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Category Archives: Neighborhood features
Albert Balch, Part Six: Architecture and Neighborhoods
Albert Balch, developer of Wedgwood, constantly watched trends and looked ahead to anticipate “the next thing” in the building of houses and neighborhoods. Balch saw that in the period following the end of World War Two, people were spreading out … Continue reading
Albert Balch, Part Five: Spreading Wedgwoods Everywhere
In November 1888 two young men, employees of the Post-Intelligencer newspaper in Seattle, quit their jobs and went into real estate. They didn’t have any formal training in such work but their knowledge of the city and their belief in its potential … Continue reading
Working for Mr. Balch
The developer of the Wedgwood neighborhood, Albert Balch, was born in Gem, Idaho, finished high school in Blaine, Washington, and graduated from the University of Washington in Seattle. In 1934 Balch was thirty years old, married and about to become … Continue reading
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
The Wedgwood Safeway
The intersection of 35th Ave NE and NE 75th Street had no buildings at any of the four corners until after 1946. The only building near to the corner of 75th & 35th was Ida’s Inn at 7500 35th Ave … Continue reading
Posted in businesses, grocery stores, Neighborhood features
Tagged land use and zoning, NE 75th Street, Neighborhood History, Seattle
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Street-grade: ups and downs in Wedgwood
Wedgwood’s main commercial corridor is along 35th Ave NE which was first declared an arterial in 1934. Some improvements were made at that time, including some widening and some road-grading to level out the surface and make it more passable … Continue reading
Posted in 7321 35th Ave NE, 7528 35th Ave NE, Big Green House, Houses, streets
Tagged 35th Ave NE, NE 75th Street, Neighborhood History, Seattle
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The House in the Road
The years 1945 to 1955, from the end of World War Two until the Wedgwood neighborhood came completely into the city limits of Seattle, were years of rapid change. The population of Seattle had swelled with war workers in the … Continue reading
Hamburgers in Wedgwood
Wedgwood of the 1950s was a still-developing neighborhood with a lot of house construction in progress. Although Albert Balch’s original group of Wedgwood houses was finished (from NE 80th to 85th Streets on the west side of 35th Ave NE) … Continue reading
Names in the Neighborhood: from Pontiac to Wedgwood
In 1887 the Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern Railroad was up and running, a line now followed by the Burke-Gilman Trail. The railroad paralleled streetcar lines from downtown Seattle as far as Fremont which was a major transportation hub for … Continue reading
Posted in Maple Creek ravine, name of the neighborhood, Plat names
Tagged Neighborhood History, Seattle, SLS&E Railroad
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Names in the Neighborhood: from Decatur to Thornton Creek
Author’s note: This article is about the name of a school in the Wedgwood neighborhood. If you are looking for an outline of the history of the Thornton Creek watershed and The Confluence at Meadowbrook, go here. The US Navy … Continue reading
Wedgwood in Seattle History 