“Stephen Decatur” is written beside the front entrance of Decatur School, but partially obscured by shrubbery.
Decatur Elementary School at 7711 43rd Ave NE in Wedgwood is on the site of what was Navy housing from 1945 to 1966. The first part of the school building was completed in 1961. With a later addition to the building and expansions of the playground, by 1966 the Decatur School occupied its present entire ten-acre site from 40th to 43rd Avenues NE, NE 77th to 80th Streets.
In addition to the Decatur School site, there was Navy housing on some, but not all, surrounding streets near NE 77th Street and 40th Ave NE. See the map at the end of this blog article for the location of the Shearwater housing on the present school site and on nearby streets.
Shearwater Hall/the Decatur Annex was on NE 77th Street at the corner of 43rd Ave NE. It was the last Shearwater building and was demolished in 2019.
This is the first in a series of five articles about the Shearwater Navy housing and what happened to it. Another article on this blog is about the Decatur School and the new building on the same site, the Thornton Creek School. The two school buildings operate separately.
In July 2019 the last building from Shearwater was demolished. The former office and community center, called Shearwater Hall, had later been called the Decatur Annex and was used like a portable next to Decatur School. The school district decided that it was no longer needed, and the building was replaced by open space and a gardening area.
Wedgwood in Seattle History 