The present site of the Pinehurst Safeway grocery store, on 15th Ave NE between NE 123rd to NE 125th Streets, once had a cluster of semi-industrial buildings including a lumber yard and a dairy processing plant with a company office.

For many years after the first Pinehurst Safeway opened in 1965, it still shared its block with a gas station and a home supply & hardware store.

Today the Pinehurst Safeway, newly built in 2010, takes up most of its block except for line retail at the corner of NE 125th Street where there was once a gas station.

This blog article will tell what the block looked like before the first and second Safeway buildings, and what the block looks like now.

Pinehurst begins in the 1920s but grows the most in the 1950s

The Pinehurst neighborhood in northeast Seattle was named in 1926 as a real estate development on the east side of 15th Ave NE from NE 115th to NE 125th Streets.  The neighborhood gradually developed a commercial center at NE 117th Street with small stores.  Larger stores didn’t come into Pinehurst until after 1945.

That year of 1945, when World War Two ended, marked the start of real population growth in north Seattle.  Everything had been “on hold” during the war.  Afterward, many people got married and wanted to start new lives with their families.  This led to much greater housing growth in northeast Seattle neighborhoods like Pinehurst, where there was still a lot of space for building.

The first grocery store in Pinehurst in 1945 was at NE 117th Street, twenty years before a Safeway at NE 125th Street.

Housing and residential population growth in Pinehurst was followed by business growth with a grocery store built at the southeast corner of NE 117th Street in 1945.

The grocery store became IGA in 1956 and was followed by an adjacent pharmacy building and other shops clustered at or near NE 117th Street.

The north corner of Pinehurst at NE 125th Street

While most Pinehurst businesses were at or near NE 117th Street as of 1945, the north corner of the Pinehurst district at NE 125th Street had some semi-industrial development.  The first to build close to NE 125th Street was a dairy processing plant in 1929.  A news article stated that,

Charmed Land Dairy is Opened:  19 independent dairy farmers operating some of the finest dairy farms in King and Snohomish Counties have completed organization of a new cooperative, the Charmed Land Dairies, with the opening of their modern plant… The new plant has been fully equipped with the very latest developments in the dairy field.  It will supply through its associated members both raw and pasteurized milk, commercial and whipping cream, buttermilk, cottage cheese and butter…  (Seattle Daily Times, August 29, 1929, page 13)

The Charmed Land Dairy first built a processing plant and later an office building facing 15th Ave NE.

The Charmed Land Dairy processing plant was built in 1929, in mid-block between NE 123rd and 125th Streets on the east side of 15th Ave NE.

This photo of 1948 shows the Charmed Land Dairy office building on 15th Ave NE with the processing plant behind it.   By 1957 the company was no longer listed in the phone book, and we can guess that it was because the processing plant was outdated or due to consolidation with other dairy operations.  A series of other companies, such as Lake City Moving & Storage, later used the building.

The Charmed Land Dairy office at 12314 15th Ave NE as of 1948.

Lumber, hardware and home improvement

After the dairy plant in 1929, the next building at NE 123rd Street was built in 1932, Gourlay Lumber.

The Gourlay family had lived in Seattle since the 1890s.  They had three sons who all grew up working for their father, who was a partner in Blackstock Lumber of Seattle.  Gourlay Lumber in Pinehurst was founded by the eldest son until the youngest son, Sumner Harrison Gourlay, took over ownership in the 1940s.  The company transitioned into a home supply store advertising building materials, paints, glass and hardware.  In the boom years of housing growth in the 1950s, Gourlay Lumber offered a deal on framing of a three-bedroom rambler (one-story) house.

Gourlay Lumber Company ad in the Seattle Post Intelligencer newspaper, May 21, 1956, page 23.

Gourlay Lumber & Hardware ad in the Seattle Post Intelligencer newspaper, May 26, 1963, page 4.

