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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Ryther: Making a Difference

Posted on July 4, 2013 by Wedgwood in Seattle History

Ryther is a nonprofit organization located in the Wedgwood neighborhood of Seattle, offering behavioral health services for children and families. At Ryther children receive guidance, coaching, counseling and teaching to experience new ways of thinking and overcoming challenges. Ryther’s legacy began in Seattle’s struggling days of the 1880s when Ollie Ryther vowed never to turn away a needy child.

Today’s Ryther campus at 2400 NE 95th Street in the Wedgwood neighborhood of Seattle.

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The Yardbirds

Posted on June 21, 2013 by Wedgwood in Seattle History

Valarie says:  Northeast Seattle photographer Joe Sweeney illustrates how it is possible to enjoy birdlife while staying indoors!  You can attract birds to your yard and enjoy watching them through your window.  Birds are a wonder of nature and they help us be thankful to God for all that He has created for us to enjoy.

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This week’s photo, taken June 16, 2013 through our dining room window in northeast Seattle, WA, features one of 5 RED CROSSBILLS that dropped by to bathe in our front yard bird bath. Crossbills spend a lot of time in the tops of conifers, where they use their unique bills to extract the seeds from pinecones. It’s a special treat when they come down to our level for some easy viewing by ground-dwelling humans.

 

If the title of this post makes you think of a sixties rock band, then you probably qualify for the senior discount at your local restaurant. The title refers to the birds we can enjoy without leaving the comfort of our home. So far this year, we have seen or heard 26 species of birds in our yard here in Seattle.

Some of the more notable visitors:

NORTHERN FLICKER

WARBLING VIREO

CHESTNUT-BACKED CHICKADEE

RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH

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Ms. Majestic in Flight

Posted on June 16, 2013 by Wedgwood in Seattle History

Valarie says: Here’s a breathtaking photo of a bird in flight, from someone with the patience to wait for just the right moment, photographer Jay Taylor.

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Here is another look at one of the more common hawks found in Washington’s Skagit Valley. This is from my earlier trip up there in March. On this particular afternoon I had hung around a spot known as West90 in hopes of spotting some of the Short-Eared Owls that had been seen in the area. I waited it out until dusk with another photographer friend without much luck on the owls, but the Harriers were quite active and we were fortunate to get some nice light at the end of the day.

Northern Harrier (Circus cyaneus)

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700mm | 1/1250th Sec. @f/6.3 | ISO 1600

Canon 5D Mark III+ Canon EF 500/4L IS USM + 1.4X Rear Adapter

Processed with Lightroom 4, Photoshop CS6, Nik Define & ColorEfx.

To see a larger version please click on the image.

Feel free to comment below if you like what you see…

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Union Bay blogger Larry Hubbell featured in The Seattle Times

Posted on June 10, 2013 by Wedgwood in Seattle History

Valarie says:  Our thanks to Montlake resident Larry Hubbell for his wonderful nature blog, Union Bay Watch. Larry is willing to sit outside in the rain for hours to get photos, so we can enjoy the birds!  And thank you to Rainer Metzger of The Montlaker blog, as well, for keeping us up to date on Union Bay Watch and other northeast Seattle news.

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Local nature blog Union Bay Watch has really taken off in the past year, thanks to the passionate and patient work of Montlake resident Larry Hubbell. This morning Larry and UBW appeared in The Seattle Times, getting front page treatment.

Having hauled out his 30-or-so pounds of camera gear, which includes a massive 400-mm lens and a tripod, for Larry Hubbell it’s another afternoon of patiently looking for the Highway 520 bridge bald eagles…

“Patience, there is a lot of that,” says Hubbell, who in his other life is a system data guy for Starbucks.

On this afternoon, Hubbell has set up his gear in the Madison Park neighborhood, where East McGilvra Street dead-ends into the eastern razor-wire-topped fence of the Broadmoor Golf Club.

