Seattle’s Regrading Mania

Posted on September 1, 2015 by Wedgwood in Seattle History

David B Williams book coverFrom the time that settlers first arrived in Seattle in 1851, they began redesigning the landscape.  There just seemed to be something about wanting to reconfigure the topography to suit civic purposes, which drove a near-mania for regrading.  It has been said that Seattle is the most engineered city in the world.  From the sluicing of Denny Hill to the digging of a ship canal, Seattle’s transformation has made its original form nearly unrecognizable.

In his new book, Too High and Too Steep, author David B. Williams has combined research, scientific background, and personal observations on how and why our city has been altered.  The book was introduced for the first time on September 9, 2015 at the University Bookstore, where the author told about his research and some of the amazing stories of Seattle’s regrading projects.  Mr. Williams’ blog page contains more regrading info links.  Here is a preview of the book with a video interview of the author.

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A Walk Through Wedgwood History

Posted on August 23, 2015 by Wedgwood in Seattle History

Take a Walk Through Wedgwood History with me, Valarie, on any/all Saturdays in September 2015.  We will meet under the Safeway sign, 35th Ave NE at the corner of NE 75th Street at 10 AM.  We will look at the buildings we have in Wedgwood today and how Wedgwood got that way, during the post-World-War Two building boom.  Prior to the war’s end in 1945, there were no apartment buildings in Wedgwood and there still were many people who kept chickens and cows.   Today all the vacant spaces in Wedgwood are filled up and the neighborhood is beginning to experience the pressures of urbanization.

A 1953 view of NE 81st Street in the original Wedgwood emphasized its natural setting in tall trees. Photo by Werner Lenggenhager in the Seattle Public Library Historic Photos Collection.

A 1953 view of NE 81st Street in the original Wedgwood emphasized its natural setting in tall trees. Photo by Werner Lenggenhager in the Seattle Public Library Historic Photos Collection.

Wedgwood began to grow very rapidly after the end of World War Two in 1945.  With the end of the war came large numbers of returning servicemen who married and began looking for a place where they could have a house and raise a family.  As of 1945, while other parts of Seattle were already built up, in Wedgwood there were vast tracts of heavily treed, vacant land still available.  The post-war pressure for housing led to the creation of the Wedgwood neighborhood which is still in evidence today, with single-family homes on either side of a linear commercial district along 35th Ave NE.

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Names in the Neighborhood: LaVilla

Posted on August 10, 2015 by Wedgwood in Seattle History

In March 1945 during the final battles of World War Two in Europe, a homesick soldier wrote a letter to the Seattle Daily Times newspaper.  Lieutenant Ralph A. Penington, age 34, was with the US Army’s 10th Mountain Division in Italy.  He told that after crawling into his sleeping bag one night, he had been able to drift off to happy dreams while reminiscing about his boyhood days as a newspaper carrier in northeast Seattle.  Lieut. Penington wrote,

Penington“It was twenty-five years ago this coming fall that I first started “in business” out in Morningside.  At that time I was nine years of age and I believe I had the grand circulation of fifteen papers.  Then as time went on I promoted Times circulation in Sand Point, LaVilla, Chelsea, Lake City, Cedar Park, Riviera and way points.”

In 1920 when nine-year-old Ralph became a newspaper carrier, his family lived at 9404 25th Ave NE in the Morningside Heights plat from NE 90th to 95th Streets, 25th to 35th Avenues NE.  Morningside had been named and promoted by a real estate firm but the Morningside designation gradually fell into disuse in the 1940s because of the rising popularity of Wedgwood as the new name for the neighborhood.

Ralph Penington’s letter of 1945 gave the names of northeast Seattle communities which are still recognized today, such as Sand Point, Lake City, and Cedar Park as well as Riviera which is a street name along Lake Washington.  Chelsea was the name of a store at 3400 NE 110th Street, present site of the Meadowbrook Apartments, and in the 1920s it was understood to mean the nearby residential area as well.   Chelsea was replaced by the name Meadowbrook because of the golf course which opened in 1932 at the present site of Nathan Hale High School at NE 110th Street.

One of Lieut. Penington’s northeast Seattle neighborhood designations, LaVilla, is unfamiliar to us now.  Where was LaVilla?

