Lake Washington: Keeping It Clean

Posted on July 19, 2026 by Wedgwood in Seattle History

The greater-Seattle area is bounded by the saltwater Puget Sound and freshwater lakes including Lake Washington. In summertime, Seattle sparkles with water activities including boating, fishing and swimming.     

Over the past sixty years the greater-Seattle metropolitan water treatment program has led to better water quality in Lake Washington, and yet every summer there are some “closed beach warnings” because of high bacteria levels or toxic algae in the water.

This blog article will list the reasons for water contamination in Lake Washington and will describe the water-quality monitoring efforts of the metropolitan district (King County) and the citizen activist group, Thornton Creek Alliance.   You can meet & talk with the volunteers of Thornton Creek Alliance at upcoming work parties.

Sailboats make their way around Lake Washington in the summertime.

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The Bryant Lumber Company in Fremont, Seattle

Posted on July 27, 2026 by Wedgwood in Seattle History

When the Fremont neighborhood in Seattle was founded in 1888, its developers organized a business, Fremont Milling Company, at the small canal at the northwest corner of Lake Union.  Timber was cleared from Fremont’s hillsides and skidded down to the water to await cutting into lumber for housebuilding.  Cut lumber could be loaded onto the railroad and sent into downtown Seattle, or outward to the expanding communities along the rail line. 

Before the present Fremont Bridge was built, the Fremont Mill had this office on Fremont Avenue. Photo of UW Special Collections, James Patrick Lee.

Seattle’s home-grown railroad, the Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern, impacted the growth of the Fremont neighborhood, making Fremont a successful commercial site.  Fremont and the railroad grew up together in 1888 as the tracks ran east-west parallel to North 34th Street, along the line of a small canal called The Outlet from Lake Union.   

By the end of 1888 the SLS&E Railroad had reached Snoqualmie Falls, about thirty miles east of Seattle.  The SLS&E organizers then set about to build a northern branch of the railroad.  From Woodinville, northeast of Seattle, a new line was built northward into Snohomish County.  It reached the towns of Arlington & Bryant near the Stillaguamish River in June 1890. 

This blog article will tell how the Bryant Lumber Company came to acquire the Fremont Mill in Seattle in 1894.

The old Fremont Trestle bridge in 1915 before the creation of the new ship canal and new Fremont Bridge. Bryant Lumber is shown in clouds of steam at lower right. Photo courtesy of UW Special Collections, Hamilton #3959.

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The Coast Carton Company at 4133 Stone Way in Fremont, Seattle

Posted on July 14, 2026 by Wedgwood in Seattle History

In the past twenty years we have seen a complete transformation of Stone Way in Seattle from a light-industrial area to an avenue of modern apartment buildings, coffee shops and storefronts.

There are still a few old buildings like the original Coast Carton Company at 4133 Stone Way.  Coast Carton was built as a box factory in 1912, one of the earliest industrial buildings on Stone Way.  The building now has two retail storefronts.

Coast Carton Company photo of 1938.

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C.P. Stone, Namesake of Stone Way in Seattle

Posted on July 1, 2026 by Wedgwood in Seattle History

Fremont in Seattle was developed in 1888 as a suburb with its own name.  The success of Fremont was due to vigorous land developers, good planning, the availability of water transportation and the new rail line, the Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern.

One of the developers of Fremont was Edward Corliss Kilbourne from Aurora, Illinois.  He had been invited to come to Seattle by his uncle, Corliss P. Stone.  Both men became developers of land on the north side of Lake Union.  Both men were involved as investors in streetcar lines to bring buyers to see the residential areas which were opening up.

This blog article will tell of how C.P. Stone came to Seattle and became a civic activist and land developer.

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Fred Sander and the Interurban Rail Line

Posted on June 15, 2026 by Wedgwood in Seattle History

Fred Sander, Argus magazine cartoon portrait circa 1906. He is shown with a streetcar and with art work, as he was a collector.

Fred Sander (1853-1921) was an early Seattle settler who arrived in 1879, when Seattle didn’t look like much more than a seaside village, and yet Sander stayed to become a “city booster.”

Born in Mississippi, Sander left home at age fifteen and traveled the world.  He spent some years as a ship steward until he settled in the Pacific Northwest. When he arrived at Seattle in 1879 he got a job as a bookkeeper at the Stetson & Post lumber mill.

