Search Results

This exhibit was created in 2009 in conjunction with the Washington State History Society's Exhibit, "Women's Votes, Women's Voices". Rainier Valley Historical Society celebrates Rainier Valley's many women leaders and their varied avenues of public life and commitment to improving their communities and beyond. Exhibit Author: Mikala Woodward Explore the digital exhibit here: Beyond the Laundry: Women Changing the World Working for Change Without the Vote Mother's Clubs Lead the Way Marion Southard Weiss

This photo essay was created by Eleanor Boba Early Beginnings In the beginning, baseball was everywhere. Nowadays when we think about baseball, we think of major league teams, big stadiums, and all the trappings of a nationwide organized sport. In Seattle, minor leagues arrived in 1890, but before that, and for a long while after, neighborhood teams like these Hillman City players duked it out all over the city. Bill Phalen: Civic Leader with a Passion for the Game Bill Phalen arrived in Columbia City in 1900 and opened a grocery store on the ground floor of the Knights of Pythias Hall. Soon he became a community leader, with a hand in everything from the Volunteer Fire Department to the annual Rainier Valley Fiesta. One of his passions was baseball -- he had played professionally back in the Midwest -- and he was the founder of the Rainier Valley Athletic Club, which fielded Columbia City's baseball team. Childhood Champions Adults weren't the only ones playing ball, as this photograph of the Whitworth Elementary 1911 championship team shows. In the days before TV & video games -- or Little League -- every elementary school had a baseball team. Dugdale Park: Home of the Seattle Indians Daniel E. Dugdale arrived in Seattle in 1898, on his way to the Klondike Gold Rush. Fortunately, he decided to stay in the Queen City and establish professional baseball in Seattle. He was instrumental in founding the Pacific Northwest League in 1901, owned and operated the Seattle Northwestern League franchise through 1918, and built two ballparks in the city: Yesler Way Park in 1907 and Dugdale Park in 1913. Dugdale Park, the first double-decked baseball park on the West Coast, burned to the ground on July 4th, 1932 in a fire set by a local serial arsonist. Dugdale, who remained involved in local baseball, died in a traffic accident in 1934. "A fine new, thoroughly modern baseball park and the best baseball possible!" Such was the pledge of Emil Sick, the owner of the Rainier brewing company, who remade Seattle baseball in 1938. Dugdale Park had burned down in 1932, forcing the Indians to move out of the Rainier Valley to Civic Field. Sick bought the team, spending $25,000 for new players and $150,000 for a new stadium built on the old Dugdale site. At the time, minor league baseball was a good business investment and Colonel Jacob Ruppert (a fellow beer baron and close friend of Sick's) owned the New York Yankees. Poised for Victory The photo shows the Seattle Rainiers baseball team in 1939. This squad went on to win the first of three consecutive Pacific Coast League pennants for Seattle. A crude attempt has been made to paste in Hal Turpin, one of the team's ace pitchers who probably hadn't yet reported to Seattle from his farm in Yoncalla, Oregon, when the photo was taken (see back row, right). The Vacca Family farm is seen in the background of the photo. Support from Sal Vacca allowed us to acquire this image from the University of Washington. University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections, UW 15733. Fred Hutchinson: The Rainiers' Young Star One of the highlights of the 1938 Seattle baseball season, their first season as “Rainiers,” was local teenage pitching sensation Fred Hutchinson. Hutchinson was an all-around athlete at neighboring Franklin High, and captivated the city and entire West Coast with his spectacular first professional season in the fast Pacific Coast League. Hutch won 25 games and lost only 7, had a 2.48 ERA, and was named Sporting News Minor League Player of the Year. Among many highlights of the season was Hutch winning his 19th game on his 19th birthday before an overflow crowd at Sick’s Stadium on August 12, 1938. Hutch was the hottest prospect in baseball during and after the 1938 season. His sale to the Detroit Tigers for $50,000 and four players, particularly outfielder Jo Jo White and first baseman George Archie, led to the Rainiers winning three straight Pacific Coast League pennants from 1939 to 1941. Baseball in the War Years "Americans all, we join together for Victory!" says this 1941 holiday card from the Rainiers. After winning three Pacific Coast League pennants in a row (1939, 1940, 1941) the Rainiers were riding a new wave of popularity. That April, 15,300 fans poured into Sick's Stadium to watch the Rainiers battle the Sacramento Solons. The US had entered WWII, and rubber (a necessity for the war) was scarce. Sick's stadium held Rubber Nights where kids could get in free if they brought in old tires. There were often more people in uniform, sometimes cheering for the other team! The Neighborhood behind the scoreboard This 1946 view of the Rainiers scoreboard shows the Mount Baker neighborhood just over the fence, with Franklin High School at right. For those who lived in the neighborhood, Sicks Stadium was a source of employment, entertainment -- and random fly balls. The Vacca family farm just up the hill from the stadium provided free seating -- the beanfield was known as "Cheapskate Hill" by many. Vacca kids earned money parking cars and cleaning up, and often made friends with the players, who would stop by the family's produce stand for vegetables. Sick's Stadium and the Rainier Valley in 1953 In this aerial photo we see a more rural, less developed Rainier Avenue -- open fields and sparse residential surround the imposing structure of Sick's Stadium. All that open space was ideal for parking. The Vacca's beanfield to the left of the stadium was known as "Cheapskate Hill" because people would sit there and watch the games for free over the stadium wall. The Vaccas were part of Rainier Valley's early Italian community -- known as "Garlic Gulch" -- centered around Atlantic Street just north of the stadium. Dick "Kewpie" Barrett: Pitcher... Insurance Salesman... Late for Dinner Dick Barrett was one of the Rainiers' best pitchers, known for his chubby cheeks, cheery demeanor, and uncanny ability to successfully close a game. In the off-season he sold insurance out of his home, and even threatened to do so permanently in 1941 during an argument over his contract. Many, if not most minor league players also had off-season jobs. Barrett, like many of the players, became friends with the neighborhood families over the