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Where Nature Lives

Posted on August 1, 2015 by Wedgwood in Seattle History

Hummingbird by Larry Hubbell August 2015 exhibitThis hummingbird photo along with more than a dozen other framed bird photos is part of an exhibit at Fuel Coffee in Montlake during the month of August 2015. The exhibit is entitled, “Where Nature Lives” by photographer and artist Larry Hubbell of the Union Bay Watch blog.

All of the photos are from western Washington and all but two are from around Union Bay near the Arboretum and near the University of Washington, Montlake and Laurelhurst neighborhoods of northeast Seattle.

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The Future of 35th Ave NE in Wedgwood

Posted on July 17, 2015 by Wedgwood in Seattle History

Some of the commercial buildings in Wedgwood are very old and could be ripe for redevelopment.

What is the future of 35th Ave NE?  This arterial corridor through the Wedgewood neighborhood of Seattle has businesses clustered mainly at the intersections of NE 75th and 85th Streets.  As buildings at these intersections age and are replaced, we want to have a say in how new buildings look and what the commercial offerings will be.  In a grass-roots process, the future of 35th Ave NE has been considered.  The proposed zoning changes developed in this community process would require that in the future, new commercial buildings on 35th Ave NE must have a pedestrian-friendly street environment with storefronts at sidewalk level.

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Go Klondike Legacy Day

Posted on July 10, 2015 by Wedgwood in Seattle History

The Seattle unit of the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park preserves the story of the 1897 stampede to the Yukon gold fields and Seattle’s crucial role in this event.  On Friday, July 17, 2015, you can join in with activities to commemorate the Gold Rush.

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The Theodora in Northeast Seattle

Posted on June 18, 2015 by Wedgwood in Seattle History
The Theodora is on 35th Ave NE nearest to the corner of NE 68th Street.

The Theodora building, now called The Mod, is on 35th Ave NE at the southwest corner of NE 68th Street.

The (former) Theodora building is in northeast Seattle at 6559 35th Ave NE, at the southwest corner of NE 68th Street.

In 2016 the building went through a transition and remodeling to new use.  The Theodora became a regular apartment building with a name change, now called The Mod.

The Theodora began in 1913 as a home for widows, mothers and children, on land donated by Marvin & Isabella Jones.  In the early 1900s the Jones also made space for the Washington Childrens Home in the 3200 block of NE 65th Street.

The original Theodora home was in the same space as the present building, on 35th Ave NE.  It was a three-story house where mothers and children could live together in their own room, and eat together at a table in the dining room.  Childcare was provided so that mothers could find work.

The Theodora Home (present building) later became low-income housing for senior citizens, operated by the Volunteers of America.  The Volunteers of America no longer operate housing in Seattle and they have consolidated their work in Snohomish County.  Over several years’ time, the residents of the Theodora were helped to find other housing, and then the Theodora building was sold in 2015.

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The Landscape in Our Pacific Northwest History

Posted on June 10, 2015 by Wedgwood in Seattle History

The history of the exploration of our Pacific Northwest region is built upon its landscape, including rivers, mountains, natural resources and the use patterns of traditional cultures.  Two recently-released books tell stories of local history, fur traders, explorers, geology and the sites which have been preserved.

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Under the Midnight Sun at the Klondike Gold Rush Museum in Seattle

Posted on May 23, 2015 by Wedgwood in Seattle History

The Gold Rush of 1897 was an event which rocketed Seattle out of an economic depression because the city advertised itself as the launch point to the Yukon.  Forever after, the economies of the City of Seattle and the North Country, including Alaska, have been linked.

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Relocated Houses: Ballard Ave NW

Posted on May 20, 2015 by Wedgwood in Seattle History

Around Seattle’s neighborhoods there are old houses which embody the history of the city’s development and growth.  In Seattle’s early years it seemed that carpenters were everywhere and today we can still see examples of carpenter-built wood-frame houses.  The Pioneer Houses on Ballard Ave NW are an example of construction dating from the 1870s.  To preserve the houses, in 1976 they were moved from their original downtown Seattle location, to Ballard Ave NW.

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