(2011 WSB photo of ex-Fire Station 37)
When we checked in with Colliers International vice president Arvin Vander Veen last week regarding the sale of 87-year-old ex-Fire Station 37 in Sunrise Heights, he told us the deal would close this week, and to watch the public records. We did, and while checking online records last night, we noted that the sale was registered. The former fire station’s new owner also owns a business in The Junction, where WSB contributor Katie Meyer went this morning to see if she would talk with us about her plans for it. She told Katie that she does not want to comment, nor does she want to be identified. We have a request out to the city to ask about the purchase price, as it was not part of the public document; as reported previously, minimum bid was $250,000, and Colliers requested a second round of offers from the highest bidders in the original round. Since the former fire station is a city landmark, its new owner would have to get city Landmarks Board approval before altering any of its landmarked features; it’s in a single-family residential zone. The city gave final authorization to the sale plan last fall, one year after the new Station 37 opened a few blocks south.

1:03 PM UPDATE: The city says the ex-station sold for $613,000. Minus commission and closing costs, that means $579,807 into the city’s Fire Levy Fund. (added) City spokesperson Katherine Schubert-Knapp explains, “Levy proceeds and other funding, such as the sale of former fire stations, are being used to upgrade, renovate and replace 32 neighborhood fire stations, among other things. Seattle voters approved the levy in November 2003. (It will be funding future WS upgrades at other stations including 32 and 36.)

(Student journalist Nicholas Trost, on assignment for WSB, shot this video tour before ex-FS 37 was vacated)
Seven months after the City Council gave final authorization for the sale of city-landmark former Fire Station 37 at 35th/Othello – vacant for a year and a half – it’s on the brink of being bought. We’ve tracked the sale process through the listing and the March/April open houses; April 20th was the deadline for offers – but senior vice president Arvin Vander Veen from Colliers International, handling the sale of ex-FS 37 and another one elsewhere in the city, tells WSB they asked a small number of prospective buyers for a second round of offers, and those are due today. Why a second round? we asked. His reply: “Because several offers were high and very close to each other, so we went back to a few for a best and final offer.” (They had said they wouldn’t accept offers less than $250,000.) The circa-1925 building is expected to become a private residence, in no small part because – as pointed out in a city report we excerpted last year – the site is zoned for single-family housing. Proceeds from the sale are to go back into the city’s Fire Levy program.

(Click for larger image)
When Lynn Sweeney Pedersen accepted “Emerging Business of the Year” at last Wednesday’s West Seattle Chamber of Commerce Westsider Awards, for her family’s The Grove/West Seattle Inn (WSB coverage here), she noted its history – opened as the Mar-Lyn Motel 50 years ago for the Seattle World’s Fair. Today, The Grove shared this 50-year-old postcard view of the Mar-Lyn. While the motel’s configuration hasn’t changed much, if you look closely, you’ll see some fun details (phone booth, drink machine, cars)…

Last night, e-mail came in from Terry Hammonds, a Florida resident who was visiting Seattle for the World’s Fair in 1962 and took the photos during a helicopter ride. Terry was a “Texas college student on my first road trip” at the time. Terry offered the photos, available via Flickr, if we were doing a ’62 retrospective (as so many are, in honor of the half-century anniversary). We thought you might be interested in the view of the Alaskan Way Viaduct and even this one of West Seattle and Harbor Island, from a distance:

Of course the big news at the time was the brand-new Space Needle:

(Click any of the photos to see the largest size via Terry’s Flickr feed.) Thanks! We love receiving photo surprises to share. P.S. Did you know that West Seattle (Duwamish Head, in particular) was one of seven sites considered as a possible World’s Fair site for that year?

Another West Seattle totem pole is headed off for refurbishment work, done by the same experts who helped get the Rotary Viewpoint Park totem in shape. WSB was at the Log House Museum this afternoon as the crew from Artech, with help from Alki Lumber, picked up the pole that’s been unceremoniously lying on the ground behind the museum for a while. As our video clip above shows, it was a painstaking process to get the pole onto the truck in just the right spot:

It will take about a month to get the pole dried out and treated so that it’s ready for touchups. Once it’s ready to return, it will be placed upright on the west side of the museum, according to director Sarah Frederick:

This is the totem pole that used to be at the Admiral Way Viewpoint, as explained in our story last December (which also includes a photo of how it looked when it stood there; more history here). Grant money will take care of most of the refurbishment costs.