years and frequently came to dinner at the Vacca home -- on one such occasion he was unusually late -- Mrs. Vacca waited and waited, heating and reheating her famous meatballs, until Barrett finally showed up to eat. She forgave him when he explained that he'd pitched a perfect game, and had been swamped by reporters after the final out. Leo Lassen: The Voice of the Rainiers Leo Lassen, Rainier Valley native, was the Rainiers' beloved announcer from 1931 - 1958. His colorful language and infectious enthusiasm earned him a place in Rainiers history. Changing Neighborhood By 1969 the neighborhood around Sicks Stadium had changed a great deal -- note that "Cheapskate Hill" has been replaced by the Mount Baker Village Apartments, an affordable housing development. The streetcar line that originally brought fans to the stadium was taken out in 1937, replaced with buses along Rainier Avenue. Farewell to Sicks Stadium Declining crowds at Rainiers games in the 60's are blamed on a number of factors, from the growing popularity of televised major league games, to the decline of the minor leagues as a separate independent system, to the Dodgers and Giants teams moving to the West Coast.The first bill to secure a bond to build a new stadium was proposed in 1960, but it took more than a decade to finally pass the measure and build the Kingdome. The new stadium was completed in 1976, just in time for the Mariners' first season the following year. Sick's wasn't demolished until 1979. The Hillman City Hellcats, 2007 Dugdale Park and Sick's Stadium are memories now, but baseball continues to be enjoyed in the Rainier Valley. Today Valley residents take Sound Transit's Link Light Rail downtown to watch the Mariners play at Safeco Field, instead of riding the streetcar to Sicks Stadium in their own neighborhood. The Rainier Little League is alive and well, and neighborhood teams like the Hillman City Hellcats, a co-ed softball team, continue the tradition of whacking balls with bats in the Rainier Valley. Rainier Little League, 2024 The below photo was taken at the celebrations following the ribbon cutting of the renovated Rainier Playfield on March 23, 2024. Through the generous support of the Mariner’s MLB All-Star Legacy initiative, both the baseball and softball fields at Rainier Playfield, located at 3700 S. Alaska St., have undergone extensive renovations. This collaborative effort has resulted in an upgraded facility catering to high school varsity baseball and softball teams, as well as local youth leagues. Moreover, it aims to break down barriers to play equity, particularly for youth from diverse and low-income backgrounds, by providing increased access to quality sports facilities. Additionally, the fields will serve as venues for skills clinics and middle school programming, fostering community engagement and athletic development.

In the spring of 2005, a group of fourth and fifth graders at Orca @ Columbia School researched the history of the stream that used to run through Columbia City, and shared their findings with the community. The project began with rumors of a creek that used to run through Columbia City. Students in Ms. Katherine Law's class at Orca School were curious: Where was the stream, exactly? What did it look like? Where did it go? With the help of RVHS Director Mikala Woodward, they set out to find some answers. First they analyzed historic maps of Columbia City from the RVHS Collection and the Washington State University Library’s digital collection. The maps were incomplete and confusing: the street names had changed; the shoreline of Lake Washington had moved; Rainier Avenue had been realigned. Only one map even showed the historic stream. But the class worked out a way to transfer information from the old maps to the current map, using the few landmarks that had not changed. Eventually they were able to locate the path of the original stream, learning about cartographic concepts such as orientation and scale along the way. The class then took a walk through the neighborhood looking for physical evidence of the stream, following its path from Hitt’s Hill, across the schoolyard, through Columbia Park, and on toward Lake Washington. They identified some low-lying, swampy areas, some areas that had clearly been filled in, and several storm drains that seemed to follow the path of the stream. Ms. Woodward then brought in letters and documents from the Seattle City Archives relating to the fate of the stream in Columbia Park. These documents were difficult to make sense of – difficult to even read, at times, with their spidery handwriting – but the students pulled out important pieces of information from each document. They put all the facts they had gleaned on a big timeline, and a story began to emerge about the history of Columbia Park and the stream. Finally, the students made their work public. They invited Kim Baldwin, a landscape architect from the Seattle Parks Department, to come to their class to discuss ways to commemorate the stream in Columbia Park. They created a temporary installation of blue irrigation flags in the grass through Columbia Park, and a display and illustrated handout to explain the flags. The installation was up on a Wednesday, during the Columbia City Farmers Market, which is adjacent to the park. Hundreds of people saw it up close, and thousands more saw it from Rainier Avenue as they drove by. Due in part to the efforts of this class, the Seattle Parks Department incorporated the path of the historic stream into a Pro Parks improvement project for Columbia Park.  A “sinuous concrete path” now meanders through the park, with a plaque at each end explaining that the path follows the course of the historic stream. Softly glowing solar-powered blue tiles are embedded in the path, making the stream visible at night too. This project taught the students a lot about their hidden stream. But more importantly, they learned that history is, in part, a creative art. History isn’t just a series of objective facts out there, waiting to be uncovered. Historians have to put together coherent stories based on incomplete and conflicting information, using imagination and guesswork. The students also learned that sharing those stories with the rest of the community is an important part of the process. Their work will have a lasting impact on the neighborhood. The commemoration of the stream in Columbia Park will educate Columbia City neighbors for years to come, giving them a glimpse of the landscape of the past. The "Hidden Stream of Columbia City" won the 2006 Heritage Education Award from the Association of King County Heritage Organizations.

Audio recording of the song "Pioneer of the Valley," sung at the 1981 annual meeting of the Columbia Pioneers.

