In the 1940s during World War Two the population of Seattle swelled with war workers, and in the 1950s the population continued to increase with people who wanted to make their homes here in the beautiful Seattle area.
Young married couples of the 1950s loved the affordable homes built by Balch in the new Wedgwood development.
In the 1950s in Seattle, a new generation of young married couples was starting new lives and wanted their own houses. The thinly populated northeast Seattle area, much of which was still outside the official Seattle City Limits, began to fill up with single-family housing.
A developer, Albert Balch, acquired and built on tracts of land which became the Wedgwood neighborhood. Wedgwood is centered around NE 85th Street with a commercial district on 35th Ave NE and with single-family homes to the east and west of 35th Ave NE.
The Wedgwood neighborhood in northeast Seattle has a linear commercial district along 35th Avenue NE.
Because Wedgwood did not come completely into the Seattle City Limits until 1954, Balch’s housing developments were not yet subject to City zoning regulations. Balch did his own urban planning, reserving the intersection of NE 85th Street for commercial development along on the arterial 35th Ave NE.
Balch built office buildings at 8050 and 8044 35th Ave NE for his personal office and that of his development and sales staff. Other buildings in that complex from 8014 to 8050 35th Ave NE were medical and dental offices. But Balch did not know that his office complex contained a fatal flaw: it was built in a block which up to the present time is still zoned residential, not commercial.
