Even in the short history of the Wedgwood neighborhood in northeast Seattle, there are some sites which have had multiple different buildings and uses over time.  One such site is the northwest corner of NE 86^th Street on 35^th Ave NE.  This corner first took on an identity in 1949 when it became the Morningside Electrical Substation at the back portion of the lot farthest from 35th Ave NE.  Then from 1949 to 1968 at the front of the lot, there was the M & M Mobil gas station. From 1968 to 2013 a modular building brought onto the site, was used by businesses.  Today the space is vacant, awaiting development as a pocket park.

Names for the neighborhood

The Morningside Market at 9118 35th Ave NE opened in 1926 with a grocery on one side and a butcher shop on the other.  Photo by Valarie.

Morningside was an early name for the neighborhood, before the Wedgwood housing started by Albert Balch in the 1940s.

The Morningside Heights plat (a development with streets and house lots laid out) was the first in the future-Wedgwood area to be advertised and promoted by a real estate company.  Today the Morningside Heights apartment building on the southwest corner of NE 95^th Street, built in 1994, is a tribute to the plat name.

Morningside Market, built in 1926 at 9118 35^th Ave NE, is the only original building or business which still has a Morningside attribution.  Ironically the Morningside Market is on the wrong side of the street, because the original Morningside plat was on the west side of 35th Ave NE.

This photo from the Seattle Municipal Archives is dated May 25, 1947, showing that Seattle City Light had identified this vacant lot at 8605 35th Ave NE as a place to put an electrical substation.

Another Morningside reference which is not actually located within the Morningside plat, is the former electrical substation site at 8605 35^th Ave NE.  An electrical substation was part of the distribution system which transformed voltage from high to low, providing a step-down as electricity served a local area.

The corner site at 8605 35^th Ave NE, named the Morningside Substation, was acquired by the City of Seattle electric utility by or before 1949.

The photo at right is Seattle Municipal Archives Item #19814 of May 25, 1947, showing that the site was of interest for placement of an electrical substation.   Morningside Substation had its electrical equipment on the site until about 2012.

Morningside Substation electrical equipment. Seattle Municipal Archives Item #21027 of March 28, 1950.

During the time that Seattle City Light owned the Morningside Substation, they permitted other businesses to have a ground lease to put a building at the front of the lot facing 35^th Ave NE.  The first was the M & M Mobil gas station on the site from 1949 to 1968.  From 1968 to 2013, a modular building on the site served as office space and later, a hair salon.

The gas station era in Wedgwood

The 1950s in northeast Seattle was truly an era of gas stations.  Using the City Directory of 1958, we can see at least twelve stations listed along 35^th Ave NE from NE 65^th to 95^th Streets.  At present there are only two stations in that stretch of the arterial, one at 7300 and one at 9500 35^th Ave NE.

The rise of gas stations was an indicator of the economy and the lifestyle of people in northeast Seattle in the 1950s.  Cars were the only practical way to get around northeast Seattle and car ownership was a dream which many people wanted to fulfill after the rationing and restrictions of the war years of the 1940s.  Once gasoline was no longer rationed and consumer spending increased in the 1950s, car ownership did, too.

In the post-war years many young people who were interested in mechanics aspired to work with car-related businesses, including gas stations.  One such young man was Paul McInnis who became one of the “Ms” in the M & M Mobil Station at 8605 35^th Ave NE in 1949.

Morningside Substation with Mobil Gas, Seattle Municipal Archives Photo #21028 of March 28, 1950.

Paul McInnis and the M & M Mobil Station

Born in Tacoma in 1921, Paul McInnis was the youngest of five children and his mother died when he was only six years old.  His eldest sister, Elizabeth, who was fifteen years older than Paul, married and moved to Seattle in 1929 but she kept up close ties with her younger brothers.  Elizabeth worked as an insurance adjuster and by 1940 she had helped one of her brothers, John, to find a job in the insurance industry.