(Historic photo from King County Assessor’s website)
Five years after it last changed hands, West Seattle’s Hainsworth House – a city landmark, at 2657 37th SW, is on the market again (thanks to Fiona for spotting the listing). The 103-year-old, 4-bedroom, 4-bath mansion is listed for $2.25 million. Its significance as an example of “Tudor Revival” architecture is described in the fourth-from-last paragraph on this HistoryLink.org page.

(Click image for larger view)
Tonight, another look at an old Puget Ridge farmhouse that apparently sparked a fair amount of curiosity and imagination last weekend, after we published a photo Mike Gerber took during the St. Patrick’s Day snow showers. He sent three more photos this weekend and explained:

A surprising number of people asked for some additional information on the old house in the photo you ran last Saturday. Here’s a better angle of it. As for it being the oldest orchard house in Seattle, there’s very little in the historical record about this particular section of West Seattle and so it’s difficult to date it.

The area was covered in enormous old growth forest prior to the 1870’s, and the very valuable and spectacular trees were cut and turned into a hodgepodge of small farms and orchards and over the next 20 years. The construction is consistent with that era and it would seem logical that the trees growing closest to Elliott Bay would be the first to go.

I also met a wonderful and very credible old guy a number of years ago who had lived next to the orchard at one time. He said the house had been built in the 1880s, but that it had been vacant since the Depression.

During the construction of our home we came across four piles of very old lumber that turned out to be the collapsed remnants of small shacks, probably where orchard workers once lived. Under one of them we found two perfectly persevered ‘skat’ playing cards that were made in Germany in the early 1900s, where many of the workers came from.

Skat is considered the national game there and is played everywhere.

It would be interesting to know if any other readers have anything to add to the history of this relatively little-known area.

The location is described in the comment section following last weekend’s story.

That’s Kermit and Faye Franks on their wedding day 70 years ago. Preparing to help them celebrate the milestone with a party this weekend, their family shared that photo as well as this one taken in 2008:

And here’s the announcement they sent us to share with you:

Dr. Kermit Franks and his wife Faye, both 94, are celebrating their 70th wedding anniversary Sunday (Feb. 26) with a reception from 2 – 4 pm at The Kenney.

Kerm and Faye have been West Seattle residents since immediately after World War II. Kerm was a teacher, activities coordinator and the vice principal at West Seattle High School from 1945 until 1968. He retired from Seattle Public Schools as a central office administrator in 1975.

Kerm and Faye were married on Feb. 21, 1942, at her parents’ house in Clinton, Kansas. The war took Kerm to service in Alaska. When the war ended, the couple decided against returning to Kansas, and instead made their home in West Seattle, where their four children were born. All four of their children graduated from WSHS. West Seattle also is the home of two of the Franks’ granddaughters and three great-grandchildren.

Kerm and Faye together managed the Seabeck Conference Center from 1961 until 1975. Both have been members of Tibbetts United Methodist Church since 1960. They enjoy spending time at their Lake Cushman cabin with their extended family, including all seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Congratulations!

12:20 PM: The “for sale” sign is now up at the former Fire Station 37 (35th/Othello). The city process of putting it on the market – since it’s been replaced by a bigger new station a few blocks south – has been under way for a long time (here’s the 47-page city analysis); last month, the city announced it had chosen Colliers to handle the listing. What the new owner can do with the ex-station and its 9440-square-foot lot will be limited, since – as the sign points out – it’s in a single-family zone, plus, the building is an official city landmark. We haven’t found the listing online yet, but have messages out to the brokers whose names are on the sign.

12:59 PM UPDATE: Arvin Vander Veen from Colliers replied to our question about the asking price among other things:

We are gathering all of the pertinent materials … now and will be ready in about one week to blast it out. There is no asking price, only a minimum bid of $250,000. We are going to have two open houses coming up, and then in April we will call for offers from all of the people that fill out the Confidentiality Agreement needed to receive all of the due diligence materials. All offers must be noncontingent, all cash with proof of funds attached, from which we will pick the buyer and close escrow immediately.