It was a Sunday in 1906 and the Columbia Hotel’s elegant dining room, with white linen tablecloths and floral centerpieces, was featuring their usual fare, a choice of either roast beef or chicken. The couple seated at the right is Mr. and Mrs. J. A. Kelso. He was one of the early Columbia pioneers and a partner in the Rainier Valley Investment Co., located at 4871 Rainier Avenue, kitty-corner across Rainier Avenue from the hotel. The company was involved in Insurance, Real Estate, Rentals, Loans, and investments. The hotel building, at 4900 Rainier Avenue, was originally built in 1892 as a residence for the Hellenthal family. It was the first brick building in Columbia and was also the only home built on Rainier Avenue between Edmunds St. and Hudson St. as the town officials designated those two blocks to be used for businesses only. It became the Dakota Hotel for a short period and in 1904 another floor was added and the building expanded to the south, doubling its size.  It was then renamed the Columbia Hotel. In 1906 the building’s brick face was covered with stucco. Mr. and Mrs. Jack Purkeypile are the couple standing in the center under the gas lamps hanging from the ceiling. Mrs. Purkeypile, a motherly lady, was the manager of the hotel and Jack was a motorman for the “Seattle, Renton & Southern Ry.”, one of the five different names used by the Rainier Valley street car line during its 47 years of service to the valley. The hotel kept its own pigs in a pen at the rear of the building. To feed their pigs the Purkeypiles had to go to the Renton saloons for the swill they used for feed. Since this was long before prohibition the saloons were running full blast in Renton while at the same time no saloons were allowed in Columbia. This was a result of the first Columbia town council, in one of their first resolutions, had banned all saloons within the city limits. The Purkeypiles had an arrangement with the “Seattle Renton & Southern Ry.” crews, on a regular basis, to pick up half barrels of swill at the Renton taverns, and put them on the streetcar’s platforms. Women boarding cars with the floor sweeping skirts of that day would gingerly pull them up as they would regally sweep past into the car. When the car reached Columbia, passengers would cool their heals while Jack Purkeypile and the hotel roustabout would slop the pigs. All this on a nickel fare. Then the car would charge off to downtown Seattle at what was termed breakneck speed in that era. According to the hotel’s desk register that we have in our files, many of the “guest” names in the book were the local residents, probably just there for Sunday dinner. There were many guests however that stayed at the hotel and their home addresses were from cities and towns all over the United States, some even visiting from overseas. One has to wonder what enticed them to visit the town of Columbia between 1910 and 1920? Maybe they were visiting friends or relatives? Were they salesmen there on business?  Or maybe they were prospective land buyers looking at the cheap lots that had been advertised in downtown Seattle newspapers. One of the guests who signed in at the hotel was Buffalo Bill Cody. A sign in the dining room proclaimed “If you leave this table and hungry be, the fault is in you and not in me.” In later years the dining room became Nobel’s Drug Store, followed by Jamieson Drug Store and then Nash Pharmacy in the 1920s. The south portion of the main floor, at 4902 Rainier, was occupied by the “Columbian”, a neighborhood dry goods store. This was an early day venture of Marshall Fields in his attempt to operate like J.C. Penny did originally, as neighborhood and small town units. Several years later the Bright Spot Tavern occupied the corner site. (Seattle had annexed Columbia in 1907 and the ban on saloons had been lifted) It became a trouble spot in the community and a hangout for all the bad guys. Then things only got worse when it changed ownership and became Slim’s Restaurant and Lounge. A major fire occurred at Slim’s on October 1st, 1981 and this was construed by the neighboring businesses as a major improvement in town as it forced the closure of the establishment. After standing empty for a while the building was renovated and restored as a historic building and is now listed on the National Register of Historic Buildings. It is currently home of Lottie Mott’s Coffee Shop and the local office for Sound Transit’s Light Rail Project scheduled to come through Rainier Valley in about five years, or is it now ten years. Buzz Anderson South District Journal 1/3/2001 President of the Rainier Valley Historical Society If you are not a member of the Rainier Valley Historical Society, we invite you to join. The dues are only $30.00 per year and include our quarterly newsletter, the “Rainier Valley Heritage News.”  Come visit us to see our displays and browse through our photos and files of Rainier Valley’s unique history. We are located in the Rainier Valley Cultural Center, 3515 S Alaska Street. We are constantly on the lookout for old photos, printed material and artifacts pertaining to Rainier Valley.

Urban Archaeology in the Rainier Valley An unusual crowd filled Courtland Place for five days in October 2002. This tiny street that runs behind the Rainier Square Shopping Plaza was the site of an urban archaeological dig, performed by 4th and 5th graders from nearby John Muir Elementary School, under the guidance of professional archaeologists from the UW's Burke Museum. The area was a city dump in the early part of the 20th century until it was capped in 1939. The children uncovered a treasure trove of old bottles and other containers, broken dishes, car parts, bones, and even a porcelain doorknob! Donald Fels, artist-in-residence at Courtland Place, organized the project, bringing together RVHS, the Burke, and John Muir in a unique and wonderful collaboration. Courtland Place is a small, often neglected neighborhood, and very little is known of its history. So the students did original research, discovering things no one has ever bothered to find out before. To learn about the neighborhood, kids conducted oral histories, examined historic photographs, and analyzed the artifacts they dug up during the archaeological dig. All of this material, plus the kids' own writings and drawings, was used to create an exhibit about the history of Courtland Place. The exhibit opened in December 2002 at the Rainier Valley Cultural Center and stayed up through June of that year. It was then installed at the Museum of History and Industry for a two-year run. Read more about the dig here: https://www.artisthinker.com/projects/courtland.html A huge list of thanks: to the Burke Museum staff and graduate students for organizing the dig; to the students and teachers at John Muir for their fabulous work on the project; to the neighbors who volunteered to be interviewed (including RVH's own Buzz Anderson and Claude Forward); to the Hugh & Jane Ferguson Foundation and the King County Office of Cultural Resources for funding the project; and to Don Fels for dreaming up the whole crazy scheme in the first place.

