Wedgwood Rock: from Homestead to Houses

Posted on March 12, 2012 by Wedgwood in Seattle History

Wedgwood Rock is at 7200 – 28th Ave NE, Seattle.

The Wedgwood Rock section of homes is from 25th to 30th Avenues NE, NE 70th to 75th Streets.  This forty-acre tract was first platted (a plan for lots and streets laid out) in November 1945 by Albert Balch, a builder.

Balch had named a prior development “Wedgwood,” and he continued using that name as he acquired more land and built more sections of houses.   When Big Rock, as locals had called it, was absorbed into Balch’s building program, he renamed it Wedgwood Rock.

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 Rock and Big Rock: the orphaned boulder-siblings

Posted on March 8, 2012 by Wedgwood in Seattle History

Big Rock at Coupeville, WA.  Photo courtesy of http://nwgeology.wordpress.com/

Wedgwood Rock has a sibling:   Big Rock at 106 S. Main Street, Coupeville, Whidbey Island, about fifty miles north of Seattle.

Testing of the mineral composition of both boulders has shown that they came from Mt. Erie, Fidalgo Island, near Anacortes in Skagit County.

As with all siblings, it is best not to get into a discussion of which is the biggest – that might set off a squabble.

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Wedgwood Rock: Fourth of July Picnic in 1881

Posted on March 5, 2012 by Wedgwood in Seattle History

Early surveyors had to try to draw straight lines through rough terrain.   This surveyor on a stump is probably at Fort Lawton, June 27, 1900.   Photo courtesy of UW Digital Collections KHL272.

Wedgwood Rock probably first came to the attention of white settlers in the 1870s.   A land survey of north Seattle was done in 1855, but there was no notation of the existence of the Rock.

The surveyors of 1855 described the terrain in their notes but the surveyors were not explorers; using a compass and chain, they walked straight across grid lines to mark what would eventually become arterial streets.   Walking east and west across what is now NE 75th Street, the survey party did not see the Rock.   It was only about 1,000 feet south of where the surveyors walked, but the Rock was hidden in a dense forest of trees.   At that time (1855) no white settlers had yet come to live in northeast Seattle.

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Continuing the Maple Creek Legacy

Posted on March 2, 2012 by Wedgwood in Seattle History

The story of the Maple Creek ravine in Wedgwood is that of dedicated conservationists who passed along the legacy from generation to generation.  Beginning in the 1930s Dr. & Mrs. Philip Rogers held their fifteen acres as a nature preserve.   In the 1950s they began looking for other like-minded people to share it with.

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The Wedgwood Broiler

Posted on February 29, 2012 by Wedgwood in Seattle History

This article gives the history of the Wedgwood Broiler restaurant in Wedgwood at 8230 35th Ave NE, in a two-acre shopping center at Wedgwood’s main intersection at NE 85th Street.  In 1959 a grocery store (Tradewell) was the first building to be built on the site.  Other shops and the restaurant were added later.

On September 16, 2024, the Wedgwood Broiler restaurant sustained kitchen damage in a fire.  They re-opened the cocktail lounge only, on October 1st, while other repairs (smoke damage) were being completed in the restaurant dining rooms.  On October 9, 2024, the Broiler opened its smaller dining room with limited hours.  Gradually, as the kitchen was restored, the Broiler was able to return to full hours and menu.

Fire at the Wedgwood Broiler restaurant on September 16, 2024.

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The Scout Camp in Wedgwood

Posted on February 27, 2012 by Wedgwood in Seattle History

Maple Creek Ravine

In the 1920s more people began to move into the Wedgwood area but there were still many large tracts of vacant, undeveloped land.  Sometime during those early years Scouts began going to Wedgwood’s Maple Creek Ravine for camping and climbing practice, led by Scoutmaster Clark E. Schurman.

The heavily-treed Maple Creek area is from NE 88th to 92nd Streets between 40th to 45th Avenues NE, with the creek flowing in a deep Y-shaped ravine.

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Willa’s Wedgwood Wilderness

Posted on February 24, 2012 by Wedgwood in Seattle History

The Maple Creek section of the Wedgwood neighborhood extends from 40th to 45th Avenues NE, NE 88th to 92nd Streets.  A narrow, winding road meanders downhill from NE 88th Street to 45th Ave NE, following the curve of a Y-shaped ravine where two creeks join and where houses peek out from dense foliage.

In the 1920s the area was so remote that a Scout troop was brought to the ravine for a wilderness camp.  The Scout camp at the Maple Creek Ravine was led by Clark Schurman, who later became known for building a climbing structure at Camp Long in West Seattle.

In the 1930s a few houses began to be built in the area and one long-time owner, the Rogers family, served for decades as guardians of the natural environment.  Then from the 1960s to the 1990s, residents of the Maple Creek Ravine had to fight for preservation.

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Wedgwood’s Apron Ladies

Posted on February 22, 2012 by Wedgwood in Seattle History

The Rogers home, built 1937 in the Maple Creek ravine, emphasized the beauty of wood in its paneling, fireplace surround and shelves.

Up until 1960 a woodsy corner of Wedgwood called the Maple Creek ravine was still protected from development or pollution, due to long-time landowners who were conservation-minded.  The Rogers  family who began living there in the 1930s kept some of their land as a nature preserve and then slowly began selling parcels only to people who would agree to conservation principles.

But then, in the busy years of growth in the Wedgwood neighborhood in the 1950s and 1960s, the pressures of development would begin to threaten the preservation of the Maple Creek ravine.

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A Tree in Wedgwood History

Posted on February 20, 2012 by Wedgwood in Seattle History

If only trees could talk!   If they could, Wedgwood’s trees might tell tales of life in the neighborhood in the past one hundred years or more.

leaf photo courtesy of tree-species.blogspot.com

The bigleaf maple at 3158 NE 81st Street is a tree which might have a story to tell, of early days in the Wedgwood area.

According to Arthur Lee Jacobson’s Trees of Seattle, maples “might well be called our unofficial City Tree” because they are abundant in Seattle.  Various varieties of maples were widely planted as street trees throughout Seattle in the early 1900s.

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Wedgwood’s Mystery Tree-Planters

Posted on February 17, 2012 by Wedgwood in Seattle History

The 95-foot-tall scarlet oak tree on the northeast corner of NE 77th Street and 38th Avenue NE in Wedgwood is mentioned in Arthur Lee Jacobson’s book, Trees of Seattle, as one of the most outstanding of its type in the city.   A variety of oak native to the East Coast, 38th Avenue’s enormous scarlet oak tree must surely have been planted there by someone — but by whom?

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