sediment * Dike (mythology), ''Dikē'', the Greek goddess of moral justice * Dikes, ...

. As the importance of waterways for transportation and industry decreased, and the use of rail and autos increased, the waterfront town of Avon slowly ceased to be a town and became a quiet residential community. Most of the original buildings are no longer there except for a few homes built before 1900, the school gymnasium, and the Methodist church.

References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Washington (state) Unincorporated communities in Skagit County, Washington