Who were Burke & Gilman?

Posted on September 22, 2025 by Wedgwood in Seattle History

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.

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The Wedgwood Post Office

Posted on September 1, 2025 by Wedgwood in Seattle History

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.

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The Wedgwood Gardens Plant Nursery Business

Posted on August 14, 2025 by Wedgwood in Seattle History

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.

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The Hudson Building in the 1920s

Posted on August 1, 2025 by Wedgwood in Seattle History

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.

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Who Named the Wedgwood Neighborhood in Seattle?

Posted on July 1, 2025 by Wedgwood in Seattle History

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.

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House-Moving from the Freeway to Wedgwood

Posted on June 1, 2025 by Wedgwood in Seattle History

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.

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Lumbermen of Lake City in Seattle

Posted on May 12, 2025 by Wedgwood in Seattle History

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.

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The Ohland Family and the Meadowbrook Golf Course

Posted on May 1, 2025 by Wedgwood in Seattle History

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.

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Tachell & Burns at the Meadowbrook Golf Course in Seattle

Posted on April 21, 2025 by Wedgwood in Seattle History

James Tachell (1862-1944) was born in England and came to the USA with his parents and siblings in 1866.  They lived in Calumet, Houghton County, Michigan, where James met his wife Charlreane and they started their family.  In the 1890s James, Charlreane and their children began a western migration which would bring them to the Seattle area in the early 1900s.

Greenwood Memorial Park & Funeral Home

The family lived for a few years in Butte-Silver Bow, Montana, where James Tachell worked as an undertaker.  By 1910, the family was in Renton, Washington where James Tachell became the founder of the Greenwood Memorial Park & Funeral Home, now famous for the gravesite of musician Jimi Hendrix.

In 1910, eldest son Grover Tachell was 25 years old and living on his own in Seattle.  He married later that year and had a good job at Seattle Hardware.  Thus it was not surprising that Grover and his bride, Lydia, were able to establish their home in Morningside Heights, a development on land owned by Burwell & Morford, owners of Seattle Hardware.

Tachell home at 2533 NE 92nd Street

Morningside Heights was the plat name for an early-1900s housing development in the northwest quadrant of today’s Wedgwood neighborhood.

Morningside Heights is between NE 90th to 95th Streets on the west side of 35th Ave NE.  It is the site of some of the oldest houses in Wedgwood.  Grover & Lydia Tachell and their children were among the earliest residents of Morningside Heights in the decade of 1910-1920.

Grover & Lydia Tachell completed their family of six children with the birth of twin boys, Richard & Robert, in 1921.

The Maple Leaf School at 3212 NE 100th Street was completed in 1926.

Richard & Robert Tachell grew up in the lively Morningside community where things were happening.  By the time the Tachell boys were old enough to attend school, the boys could go to the nearby Maple Leaf Elementary, newly constructed in 1926 on the corner of NE 100th Street and 32nd Ave NE.  The community had pulled together to form the Maple Leaf School District, and the contractors for the new school building were Morningside Heights residents Bill Lovell & his son Ellsworth.

In 1931 another big happening in the neighborhood was the opening of a golf course on former farm fields at NE 110th Street.

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Immigrants in Morningside Heights in Seattle

Posted on March 28, 2025 by Wedgwood in Seattle History

Sixteen-year-old Veto Clarizo sailed from Italy to the United States in 1908, sponsored by his sister & family in Chicago.  After a few more years Veto continued westward and worked at picking fruit in Wenatchee, Washington.

The United States entered World War One in 1917 and the call went out for men to enlist as soldiers.  An enticement for immigrants was the promise of help in obtaining U.S. citizenship as part of their military service.

According to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, “The U.S. entered World War One amidst a peak period of immigration…. almost one in five draftees, and more than 18 percent of the total U.S. Army, was foreign-born.”

“To help “Americanize” the men, the War Department instituted English language classes for immigrant soldiers in wartime training camps; these often included lessons on civics and citizenship. Many immigrants proudly viewed their World War One service as a transformational event in their lives and a key part of their identities as new Americans.” — quote from USCIS page, “The Immigrant Army: Immigrant Service Members in World War One.”

To speed up soldier naturalizations, the Bureau of Naturalization dispatched examiners to military bases. Judges traveled to bases to hold large, open-air naturalization ceremonies.

Italian immigrant Veto Clarizo enlisted in the U.S. Army, serving from July 1918 to September 1919 and completed his military service with his American citizenship in hand.

A few years later the Clarizo family became residents of Morningside Heights in northeast Seattle where many immigrants and first-generation Americans achieved home ownership.

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