Sunday morning’s garage fire behind a house just south of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church (WSB coverage here) burned big – as that photo from a neighbor showed – and briefly. We checked with Seattle Fire this morning to see what its investigator found out about the cause; SFD spokesperson Corey Orvold tells WSB that the fire was ruled accidental, sparked by “improperly discarded charcoal briquets.” No one was hurt, but the fire also burned a tree and damaged a car.
So was this “the convent” (of old) then??
That might help to explain the OLG address.
I know you asked in the previous story; no one replied. I don’t know and wasn’t able to find anything online. – TR
to avoid this, use a bucket with water in it to dispose of your charcoal….
The address was incorrect. It was a private residence further down the block.
I seem to recall from my Girl Scout days that if you can’t hold your hand close to a fire (or charcoal I guess) after dousing with water it’s not out!
The ‘old convent’ was the former location of an alcohol addiction treatment center: Schick-Shadel. They sold the land and building to the Catholic Church and that’s where Our Lady of Guadalupe church and school were built. (The treatment program moved southward to a location on Ambaum Blvd. between White Center and Burien.) I think this happened in the late ’50’s but not positive…
The old building was a beautiful white mansion with columns…I believe it faced north, so it had a fantastic view of downtown Seattle. Growing up in that neighborhood, we thought it looked like the White House and were quite in awe of it! There were lots of wild blackberry bushes to the south of the building and we picked them every year to make jam and pies.
I don’t think it was ever a convent but perhaps someone knows more about its origins and can enlighten us all.
Some historical info from Schick Shadel website.
“Schick Shadel Hospital’s founder, Charles A. Shadel … in 1935 he opened up a colonial mansion with the comforts of home for those who were then considered society’s outcasts: alcoholics.”
The 1959 Polk City lists the address as 7106 35th Ave SW
SC-thank you for the research and information. I am not surprised that the building is described as ‘colonial’. Those columns were impressive!
C’mon people.
The Schick Shadel place were there in the early 1960’s.
The alley went straight through from north-to-south, and not the angular path it has had since the mid-1960’s.
The house nearest to the present-day Church, on the east side of 35th SW south of Myrtle, was filled with nuns and nuns alone in the late 1960’s / early 1970’s, and those nuns taught at O.L.G.
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