The Pinehurst neighborhood in Seattle was named by two men, its landowner and a real estate salesman, in 1926.  William Hartranft and George Spencer had known each other since 1889 when each came to Washington Territory and taught school in rural districts.  Both men moved to Seattle, served as school principals and then as school superintendents, before transitioning into business careers.

Pinehurst plat map of 1926

Hartranft & Spencer were sixty years old in 1926 and perhaps the Pinehurst investment was to be a source of potential retirement income.  The two men laid out a plat map marked with streets and house lots, on the east side of 15th Ave NE between NE 115th to 125th Streets.

In 1926 Pinehurst was outside of the Seattle City Limits and there were no zoning regulations as to what parts of the development would be designated as a commercial district and which lots would be residential.  However, 15th Ave NE was already put through as an arterial and created the most likely place for business traffic.

This blog article is a then-and-now look at the Pinehurst business district on 15th Ave NE during early years when most businesses were clustered around NE 117th Street at the center of the neighborhood.  Another article on this blog will tell about the present Pinehurst Safeway store in the block from NE 123rd to NE 125th Streets.

Gas stations proliferated in the 1920s in Seattle

The first business to be established in the new Pinehurst neighborhood in 1926, was a gas station with a small convenience market attached.  Gas stations like this one appeared everywhere in Seattle during the relatively prosperous 1920s with a meteoric rise in car ownership.

By 1941 the gas station was still in a wood-frame building but looked a little more sophisticated with its large signage and its boast of a “food store.”

By 1956 the gas station had been enclosed in masonry for fire safety reasons, and the former food store space had been turned into a bay for oil change and car repair.

For many years after the gas pumps were gone, this building continued to have auto-related businesses.  Finally in 2020 the building was demolished.  At this writing the vacant site awaits redevelopment for a cluster of townhouses.

The former gas station and automotive repair shops were at center in this photo. Torn down in 2020, in 2024 the site still awaits redevelopment. At right is the laundromat building at 11702 15th Ave NE.

The Pinehurst business district in the 1920s and 1930s

The question of whether business buildings or residences came first in Pinehurst, is a question like that of the chicken and the egg, which came first?  Pinehurst, being somewhat remote, was even described as suburban and was slow to attract residents.  Some people recognized that they could get a good deal to build a house there in the early years of lot sales, but businesses needed a customer support base and so there were not many Pinehurst businesses in the 1920s and 1930s.

Pinehurst real estate ad in the Seattle Post Intelligencer newspaper, October 3, 1926, page 55.

After the gas station, the next business at the NE 117th Street intersection in Pinehurst was a real estate office built in 1932.  George Spencer, the real estate agent who had helped start Pinehurst, could not spend all his time there and so other agents were employed to receive customers at the office.  Henry Alden Cross, the real estate agent who was at the office at the time of this 1938 tax assessors photo, also advertised lots in Victory Heights, a development adjacent to Pinehurst.  The real estate office was on the present site of the laundromat building at 11702 15th Ave NE.

The earliest real estate office in Pinehurst, at the corner of NE 117th Street on 15th Ave NE.

As of 1932 newspaper ads of Pinehurst noted that Mr. Hartranft, the landowner, was spending time at the real estate office to represent sales as well as insurance policies.  Mr. Hartranft was a “people person” and in addition to helping with real estate showings, he interacted with the community club of Pinehurst, established on February 15, 1935.  This club met for socializing as well as activities for children such as holiday parties.

Pinehurst grows in the 1940s and 1950s 

The population of Seattle soared in 1940-1945 due to wartime industries and the influx of military servicemen.  At the close of World War Two in 1945, the population of Seattle continued to increase as couples married and started families after the war.  The desire of young couples to have a single-family home in a neighborhood suitable for children, led to a boom in housing growth in north Seattle where there was still a lot of space.  Pinehurst really came into its own in this era when more houses were built and when the first larger stores were established.

The intersection of NE 117th Street continued to be the center of the commercial district as Pinehurst grew in the 1940s-1950s.

The first grocery store which was not attached to a gas station came to Pinehurst in 1945 at 11552 15th Ave NE, southeast corner of NE 117th Street.

The Reliance Food Store became an IGA grocery store in 1956.

