Owl Season

Posted on November 18, 2012 by Wedgwood in Seattle History

Valarie says: It’s owl season!  Our thanks to the Union Bay Watch blog for posting photos of the Snowy Owl as it migrates through Seattle in the fall and winter.  There are also reports coming in of barred owls, a local species, swooping down on people in Seattle-area parks — something that happens during nesting season.

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Will last winter’s Snowy Owl irruption repeat again this year? Looks likely given all the snowy owl reports this week here & here, and expert chatter here. Union Bay Watch has posted a primer on the Snowy Owl and some great photos. While they’ve been spotted around Portage Bay, there has yet to be a sighting on Union Bay according to UBW — the 520 eagles may have something to do with that.

Read more here, and if you haven’t read the follow-up story to the Snowy-Owl-eating-a-seagull-dinner sighting on Capitol Hill this week, be sure to do so here. Then get the binocs ready.

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Seattle Falcon Flies to Portland

Posted on November 16, 2012 by Wedgwood in Seattle History

Valarie says:  Our thanks to the Montlaker blog for this story, and thanks to the Portland Airport Birdstrike Avoidance Team for moving this falcon to a safer place.  I guess even falcons like to go shopping in Portland?!!

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The peregrine falcons born on the I-5 Ship Canal Bridge continue to make news. This time, falcon chick 73-U, born in May of this year, was caught near the Portland International Airport just last month. Birds of prey, they grow up fast.

The young falcon was caught by PDX’s birdstrike avoidance team using a goshawk trap and moved to nearby Sauvie Island. The team routinely moves birds away from the airport to reduce conflicts with airplanes.

When Washington State biologists first met 73-U in May, she was just three weeks old. Biologists annually inspect the nesting box high up on the bridge supports to tag the young chicks in hopes of tracking them in the future. Here’s what 73-U looked like back in May:

At this point in their development, falcon chicks have adult sized talons but are still too young to fly — the perfect time for tagging…

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Historic Preservation: Northwest Modern Architecture in North Seattle

Posted on November 12, 2012 by Wedgwood in Seattle History

The Seattle Landmark Ordinance provides that a structure may be eligible for historic preservation if it is at least twenty-five years old.  Commercial buildings and private homes designed in more recent architectural styles, such as Northwest Modern, may come up for consideration before the Landmarks Board in the near future.  The question of what is “historic” is one that will affect preservation efforts in Wedgwood, because what is “historic architecture” will have to be defined as expressing the character of the neighborhoods of north Seattle.

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Historic Landmarking and the Big Green House in Wedgwood

Posted on November 5, 2012 by Wedgwood in Seattle History
The sun is setting on the era of the Big Green House.

The sun is setting on the era of the Big Green House.

The time has come to say goodbye to one of the oldest houses in Wedgwood, the Big Green House at 7321 35th Ave NE which became hemmed in by the surrounding business district.  From its vantage point looming high above Wedgwood’s main arterial of 35th Ave NE, the Big Green House watched Wedgwood grow from a thinly populated area outside of the city limits into one of the most popular residential neighborhoods of northeast Seattle.  A developer bought the Big Green House in 2002 with plans to tear down the house and replace it with a commercial structure.  Demolition finally occurred on February 17, 2015.

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Nature in Northeast Seattle: Birds

Posted on October 29, 2012 by Wedgwood in Seattle History

The greater northeast Seattle area has gardens, natural areas, wetlands, parks and even golf courses which provide sanctuary for birds.

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Union Bay Watch: Bald eagles are back + nest news

Posted on October 21, 2012 by Wedgwood in Seattle History

Valarie says:  the Montlaker and the Union Bay Watch do a wonderful job of highlighting wildlife in northeast Seattle.  I am a follower of these blogs and want to share them with the readers of Wedgwood in Seattle History.

