From 1936 to 1940 King County, Washington, which includes the greater Seattle area, undertook a survey of all existing buildings, both houses and businesses.  The survey was 75% funded by the federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) which helped provide jobs during the economic depression years of the 1930s.

The Puget Sound Regional Archives, repository of the property records of King County, is located on the campus of Bellevue College.

The property survey included photos which helped King County’s tax assessors assign a property tax value to buildings.  Today the collection of photos is kept in archival storage at the Puget Sound Regional Archives.

Many of the survey photos have been uploaded to King County’s on-line Parcel Viewer.  To find your house, enter your address on the Parcel Viewer page and click through to Property Detail, then click on the “camera” icon to see the oldest available photo of a house or commercial building.

When a building has been torn down and replaced, the old photo is kept with its previous records.  To write this article about a site in northeast Seattle which formerly had a gas station called Gray’s, I (Valarie) went to the Puget Sound Regional Archives to look at the old photos.

Northeast Seattle outside of the City Limits

As of 1910 the City of Seattle’s north boundary line was at 85th Street except for a “jog” in the line in the northeast at 65th Street.  Northeast Seattle north of NE 65th Street remained outside of the city limits until the 1940s-1950s, because the area was so sparsely settled.  Many residents of northeast Seattle wanted a semi-rural lifestyle and did not want to come under City government.  Finally in 1954 during the enormous post-World-War-Two increase in population, Seattle’s north city boundary line was set at 145th Street, where it remains today.

A 1938 Seattle Engineering Department map of the city showing the annexations dates of different neighborhoods. A “jog” can be seen at the northeast corner where the City Limits were at NE 65th Street as of 1910. Map from the Seattle Municipal Archives Record Series 2616-03.

Elmer and Mirtie Gray come to Seattle

In the early 1920s the family of Elmer Gray lived at 5707 33rd Avenue NE.  They were active members of Ravenna Methodist Church at the north end of the block.

Elmer and Mirtie Gray were part of an extended group of siblings on both Elmer and Mirtie’s sides of the family, who all came from Illinois to Seattle around the year 1918.

Elmer and Mirtie Gray, ages 42 and 36 respectively, brought their four young adult children with them to Seattle.  Elmer had been a teacher for twenty-two years in Illinois and in his first six years in Seattle, he was a teacher in the YMCA’s education program.

In 1920 the Gray family built a house at 5707 33rd Ave NE, across the street from where Bryant Elementary School is now (the school had not yet been built as of that year.)  Elmer’s mother, Mary Jane Gray, lived with them.  Of Mary Jane’s eight children (one daughter and seven sons) six of the Grays had moved to Seattle leaving only two of Mary Jane’s sons who remained in Illinois.  Elmer Gray’s wife Mirtie also had a brother, Otis J. Metcalf, who had come to Seattle in 1918.

A church, Ravenna Methodist, was at NE 60th Street on the north end of the block where the Elmer Gray family lived.  The whole Gray family became involved in programs and activities at the church during the exciting growth years of the 1920s.

Ravenna Methodist Church in snow, February 2014.

Ravenna Methodist Church was at the southeast corner of NE 60th Street and 33rd Avenue NE (now the site of Bryant School.)  The church building soon became too small.  New property was obtained across the street at the southwest corner, 5751 33rd Ave NE, where the church building remains today.

A dedication program for the new church building was held in 1923 and the Gray family were among the participants.  The attendance at the church rose to 250 during the growing years of the 1920s when the blocks surrounding NE 60th Street were filling up with young families, especially after the new Bryant School opened in 1926.

Growing numbers of gas stations in the 1920s

After ten years in his adopted city of Seattle, Elmer Gray was ready to launch a new venture capitalizing upon the exponential growth in car ownership.  Statewide, car ownership had risen from zero in the year 1900, to 137,000 in the year 1921.

Public transportation systems such as streetcars had never reached northeast Seattle, and in the 1920s a private bus company had been organized by residents themselves.   Increasing numbers of northeast Seattle families had a car, and Elmer Gray thought that a gas station in the neighborhood would be just what was needed.

The intersection of 35th Avenue NE and NE 65th Street offered good visibility for businesses, so Elmer Gray built a gas station there in 1928.   The earliest available photo of the station (below) was taken in 1938 as part of the King County property survey.  The writing on the photo is the legal description 10-25-4 (Section-Township-Range) with the plat name University Gardens, Block and Lot numbers.  The writing on the left, F-235, is a records file number.

Gray’s Service Station was built in 1928 at 6256 35th Avenue NE (southeast corner of NE 65th Street and 35th Ave NE).   This photo was taken for the 1938 property survey of King County.  The writing on the photo is the legal description of the property with the plat name, lot and block.

From the roaring twenties to the economic crash of the 1930s

Like Elmer Gray, in the 1920s many other people in Seattle opened gas stations based upon the dramatic rise in the number of cars.  We may ponder whether Elmer Gray’s timing and business sense was good, or not, since he opened his gas station just before a major economic downturn, the Great Depression of the 1930s.

After a stock market crash in October 1929 triggered an economic depression, cars were one of the first things people stopped using, in order to reduce household expenses.  Twenty blocks north of Elmer Gray’s station, Joe Shauer had also tried to open a gas station and garage in the 1920s.  As of 1930, without sufficient customers, Mr. Shauer turned his auto service shop into a feed store.  But Elmer Gray’s station stayed open and apparently was successful throughout the 1930s.