After the IGA closed in 1988, the building has had several uses including a bakery, a yard sign company, an automotive shop and now the site of the MKG martial arts studio.

Current view of 11552 15th Ave NE.  Photo by Valarie, March 2024.

Changes in the types of stores in Pinehurst

In 1956 a large new Pinehurst Drugstore was built adjacent to/on the south side of the IGA Grocery.  This was a good business decision as it was known that contiguous businesses would benefit from customers who stopped at both places.  The Pinehurst Pharmacy, as it came to be called, lasted almost as long as the IGA grocery store did, into the 1970s-1980s.

Pinehurst Drugstore built 1956 at 11546 15th Ave NE, on the south side of the IGA grocery store.

Up until the 1950s drugstores had a monopoly on some items like aspirin and cough syrup.  These items could not be purchased except as dispensed by a pharmacist.  In the 1950s changes in laws affirmed that consumers probably had enough sense to be careful with products like stomach upset remedies, and that it was unfair restraint of trade to restrict sales to pharmacies-only.  The change to allow grocery stores to stock remedies such as aspirin as an over-the-counter item led to the decline of stand-alone pharmacies.

Today the former Pinehurst Pharmacy building is a restaurant.

Restaurant at 11546 15th Ave NE. Photo by Valarie, April 2024.

The shopping center at the NE 117th Street intersection

In 1947 the present laundromat building was constructed on the northeast corner of NE 117th Street in place of the old real estate office.  Henry Alden Cross, still working as the local real estate agent, moved across the street to 11727 15th Ave NE (not extant).

The present laundromat building started out as a complex of stores at 11702 15th Ave NE in 1947.

The new building in 1947 at 11702 was called Pinehurst Thrift Drugs and was listed as a department store because of the inclusion of other shops including a ten-cent variety store, an ice creamery and cafe.  These shops also hoped to capitalize on being close to the IGA grocery which was across from them on the south side of NE 117th Street, enticing customers to come over to them, as well.

By the 1970s, after the economic downturn called the Boeing Bust in Seattle, the building had become a laundromat and there were vacant spaces in most of the other storefronts.  The economic downturn when the population of Seattle actually decreased, caused a decline in businesses.

11702 15th Ave NE, the laundromat building, was built in 1947 as a drugstore and a variety of other shops. Photo by Valarie, March 2024.

Today the laundromat building still has other shops on the NE 117th Street side.  They currently must contend with street work which has made access to the building a challenge.

The laundromat building has other shops along NE 117th Street. Getting to and from the building has been a challenge during Spring 2024 street work. Photo by Valarie.

Atrium Square, then and now

The present Atrium Square shopping area is on a triangular lot bounded by 15th Ave NE on its west side and Pinehurst Way NE on its east.  The property first developed in the 1950s with separate, free-standing buildings including a real estate office and a drive-through dairy products store closest to NE 120th Street.

This real estate office was on the present Atrium Square shopping area.

At the north end of the site closest to NE 120th Street was the Golden Meadow Milk drive-through owned by Smith Brothers Farms.

Today the Zylberschteins Deli & Bakery is at 11752 15th Ave NE, at the north end of the Atrium Square shopping site.

Zylberschteins Deli & Bakery (entrance at the blue umbrella) with their outdoor seating area at NE 120th Street. Photo by Valarie, April 2024.

Today the NE 117th Street intersection, including Atrium Square, is still a vibrant business area with a variety of stores and services.

Atrium Square at 11730 15th Ave NE.

The next article on this blog will describe how the northern part of Pinehurst at NE 125th Street evolved from semi-industrial buildings to become the site of the Pinehurst Safeway grocery store.

Sources:

Current photos of Pinehurst – all photos by Valarie. Colorization of old photos — thanks to David Z.

Death of a policeman — an accidental shooting in 1968 at the Pinehurst IGA store.  Article by Casey McNerthney in the Seattle Post Intelligencer newspaper, March 21, 2012.

King County Parcel Viewer – shows legal description of properties and the build date.

Property card photos from the Puget Sound Regional Archives, repository of the property tax records of King County. In 1936-1940 the King County Property Tax Assessors office first photographed every building in King County. The story of that project is told in HistoryLink Essay #3692 by Paula Becker.