In May 1921, Thomas Fournier, president of the State Bank of Black Diamond, got on a bus with all of the bank's cash. He had asked a depositor to help him load the boxes and said they were going to the dry cleaners. As Voice of the Valley retold it, drawing on local historian Bill Kombol's research, most of that money belonged to coal miners, none of it was recovered, and Fournier was never seen again.
That story came up again on August 28, 2026, when KeyBank cut the ribbon at 32500 Main Street. Kombol's history counts KeyBank as only the fourth bank to open in Black Diamond in 105 years, and the town had gone without a local branch since 2019. Five weeks later, on Saturday, October 3, Safeway opened at 32589 Main Street. The Black Diamond Historical Society says it is the town's first supermarket since 2006.
Between them, the two openings moved Black Diamond's weekly errands to Ten Trails' new Main Street. Both also opened by giving money to the Black Diamond Historical Society and the Black Diamond Community Center, the groups behind much of the town's community calendar.
A store that keeps longer hours than the town is used to
Safeway's store page lists the Black Diamond location as open every day from 5:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. That's 20 hours a day, seven days a week, in a town that had no supermarket for nearly 20 years. The pharmacy keeps much shorter hours, and the gap matters if you're picking up a prescription after dinner.
| Store | Pharmacy | |
|---|---|---|
| Monday to Friday | 5:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. | 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. |
| Saturday | 5:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. | 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. |
| Sunday | 5:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. | 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. |
The services list goes well beyond groceries, and several items cover errands that used to mean a drive out of town. According to the Safeway Black Diamond store page, the building includes:
- A Gesa Credit Union location
- ORCA transit services
- A Starbucks café
- DriveUp & Go grocery pickup and home delivery
- AmeriGas propane
- Coinstar and Western Union
- Sushi, a salad bar, an olive bar, bulk foods and custom cakes
- Rug Doctor rentals
Fuel isn't on the store's service list. Plan on filling up somewhere else, at least for now.
Two places to bank on one street
With Gesa inside Safeway and KeyBank's branch at 32500 Main Street, Black Diamond went from no local banking to two options on the same street in about five weeks.
KeyBank also has an older tie to the town. Mayor John Adler pointed out at the opening that First National Bank of Enumclaw ran a branch in Black Diamond from 1963 to 1990. Puget Sound National Bank then bought it, and KeyBank later acquired Puget Sound National Bank, as KeyBank's Washington State market president Brian Marlow explained. Anna Ripich, a longtime banker, manages the branch. Adler credited her team with showing up in town before the doors opened, including at a historic cemetery cleanup and at local events.
The opening-day money went to the town's history and community groups
At its ribbon cutting, KeyBank gave $10,000 each to the Black Diamond Historical Society and the Black Diamond Community Center. Treasurer Sherrie Evans accepted for the Historical Society, and executive director Cheryl Hanson accepted for the Community Center. Safeway did the same thing at its opening. According to Voice of the Valley's coverage of the grand opening, it made donations to the same two organizations.
The Historical Society is the group that confirmed the 2006 date for the last supermarket. Through its museum, it also hosts the history talks and the Railroad Avenue Christmas event on the calendar between now and mid-December. More Main Street businesses are expected. Voice of the Valley called KeyBank the first of several planned for the Ten Trails commercial district, and the developer's retail plans describe a café, a brew pub, restaurants and shops. None of those future tenants has been named and no opening dates have been published, so for now Main Street means the grocery store and the bank.
Where the rest of the week happens
For a sit-down meal, the older part of town still has the familiar names. Black Diamond Bakery says its bakery is back open and its restaurant takes reservations. The business cites 118 years of tradition and also offers catering, banquet rooms and wedding cakes. Black Diamond Grill at 32700 Railroad Avenue serves an Italian-American menu with online ordering. Sahara Pizza at 31525 3rd Avenue offers dine-in, delivery and online orders.
The museum's fall talks are the main weekend draw through mid-November. The Black Diamond Historical Society & Museum events calendar lists two more talks, both from 1 to 2 p.m.:
- Sunday, November 1: "Is There a Mine in My Backyard?" with Bill Kombol of Palmer Coking Coal, about the coal under Black Diamond and whether any of it lies beneath your own yard. Admission is free thanks to 4Culture of King County. Kombol is the same historian whose research turned up the 1921 bank story.
- Saturday, November 14: "Washington's Oil and Gas Reserves," covering the state's early wildcatters and the region's little-known geology.
The November 1 talk is this Sunday, three days after this post goes up.
December 12 brings both events to the same morning
The biggest day on the calendar is Saturday, December 12, when two events overlap. The Black Diamond Hometown Holiday Market runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Black Diamond Elementary, 25314 Baker Street, and its organizers describe it as part of Hometown Christmas. The museum's Hometown Christmas starts an hour later, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. along Railroad Avenue. It's free for kids, with face painting, arts, a treasure hunt, a s'mores station, a hay wagon ride and a visit with Santa.
A week later, on Saturday, December 19 at 4 p.m., the Lake Sawyer Community Club holds its Santa Boat. Santa and his elves deliver gifts around the lake, with gift delivery limited to club members.
The new store changes the logistics of a holiday weekend more than it might seem. Until October 3, a grocery run for a December Saturday in Black Diamond meant leaving town. Now the Safeway on Main Street opens at 5 a.m. and offers DriveUp & Go pickup, and Railroad Avenue's events start a few hours later. For more on the town, visit our Black Diamond community page and the events calendar.
A grocery store, a pharmacy and a bank branch are the kind of everyday services buyers ask about first, and Black Diamond now has all three. If you've been wondering what that means for your own home, the team at Perkins & Associates | Joe Perkins can walk you through it. Get a Free Home Valuation and we'll take a careful, local look at what your property is worth today.