That Saturday gathering in northeastern West Seattle was on one level about a plaza –

… but it was really about the people. This corner of West Seattle, now towered over by the high bridge, is Riverside, for decades a home to fishing families, mostly Croatian immigrants, whose descendants have mostly moved on, but won’t let the history (as detailed in the plaque inscription) be forgotten:

They gathered Saturday for the dedication of Riverside Memorial Plaza; the word “memorial” took on an added poignancy, for one of the plaza’s tiles bears the name of Jennie Plenkovich:

That’s the maiden name of Jennie Jaramillo, laid to rest earlier this week at age 75. As noted in her published obituary, she was a founding member of Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church, which overflowed with mourners for her memorial Mass just yesterday. Her uncle Frank Zuvela was a driving force behind the Riverside plaza project, and he was keynote speaker Saturday:

You can visit the Riverside Memorial Plaza at 17th SW/W. Marginal Place (map). Read more about it, and Riverside history, here, here, and see photos from Riverside days gone by, here.

(Jerry Vandenberg and friend. Photos courtesy Nicole Vandenberg, via SWSHS)
This morning, the Southwest Seattle Historical Society is providing more information on a big event this Saturday (you might have seen the Seattle Times [WSB partner] preview this weekend): “Come Home to Riverside,” noon Saturday at 17th SW/West Marginal Place (map). Riverside is a historic neighborhood by the bridge, an early West Seattle fishing community dating back more than a century. With descendants of those original families (many of them Croatian immigrants), SWSHS has created the Riverside Memorial Plaza, which will be dedicated at the event. From the announcement:

The project is the idea of Frank Zuvela, Joe Popich, and Mike Budinich, all sons of first-generation Riverside residents.

The property was donated by businessman Mike Budinich. The design and labor was contributed by Jerry and Ron Vandenberg, who grew up in Riverside in the 1940s.

Zuvela and Budinich both were born in Riverside; the Vandenbergs moved there in childhood. Here’s a photo of the Budinich store in Riverside, one of two grocery stores in the area, which extended credit, vital at the time because fishermen did not have year-round income and needed to borrow during the inbetween times.

Ahead, the full text on the memorial plaque, as provided by SWSHS:

This marker and all the stones in this plaza are dedicated to those young immigrants who, in the late 1800s and early1900s, left their homelands with a vision to establish their families and fortunes in a distant land.

These early settlers of Riverside were mostly from Croatia, a region of the Austrian Empire, later known as Yugoslavia. They joined with other ethnic groups to form bonds of friendship that transcended the multicultural barriers of this Riverside community at the mouth of the Duwamish River.

Many of these immigrants were skilled fishermen, who for years had plied the Adriatic and Mediterranean Seas. Riverside’s location offered what they were seeking – the closeness of their own kind who spoke their native tongue, moorage and repair facilities for their beloved boats, storage for their nets and gear, and crew availability – all within walking distance from the homes they built on the high ground. Within a short time, they built a fishing dynasty in Western Washington.

Here, at Riverside, they raised their treasured families. Their wives produced dishes of salmon from their nets and fresh vegetables and herbs from their own gardens. Autumn wine making was carried on annually, with a friendly tasting competition to decide whose wine was best.

By the 1990s, the Croatians had all but disappeared from Riverside. Their prosperity had scattered them to the far corners of the larger community. Their needs had changed. The salmon runs had dwindled. English was the language of their children. They worked and married their ways into the fabric of American life.

The paving stones in the plaza replicate the streets and lots of the Riverside community. The names of the settlers are at the locations of their homes.

The public is welcome at Saturday’s dedication.

West Seattle’s Vietnamese Cultural Center has paid tribute before to both the American and South Vietnamese troops lost in the Vietnam War – here is a ceremony we covered there three years ago – and now the center has a new memorial in place to honor them, with a dedication ceremony next Saturday. Center director Lee Bui is extending a specific invitation to Vietnam veterans to come to the ceremony, and asked us to share this invitation:

You and your family are invited to the ceremony of the black granite Fallen Soldiers Memorial :

Time: 1 PM, Saturday, January 14th, 2012
Place : Vietnamese Cultural Center
2236 SW Orchard
Contact phone : 206-779 6875
Chairperson : Dr. Nguyen Xuan Dung, MD

Fallen Soldiers Memorial to honor the heroes of armed forces from South Vietnam and 58,000 U.S servicemen who were fighting for freedom and democracy of Vietnam

The new memorial shares an outdoor space that also includes the center’s landmark statue paying tribute to the 13th-century hero, General Tran Hung Dao. The center is open to visitors every Saturday, noon-3 pm, not just on special occasions; you may also recall its community volunteers’ recent visits to Nickelsville on Thanksgiving and on New Year’s Day.