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The 520 bald eagles are back in the Broadmoor tree after taking a little vacation time elsewhere. They were spotted yesterday doing home repair, adding 2-3 foot long branches to the nest — a good sign they intend to reproduce again next year. Other birds are busy winterizing their nests as well. UBW has a new post up describing the nesting behavior of three common species found on and around Union Bay: the Belted Kingfisher, the Steller’s Jay and the Wood Duck. One nests underground, one in a woodpecker’s hollow and one uses mud as mortar.

Answers and more here.

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Shearwater part five: the end of Shearwater and the death of the Wedgwood Community Club in the 1970s

Posted on October 15, 2012 by Wedgwood in Seattle History
Billboard of April 1971 courtesy of Seattle Times newspaper

Billboard of April 1971 courtesy of the Seattle Times newspaper

In the early 1970s the USA suffered through an economic recession, made worse in 1973 when an energy crisis began because of a Middle East oil and gas embargo.  In the USA gas prices skyrocketed and it affected air travel, as well, making it more expensive to fly.

In the 1950s and 1960s Seattle’s economy had been very dependent upon the employment levels at Boeing Aircraft.  In the 1970s when demand for airplanes fell, Boeing cut employment levels by sixty percent.  The economy of all of Seattle was impacted in this era called the “Boeing Bust.”

During the Boeing Bust there were many abandoned houses as people left Seattle to look for work elsewhere.  Shearwater in Wedgwood, which was to have been a development of new housing, was abandoned, too.  In 1970 the developer, George Apostol, walked away from the project and the holdings reverted to the bank.

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Shearwater part four: the developer versus the Wedgwood Community Club, 1966 to 1970

Posted on October 8, 2012 by Wedgwood in Seattle History
Government Real Estate Auction brochure of December 1965.National Archives of Seattle

Shearwater auction announcement brochure of 1965, courtesy of the National Archives of Seattle.

On December 16, 1965, all the Shearwater land parcels on streets near Decatur School were sold at a government-property auction, with the stipulation that the buyer must remove the old barracks buildings within ninety days of the sale.

The Wedgwood Community Club believed that the auction would be the end of the Shearwater story, and that the buyer/developer would fill the blocks with nice homes in keeping with house styles in Wedgwood.  But as of 1966 a new saga of Shearwater began: the community club went to war with the developer, George N. Apostol, over the zoning of the area and his building plans.

The years from 1966 to 1970 started another phase of the Shearwater conflict between neighborhood residents and the plans for what would become of the former Shearwater site.

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Shearwater part three: Shearwater victories and setbacks in the 1960s

Posted on October 1, 2012 by Wedgwood in Seattle History

The administrative wheels turned slowly but finally in 1959 the Navy got ready to release some of its property in Wedgwood for the site of a much-needed elementary school.   In September 1961 Decatur School opened at 7711 43rd Ave NE.   It was still surrounded on its block by Shearwater housing for Navy personnel, and the first students at Decatur were almost all from Navy families.

Other proposed plans for parts of the school site were resisted by the community, such as a post office to face 40th Ave NE or a city water tower at the corner of NE 80th Street and 40th Ave NE.   By 1966 an addition had been built to the school building and the rest of the block kept as a playground and sports field as it is today, for a total of ten acres on the Decatur School site.

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Shearwater part two: the Wedgwood Community Club fights Shearwater in the 1950s

Posted on September 24, 2012 by Wedgwood in Seattle History

Shearwater barracks near NE 80th Street, north of the present site of Decatur School.  Photo courtesy of the National Archives of Seattle.

In the 1950s the very active Wedgwood District Community Club made its voice heard in issues such as the completion of streets, water and other utilities, business district development in Wedgwood, and trying to get the Seattle Parks Department to finish work on Dahl Field.

Since World War Two had ended in 1945, by the 1950s the Wedgwood community thought that military housing in the neighborhood had been there long enough.  After impatiently waiting ten years for the Navy housing in Wedgwood to be phased out and closed, in 1956 the community club took action.  Their goal was to get the Navy’s Shearwater Housing Project vacated and torn down.  This article is part two of the long-running story of the Shearwater fight in Wedgwood.

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