(Image: Rob Ketcherside via Flickr)

In 2012, CHS reported that the owners at the Redwood, the beloved E Howell hovel, were already marking the days until the bar has to make way for future development. Back then, they had four more years to go. With one year to go, one of the new writers at The Stranger tells us why we should care:

Because the Redwood isn’t just another bar that couldn’t hack it on the hill. It’s a founding father of the Hill’s current bar scene. It opened nine long years ago—practically a century as far as bars on the Hill go—when the original Cha Cha, along with the Bus Stop, Pony, and Kincora were forced out by a developer’s purchase of the block between Belmont and Summit on Pine. Redwood’s owners took advantage of the void created in the bar scene, along with a good bit of notoriety stemming from the fact that their opening bar staff was composed of members of the now-insanely-famous Band of Horses, to create a thriving business.

A year is a long time. Plenty of months for somebody else to report the Redwood is closing. To put in perspective, after the Redwood closes, you’ll still have to wait 2.5 years for the Broadway Whole Foods to open.

In the meantime, Capitol Hill’s list of limbo businesses and venues is relatively thin right now. We doubt many will be nostalgic for one last visit to this longtime 15th Ave E credit union. The Electric Tea Garden hasn’t been reborn yet but could eventually provide another ticking clock of development doom. How about one last wait in line at the Broadway post office? There is one more project with plenty of limbo around it, however. Make sure to do some shopping at the 11th Ave Value Village and drop in to party at the Rhino Room before this Pike/Pine office project eventually digs in. And, yeah, the Stranger will eventually need to make way for that same project.