Category Archives: Immigrant heritage
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
A Picardo Perspective
In the Spring of the year our thoughts turn to gardening.
Seattle’s Immigrant Photographer: Werner Lenggenhager
Werner Lenggenhager (1899-1988) was a Swiss immigrant who had lived in Australia and California before coming to Seattle in 1939 at age 40. A trip home to Switzerland in 1949 made Lenggenhager realize that historic buildings are not always valued … Continue reading
Wedgwood’s Immigrants: the Akahoshi Family
Census records of 1920 show that there were quite a few immigrants living in the northeast Seattle neighborhood of Wedgwood that year. Germans who built their own houses and settled in Wedgwood included John Herkenrath, Gustav Morris, and William Voss, … Continue reading
A Gift from the Past
When I was growing up in the 1950s in Seattle I was fascinated by the stories my elderly relatives told of “the olden days.” It doesn’t seem possible that I could have known people who were born in the 1880s, … Continue reading
Seattle’s Nordic Heritage
The Nordic Heritage Museum in Seattle is the only museum in the United States which recognizes the contribution of immigrants from the five Nordic countries: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. It is particularly appropriate for the Museum to be … Continue reading
A Sea Captain in Wedgwood
There were very few people living in Wedgwood one hundred years ago, and even fewer houses of that era in Wedgwood have survived in original condition. The hundred-year-old Wedgwood house at 7500 43rd Ave NE, built in 1910, is still … Continue reading
Gerhard Ericksen’s Good Road
In the 1880s Seattleites were fed up with being snubbed by railroad corporations. The last straw was the Northern Pacific’s selection of Seattle’s rival city, Tacoma, as the western terminus of the NP’s cross-country line. Under the leadership of Judge … Continue reading