The house that’s home to West Seattle history, the Log House Museum, is a lot more Christmasy tonight after a volunteer decorating party this afternoon. When we stopped by, volunteer Pete was helping with the lights outside:

Inside, the gift shop – which is now on the museum’s first floor, instead of in the annex out back – is having a holiday sale. And we talked with museum/Southwest Seattle Historical Society leaders about perhaps the biggest project ahead in the New Year, restoration and upright display of the totem pole that’s been stored at the museum:

That’s the one that used to be at the Admiral Way Viewpoint. Artech, which restored the Rotary Viewpoint Park totem pole after its theft and return two years ago, will do the work on this one too. Funding will come in large part from a grant made by the National Society of Colonial Dames of the State of Washington. (added) WSB contributor Christopher Boffoli photographed it in 2004, while it was still in its old spot:

You can stop by the Log House Museum at 61st/Stevens any Thursday-Sunday, noon-4 pm, to see the exhibits and find out more about everything new they’re doing with everything old!

Story and photos by Katie Meyer
Reporting for West Seattle Blog

A pumpkin, photographs, and plats on a map were some of the items shared when attendees at Saturday’s Southwest Seattle Historical Society meeting were introduced to Michelle DelCarlo‘s concept of a “pop-up museum.”

DelCarlo, a University of Washington graduate student in Museology, explained how her themed pop-up museum can influence how museums see themselves, and can assist them in creating a deeper relationship with their community. An informal, interactive pop-up museum helps museums engage people – it’s DelCarlo’s “experiment in community building and the creation of meaningful experiences.” The mission is to create conversations between people of all ages and all walks of life.

(Michelle DelCarlo, left, at the start of her “Thanksgiving” theme pop-up museum)
A pop-up museum is based solely on the content provided by the people who show up to participate, and after it ends, everyone takes their items home with them. The theme for the meeting at West Seattle (Admiral) Library was “Thanksgiving” and SWHS meeting participants had been asked in advance to bring something that was meaningful to them, and write on a small sheet of paper ( the “label”) why that object is meaningful, then place the object and label on a table.

Some participants drew pictures as their contribution, others brought fresh-baked bread with a story of the recipe’s history in their family. Children brought photographs and wrote stories for them. The conversations that sprang up as people shared memories and told additional stories quickly grew:

The label on that one reads: “When I was growing up in Seattle our family always went to my Aunt Grace’s house for Thanksgiving dinner. She and her husband Charlie lived in a house about 2 blocks from West Seattle High School. The photograph was probably taken in 1953 or 43, with Great Aunt Grace and Uncle Charlie sitting at the head of the table. Around the table are grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. In the ’40s, Aunt Grace and Uncle Charlie invited servicemen, too. One year the turkey was so big, Uncle Charlie had to tie the oven door shut! -Edie“

Beneath a photo of two little boys, Clara Peterson‘s label read, “When my cousin was seven, at Thanksgiving we were all going around the table and saying what we were thankful for and he said, ‘I am thankful for everything except for nerds and jerks’.”

Audrey brought a vintage metal food mill, with a wood handle; it was once bolted to a table or counter as “Every year my dad made the cranberry relish fresh by grinding cranberries, apples & oranges. He added sugar to taste. It came out different every year. I have carried on the tradition.”

One man brought antique maps of West Seattle, including the one shown here, a “Plat of West Seattle Land and Improvements Company’s Platted Lands” dated 1890. Folks gazed as the maps were unrolled, chatting about differences between the plans for the area versus how the area has developed. One person pointing to a spot along the water, musing that their family once had a plot “right along there.”

SWSHS President Marcy Johnsen approved mightily of the pop-up museum idea, noting that it really engaged local community members to share their own history and memories in a casual setting under the auspices of a museum – and without the concern some might have about loaning something precious to them to a museum, as the “pop-up” can be held for just a day, or even a few hours. Johnsen was enthused about coordinating future pop-up museums for the community, with the SWSHS and Log House Museum.

(SWSHS members learning the stories behind items at a “Thanksgiving” theme pop-up museum)
That little pumpkin shown above will be making a family history soon – its label from Jennifer read, “A new tradition for me is to bake pumpkin pies for the family meal. But this is the first year I have grown my own pumpkins! Can’t wait.”