Author Archives: Wedgwood in Seattle History

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About Wedgwood in Seattle History

Valarie is a volunteer writer of neighborhood history in Seattle.

Seattle’s Waterway to the World

In 2016-2017 we have observed the hundredth anniversary of Seattle’s ship canal which spans the city and joins its freshwater Lakes Union and Washington to the saltwater Puget Sound.  This year as part of the Making the Cut 100 centennial … Continue reading

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Waterway: The Story of Seattle’s Locks and Ship Canal

Where do you take your visitors from out of town, when they come to Seattle? For both locals and out-of-town visitors, one of the favorite destinations in Seattle is the Ballard Locks.  Located in north Seattle just west of the … Continue reading

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Ship Canal Centennial Boat Parade

July 4, 1917 was the official opening day of the Ballard Locks in Seattle.  On that day one hundred years ago, the SS Roosevelt led a marine parade of commercial and pleasure craft through the ship canal into Lake Union. On … Continue reading

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Balch and Beyond: New Architecture in Wedgwood

The Wedgwood neighborhood in northeast Seattle acquired its name and identity in the 1940s with the work of developer Albert Balch.  Balch filed a plat plan on July 31, 1941 for a forty-acre tract of land (five square blocks) on … Continue reading

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Early Architecture in Wedgwood

The history of the Wedgwood neighborhood in northeast Seattle goes back only a little more than one hundred years.  Wedgwood was slow to be settled because northeast Seattle was inland, not located on a water resource such as a river … Continue reading

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Wedgwood’s Nathan Eckstein Middle School

In 1919 the Seattle School Board established a new program of “intermediate education” for grades 7, 8 and 9.  Up until that time, elementary schools went through the eighth grade and high school was four years.  One of the main … Continue reading

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Fremont and Seattle’s Ship Canal

Seattle’s earliest white settlers saw immediately that it would be possible to connect its freshwater lakes to the saltwater Puget Sound by means of a canal.  At a Fourth of July picnic in 1854, Thomas Mercer proposed the name of … Continue reading

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Balch’s Office Buildings in Wedgwood

In 1940 the Wedgwood neighborhood did not yet exist in northeast Seattle.  There were vast tracts of undeveloped land and except for Hansen’s Tavern at NE 85th Street, there were no other businesses at that intersection on 35th Ave NE. … Continue reading

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Cherry Blossoms in March 2017

It was a rainy Sunday in Seattle but cherry trees in bloom signaled the hope of Spring.

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Seattle Walks: Discovering History and Nature in the City

Seattle author David B. Williams is well-known for his geology walks and talks.  In recent years he has been doing research into Seattle history and how the city has interacted with and altered its natural environment, and he wrote the … Continue reading

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