The intersection of 35th Ave NE and NE 75th Street had no buildings at any of the four corners until after 1946.

The square outline of the Ida’s Inn tavern, which closed in 1948, can be seen above the roof of the building at 7500 35th Ave NE, with its storefront system built in 1950.  Photo by Valarie, January 2020.

The only building near to the corner of 75th & 35th was Ida’s Inn at 7500 35th Ave NE, which began as a small grocery store in 1926 and was converted to a tavern after Prohibition ended in 1934.  Ida’s Inn closed in 1948 but the building still exists.  Its square outline can be seen above the rooftop of the stores built in front of it in 1950.

In the period of 1945 to 1950 after the end of World War Two, Wedgwood really began to grow in population and bigger grocery stores started to come in at that time.  In 1946 the Safeway Corporation started planning to build at their present site on the southeast corner of the intersection of 75th & 35th.  In that process they had to apply for the zoning to be changed from residential to commercial.

Copyright notice:  text and photos in this article are protected under a Creative Commons Copyright.  Do not copy without permission.

Photo of proposed site of Safeway at 75th & 35th submitted with rezoning application in 1947. Photo #73832 courtesy of the Seattle Municipal Archives.

Safeway begins the planning process in 1946

The above photo was probably taken in 1946 as part of Safeway’s application, submitted in May 1947, for rezoning of their present site.  The photo is in the City of Seattle Municipal Archives along with documents which I will quote in this article.

In the above photo, the photographer is facing east across 35th Ave NE and looking out eastward along NE 75th Street on the left side of the photo.

It is the first impression of everyone who looks at this photo that NE 75th Street eastbound, looks steeper than it is today.  This may be in part an optical illusion of the photo.  We also know that regrading of arterial streets in Wedgwood occurred in the 1950s, which leveled out some of the high and low points of NE 75th Street which we see in this earlier perspective from about 1946.

On the edge of the photo, far left, can be seen just a sliver of the wall of the Ida’s Inn building.  Next to that is a house which was numbered 3516 NE 75th Street.  The Jacklin family owned most of that block and at the time of this photo their married daughter Frances lived in the house with her husband John Osbjornson.  The Jacklin’s own house was at 7528 35th Ave NE, north of Ida’s Inn (out of the frame to the left.)

Something not seen in the above photo is the Oneida Gardens (Wedgewood Estates) apartment complex on NE 75th Street between 37th to 39th Avenues NE, because the apartments were not built until 1948-49.

Safeway appealed to nearby residents to support their rezoning application

Safeway first purchased the NE 75th Street corner property and then they began the rezoning application process with an appeal to local residents.  In March 1946 they distributed a letter to neighbors which said, in part:

As a property owner in the vicinity of 35th Avenue Northeast and East 75th Street, you will be interested in plans for a proposed new shopping center at that intersection.  Safeway Stores, Incorporated, has acquired a plot of seven and one-half acres at the southeast corner of these two streets with the intention of building at the corner one of our modern stores for the convenience of shoppers in that neighborhood.  The store would be of the latest type with an adjoining parking lot.

The remainder of the property offers excellent possibilities for development by other types of business in a manner similar to the attached architect’s sketch.  Owing to present building restrictions and constructions costs, we can offer no assurance as to how soon such additional facilities would materialize, but undoubtedly some development of this nature would follow within a short time as this entire area is due for rapid growth.  This intersection is a natural site for a modern shopping center to serve the residents of this section of the city.  The first step toward the completion of such a plan will be to obtain a rezoning order by the City Planning Commission.  Your support of the rezoning petition would be very helpful.  

(signed) Mitchell Park, Division Realty Manager, Safeway Stores, Incorporated.

The architectural sketch (below) which was included with the letter to neighbors showed a design for Safeway to be built close along 35th Ave NE, and provision of other stores on-site.  It may have been Safeway’s intent to lease space to other commercial uses, as a theater is shown on the far right, and on the left may be a gas station (?)  These were only proposal ideas and were not actually fulfilled.

Safeway Shopping Center, architectural drawing submitted with rezone application. Seattle Municipal Archives Comptroller File #194270.

Application for rezoning in 1947

On May 22, 1947, Safeway officially petitioned the City of Seattle’s Planning Commission for rezoning at the corner of NE 75th Street, because only a portion of the 7.5 acre site was zoned for business and the rest was residential.  Mitchell Park, Safeway’s Division Realty Manager, wrote:

Your petitioner requests the rezoning of this tract from residential to commercial property to permit the construction of one of its modern retail food stores, with off-street parking facilities.  In addition, your petitioner proposes that the balance of this tract be developed into a centralized shopping center along the lines described in the attached letter, which has been mailed to neighboring property owners.

An architect’s drawing of one such possible development is attached to this petition.  It is considered by your petitioner to be more advantageous to this rapidly growing area that its business properties be concentrated into one well-planned unit rather than scattered at random along the main artery.  Such a center is justified by the location of this property, there being no contiguous stores to serve this area.  The proposed change has been looked upon favorably by most of the surrounding property owners.  

(signed) May 22, 1947, Mitchell Park, Safeway Stores Incorporated.

The site of the Wedgwood Post Office at 7714 35th Ave NE and the next-door Hunter Tree Farm at 7744, were once targeted for the site of a grocery store. The rezone application was denied in 1958 by the City Planning Commission.

Mr. Park had done his preparation work well.  Submitted along with the rezoning application was a petition signed by 248 surrounding property owners in favor of the Safeway store.  Mr. Mitchell correctly cited the City Planning Commission’s intention that commercial developments be clustered at major intersections such as NE 75th Street along 35th Ave NE.

