Category Archives: apartments

House-Moving from Shearwater in Wedgwood

In January 1972 a very unusual house-moving event took place in the Wedgwood neighborhood in northeast Seattle.  Twelve small houses (600 square feet each) were moved from 40th Ave NE near Decatur School, to 7320 35th Ave NE in the … Continue reading

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The Theodora in Northeast Seattle

The (former) Theodora building in northeast Seattle, located on 35th Ave NE closest to the corner of NE 68th Street, went through a transition to new use and became a regular apartment building called The Mod in the year 2016. … Continue reading

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Dairy Queen in Wedgwood

The first Dairy Queen store opened in Illinois in 1940 with immediate success.  The menu started out with ice cream and sundaes but soon expanded to malts, milkshakes, and banana splits.  The company began to register its trademark products and … Continue reading

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Shearwater part five: the end of Shearwater and the death of the Wedgwood Community Club in the 1970s

In the early 1970s the USA suffered through an economic recession, made worse in 1973 when an energy crisis began because of a Middle East oil and gas embargo.  In the USA gas prices skyrocketed and it affected air travel, … Continue reading

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Shearwater part two: the Wedgwood Community Club fights Shearwater in the 1950s

In the 1950s the very active Wedgwood District Community Club made its voice heard in issues such as the completion of streets, water and other utilities, business district development in Wedgwood, and trying to get the Seattle Parks Department to … Continue reading

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Shearwater Part One: Navy Housing in Wedgwood in the 1940s

Decatur Elementary School at 7711 43rd Ave NE in Wedgwood is on the site of what was Navy housing from 1945 to 1966.  The first part of the school building was completed in 1961.  With a later addition to the … Continue reading

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What about the “E” in Wedgwood?

The Wedgwood neighborhood in Seattle took its name from a real estate development which was started in 1941 by Albert Balch.  The naming happened gradually after Balch’s Wedgwood group of houses became well-known. In an April 1956 interview for the … Continue reading

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Groceries and Growth in Wedgwood

Grocery stores in Wedgwood expanded with the growth of the neighborhood in the post-World-War-Two period of the 1940s and 1950s.    Beginning with the economic downturn called the Boeing Bust in the 1970s, grocery stores and some other kinds of stores declined … Continue reading

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Apartments in Wedgwood: Oneida to Jasper

In the early 1900s in Seattle, apartments were built along trolley routes to close-in neighborhoods such as Capitol Hill.   Wedgwood was a remote neighborhood which didn’t begin to form an identity until the 1940s and was never served by a … Continue reading

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