Chipping Away

Posted on October 3, 2013 by Wedgwood in Seattle History

Valarie says: Photographer Joe Sweeney highlights the wonders of the bird world.  We are delighted that his chipping sparrow photo is featured in Connie Sidle’s new book about the Montlake Fill at the Union Bay Natural Area.

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This week’s photo, taken June 1, 2013 at the Union Bay Natural Area (Montlake Fill) in Seattle, WA, features a CHIPPING SPARROW.

On the first day of June of this year, I enjoy a very productive morning of birding at the Fill. I find two new species for the year: a pair of REDHEADS and a YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD. I also get great looks at a RED CROSSBILL, a bird I never grow tired of seeing. Toward the end of my walk, I photograph a CHIPPING SPARROW, just before it disappears into the brush. Afterwards, I give little thought to that sparrow, because I used to see plenty of Chipping Sparrows when I lived in San Diego. So, I’m quite surprised the next day when I learn that a Chipping Sparrow hadn’t been reported at the Montlake Fill in nearly two years.

Connie Sidles has birded the Fill since 1986. She surveys the…

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Meadowbrook Pond Autumn 2013 Re-opening

Posted on September 24, 2013 by Wedgwood in Seattle History
The entrance to Meadowbrook Pond is on 35th Ave NE at about NE 107th Street and has stone markers.

The entrance to Meadowbrook Pond is on 35th Ave NE at about NE 107th Street, marked by these large rocks at the sidewalk.

Meadowbrook Pond is located east of 35th Ave NE at about NE 107th Street, its entrance framed by the flame ash street trees which line the arterial.  The pond is part of a low-lying flat area called the Confluence because the North and South Branches of Thornton Creek combine here.

The Thornton Creek system flows from Shoreline and northeast Seattle through eighteen miles of tributaries, in two major branches which converge at the Confluence at Meadowbrook Pond.

At the Confluence there is high groundwater and periodic flooding.  For that reason, Meadowbrook Pond was created in 1996 for flood management and for filtering sediments in the water.

Flowing out of Meadowbrook Pond, the water continues to Matthews Beach and into Lake Washington.  Sediments, if carried downstream, would silt up the outlet of the creek at Matthews Beach and then the water would back up and cause flooding.  Filtering sediments out of the water at Meadowbrook Pond helps prevent flooding downstream.

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Names in the Neighborhood: Inverness

Posted on September 18, 2013 by Wedgwood in Seattle History
The entrance to the Inverness neighborhood is at about NE 87th Street off of Sand Point Way NE in northeast Seattle.

The entrance to the Inverness neighborhood is at about NE 87th Street off of Sand Point Way NE.

The Inverness neighborhood is located in northeast Seattle between NE 85th to 90th Streets, 45th Ave NE to Sand Point Way NE. Inverness is on a very steep hillside which had no houses or any kind of development until 1954. During that post-World-War-Two time period, there was a boom in housebuilding in yet-undeveloped areas of northeast Seattle.  Despite the difficulties of the steep slope, in that time a developer started building the Inverness houses.

Inverness is just next door/east of the Wedgwood neighborhood, adjoining at 45th Ave NE, and Inverness is north of the Sand Point Country Club & Golf Course.  But there is no way to get directly from Wedgwood to Inverness because of the sharp drop-off of the terrain east of 45th Ave NE.

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Names in the Neighborhood: Sand Point Country Club

Posted on September 11, 2013 by Wedgwood in Seattle History

The Sand Point Country Club and Golf Course in northeast Seattle sits on a high northeast-facing bluff with a view out over Lake Washington and to the mountains beyond.  The golf course opened on July 4, 1927, and took its name as a reference to the nearby Naval Air Station which was already under development in that decade.

Samuel E. Hayes, the founder of the golf course, must have hoped to capitalize on the prestige of the military presence and the anticipation of more people coming to live in northeast Seattle near the naval base on Sand Point Way NE.  It was also in that year of 1927 that Sand Point Way NE was officially named, and legislation was initiated to pave the road.

Sand Point Golf Course northeasterly view

The golf course at the Sand Point Country Club sits on a high bluff and has views to the northeast out over Lake Washington.  Photo by Valarie.

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Names in the Neighborhood: from Keith to Hawthorne Hills

Posted on September 2, 2013 by Wedgwood in Seattle History

Some of the neighborhood names in northeast Seattle started out as plat names, then gradually became the identifiers for whole areas.  Wedgwood started as a plat name filed by developer Albert Balch in July 1941, from NE 80th to 85th Streets, 30th to 35th Avenues NE.  This previously-undeveloped forty-acre tract became so well-known for its charming Cape Cod-style cottages that the name “Wedgwood” spread to become the identity of the whole neighborhood.

Hawthorne Hills was originally a plat name which now describes the northeast Seattle neighborhood around NE 55th Street at 40th Ave NE.  At that intersection the Burke-Gilman Trail follows the line of a former railroad route and proceeds eastward toward Lake Washington.

Author’s note:  text and photos in this article are protected under a Creative Commons Copyright.

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Gerhard Ericksen’s Good Road

Posted on August 26, 2013 by Wedgwood in Seattle History
Seattle Lake Shore & Eastern Railroad opening, 1887. Image 2002.3.936, Museum of History & Industry, photo by Asahel Curtis.