In 1972 Clay & Dorothy Williams bought the Gourlay company and renamed it Williams True Value Home Center, Lumber & Hardware.  Clay & Dorothy lived on NE 120th Street in Pinehurst and were very active in the community.  They were founding members of St. Matthews Catholic Church on 15th Ave NE at NE 127th Street.

Safeway comes to the corner of NE 125th Street

There have been two Pinehurst Safeway buildings, the first in 1965 and a new building which opened in 2010.

Before the Safeway store, there was a gas station built in 1952 on the northernmost corner at the intersection of NE 125th Street & 15th Ave NE.  This photo of the gas station looks southward across NE 125th Street.

This gas station was built in 1952. We are looking southward across NE 125th Street, before the Safeway store was built.

The Safeway block was redeveloped with the coming of the grocery store in 1965. When first built, the store was aligned north-south with a west-facing front entrance.  The gas station was still there after the first Safeway was built.  The Safeway can be seen on the left side of this 1969 photo.

In 1969 the gas station was still very active and we can see the first Pinehurst Safeway, built in 1965, on the left side of the photo.

The first Pinehurst Safeway store opened in 1965. The building was positioned on the east side of the lot, just south of the gas station.

The first Pinehurst Safeway, built in 1965, was aligned north-south and had a west-facing front door. There was still a gas station on the north corner of the block at NE 125th, and a hardware store on the south corner of the block at NE 123rd Street.

In 1992 the Safeway store got a bit of a facelift with a modernized facade and some interior upgrades.

In 1992 the Safeway storefront was modernized.

In 2009 the old store was demolished and a new store building was constructed, opening in November 2010. The new store is positioned at the south end of the lot closest to NE 123rd Street, with a north-facing entrance.

The Pinehurst Safeway newly built in 2010 was positioned to face north.  In the foreground is 15th Ave NE.  The store also has a driveway to enter the parking lot from NE 125th Street.

The Pinehurst community was involved in advocating for best design practices for the building and surrounding landscape of the new Safeway. The new store, which opened in November 2010, is finished on all sides and has rain garden landscaping so that drainage from the roof stays on-site rather than running into the street or onto neighboring properties. The parking lot of the Safeway store is all-permeable pavement so that water sinks down between the pebbles, rather than running off the pavement.

The back of the Pinehurst Safeway at NE 123rd Street shows that the building is finished on all sides. Rain gardens collect runoff from the roof. This view looks northward with 15th Ave NE at left.

The side of the Safeway store on 15th Ave NE has wide eaves and stone benches set into the building, where travelers can wait for the bus, sheltered from rain.

Looking northward with 15th Ave NE at left, we see the bus stop waiting area alongside the Safeway store where riders are sheltered from rain.

The Pinehurst Safeway as rebuilt in 2009-2010 represents the era of the modern supermarket with several departments including dairy, fresh fruits and meat. This represents the evolution of grocery stores from the days when some products were only found separately, such as meat at a butcher shop, milk at a dairy outlet and medicines at a drugstore. The present Pinehurst Safeway has a pharmacy, floral department and in-house Starbucks coffee counter with a seating area.

Adjacent to the Pinehurst Safeway, a retail building has replaced the gas station.  This property has a separate owner from Safeway.  There are several shops including a drycleaner, Subway sandwiches and other food outlets.

Over the past sixty years since the opening of the first Safeway in Pinehurst in 1965, we have seen changes in the types of businesses in the neighborhood, including changes in how groceries are presented and sold.  Will grocery stores stay the same in the next sixty years, or should we expect evolution in businesses in the future, just as there has been in the past?

Sources:

Pinehurst Safeway parking lot in March 2024. Photo by Valarie.

Current photos by Valarie.  Colorization of old photos by David Z.

King County Parcel Viewer:  shows property lines and names of owners.  The line retail stores at the corner of NE 125th Street are not owned by Safeway; this section which was once the gas station, has a private owner.

Pinehurst blog:  Grand Opening of the new Safeway store in November 2010.

Property card photos:  Puget Sound Regional Archives, repository of the property tax assessors records of King County.