Category Archives: Immigrant heritage
Life and Legacy in Wedgwood in the 1930s: the Hentschell Family
The Wedgwood neighborhood in northeast Seattle was never reached by a streetcar system, and the area remained outside of the City Limits until the 1940s-1950s. Up until after the end of World War Two in 1945, the (future) Wedgwood area … Continue reading
Immigrants in the Earl J. McLaughlin Plat in Wedgwood
A “plat” is a section of land, any size, for which a plan of streets and lots is laid out. Plats are given a name by the real estate company or developer. Many neighborhood names are derived from plat names, … Continue reading
Immigrants in the Oneida Gardens Plat in Wedgwood
In the 1920s and 1930s the (future) Wedgwood neighborhood in northeast Seattle became the home of numbers of immigrants, most especially from Germany, Holland and Sweden. East of 35th Ave NE in what was called the Oneida Gardens blocks, many … Continue reading
Before There Was a Wedgwood Safeway: From Rural to Urban
The area around the NE 75th Street intersection in Wedgwood never had an organized scheme of development. As a result, people who came to live there in the 1920s saw startling changes over the years in everything from road grading … Continue reading
An Immigrant in Wedgwood: Gerda’s Story
Perry & Gerda Frumkin were among the young married couples who found a new home in northeast Seattle in the post-World-War-Two years of 1945 to 1965. Northeast Seattle was at that time a region where developer Albert Balch had acquired … Continue reading
Immigrants, Houses and Growth in Northeast Seattle
The growth of Seattle is the story of waves of immigrants responding to historic events and economic opportunities in the young city. This blog article is about people on 40th Ave NE around NE 70th Street in northeast Seattle in … Continue reading
Freedom in Fremont: An Early Gas Station in Seattle
In the early 1900s nationalist fervor built up in Europe until the tensions exploded into the First World War from 1914 to 1918. When Germany declared war on Russia, it set off power struggles within that country which ended Russia’s … Continue reading
Remembering Shearwater: Cynthia’s Story
The Wedgwood neighborhood is only a mile-and-a-half from the (former) Naval Air Station at 7400 Sand Point Way NE in Seattle. There was still so much available land in Wedgwood in the 1940s, so during World War Two a lot … Continue reading
The Fukano Family in Fremont
In Washington State in the year 1910, the census showed that one out of every four residents was foreign-born. Of the other three out of four, many were first-generation, born in the USA of immigrant parents, and having come to … Continue reading
Original Resources, Real History
Have you heard of Frederich Drumpf, a German immigrant who operated a restaurant in Seattle in the 1890s? Real historians use original documents and verify their sources, and in this essay by Seattle historian Rob Ketcherside, we see that getting … Continue reading