As of 1940 Elizabeth Miller’s youngest brother, Paul McInnis, was eighteen years old and was living with Elizabeth and her husband Clarence Miller in their house at 3922 Eastern Avenue in the Wallingford neighborhood of Seattle.   The census of 1940 listed Clarence Miller as the owner of a gas station and Paul McInnis as a student apprentice at an auto works.

In 1949 Clarence Miller and Paul McInnis went in together as co-owners of the M & M Mobil service station at 8605 35^th Ave NE in the growing Wedgwood neighborhood.  Miller & McInnis had a ground lease on the property owned by Seattle City Light at the Morningside electrical substation.

The growing Wedgwood business district in the 1950s

Miller & McInnis were on the leading edge of the growth in the Wedgwood business district in the 1950s.  Wedgwood was not yet completely within the Seattle City Limits, and there was still a lot of available space, even along the arterial 35^th Avenue NE.

Balch’s original Wedgwood houses were marked by this entrance on the west side of 35th Ave NE at NE 81st Street.

In the 1950s the intersection of NE 85^th Street and the blocks surrounding it were becoming the heart of the new Wedgwood district, largely created by a developer, Albert Balch.  Balch built houses and was not a commercial builder, but he gave thought to creating space for businesses for the convenience of the neighborhood.

Balch built housing developments on both sides of 35^th Ave NE and reserved property at the arterial intersections for businesses.  With new houses occupied by young couples in surrounding streets, the intersections between NE 84^th to 86^th Streets began to be built up with small businesses which served the community.

The M & M Mobil service station at NE 86^th did a good business through the 1950s, even though there was another gas station, the Wedgwood Texaco, only a block away.  The Wedgwood Texaco was on the southwest corner of NE 85th Street, present site of Bank of America.  Up at NE 95th Street, this intersection had three gas stations.

Many of the gas stations along 35^th Ave NE began to close as the Seattle economy slowed down in the 1960s.  The Seattle City Directory showed that in the 1960s Clarence Miller was no longer co-owner of the M & M station and Paul McGinnis had found it necessary to find another job; we presume that he needed more income.  McGinnis became a mechanical engineer at Olympic Cold Storage on First Avenue South, and he moved to live in south Seattle.  The M & M Mobil station at 8605 35^th Ave NE in Wedgwood closed in 1968 and the station building was removed from the site.

A property card photo of the Mobil station in 1950, with writing on it showing the legal description of plat name (Earl J. McLaughlin’s), the lot number and address. Photo courtesy of the Puget Sound Regional Archives, repository of the property records of King County.

A modular building at 8605 35^th Ave NE

In 1968 a modular building (it was a two-bedroom, one bathroom house) was placed on the corner of NE 86^th Street, again with a ground lease from Seattle City Light.

For some years the building was the office of Lakeview Homes Real Estate, a business owned by neighborhood resident Simon Korch.  Then the C C & Co Hair Salon came in, a business which, just as previously, leased from the owner of the modular building.

In the year 2010 the Seattle Parks Department indicated that neighborhoods could begin the process to choose pocket park sites, many of which were surplused City Light substations like the one at 8605 35^th Ave NE.  A Wedgwood neighborhood initiative with community meetings in 2010 identified this site as a preferred choice for a new pocket park, meaning that it will not be a “playfield” but would have some greenery, seating areas and open space.

Demolition on November 26, 2013.

Over a process of several years, the Morningside electrical substation equipment was taken out, soil testing conducted and some areas of contaminated soil were removed.  The owner of the modular building could not find anyone who wanted to take it and remove it from the site, so the building was finally demolished on November 26, 2013.  I (Valarie) got there just in time to take photos of the demolition, which began at 7:45 AM and only took ten minutes.

After the modular building was demolished and all soil testing of the site was completed, ownership of the property was transferred from Seattle City Light to the Seattle Parks Department.  A Parks Levy which was approved by Seattle voters in 2014 placed the Morningside Substation site into a land-banked list of parks for future development.

