Wedgwood banner cartoon by Bob Cram, Wedgwood Newsletter of March 1996. All rights reserved; do not copy.
In the early 1900s Wedgwood in northeast Seattle did not have a name or a definite identity as a neighborhood. It took a post-World-War-Two growth spurt in population, and a housing development by Albert Balch, for the neighborhood to coalesce around the plat name he had chosen, “Wedgwood.”
Some areas in or near Seattle, such as the Fremont neighborhood, had been founded with an official name. In May 1888 an investors group including Edward & Carrie Blewett from Fremont, Nebraska, platted Fremont, Seattle as a townsite. This was the official “start date” of the Fremont neighborhood. As soon as lots began to be sold in 1888, there was a kind of land rush to populate Fremont. In contrast, Wedgwood had no developers, planners or official name in early years.
Northeast Seattle areas including Wedgwood grew very slowly over many decades. The biggest growth in Wedgwood came after World War Two ended in 1945, when serviceman returned home from the war and got married. These young couples looked for housing to start their new lives. Wedgwood began to acquire its neighborhood name in that era, after developer Albert Balch filed a plat of land and built houses called Wedgwood in 1941. Wedgwood did not fully come into the Seattle City Limits until the 1950s.
Wedgwood in Seattle History 