Zoning applications in Wedgwood

About eight years after Safeway was built, another corporation applied for a rezone at the present site of Hunter Tree Farm at 7744 35th Ave NE and the Wedgwood Post Office.  This other corporation wanted to build a grocery store complex there; at the time there were only a few houses along that block.  That corporation’s petition was rejected because the site was in mid-block, and at that time (1958) the City Planning Commission reiterated that stores in Wedgwood should be clustered at the intersections of NE 75th and NE 85th Streets.

In 1947 during the application of Safeway to built at NE 75th Street, the chairman of the City Planning Commission (a committee of appointees) was Clyde Grainger.  He was well familiar with Wedgwood because he had helped create it himself.  Along with Grainger’s architectural partner Harlan Thomas, the two architects had designed the original Wedgwood houses for developer Albert Balch.

Balch’s real estate office at 8044 35th Ave NE had a C-shaped sign out front.  At left is the brick building of the Seattle Audubon Society office and Nature Shop.  Photo by Valarie.

Clyde Grainger continued in architectural practice into the 1950s and he designed additional buildings for Balch, including Balch’s own office at 8050 35th Ave NE (present site of Seattle Audubon Society office and nature shop.)  The other buildings in that block which were also designed by Clyde Grainger, were to be used as medical-dental offices.

Needing more space, Balch also took 8044 35th Ave NE for the real estate outlet of his offices.  The original C-shaped sign which once said “Crawford and Conover Real Estate” has been used by the present businesses.  Sadly this building was scheduled to be torn down in 2018 as part of the encroaching trend of townhouses, even though they are to be built along Wedgwood’s commercial district of 35th Ave NE.  The zoning of this block was never adjusted, and today it is zoned residential, and townhouses have been built there.

In his letter of recommendation to City Council in 1947, City Planning Commission Chairman Clyde Grainger noted the supporting petition of 248 surrounding property owners, and that a letter of support for the new Safeway had also been received from the Eastwood Community Club.  No protests of the Safeway plans were received.  The recommendation of the City Planning Commission was sent to City Council, and they approved Safeway’s rezoning application on June 23, 1947.

The Wedgwood Safeway opens in June 1951

When completed in June 1951 the Wedgwood Safeway store building was at the top of the lot close to 35th Avenue NE, as was seen in the proposal sketch.  There was only the Safeway and not the other stores, theater, or gas station which were in the proposal drawing.  It is not known why other stores were never built on the site as were shown in the proposal drawing.  Perhaps Safeway found that they needed more parking than they had anticipated so they did not want to give up the space.  When first completed, the Safeway had 155 parking spaces.  Their present property is only 1.6 acres, showing that they divested themselves of most of the original 7.5 acre purchase.

The photo below was taken by Don Morgan of 3603 NE 75th Street, the house immediately to the east of the Safeway.  From the Morgan house in 1960 we are looking toward 35th Ave NE and it appears that the Safeway was below-grade of the arterial.  Perhaps the entrance driveway to the store was from the NE 75th Street side.

A 1960 view of Sateway, taken over the roof of 3603 NE 75th Street, the house to the east of the store. The photo shows Safeway positioned at 35th Avenue NE with access to the parking lot apparently from the NE 75th Street side.   This was the first Wedgwood Safeway building.  It was torn down to build the present Safeway which was set as far as it could go, eastward on the lot to where the two men in this photo are standing.  Photo courtesy of Don Morgan.  All rights reserved; do not copy.

Safeway is torn down and rebuilt in 1965

The Wedgwood Safeway was so successful that by the early 1960s they made the decision to rebuild a larger store.  In June 1965 the new Safeway store opened, which is the present building on the site.  This time the Safeway was set back so that an enormous parking lot was at the front, clearly visible from 35th Ave NE.  Perhaps this was done to create the psychological effect of a lot of space so that people would be more likely to pull in with their cars.

The Morgan house at 3603 NE 75th Street is now behind the towering wall of the Safeway as rebuilt in 1965.  Photo by Valarie.

To reposition and rebuild the Safeway store in 1965, regrading work had to be done to build up the site, level the parking lot and create a higher foundation for the store at the back of the lot.  This resulted in a huge retaining wall built to separate the site from the houses to the east, plus a steeply sloping driveway out onto NE 75th Street.

For a few years there had been a freestanding Dairy Queen on the Safeway parking lot, but it had to be removed to make space for the new Safeway.

The Wedgwood Safeway’s most recent remodel, completed in August 2011, was done by building out the front of the store out just a few feet, making better use of basement space, and upgrading all of the mechanical systems.  All the store’s wiring, conduit and plumbing were replaced while the store stayed open during the process!

Sources:

“Petition of Safeway Stores, Inc. for rezoning of southeast corner of 35th NE and E. 75th St.”  Seattle Municipal Archives, Comptroller File #194270.  Photo #73832 and the architectural sketch of the proposed Safeway building were included with the application.  The letters and documents are in the file (not on-line).

“Safeway Stores Opens New Branch at 35th Avenue NE and East 75th.” Seattle Daily Times, June 8, 1951, page 16.

The Wedgwood Safeway store, southeast corner of NE 75th Street & 35th Ave NE, as it looks today.  The most recent remodel, done in 2011, brought the front of the store out a few feet, upgraded the mechanical systems and made better use of the basement as a stockroom, freeing up main floor space for groceries.  Photo by Valarie, January 2020.