RVHS photo 1993.001.0032 There is a question as to the date this photograph was taken. Written on the back  of this original photo we have in our files are the dates, “1907 to 1908.” Then below that is written  “May 8 – 1907.” Regardless of the date we do know that the description written on the back and referring to Columbia City was right, “Our First Barbershop and Pool Hall.” One of the early pioneers, and an active member of the Pioneers of Columbia City during his lifetime, donated this photo from his private collection years ago. He was a donor of many of the photos we have and as he was accustomed to doing, he stamped his name on the back of his photos with a rubber stamp. The reason was probably his concern about getting them returned to him after being on display at the Pioneer’s annual April meetings. Fortunately he always added, on the back, the descriptive information and dates pertaining to the photos. The rubber stamp on the back of this photo read “Menzo C. Laporte.” Menzo was born January 11th, 1891, just three months before the first lots were sold in Columbia. He spent his lifetime as Columbia City’s favorite barber. One might say he actually grew up “with” Columbia City and that may explain his interest in Columbia’s history and his active membership in the Pioneers of Columbia City, our predecessor organization. Everybody knew Menzo. Also, there was a good reason why Menzo should have had much more than a casual interest in this particular photograph. We will get to that. The location of this first pool hall and barber shop, depicted in the photo, was 4915 Rainier Ave. That site is on the west side of Rainier Ave. adjacent to the alley between Ferdinand and Hudson Streets. Over the years the building has seen a variety of business tenants. In our book, “The Centennial History of Columbia City”, written by our former historian, Carey Summers, and published in 1992, there is a listing of the early day tenants at each address in Columbia. It shows six businesses at this site. We also know that there were several that were not listed. For instance the “First Barbershop and Pool Hall” photo accompanying this article was one of those not listed.  The businesses that were listed at 4915 Rainier Ave. were:  Jack Monahan’s “The Boar’s Nest,”  North’s Rainier Valley Transfer,  Thurlow’s Garage (1915),  George Hurd’s Barber Shop (1920,s) and Universal High Power Telephone Co. The back of this photograph does not mention the name of the barbershop. Nor does it mention the name of the man in the white shirt and bow tie standing next to the pool table. There is a clue however and again we refer to Carey’s book that gives us descriptions of the pioneer’s photographs.   For this particular photo there was one sentence that I had overlooked many times until I started doing research for this article. It referred to the little girl in the photo as “the future Mrs. Menzo Laporte.” It turned out that Menzo started his barbering career as a young man when he went to work for Columbia City barber, Mr. Lee Gardner. The job had an unforeseen outcome. Menzo married Lee Gardner’s daughter, Ruth.  If this photo was taken in 1907, Ruth would have been six years old and Menzo would have been 16. As a teenager Menzo had a reputation for being a pretty wild kid around the town of Columbia. The town Constable at that time was Fremont (Free) Parker. Free’s son John and I have been good friends for many years and I have had several interviews with him about Columbia’s early days. John has a fantastic memory and one incident he described to me involved a situation between his dad, the constable, and Menzo. “Free” had impounded a cow that had been allowed to roam the streets of Columbia and the cow belonged to a friend of Menzo. Well, Menzo was handsome, big, a brawler and frequently drunk and on this occasion he accosted the Constable in an effort to get the cow back.  Parker was not a large man by any means, and Menzo demanded the cow be released.  Menzo was drunk so Parker put him in a cell for which Menzo threatened to get even. One night Parker fell asleep in his chair in front of the jailhouse stove. Menzo came in, handcuffed the sleeping constable and locked him in a cell for the night. The difference in their sizes was such that Parker avoided any future contact with Menzo to the extent that he would cross the street or go around the block rather than pass him on the sidewalk. Getting back to the photograph, I think we have good reason to assume the man Ruth was standing next to in the photo was her dad and he was, based on his attire, probably the barber in the pool-room. The barber chair can be seen in front of the left window. The future Ruth Gardner Laporte was born in 1901. She and Menzo had one son, Clinton, (Bud) Laporte. Ruth was a wonderful person and I’m sure it was her influence that helped Menzo change his ways. He became an upstanding businessman in the community and also was an active church member. Menzo and Ruth were close friends of my family and we were all very active in the Columbia Congregational Church at 39th and Ferdinand St., Columbia’s first church . Ruth had a marvelous singing voice and was the soloist with the church choir. She also started a part time job at Grayson & Brown Hdwe and Furn Co. in Columbia City on June 30th, 1943, at that time a partnership between Henry Peterson and my dad, Art Anderson.  Ruth worked at the store part-time for the next 30 years. She started working during the World War II years, a time when employees for small businesses were hard to find as most of them had been drafted into the armed forces. My dad employed several older retired men and housewives from the surrounding area. Ruth was one of them and she could sell nails, fencing and paint from the hardware department as well as anyone. With her friendly outgoing personality she was very adept at selling giftware and she had a knack for suggesting just the right item for our customers. When it came to gift wrapping however, she didn’t have the patience that it takes to fold the paper evenly, wrap the ribbon around the package and tie the bow just so. We had a reputation for beautiful, free gift-wrapping and she didn’t make the grade for the beautiful part of that reputation. On holidays when we had lines of customers waiting for  gift wrapping, my dad would persuade her to stay away from the wrapping counter and do what she did best, sell, and let the school girl he temporarily hired do the wrapping. Whenever I needed a haircut of course I went to Menzo’s shop. He was located at 4910 Rainier Ave., across the street from the “Barber Shop and Pool Room” shown in the photo. He was there from 1929 until he retired. He was a successful businessman in Columbia. He had another barber, Bob Murphy, in the shop with him and a shoe shine stand with a black attendant I think was named Stark. He also added a beauty salon in the back room of his shop for the local ladies. The entry door for the ladies was in the alley. Previous to that he had been at 5 different locations in Columbia City.  His first shop was a partnership with Lee Gardner at 4866 Rainier Ave. and they moved to 4870 in 1917. Then he opened his own shop at 4906 in the early ‘20s, moved to 4904 in 1922 and then his final location at 4910 Rainier Ave., across the alley from the Columbia Café. He gave haircuts to my great grandfather, D.C. Brown and my grandfather, “Will” Brown. My dad, Arthur Anderson went to him as I did and we have movies of Menzo giving my two boys their first hair cut. I’m sure this scenario was repeated with many of the local pioneer families. I have a very vivid memory of one incident that I shall never forget. It occurred as I was sitting in Menzo’s barber chair. He had the radio on as he usually did and a startling announcement came over the airwaves. President John Kennedy had been assassinated. Like everyone else on that infamous occasion, I was shocked at the news and all my life since then, every time I climb into a barber’s chair I am reminded of that tragic day, the little shop next to the alley and my friend, Menzo Laporte.  It isn’t very often that I get a haircut anymore as I inherited the family baldness trait. I still think I should qualify for a discounted rate. Most poolrooms existing today are in conjunction with a tavern and you can have a beer if you want to. It was not so in Columbia City in those days. It was dry town from the time they incorporated as a town of the fourth class in the state of Washington in 1893, until the area was annexed by the City of Seattle in 1907. The founding fathers, in one of their first city ordinances, banned “saloons” in Columbia. In was in effect for fourteen years. My grandmother was an advocate of the dry town ordinance. I never discussed it with her but I have always wondered how my grandfather,  “ Will” Brown, ever convinced her to allow him to purchase a tavern, particular the one at 4915 Rainier Ave. That’s right, the building in the above photo.  I am not sure when he bought it because the subject didn’t come up very often. She gave him a strict mandate that no one was to know they owned such a place.  When they died in their 90s, the building passed on to my parents and then on to my sister and myself. We had to spend about $7000 to repair the rotting foundation when the tavern operator complained about the sloping pool tables. For the benefit of my departed grandmother I want to point out one thing, our family never operated the tavern, we just collected the rent when we could get it. The tavern now is called “Angies” and is a well run family oriented business with the bad reputation of past years long gone. If you lived in the “Valley” a few decades ago, you will undoubtedly remember the tavern when it was called the “Pink Poodle” with a big pink sign over the entrance. It is amazing to me the building is intact pretty much as it was almost a century ago. Thanks to Columbia City’s Landmark status, that one piece of local history will be around for generations to come. Days Gone By South District Journal 10/9/2002 By Buzz Anderson Preserving historical information such as this for the benefit of future generations is one of the objectives of the Rainier Valley Historical Society. You can help us by becoming a member. Dues are $20 a year & you receive our quarterly newsletter.  You can also donate to our endowment fund that is providing us with income for a part-time director.