Wedgwood’s future pocket park

After removal of the modular building, the future-park site needed some fixing-up. In the background is the Jasper Apartments at 8606 35th Ave NE.  Photo by Valarie.

In June 2015 Wedgwood neighborhood activists applied for a Small & Simple grant from Seattle’s Department of Neighborhoods, to create a usable space for gathering at 8605 35^th Avenue NE.  Picnic tables which were placed in the shaded area on the corner are now a popular stop for enjoying a cup of coffee and a place to sit and watch the world go by.

The site of Wedgwood’s future Morningside pocket park, as it is now called, is on the Seattle Parks Department list for potential development.  This process got underway in 2018-2019 with meetings to present design concepts.

Projected completion of Wedgwood’s new pocket park was at first scheduled for Spring/Summer 2020.  At that time the Parks Department used the coronavirus pandemic as an excuse for further delay.  They said that they didn’t have the money any longer and that development of Wedgwood’s future pocket park, would have to wait for some future budget cycle.  See the proposed park design photo at the end of this article.  The Parks Dept. website for the project has not been updated since 2022.  It’s referred to as “landbanked.”

A picnic area at Wedgwood’s future park was created by volunteers with grant funding.  Photo by Valarie.

It is a measure of changing times in Wedgwood that open space is now valued and the Morningside Substation site has been earmarked for a pocket park.

In the past seventy+ years since Wedgwood began to be a neighborhood, empty spaces got filled up with houses and businesses.  Wedgwood has gone from empty lots to gas stations and back again, to the desire to create space in the neighborhood.  However, bureaucracy at City departments such as Parks have created a long, long timeline for fulfillment of this pocket park.  Its future development will continue to depend upon the determination of neighborhood activists, to hold the City of Seattle’s Parks Department to account, to fulfill the promised park site.

Sources

Census and newspaper articles, tracing the lives of the M & M gas station owners, accessed on-line through the Seattle Public Library website.

Wedgwood’s future pocket park is now a usable site for gatherings, such as this planning meeting for a neighborhood activity.  Photo by Valarie.

City directories:  Directories published by the Polk Company are similar to phone books but have more information, such as the names of business owners.  Beginning for the year 1938 there is also a reverse directory of addresses.  Directories are available in several places including the downtown Seattle Public Library and the Seattle Municipal Archives on the third floor of Seattle City Hall.  Some directories are on-line at the Seattle Public Library website.

Gas stations:  Go to the “Categories” tab on the right margin of this blog page to see all that I have written about gas stations in Wedgwood, plus some on Sand Point Way NE and one former gas station in Fremont which is now the site of the Lenin statue.

Photos:  All photos on this article are by Valarie, except the property record photos as noted.  If you choose to copy a photo please include the source info, such as Seattle Municipal Archives with the date and item number.

Plat names:  Use the “Categories” tab on this blog to find all of the articles I have written about plat names, or put the plat name into the “Search” box to find it.  The Morningside substation was named for the Morningside Heights plat, instead of its actual location in the Earl J. McLaughlin plat.

As we see from this signboard, the Seattle Parks Department designated money for Wedgwood’s pocket park in the year 2008. As of 2023 the park plan has not yet been fulfilled.

Property records:  Past records of the King County tax assessor, including buildings which are no longer extant, are stored at the Puget Sound Regional Archives.  I (Valarie) went there to obtain copies of the old tax assessors photo showing the Mobil gas station at 8605 35^th Ave NE.

Addresses of current buildings: can be looked up on-line at the King County Parcel Viewer.  Click through to “property detail” to see the build date and photos of a house or other building.  See also my House Histories article on this blog, about other available resources to find the build date of your house and other info.

Seattle Municipal Archives:  the SMA on the third floor of Seattle City Hall is the repository of the records of City projects including Seattle City Light, streets and engineering works.  The SMA photos used in this article were found on-line at the SMA using the search term “Morningside.”

Washington Digital Archives:  dates of birth, death, and marriages.

Proposed pocket park design, chosen at community meetings in the year 2019.