While owning and operating their service station, the Gray family lived in this house at 6252 34th Avenue NE.

Elmer Gray died in 1935 and his death notice in the newspaper said that his three sons had all worked at the Gray’s Service Station.

At the same time that the station opened in 1928, the Gray family moved to 6252 34th Avenue NE.  Gradually, as the sons grew up, married and moved away, only one, Talmage, still lived nearby and continued to work at the station.

In 1940, with her daughter and three sons grown and married, Elmer Gray’s widow Mirtie wanted to “downsize.”  She built a new house for herself at 6029 35th Avenue NE.  The house was very small, just big enough for her to live alone and be nearby to enjoy her grandchildren.  (House photo of 6029 35th Avenue NE at the end of this article, next to the Source List.)

Business upturn in 1939-1940

The Seattle economy began to improve in 1939-1940 with federal stimulus in production of war materials.  The population of northeast Seattle began to grow with an influx of people working at the Naval Air Station on Sand Point Way NE and with people looking to northeast Seattle for a less expensive place to live on the edges of what was then the Seattle City Limits.  Northeast Seattle continued to increase as a neighborhood of car ownership, with people driving to work, and this would have helped gas stations like Gray’s to stay in business.

We see that Gray’s Service Station managed to survive the sluggish economy of the 1930s.  The Grays were able to remodel the station and upgrade the gas pumps.  Because of the changes to the building, the tax assessors office came out again in 1940 and took another photo.

Gray’s gas station with new pumps in 1940.

Another economic depression and the end of Gray’s Service Station

Billboard of April 1971 courtesy of the Seattle Times newspaper

Another economic depression hit Seattle beginning in 1969 with the Mideast Oil Embargo which then caused massive layoffs of employees at Boeing Aircraft Company.  It was said that for every one Boeing employee, four other people had jobs in support industries and in schools, restaurants and medical care in the Seattle area.  Because of the layoffs at Boeing many other Seattle businesses failed, such as restaurants, during the Boeing Bust.

Between 1960 to 1970 the population of Seattle decreased, and for all of these reasons gas stations began to go out of business.  Gray’s Service Station had survived into the 1970s but ended in that era along with many other gas stations.  Elmer Gray’s wife Mirtie died in 1977 (age 95) at the home of her son Talmage, who had moved to Bremerton.  The Gray’s Station property was sold and the gas station and garage were torn down.

A new building at the corner of NE 65th Street in a new economic era

In place of the gas station, a market building, at first called Hoagy’s Corner, was built at 6256 35th Ave NE.  The 1970s was an era of convenience markets with some others coming into the neighborhood such as 7-Eleven.  Today the Hoagy’s building is called the Wedgwood Food Market.

In the 1950s there were at least twelve gas stations along 35th Avenue NE on corners of the intersections at NE 65th, 75th, 85th and 95th Streets.  The rise and fall of gas stations is one of the indicators of the economy, the lifestyle of northeast Seattle and the commercial environment.  Today there are only two gas stations along this commercial zone of 35th Ave NE, one at 7300 and one at 9500 35th Ave NE.

Property tax assessors photo of the new Hoagy’s Corner Market building in 1977.

More changes are coming:

In the present era of intense redevelopment in Seattle, it seems that the Wedgwood Food Mart may eventually fall to the trend of building densely-packed townhouses along the arterial 35th Ave NE.  A plan filed in 2018 was to tear down the Wedgwood Mart at 6256 35th Ave NE.  However, at this writing the plan has not gone ahead.

Sources:

The present Wedgwood Food Mart, built in 1976 at the corner of NE 65th Street, is scheduled to be torn down for the building of townhouses.

Annexation list and map:  Seattle City Clerk’s page showing the sections and dates when neighborhoods came into the City of Seattle.

Automobile registration statistics — Washington State Department of Vehicles Licensing.  The Department of Licensing keeps interesting statistics on the numbers of drivers from other states who have applied to get a new Washington State license.  The statistics show the numbers of people moving to Washington from out-of-state and the top places of migration.

“Billboard reading “Will the last person leaving Seattle – turn out the lights,” HistoryLink Essay #1287 by Greg Lange, 1999.

“Bryant School,” Seattle School Histories.

Census and City directory listings, Elmer Gray family and the Gray’s Service Station.

House history research:  more resources for finding property histories.

“King County Land Use Survey,” HistoryLink Essay #3692 by Paula Becker, 2002.

Newspaper articles:

This tiny house at 6029 35th Ave NE was built in 1939 by Mirtie Gray to live in during her retirement years.

September 14, 1922, Seattle Times page 2: death notice for Mary Jane Gray, age 79, mother of Elmer Gray.

January 17, 1935, Seattle Times: death notice for Elmer F. Gray, age 59, service station operator and former teacher.

October 6, 1939, Seattle Times page 30: Mirtie Gray application for a building permit, 6029 35th Ave NE.

Property record cards:  Puget Sound Regional Archives, Bellevue, WA.  Accessed February 16, 2018.

Original property record cards for Gray’s Service Station showing the original station and the remodel.  The station was torn down and the Hoagie’s Market building replaced it in 1976.  Property record cards like these are stored at the Puget Sound Regional Archives, Bellevue, WA, a branch of the state archives system.