This is one of my favorite photos and I have it pinned on the wall in my home office. It is a nostalgic reminder to me of our family business that started in the heart of Columbia City in 1904, just 13 years after the first lots were platted and sold in Columbia City. It was the first development in Rainier Valley. It all started in a small, one-room store-front facing Rainier Ave., in a new brick building constructed by Simion Toby. The Toby Building, as it was called, had been built the year before in 1903 and was located on the southeast corner of Rainier Avenue and Edmunds Street. The business in that little space was known as the “Grayson Brothers Hdwe. and Furn.” and was run by Ed and Doc Grayson and their Dad. Their business grew during those first years and in 1911, needing additional space, they moved into the ground floor of the Brown building to the south. A vacant lot separated the two buildings. It had been constructed by my granddad, Will Brown, and was leased to the Record Publishing Co. that produced the local newspaper,  “The Rainier Valley Record.” That space had become available about 1911 when the owner of the publishing company was killed in an explosion involving his kerosene operated printing press. Will Brown started as a laborer laying the tracks in the Rainier Beach area for the new street car line coming out from downtown Seattle. When the line started operating he was a motorman and worked his way up to superintendent. It was the only privately owned street car line in the city. About 1915 he could see another bankruptcy looming for the company that owned the rail line. It had become a regular occurrence for them. He decided to accept the offer from Ed Grayson to join him as a partner in his hardware and furniture business. The partnership negotiations were proceeding nicely until my grandmother, Edith, got involved. She was called “Nannie” by all of the family members. It seems that Ed Grayson owned another business in Columbia, in fact right across the street. It was a funeral business and it was quite common in the early days to find funeral and furniture businesses combined. There was a logical reason for this. In those early days, furniture and caskets were made by the local cabinet-makers and they had to have a wagon and a team of horses to transport their products. “Nannie” said no way would she be involved in the funeral business and that was final. Ed sold the funeral business and the partnership of Grayson & Brown Hardware & Furniture was formed. The year was 1915.  The funeral business survived, however, and is known today as Columbia Funeral Home, owned by Paul Lewis. After the first world war my dad came into the picture when the navy sent him to Seattle from his home in Minnesota.  He met Leora Brown, Will’s daughter. They married and he went to work for Will and Ed Grayson in the hardware and furniture business. Then I came along and started working in the store for spending money of 25 cents per hour while I was attending Columbia Grade School. My jobs consisted of sweeping the oiled wood floors with sawdust and filling 1 and 5 pound paper bags with either powdered asbestos or a powdered wallpaper adhesive we called “Tic paste”, and restocking the store shelves with them. Another job of mine consisted of filling glass pint bottles with paint thinner, turpentine and boiled linseed oil from 55 gallon drums. Occasionally, I had to fill those bottles with the very corrosive muriatic (hydrochloric) acid from a big glass carboy encased in a large wooden crate. Diluted, it was used to clean newly installed brick but undiluted, it would “smoke” if I spilled any of it on the cement floor while pouring. I had never heard about safety goggles or resperators. The pay was enough that I could afford to buy a vanilla malt or a green river drink at the soda fountain in Ed Kinnee’s Drug store on the corner about two times a week. The one thing I really didn’t like about that job however was having to wash all of those bottles in the sink before filling them with whatever product was needed on the shelf in the paint department. The empty bottles came in sturdy wooden boxes with dove-tailed corner joints. The company’s name, “Dodge Chemical Co. Boston, Mass ” was printed on each box above their logo and the contents were printed on the ends of the box. In plain words it meant “embalming fluid.” We would regularly go by the funeral home and pick up those wooden cases of empty bottles for free. I love to collect and use old and particularly odd items so I am comfortable using two of those saved, old wooden boxes as mini bookcases  on my computer table, embalming fluid logo included. That was about 65 years ago and I still occasionally run into some past customers that tell me they still have some of those bottles in their basement or garage with the Grayson & Brown labels that I had glued on. The business began to expand and a two story addition was added to the north in 1924, filling in the empty lot between the Brown building and the Toby Building.  The floor and roof joists were just secured to the exterior wall of the Toby building forming a common wall between the two buildings. I guess that was the way they did things in those early days. Must have been ok as both buildings survived all of our quakes. Then in 1946, after college, I was working for my dad, Arthur, and his partner Henry Peterson when another two story addition was added to the back of the building. About that same time we knocked a hole in the Toby building wall forming a doorway to a large display area and giving us a side entrance on Edmunds Street. We also put in a stairway to the basement of the Toby building and that space became storage for our large giftware inventory. We needed space for our used furniture and appliances and rented the building across Edmunds Street where the post office was located in the 1920s. Then about 1970, the second floor apartments and doctor’s offices in the original building were converted to a furniture sales area., We had 22 employees and about 15,000 sq. ft of floor space. We were one of the larger Frigidaire appliance dealers in the city in the early 50,s. when the above photo was taken. We started to sell refrigerators on the “meter” plan, an innovative financing method for those days,  particularly suited for customers who had credit record problems. When we would deliver a refrigerator, (when I say “we” I am referring to myself and my brother-in-law George Razwick ), we would attach a metal meter box with a timer and a coin box inside, to the electric cord. To keep the refrigerator operating, the customer, every 24 hours, had to insert a quarter or more depending on the amount owed. Every month the customer would remove the interior coin box from the meter box with a key we supplied and bring it into the store where the cashier in the office would open the coin box with another key, count the quarters and issue a receipt for the payment. I have thought about that meter box concept many times over the years. The thing that amazed me was we never had anybody try to cheat. All they had to do was cut the cord, install an electric attachment cap and plug it in, but no one ever did. Our customers were honest people. Unfortunately we didn’t save any of those meter boxes. I remember the day we were cleaning out the basement and I couldn’t see any practical use for them anymore so they went to the dump. I wasn’t into collecting old stuff in those days like I am now. Probably a good thing but the box and its’ story would have made an interesting artifact for our display cabinet at the Historical Society. There are many more stories to tell about the business before and after the Frigidaire Week photo was taken but that will have to wait for another photograph and another day. Days Gone By South District Journal 6/12/2002 By Buzz Anderson

