Wedgwood in Seattle History

A 1938 Seattle Engineering Dept. map of the city, showing the annexation dates of different neighborhoods. A “jog” can be seen at the northeast corner, where the city limits were at NE 65th Street. Northeast Seattle was outside the Seattle City Limits until the 1940s. Image courtesy of UW Special Collections.

During the hot-weather week of August 12, 1910, The Seattle Daily Times newspaper carried reports of fires across the State of Washington, and one fire which struck closer to home, to the northeast just outside of the Seattle City limits.

The news article reported that Lores L. Goodwin, described as living in the McLaughlin Tract, drove his car to downtown Seattle to request aid in fighting the fire.  That is how the newspaper became aware that residents of the remote northeast district, today’s Wedgwood and Meadowbrook, had been able to beat back the flames of the night before.

The August 12, 1910 news article reported that two other fire-fighting neighbors were C.E. Thorpe who owned forty acres of timbered property along 35^th Ave NE at NE 80^th, and William Mock at NE 95^th and 35^th Ave NE.  It was believed that a brush fire had gotten started in the Maple Leaf Valley (the route of Lake City Way NE at about NE 85^th Street.)  The fire burned in a northeasterly direction across the logged-off area which later became the Morningside Heights plat.  The fire jumped the road northward across NE 95^th Street, onto what is now the site of the Northeast Veterinary Clinic.  The Mock’s house on the east side of 35^th Ave NE seemed threatened but as of the night of August 11^th, the men were able to stop the fire there at the intersection, and the Mock house was saved.

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