Category Archives: Land records and surveys

Names in the Neighborhood: Before There Was A Hawthorne Hills

Part of the fun of blogging is being able to network with other writers.  Here I am sharing a wonderful article written by Zach about the northeast Seattle neighborhood of Hawthorne Hills. In the years before a real estate company … Continue reading

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Names in the Neighborhood: Chelsea Becomes a School Street

Hugh Benton and Victor Palmer were young attorneys who arrived to make their fortunes in Seattle in the early 1900s.  In those days attorneys would often expedite property transactions because the category of real estate agent as a profession had … Continue reading

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Van Doren in Washington Territory

When we think of the pioneer white settlers of Washington Territory, we are referring to those who came before statehood in 1889.  We assume that these adventurers were young single men out to make their fortune or young families seeking … Continue reading

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The Minnie Kraus Plat in Northeast Seattle

Minnie Kraus was a young woman who made a real estate investment in northeast Seattle in 1918, filing a plat which she named after herself.  A “plat” is a section of land, any size, for which a map of streets … Continue reading

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The Early Community in the State Park Plat in Wedgwood

In the early 1900s almost no one lived in what is now the Wedgwood neighborhood in northeast Seattle, due to the area’s lack of access to water, its remoteness and the lack of roads. In the 1870s, Capt. DeWitt C. … Continue reading

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Seattle Stream Names

The City of Seattle has at least fifty streams flowing across its ridges, through meadows and wetlands into bodies of water including Puget Sound and Lake Washington. There is no one source for a list of Seattle streams and their … Continue reading

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The Naming of Seattle

Along with the story of the naming of Seattle’s downtown streets, here on this blog I have also explored ways to find out the meaning of street names outside of the downtown area. The origins of the naming of the … Continue reading

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William Strickler in Early Seattle

When I (Valarie) was growing up and attending Wedgwood School in northeast Seattle, city and state history was part of the curriculum of fourth grade.  That was when I first heard the amazing stories of “the pioneers,” Seattle’s first white … Continue reading

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Neighborhood Beginnings of Fremont in Seattle: William Strickler’s Homestead Claim

The history of the Fremont neighborhood in Seattle is unique in that the future-Fremont land was tied up in legal problems so that no one lived there until 1888.  Then, with investors and promoters advertising the first one hundred lots … Continue reading

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Wedgwood Neighborhood History Trivia Quiz

Test your knowledge of Wedgwood neighborhood history with this quiz.  Answers to the quiz follow Question #17. 1. In which neighborhood is Wedgwood Rock? Wedgwood (duh!) Meadowbrook Ravenna 2. What does the “P” in P-Patch stand for? Peat, for the … Continue reading

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