This photo was taken looking northeast from the intersection of Rainier Avenue and Hudson Street. The Columbia Theater was a popular movie theater in the 1930’s. The marquee indicates the movies showing at that time were “Mother Didn’t Tell Me” and “Captain China”. Every Saturday afternoon however, the neighborhood kids paid 10 cents to see the continuing saga of “Flash Gordon” and “Buck Rogers” flying across the screen with “jet-packs” strapped to their backs, preparing for their spaceship trip to the moon. The ticket booth at the entrance was on Rainier Avenue and from there, moviegoers walked up a sloping ramp to the separate theater building, built parallel to Rainier Avenue and behind the brick building on the right in the photo. The odd location was the result of a city ordinance at that time requiring theaters to be a certain minimum distance from a school, in this case, Columbia School, a block away. Carol’s Sweet Shop was located at the top of the ramp where one could buy popcorn and candy for munching at the movies. The old theater building is being used as a recording studio now with practice and performance space for musical groups. The entrance, now on Hudson Street, was formerly the fire escape door behind the screen at the back of the theater. Above the door is a big sign that says “Columbia Theater.” The former theater entrance ramp and adjacent space fronting Rainier Avenue has been turned into a cooperative artist’s gallery for local artists. Part of the old ramp has been cleverly included into the design of the gallery. The exterior of the brick building on the right looks much the same today as it did when the photo was taken in the 1930s. After standing vacant for many years the exterior has been rejuvenated and the interior walls that separated the individual shops have been removed. The spacious interior has been completely remodeled for the Italian Deli and restaurant, “Salumeria on Hudson.” The owners are Lisa Beckland and Sherri Serrino who also have the Italian restaurant, “La Medussa” at the north end of Columbia City. After a yummy lunch at the “Salumeria on Hudson” I would suggest a leisurely stroll through the Artist’s Gallery. The building on the left, formally the Columbia Café, was purchased last year by local resident  and completely remodeled. It is now the Columbia Ale House, and has quickly become a favorite eating place for many of the locals. The building has always been a restaurant on the main floor dating back to 1911 when it was known as Hugh Mill’s Restaurant. The owners lived upstairs in one of the hotel rooms. Those second floor rooms at various times were known as the Hotel Knohf, the Hotel Rutley, the Hotel Mayfield and the Hotel Whitfield. Over the years the restaurant was known as Phil Knauf’s Restaurant, Mayfield’s Restaurant and Fred’s Restaurant. About 1929 it became the Columbia Café and the owner, Fred (Fatty) Power’s ran a card room at the rear of the café. It later became a cocktail lounge with the name “Elbow Room.” Shortly before this photo was taken the original sloping roof across the top of the building had been removed. The new owner has restored the building pretty much to the original design. All these improvements on that one half block along Rainier Avenue at Hudson Street are typical of the changes taking place in Columbia City as well as the entire Rainier Valley. For us old timers who survived the troubled times of the 1970’s and ‘80s, we cannot be happier with the improvements we see taking place. It is reminiscent of the thriving community that was Columbia City from the turn of the century up through the ‘50s and into the ‘60s when the Columbia Merchants Association had grown to 75 members. We have seen a big turnaround in Rainier Valley and are very optimistic about the future. Days Gone By South District Journal 2/27/02 By Buzz Anderson

Dr. Bill Hutchinson was a superb surgeon at Swedish Hospital for 40 years.  He was touched by the cancer patients he treated, so he started the Pacific Northwest Research Center in 1955 and it is still in operation.  Then in 1975 he did it again, only this time on a grander scale, when he founded the world- renowned Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center as a memorial to his brother Fred, a Major League baseball pitcher and manager who died of lung cancer in 1964. Dr. Hutchinson served as the cancer center’s first director through 1981 and its first president through 1985.  The center is known worldwide for its pioneering work in bone marrow transplantation for leukemia, basic cancer research and cancer-prevention research. I became acquainted with Charlotte and Bill Hutchinson in the ‘40s when I was a teenager delivering merchandise to their home on Lake Washington from my Dad’s business, Grayson & Brown Hardware and Furniture Co. in Columbia City. They were long time members of our predecessor organization, the Pioneers of Columbia City and became Life Members in the Rainier Valley Historical Society when we changed the name in 1993. Shortly after Dr. Bill retired in 1996, he and Charlotte agreed to an oral history interview with me regarding some of their experiences here in the Valley where he resided during most of his lifetime.   It was one of the most enjoyable interviews I’ve ever had and ironically he passed away almost a year to the day after that interview. There isn’t room here to print the entire interview but I would like to relate some of the highlights from that tape. Rather than an interview, I prefer to think of that conversation between Charlotte, Dr.Bill and myself, as a couple hours of reminiscing about Rainier Valley’s past, some events that we were both involved in and the tremendous influence Bill’s life had on so many people. It was in 1951, when I was managing the sporting goods department at the store, that I decided Rainier Valley should have a Little League Baseball organization. The National Little League had been started in the east the year before. The first thing we needed were sponsors so I placed a phone call to Dr. Bill.  Of course he jumped at the chance and became our first sponsor and was involved for years as sponsor and coach. Within three years we had 36 teams. Bill named his team the Tigers after the Detroit Tigers where brother Fred made a name for himself as a pitcher. Later when Fred was manager of the Seattle Rainiers in 1955, his sons of course played on Doc’s team, along with Bill’s boys and when Fred was in town he would come out to the games to help. Dr. Bill talked a lot about his dad in the interview. The family home was at the top of the hill south of Rainier Beach Station on Waters Avenue, next to the church. He always had a horse that he used when he made house calls in the Rainier Beach area. He also made calls as far away as Kennydale, Black Diamond and South Mercer Island. He would take the launch, skippered by Mr Patterson, that traversed the lake between Rainier Beach, Mercer Island and Kennydale.  