The area once held a small village (Freeborn Village, across the swale, to the NE of the old red farmhouse) with an elementary school (land still owned by the Stanwood School District) and the larger logging town of Pilchuck, 3 miles to the east along with the surrounding farms, north to the Milltown Road and south to the Bryant-Stanwood Road.  The area’s population served today is less than it was 100 years ago: the towns (Milltown, Pilchuck, and Freeborn) are gone, the farmhouses full of children are gone, and most of the Lutherans are gone.  With 1,000s of apartment units built at Exit 206 (9 miles to the south) and many new homes to the west in Cedarhome, Exit-215 awaits a new future.  That said, the only other businesses within 5 miles, other than a gas station, are 2 nonprofits: NOAH Center and the Pilchuck Glass School.

What exists today at Exit 215 are the:

Little Red Preschool that has served over 1,000 community families since 2004

a good start on a History Farm

a museum legacy collection of Pilchuck Glass School Artists’ s work and

Bonhoeffer Botanical Gardens, NW America’s unique native plant species garden

Europe’s Roman roads and exits endure, as will I-5’s Exit 215 – no one is going to be relocating the I-5 freeway anytime soon.  Whether Exit 215’s will continue to exist with the Gardens and Farm’s beauty or look like Tacoma or the Everett/Marysville exits … is one of the questions now being considered by Snohomish County.