At age 26, Fred Sander seemed ready to settle down in Seattle, and he married well – his wife Nellie was the daughter of Henry Knox Hall of the Hall Brothers Shipbuilding Company on the Seattle waterfront.  The couple spent the rest of their lives in Seattle.  Continue reading →

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Fremont’s Grand Union Streetcar Switch

Posted on June 1, 2026 by Wedgwood in Seattle History

One of the reasons why Fremont in Seattle was long regarded as the Center of the Universe was because of its convergence of streetcar lines and the Interurban Railway which all crossed the Fremont Bridge.

At the north end of the Fremont Bridge, at 34th & Fremont Avenue where there is now the Waiting for the Interurban sculpture, there was a Grand Union track layout for streetcars to turn or go straight ahead, accommodating all the lines that passed through.

The Waiting for the Interurban statue at 34th & Fremont Avenue is in the place which was a transfer point to get on the Interurban Railway to Everett. Photo courtesy of the Fremont Neighbor blog, October 2025.

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The People Behind the Street Name: Densmore

Posted on May 26, 2026 by Wedgwood in Seattle History

Milton Densmore (1839-1908) was a Civil War veteran of Vermont who became an early resident of Seattle.

At the close of the Civil War in 1865, Densmore followed the pattern of many veterans, who moved westward and made land claims.  He met and married his wife Rosamond in Beloit, Wisconsin, and in 1871 they moved to Seattle.  The Densmores opened a grocery store in Seattle and got involved in the efforts to move coal to be exported.

Seattle Coal & Transportation Company Railroad at Lake Union, December 25, 1871. Photo courtesy of UW Special Collections PSE 072.

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The People Behind the Street Name: Galer

Posted on May 11, 2026 by Wedgwood in Seattle History

Galer Street sign at the Willcox Wall on Queen Anne. Photo by Michael Herschensohn, Queen Anne Historical Society.

Early Seattle settlers came from all over the USA.  Some settlers have left us their stories so that we have a fair bit of info about them, such as the Denny and Mercer families.  Other early settlers, like Jacob Galer, are little known.  To remember Galer, we have Galer Street on Queen Anne hill.

The Denny and Mercer families came to Seattle in the 1850s from Illinois.  Their goals were to acquire land and wait for it to increase in value.  Mercer Street was the dividing line between the land claims of David & Louisa Denny, who lived near today’s Seattle Center, and Thomas Mercer who lived at lower Queen Anne.

By the 1870s some of the original land claimants of Seattle were gone and another generation of Seattle settlers purchased sites which may or may not have already been developed.  This included Jacob Galer who came to Seattle in 1874.  He acquired land up higher on the hill from Thomas Mercer.  It was a difficult-to-develop site due to the steep slope.

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Ross in Seattle in the 1880s

Posted on April 30, 2026 by Wedgwood in Seattle History

“Ross” was a place name in the present-day north Queen Anne/Seattle Pacific University area south of the ship canal, and in western Fremont north of the ship canal.

John & Mary Jane Ross came to Seattle in the 1850s and filed land claims on both sides of Ross Creek.

The first building to be named Ross was an elementary school for the Ross family and neighbors, at 4301 3rd Ave NW, present site of Ross Park.  The school opened in 1883 and was rebuilt in 1903.  It closed and was demolished in 1940-1941.

“Ross” was a place name which faded as surrounding communities became more dominant, such as the commercial center of Fremont, and the coming of Seattle Pacific University at north Queen Anne, south side of Ross Creek.

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Early Post Offices at the Ross and Fremont Neighborhoods in Seattle

Posted on April 10, 2026 by Wedgwood in Seattle History

Seattle’s home-grown railroad, the Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern Railway, began running in 1887.  Railway stations and post offices were opened as the train passed through population centers, and these gave names to the neighborhoods.   This blog article will trace the rise and fall of neighborhood names near Fremont in Seattle.

McKees Correct Road Map of 1894, courtesy of Seattle Public Library.

Just north of Seattle’s Queen Anne hill, the Ross family had land claims on both sides of a stream called The Outlet, which flowed from Lake Union westward out to Puget Sound.  The Ross family gave permission for the new railroad to cross their property, and the railroad planners named a station in their honor.  This caused the area to acquire “Ross” as a place name.

Ross was located to the west of Fremont, bordered by 3rd Ave West, and it included land on the south side of today’s ship canal.

The earliest listings of “Seattle Seminary” (today’s Seattle Pacific University) in the City Directory of the 1890s gave its location as “Ross.”  This also had to do with an actual post office for Ross, so that people could list it as their address.  Starting in 1887 as the Seattle. Lake Shore & Eastern Railroad was being built and was advancing through these communities, rail stops and postal stations were established along the line.  Over time, some of these names “stuck” and some, like Ross, faded away.

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