In the autumn season Wedgwood’s flame ash street trees enliven the arterial 35th Ave NE with brilliant color.
Flame ash street trees in the 9800 block of 35th Ave NE in October 2025. Photo courtesy of JRV.
Flame ash street trees in Wedgwood, as viewed from the corner of NE 87th Street in October 2025. Photo courtesy of JRV.
Wedgwood’s annual Pumpkin Party begins on Saturday, October 4, 2025. This month the Hunter Tree Farm site, 7744 35th Ave NE, next door to the Wedgwood Post Office, is transformed into a Pumpkin Patch. Local scout troops host pumpkin sales to raise funds for their programs. The pumpkin sales will be open on Saturdays and Sundays through the last weekend of the month, October 25-26.
The Hunter Tree Farm site, 7744 35th Ave NE, is transformed into a Pumpkin Patch in October 2025. Photo by Valarie.
The Evanston Steps in the Fremont neighborhood, leading to the Burke-Gilman Trail and providing a good view of boat traffic on the ship canal. Photo by Valarie, August 2025.
One of Seattle’s amenities is a trail which traverses the city and extends to the east side of Lake Washington. Sometimes called “Seattle’s longest park,” the trail is overseen by the Parks Department and serves those who walk, run, or travel by bicycle for exercise or to commute to work.
In the 1970s the name “Burke-Gilman Trail” was given to this former rail line when a group of Wedgwood neighbors advocated for its conversion to a trail. In another article on this blog I have told the story of how the committee came up with the Burke-Gilman Trail idea.
The members of that 1970s citizen-activist group suggested that the names of Thomas Burke & Daniel Gilman be given to the trail, because in the 1880s these men were the key movers-and-shakers in the creation of Seattle’s own railroad, called the Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern. In this blog article I will explore some of the reasons why these men, Burke & Gilman, came to Seattle, what their lives in Seattle were like, and the legacy they left.
The Burke-Gilman Trail proceeds along the north shore of Lake Union and over to Lake Washington to the east.
In 1946 McVicar Hardware became the first business to occupy a new storefront building owned by Henry R. Hansen of the adjacent tavern. Business owner Grant McVicar became a leader in the growing Wedgwood community, and one of his initiatives was to seek to establish a post office in the neighborhood.
The Wedgwood Post Office in the center of the neighborhood at 7724 35th Ave NE. On its north side is the Hunter Tree Farm. Photo by Valarie, August 2025.
In the 1930s the (future) Wedgwood neighborhood was an unnamed area outside of the Seattle City Limits. Along 35th Ave NE, the three intersections of NE 75th, 85th and 95th Streets each had only one building: a tavern.
German immigrant John Herkenrath & his wife Freda built a house at 7724 35th Ave NE, present site of the Wedgwood Post Office. John was semi-retired and did some carpentry work. The Herkenraths owned the property from their house up to NE 80th Street, where today there is the Wedgwood Post Office, the Hunter Tree Farm lot at 7744 35th Ave NE, and the Grassy Lot on the corner owned by Wedgwood Presbyterian Church.
The Herkenrath house in 1958, present site of the Wedgwood Post Office at 7724 35th Ave NE. Seattle Municipal Archives photo #75875.
On the evening of July 4, 2025, a speeding car plowed into the Mioposto restaurant at 3426 NE 55th Street. Diners were showered with broken glass, but fortunately no one was killed. Immediately work began to reinforce the building’s storefront, as the main supporting post had been sheared away.
Above the storefronts, the parapet of the building has a letter H outlined in brick & tile, which set me on a quest to know what the “H” stood for. I think it is likely the initial of John Stauffer Hudson who constructed the building in 1925.
This blog article will trace the background of John Hudson, his career as a builder in Seattle, and the story of the building at 3426 NE 55th Street.
Who gave the name of “Wedgwood” to this northeast Seattle neighborhood?
Henry R. Hansen lived in Wedgwood for only a few years, but he left a legacy: the naming of the neighborhood. He didn’t do this on purpose, though. Circa 1945 he changed the name of Hansen’s Tavern to the Wedgwood Tavern in a new building he had built on the same site, at 8517 35th Ave NE.
A house built in 1929 in classic style was saved from the path of freeway construction.
Throughout its history Seattle has attracted migrants from all over the USA. This blog article will trace the journeys of families who came to Seattle, and the story of a house, ending with the migration of the house itself.
In 1967 a house at 7731 4th Ave NE had to be moved to get out of the path of Interstate 5 freeway construction. The house was moved about two miles to the northeast, to 8512 30th Ave NE in the Wedgwood neighborhood of Seattle.
The plan for the new Victory Way — today’s Lake City Way NE. The dotted line is the old Gerhard Erickson Road.
Northeast Seattle, including Lake City, really began to grow in the 1920s because of the rise of the automobile and the creation of more roads. A highway called Erickson Road had opened in 1913 but its winding, narrow passage from Seattle to Bothell soon became inadequate.
One section of the Erickson Road went along the west side of today’s Nathan Hale High School (including the present Ravenna and 30th Avenues NE) to a stop sign at NE 110th Street. Drivers then had to take a right-turn going eastward along NE 110th Street, turn left onto 35th Ave NE, then continue northward to Kenmore and Bothell.
In 1922 a new highway was completed, northbound out of Seattle, called Victory Way: today’s Lake City Way NE. This new highway literally created Lake City by shifting its main intersection westward, over to where Victory Way crossed NE 125th Street.
Nathan Hale High School in Seattle is on a large field at NE 110th Street, bounded on either side by the arterials 30th & 35th Avenues NE. The South Branch of Thornton Creek flows eastward across the school site. The neighborhood is called Meadowbrook, a name derived from a golf course which was on the site from 1931 to 1961.
The south branch of Thornton Creek runs parallel to the Nathan Hale High School building. Bridges link the student parking lot to the building. Photo by Valarie.
Wedgwood in Seattle History 