The article goes on to detail Larry’s coverage of “Life After Eddie,” an on-going series covering the bald eagle family of…

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Meadowbrook Pond: Farewell Until Fall

Posted on June 7, 2013 by Wedgwood in Seattle History
Meadowbrook Pond overview

Meadowbrook Pond is a nature refuge in addition to its function as a flood-control and water filtration site.

Meadowbrook is the name of the neighborhood to the north of Wedgwood from NE 95th to 125th Streets and includes the sites of Nathan Hale High School, Meadowbrook Community Center and the Pond.  Meadowbrook Pond is located directly across from the community center building on 35th Ave NE at about NE 107th Street.  The Pond is in the midst of a three-year cycle of improvements which included dredging in 2012 to remove built-up sediment, and in this summer of 2013 the Pond closed on June 10 for more construction work.

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Albert Balch, Part Six: Architecture and Neighborhoods

Posted on May 31, 2013 by Wedgwood in Seattle History
Parkwood sign on N. 155th Street

The Shoreline Safeway at 155th & Aurora and the Wedgwood Safeway both opened in June 1951.  Businesses, as well as developers like Albert Balch, followed population trends as people moved to suburbs of Seattle.

Albert Balch, developer of Wedgwood, constantly watched trends and looked ahead to anticipate “the next thing” in the building of houses and neighborhoods.

Balch saw that in the period following the end of World War Two, people were spreading out into the suburbs of Seattle.  In the 1940s Balch began to acquire land to do development projects in outlying areas such as Shoreline and Renton.  In 1947 Balch filed a plat for a development called Parkwood at North 155th Street, east of Aurora Avenue on Stone, Interlake and Ashworth Avenues.

Text and photos in this article are protected under a Creative Commons Copyright.  Do not copy without permission.  Except where noted, all photos are by Valarie.

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Albert Balch, Part Five: Spreading Wedgwoods Everywhere

Posted on May 25, 2013 by Wedgwood in Seattle History

In November 1888 two young men, employees of the Post-Intelligencer newspaper in Seattle, quit their jobs and went into real estate. They didn’t have any formal training in such work but their knowledge of the city and their belief in its potential led them to launch out into the buying and selling of land. Just six months later, Seattle’s Great Fire of June 6, 1889, caused an explosion in the value of real estate and in the potential for expanding and developing new areas of the city for industry and for housing. Samuel Crawford and Charles T. Conover were on their way, and became one of the best-known and trusted names in real estate and development in Seattle.

Crawford and Conover 1890 UW Special Collections

Real estate office of Samuel Crawford (seated at left) and Charles T. Conover (standing, center) in 1890. Walter Hamley, age 12 (seated, at center) worked as a messenger boy. Photo courtesy of University of Washington Special Collections, PH Coll 503.8.

The remarkable story of Crawford & Conover had parallels forty-seven years later in 1935, when Albert Balch and Ralph Jones left radio work to go into real estate. Like Crawford & Conover in the 1880s, in the 1930s Balch and Jones were bold and optimistic that they could overcome a “down” economic climate.

Incredibly, when Balch and Jones first started out in the 1930s, the real estate firm of Crawford & Conover was still operating.  Samuel Crawford had died in 1916.  Charles T. Conover began the process of retiring from business at age 74 in 1936.  Conover lived to be a very old man, dying in 1961 just two days before his 99th birthday. Albert Balch was one of the honorary pallbearers at the funeral of C.T. Conover.

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Albert Balch, Part Four: A New Development in Wedgwood

Posted on May 17, 2013 by Wedgwood in Seattle History

Albert Balch 1903-1976

In the year 1940 Albert Balch was 37 years old and he was at a turning point both personally and professionally.  He had been married seven years and his family had expanded to four children.  His father and mother had died in 1932 and 1939 respectively, so by 1940 Albert Balch had become the “elder generation” with his own children to care for.  Although he and his business partner Ralph Jones had been successful in the View Ridge development in northeast Seattle and they had been able to build their own homes there, Balch wanted to do more.  As Balch thought about what he would do next, he saw that just north of View Ridge there were large areas of undeveloped land.  A plan formed in his mind to “build a city” on the model of colonial America.

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