Seattle Lake Shore & Eastern Railroad opening, 1887. Image 2002.3.936, Museum of History & Industry, photo by Asahel Curtis.

In the 1880s Seattleites were fed up with being snubbed by railroad corporations. The last straw was the Northern Pacific’s selection of Seattle’s rival city, Tacoma, as the western terminus of the NP’s cross-country line. Under the leadership of Judge Thomas Burke, Seattleites banded together to found their own railroad, the Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern. The line would extend from downtown through north Seattle and along the shore of Lake Washington, stopping at lumber mills and brickyards along the way. The goal was to get to the coal fields at Gilman (Issaquah.)

Construction began in January 1887 and about forty miles of track were completed that year. Rails reached Bothell, just past the north end of Lake Washington, on Thanksgiving Day, 1887. Today the course of the old SLS&E railroad line is the Burke-Gilman Trail for walking and biking.  At Bothell Landing (near Blyth Park) the Burke-Gilman continues as the Sammamish River Trail, all the way out to Marymoor Park in Redmond.

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Wellsdale in Wedgwood

Posted on August 19, 2013 by Wedgwood in Seattle History

In the 1930s the residents of the Wellsdale plat were typical of the life of northeast Seattle in that time period.

The (future) Wedgwood area did not yet have an official name, it was outside of the Seattle City limits and was very rural.  By 1926 water and electricity had been brought down the main arterial, 35th Ave NE, but not everyone hooked up to utilities. People could still live very cheaply with their own well for water and by use of a wood stove for heat and cooking.  A strategy which was used, was to tarpaper a house so that its assessed value would be lower, thereby lowering the property taxes.

This house in the Wellsdale plat was built in 1935. The owner left the sides covered by tar paper only, to reduce the assessed value of the house for property taxes.

In the era of the economic crisis called the Great Depression of the 1930s many people in Wedgwood had large lots with outbuildings such as a chicken house and a woodshed, and space for a garden so that they could live more cheaply by growing some of their own food.  In the 1930s people in the Wellsdale plat from NE 80th to 85th Streets, 40th to 45th Ave NE lived on lots averaging more than two acres in size (except Lot 1 which was 19 acres) and they lived a rural life.

Copyright notice:  text and photos in this article are protected under a Creative Commons Copyright.  Do not copy without permission.

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Wedgwood’s Do-It-Yourself Fire Department in the 1940s

Posted on August 10, 2013 by Wedgwood in Seattle History

In 1941 developer Albert Balch started building houses from NE 80th to 85th Streets, 30th to 35th Avenues NE, and chose the name “Wedgwood” for the new subdivision.  He did not deliberately set out to name the neighborhood, but the name gradually caught on as businesses began to name themselves “Wedgwood.”

Wedgwood residents began to develop a sense of identity as a neighborhood and one of their first acts of community organizing was spurred by concern for fire safety. At that time, as of 1941, in northeast Seattle the city limits were at NE 65th Street, so Wedgwood was outside the city in unincorporated King County and was without fire protection.

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Tour Two Modern Homes in Wedgwood – Saturday, August 10, 2013

Posted on August 8, 2013 by Wedgwood in Seattle History

Valarie says:  When he started the Wedgwood development in the 1940s Albert Balch built very traditional-style houses with early-American historic motifs such as Colonial and Cape Cod.  The houses on this tour, built in the 1950s in modern styles, show how Balch kept up with trends and engaged the best architects in Seattle for the design of Wedgwood houses.

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Docomomo WEWA and 360°modern invite you to a summer tour of two homes designed by Paul Hayden Kirk in Seattle’s Wedgwood neighborhood. The two houses open for view on 28th Ave NE were built for real estate developer Albert Balch, Jr. who was the first to develop residential tracts in Wedgwood and View Ridge. Kirk designed several other homes on the same street and nearby. This is an opportunity to see more modest designs by Kirk as opposed to the custom designed houses we’ve seen on past tours.

The event is a self-guided tour. The two houses are within easy walking distance on the same block. Exterior photos only.

LOCATION: Go to Docomomo WEWA website for details.

DATE: Saturday, August 10, 2013. Houses open to view 2:00 and 5:00 p.m.

COST: The tour fee is $10 per person. Reservations are not needed. Please pay at the door (cash or check…

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Street Trees on 35th Ave NE

Posted on July 24, 2013 by Wedgwood in Seattle History
Flame Ash trees in Autumn 2014

In autumn the arterial 35th Ave NE in Wedgwood is vibrant with the colors of the flame ash trees.

The neighborhoods of Wedgwood and Meadowbrook in northeast Seattle enjoy a beautiful drive along the main arterial, 35th Ave NE, under the canopy of Flame Ash trees.  These street trees were planted between 1965 to 1972 as part of Urban Forestry of the Seattle Department of Transportation, which does all street-related work.

Here is the City of Seattle Street Tree Inventory where you can look up the names of trees.

Flame Ash trees are a “cultivar” (cultivated variety) in the category of Narrowleaf Ash, and are closely related to Raywood Ash, also often used in Seattle as a street tree.

In the etymology of the name, the wood of the ash tree was used to make spears, and as a result the word was sometimes used in Old English to refer to those spears. “Ash” then came to describe the narrow spear-shaped leaves.  The leaves are in whorls on twigs so that each grouping is bunchy and extending out in all directions like a feather duster.

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