"Dad, any other buyer that's gonna come in is gonna change the name," Tyler Hannon recalled telling his father, in an account the Bainbridge Island Review published on October 8. "But if you sell the store to me, I contractually will commit to keeping it Walt's as long as I live."
Across the same crossroads, the Historic Lynwood Theatre turned 90 in July. Its owner has started the process of turning it into a nonprofit, which PNW Bainbridge reported in May. Two anchors at one south end crossroads are each making a deliberate choice about who will own them next. In both cases the choice keeps the business with owners who have run it for years and live on the island.
The corner keeps its character because two sets of owners keep choosing to protect it, and both of those choices are being made right now.
The Market That Almost Went to an Outside Buyer
Walt Hannon has owned Walt's Lynwood Market since 1992, which makes 34 years. He started working there in 1977 as a high school student and stayed 15 years under the previous owner before he bought it. That comes to nearly half a century behind the same counter.
According to the Review, he first thought about selling to someone outside the family. Then Tyler and his wife, Alexandra, stepped in. The Hannons expect the transfer to be final within the next few months, followed by many changes and updates and a grand reopening next spring. As of mid-October 2026 the handoff is still in progress. The store hasn't closed and the new owners haven't taken over yet.
"It needs some fresh energy to take it to the next level," Walt told the Review, "and Tyler and Alexandra will definitely do that."
Tyler described the plan to the paper as keeping the status quo while giving the store a refresh. Here is how the plan breaks down:
| Staying the same | Planned or possible changes |
|---|---|
| The name, Walt's, which Tyler says he has committed to keeping | A new point-of-sale system |
| The pinball machines and arcade games, in the store since the early 1990s | Better discounts |
| The full-service neighborhood grocery: organic groceries, deli, prepared foods, beer and wine | A possible expanded deli and hot food section |
| Family operation | A possible seasonal section |
| Produce sourced from Bainbridge Island farms |
The farm piece goes furthest. "We're going to establish some relationships with some of the local farms here on the island, so that we can source truly local," Tyler told the Review. That ties the south end's grocery to the island's farms more closely than it has been.
He also spoke to the paper about the arcade cabinets: "There's always been that quirky aspect that makes it fun for kids and families to go in and get that staple that they need at that right time." Tyler grew up there. He told the Review he and his brother ran down the aisles and cleaned the floors.
Ninety Years of Talkies, and a New Business Structure
The market's choice was about family. The theater's choice is about structure, and it rests on the same principle.
The Historic Lynwood Theatre opened in July 1936. General manager Kevin Lynch told PNW Bainbridge it was the island's first theater to show talkies. The Port Blakely Mill had shown silent films before it, but Lynwood was the first with sound. The magazine also describes the theater as reportedly the second-oldest continuously operating business on Bainbridge, behind only Bainbridge Gardens.
Owner Jeff Brein, of Faraway Productions, became a partner in 1997 with Sam Granato, the City of Bainbridge Island's first mayor. Brein told the magazine that Granato had been involved with Lynwood for about 10 years before that. "It's always been owned by people who live on Bainbridge Island," Brein said.
The article is direct about the economics. It says box office business is down nationally and locally. Lynch named streaming and what he called "oversaturation" as the pressures, meaning island residents now have far more ways to spend an evening than when he arrived in 1976. Brein said that since the partnership began in 1997, he and Granato never took money out of the theater and put everything back into running it.
His answer is the nonprofit route. PNW Bainbridge reports that he has begun the process of making the theater an officially recognized nonprofit, which would make it eligible for grants and support funds to pay for part of his planned improvements and renovations. "We are in a situation now where the industry changes are necessitating that we become creative, not only with our programming but with our business structure and the way that we operate," Brein told the magazine.
The programming has already changed. The menu now includes beer, wine and cider. Live music, standup comedy, free specialty screenings, plays, readings and private events are all regular parts of the calendar. New movies are still the main draw.
An outside buyer for the market would likely have meant a new name, and the theater's operating model was under strain. Each owner picked a route that keeps the place where it is, under people tied to the island, with room to update.
A Corner Built in Stages by One Family
The pattern goes back to the beginning. Lynwood Center was built by a south end family, not by a developer. The 2026 Review article credits Edne and Emanuel Olson with establishing it in the 1930s, and notes a market has stood at the site since the 1950s, if not earlier. A 2006 Review history piece spells her name Edna. It says pioneer Emil Olson built the original farmhouse in 1898, and that his son and Edna later built the Tudor-style commercial buildings in the 1930s.
The accounts differ on when it started. A 2007 Kitsap Sun report dates the Olsons' first business to around 1926, a butcher shop or variety store. It says they added businesses over time, including the theater in 1936. Taken together, the center went up in stages from the late 1920s through the 1930s, and the theater's 1936 opening date holds in every account.
That is why the Tudor buildings look the way they do. One couple built them over a decade, piece by piece. Walt's and the Lynwood Theatre are the two pieces still running in something close to their original roles. The current owners describe their decisions this fall as protecting that continuity.
What's on at the Corner This Fall
None of the long-term plans are on the calendar yet, so the near-term schedule is the best view of the corner as it works today. Far Away Entertainment's Lynwood showtimes page has the current listings.
The theater has already shown in 2026 what its broader programming looks like. In late August the Kitsap Sun reported on a special Coyote vs. Acme screening with a Q&A featuring Bainbridge native Ned Thorne, held August 30. More of that kind of event is on the way:
- Wednesday, October 14, 6:30 to 9 p.m. Trivia Time Live at Treehouse Cafe, per the cafe's calendar.
- Friday, October 16 through Sunday, October 18. The Airwaves Belonged to the People: WBCN and the American Revolution screens at Lynwood, with several showtimes each day, according to a Bainbridge Currents listing.
- Friday, October 23, 7 to 10 p.m. Griffin House plays live at Treehouse Cafe, 21 and over, per the cafe's event page.
- Thursday, November 12 through Sunday, November 15. The Bainbridge Island Film Festival holds events at the Historic Lynwood Theatre, Bainbridge Cinemas and the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art.
The November film festival puts the 90-year-old theater on the same program as Bainbridge Cinemas and the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art. Meanwhile the Hannons are working through the handoff ahead of the spring reopening.
The next marker for the corner is that spring date, when the refreshed Walt's opens under Tyler and Alexandra Hannon with the same name over the door.
We pay close attention to how places like Walt's and the Lynwood Theatre change hands. If you want to talk about the Fort Ward and Pleasant Beach corner of the island, or just compare notes on a favorite seat at Lynwood, Kimberly and Jack McLaughlin would love to hear from you. Make time for coffee and schedule a consultation.