Taylor’s Lumber Mill on Lake Washington, just around the bend south of Rainier Beach, was a frequent stop for the doctor because of the many mill accidents. Bill’s dad didn’t agree with the streetcar line’s fare policy. When riding out from downtown Seattle on the Seattle, Renton and Southern Ry line, the conductor would stop the car at a certain point and collect an additional fare of five cents. On one of Dr. Hutchinson’s trips from town, when the conductor stopped for the extra fare, he had had enough. He refused to pay the extra fare, left the car and started to walk home, between the tracks, in front of the streetcar. He proceeded toward Rainier Beach with the conductor clanging the bell for him to get out of the way which he refused to do. By the time he reached Rainier Beach the word of the incident had spread and he was accompanied by a crowd of sympathetic friends and neighbors.  It was some time, however, before the line’s management changed to a single fare policy. Another incident Dr. Bill described in the interview illustrated his dad’s philosophy on raising kids. His dad came upon three young boys involved in a fight on the street at Rainier Beach, obviously two against one. He intervened and grabbed and held one of the youths and then told the other two to continue their fight to settle their differences. It was now a fair fight. Bill and Fred grew up in Rainier Beach and didn’t take any guff from anyone.  He admitted to getting into occasional fights with some of the local kids.  Fights were not allowed on the playgrounds around Emerson Grade School so any fighting would be carried out on an adjacent farm. The word would be spread, and everyone would turn out to watch. On one occasion the town bully, who was much bigger than Bill, and about 6 years older, make the mistake of kicking Bill’s Airedale dog in the stomach. That was a mistake. A big crowd turned out in the farmers field the next day and after Bill, having received a few good blows that really made him mad, turned the fight around and really cleaned his clock causing the town bully to go into seclusion.  Most of their time, however, was spent playing baseball on the Rainier Beach play field. Bill, like Fred, was an excellent ball player.  They played baseball in those days not softball, in a city wide league at Emerson grade school. Brighten, Dunlap and Van Asselt schools had students only through the 5th or 6th grades and then the students went to Emerson.  This gave the Emerson team a huge advantage with more kids to select from and as a result they went on to win several city championships. Bill related an incident when he was playing ball for Franklin High. It seems the boys from the Rainier Beach area spent most of their game time sitting on the bench. For some reason, maybe because the coach lived in the Mt Baker district, the only boys who got to play in the city league games were the Mt. Baker boys. Bill suggested to the coach that an intra-squad game be arranged between the Mt. Baker boys and the Rainier Beach group, stressing the benefits for the team of such a game.  Of course, Bill’s motive was to show the coach how good they were. The coach thought it would be a waste of time but finally, after Bill’s repeated nagging, consented to play the game just to shut them up. It seems that among the Rainier Beach boys there was a big Swede that could really throw the ball hard.  As it turned out, the Mt. Baker boys could not get a hit off of him.  After six innings, way behind and no chance of winning, the coach called the game saying it was a waste of time.  Bill said he was delighted at the outcome, however the Beach boys continued to sit on the bench. Fred, however, went on to set records as a pitcher at Franklin. On graduation he signed with the Seattle Rainiers, but that is another story. Bill played ball for the University of Washington and made quite a name for himself. The baseball coach at the UW made the statement that Bill was the best ballplayer he had ever coached. Bill was also playing semi-pro ball while at the UW.  As soon as he graduated he began playing for the San Francisco Missions in the Pacific Coast League. He had been accepted at McGill Medical School in Montreal and scheduled to start in the fall.  Bill told me that during the summer he had called the admissions director at McGill and inquired about continuing to play ball while he was going to school so he could earn some money to help out his dad.  The director told Bill there was a waiting list to get into the school and he better decide if he was going to play ball or go to medical school.  Bill’s reply was quick and to the point.  He asked the admissions director to please forget the phone call he had made and he would be there on the first day of school. When Bill told me this story, my very first thought was about the terrific impact that decision would have on so many people over the years. His decision to go to medical school resulted in saving many lives with his skill as a surgeon and countless more lives have been saved as a result of the research organizations he started and directed during his lifetime. I feel very fortunate to have known him. Days Gone By South District Journal 10/10/2001 By Buzz Anderson

This is a brief history of the Seward Park Peninsula or Bailey Peninsula as it is sometimes called. This illustrated map and article are from the archives of our predecessor organization, the Pioneers of Columbia City, an organization that was formed when the first lots were sold there in April of 1891. In 1993, the “Pioneers of Columbia City” changed their name to “Rainier Valley Historical Society”  and, by deed of gift, gave the “Historical Society” their extensive archival collection of Rainier Valley history acquired during their 110 year existence.  The archives were named the “Hall - Summers Collection” in memory of two of the Pioneers of Columbia City’s historians, Ruth Hall and Carey Summers. This article and map were found when we began to catalog their archival collection. In writing this article I have taken the liberty of adding some relevant information from our files to give a broader picture of Seward Park’s colorful history, particularly in regard to the Rainier District Pow Wow.  An annual summer event, the Pow Wow spanned a period of 56 years, undoubtedly the park’s major event. As Seattle grew outward from the shores of Elliot Bay, the distant Bailey Peninsula remained in its wilderness state. Indian fishing and hunting parties undoubtedly visited it before the arrival of white settlers, for it abounded with wildlife. In the 1880s, a Frenchman supposedly built the first homestead in the vicinity of the present amphitheater. In 1886, the peninsula was bought by Walter Graham who sold it soon afterward to a man named Philip Ritz. Ritz in turn sold the peninsula to realtor William E. Bailey in1890. Owing to Bailey’s prominence as owner of the Press-Time newspaper (now the Seattle Times), it became known as Bailey’s Peninsula. But the peninsula was still too far from town to be of much profit to Bailey, and in 1892 Seattle Park Superintendent E. O. Schwagerl proposed that the city buy it as part of its first Comprehensive Plan. Many argued that the peninsula was too far from town, but Schwagerl knew better. Luckily, his opinion was backed by the Olmsted Brothers as they developed a plan for  Seattle’s parks in 1903. In 1911, the city bought the peninsula for $322,000 and named it after William H. Seward, the Secretary of State who was responsible for America’s Purchase of Alaska in 1867. (Ironically, the statue of Seward stands in Volunteer Park.) Development of the park was slow at first.  The Olmsteds recommended only improvements that would fit in well with the natural setting.  