Sears Demolition 9-1-2026
Wednesday, September 2, 2026
Drone Photos by David Carlos
The walls continue to come down from the Aurora Sears building, along with sections of the roof.
I'm impressed with how efficient they are at clearing the debris. And now I see that they are sorting at least some of it.
The section at the 160th side of the building is gone. Until David started documenting the demolition I had no idea that there was a level underneath the back parking area.
What did they use all the underground space for?
Two new buildings by the Westminster entrance hold several small businesses. Triumph Chicken occupies the building in the far back corner of the property. Magpie Thrift is in the large building most recently housing the Salvation Army thrift store. Central Market and the small business in the wing are unchanged.
Two new buildings by the Westminster entrance hold several small businesses. Triumph Chicken occupies the building in the far back corner of the property. Magpie Thrift is in the large building most recently housing the Salvation Army thrift store. Central Market and the small business in the wing are unchanged.
Chipotle Mexican Grill's blue roof is visible at lower left. The building showing at the bottom of the photo is part of a block of buildings on land with different ownership.
When did that nice, straight road in front of Sears go in? The only road I recall is the secret passageway curving down through the trees - still visible next to Westminster Way.
To the right, plastic covers large mounds of dirt.
--Diane Hettrick
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7 comments:
The article asks “I had no idea that there was a level underneath the back parking area...What did they use all the underground space for?”
Sears had a massive automobile service garage under the store, with the entrance on the north side. My parents had the family car serviced there a number of times in the 1960s/70s because Sears was so close to home. Oil changes, tires, maintenance…
Thank you. I had no idea it was such a big operation.
“ When did that nice, straight road in front of Sears go in?”
Several years already. So long that my memory of what it was like before has all but faded.
I think that straight road went in a couple years ago, about the same time as the Big Chicken strip.
Me again…FYI, there is a 2014 photo of the cavernous Sears Auto Center garage on the Yelp website, at the link below. Also, I’d guess that Sears used part of the bottom level as a warehouse for goods not on the retail floor. And, because they had a door further back on the N 160th side where you would pick up your Sears Catalog orders, maybe they stored customers’ incoming catalog orders down in that big space too?
Picture link:
https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/sears-auto-center-shoreline
Another update…The link below is a great nighttime shot of the Shoreline Sears store in 1967, how I remembered it as a child. And it’s the north side, so you can see the Sears-green neon signs on the bottom level marking the Sears Automotive Center and leading cars into the large entrance to the service bays below the store.
https://www.reddit.com/r/SeattleWA/comments/nexwkf/sears_shoreline_seattle_area_wa_circa_1967_as/
I don’t think the Automotive Center extended all the way to the right (to the west), so I suspect even more that the west side of the bottom level might have been warehouse and catalog pickup storage.
Regarding the new, straight road - I never even looked for a new road - the old "Secret Passageway" is still there - you can see it in the trees in some of the photos.
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