The city built a pier for steamers and began filling in the marshy neck to prevent the peninsula from becoming an island during the seasonal rises in the lake level. In 1917, the lowering of Lake Washington by construction of the Ship Canal exposed the wide grassy meadow that now leads to the swimming beach. In 1919, more boat docking and a plank roadway from Seattle, (now Rainier Avenue),  increased the popularity of the park, and large numbers of people began congregating there. Over the years , it has become a favorite picnic site for scout troops and ethnic groups. For example, Seattle Filipinos, who have picnicked in the park for many years, named Pinoy Hill; and the Campfire girls, who have also had countless gatherings here, have built a symbolic campfire circle near the south shore. The bathhouse was constructed in 1927 to allow increasing throngs to change clothes and shower in privacy. The fish-rearing ponds were built in 1935 as part of an effort to make Lake Washington a “fisherman’s paradise.” But as the human throngs increased, wildlife began to wane. In 1941, the mink that had inhabited the park  (and loved to feed on fingerling trout) were trapped by the game department, as were the last few deer that had swum over from Mercer Island to munch on the park’s feeding facility. The park became people oriented. In 1953, a Greek-style amphitheater was hollowed out on the south hillside and for years was the scene of lavish orchestra , chorus, and dance productions under the direction of Gustave Stern. Concerts were so successful they caused enormous bottlenecks on the one way street, and today the theatre is used more casually. Despite the civilizing influences at Seward Park, a large part of the peninsula remains wild and relatively untouched. The northern upland forests have been consciously left alone over the years for the enjoyment of future generations. Today’s generation is still using the park in record numbers. The activities however have changed over time. The fish hatchery has been closed but fishing in the surrounding lake still offers rewards to the diehard fishermen. The two and one-half mile road around the perimeter has been closed for years to motorized vehicles, no more cruising or night-time parking with girlfriends. The park is now closed after dark.  The traffic today is limited to bicyclists, joggers and walkers.  Marathons, triathlons and bike races draw athletes from near and far. Bicycle Sundays around the peninsula and north along the boulevard to Mt Baker Beach bring out the whole family. The surrounding waters are used every day by the rowing shells from the nearby rowing club. Scores of yachts spend the weekend at anchor in Andrews Bay, particularly holiday weekends. The symphony and choral concerts in the wooded amphitheater have been replaced with the “Jazz in the Park” concerts, this being their twenty fifth year. Some things that have not changed however are the traffic and parking problems for major events. The local residents will attest to that. On the brighter side the large portion of the peninsula remains, as the Olmsted Brothers suggested, wild and relatively untouched for the enjoyment of future generations. Organized bird watching is a regular event, with the resident eagle the main attraction. The Rainier District Pow Wow however takes top honors as the longest running major event at Seward Park. It was started in 1937 and continued for 56 years, with state representative John L. O’Brien as chairman for most of those years. The Rainier Businessmen’s Club, now the Rainier Chamber, should also take credit for its involvement during those 56 years. The story of the colorful history of our annual “Pow Wow” event, eagerly anticipated by several generations of Rainier Valley residents over the years, will have to be told at a later date. It will require research and interviews to write an article or perhaps a book. We have a good start however, as John O’Brien recently donated all of the Pow Wow records to the Society and we also have the local newspapers for that era as well. The old timers will remember the early days of the Pow Wow with events for everyone in the family, like an old fashioned picnic. The accompanying photo shows the winners of the pie eating contest with Pow Wow chairman, John L. O’Brien. There were running races for the kids including the three-legged and sack races with prizes for the winners.    Swimming competition for all ages. Musical entertainers, comedians and a beauty pageant to select the Rainier District Pow Wow queen for the year, all performing on the stage built at the south end of the field, in front of the pagoda. One of the main attractions was the wrestling match.  And much more including fireworks by Hitt Fireworks Co. of course.  In the later years the Pow Wow was asked to be part of the Seattle Seafair activities including the Hydro races and the closing ceremonies, again with fireworks. The Friends of  Seward Park, a recently formed group of local residents, are working hard to improve the park. The City Council, thanks to the latest parks levy passed by voters in November, announced last week the unique building at the entrance circle of the park will be remodeled into an environmental-education center. Another story concerning Seward Park that will have to come later is the community’s ten year battle with the highway department. The department proposed, in 1927, to build a highway through the Seward Park community, across the peninsula a little north of where the amphitheater is today and then over a girder bridge to Mercer Island. Fortunately it never happened. Days Gone By South District Journal 8/1/2001 By Buzz Anderson

This photo was taken in 1911, four years after Columbia City and Rainier Valley were annexed by the city of Seattle. The building was located on the northeast corner of Rainier Avenue and Angeline Street, across Rainier Avenue from the Columbia Library and directly across the alley from the Masonic Lodge building. In the foreground are the streetcar tracks between the wood planks that paved Rainier Avenue at the time. There were two businesses that shared the building. The Columbia Laundry and Walter H. Sewell, plumber. As the sign on the building indicates, the Columbia Laundry was in the "Dyeing and Cleaning" business. Columbia Laundry, as was customary for businesses in those days, had a pickup and delivery service as evidenced by the wagon, the driver and the team of horses in front of the building. To the right of the horses are the employees of the laundry, posing for the photographer. The woman third from the left is Julia Brannon. With the arrival of the automobile, the site was soon to become the first of several auto-related businesses. In 1913 Rainier Auto Parts, owned by Mr. and Mrs. Bianca, and Ed Welch’s Columbia Garage, occupied the buildings.  Other auto related businesses over the years were a Standard Oil Service Station, Haugen's Columbia Garage, Calpet Service Station and a Texaco Service Station. The site is now the Columbia City Branch of the Washington Federal Saving & Loan. At the far left in the background you can see just the corner of the Nichols Flats, an apartment building built by Ralph D. Nichols, an early day fuel dealer in Rainier Valley. He was also Columbia City's attorney and was drafted by the citizens to run for a seat on the Seattle City Council. He admittedly didn’t want the job but he was elected despite his objections. His building, Nichols Flats, was a popular residence for eligible bachelors in the early days. It is now referred to as the Angeline Apartments. After a recent fire it was completely rebuilt. Days Gone By South District Journal 5/9/2001 By Buzz Anderson