Showing posts with label history. Show all posts
Showing posts with label history. Show all posts

Shoreline Historical Museum Trillium award winners revealed

Sunday, November 10, 2019

“Trillium Award Winners 2019”
From left: Dave Barber and Jan Brucker, North Seattle Trillium Heritage Award winners;
Lauri Lambert, Lake Forest Park Trillium Heritage Award winner.


As part of its Preservation Recognition Program, on Saturday, November 9, 2019 the Shoreline Historical Museum gave its 14th Annual Trillium Heritage Awards to deserving nominees in North Seattle and Lake Forest Park. 

The award for North Seattle went to the Henry and Lucinda Denny home, built around 1900 at 8850 Wallingford Ave N in the Licton Springs neighborhood.

North Seattle Trillium Award winner
Denny/Brucker-Barber home, ca 1936,
Photo courtesy of the Washington State Archives


The award recipients are Jan Brucker and Dave Barber, who have restored the seven-bedroom house and landscape to its former glory. The home was also occupied for over 20 years by Logan and Dorothy Harter and their large family.

“Lovely” Logan Harter, as he was known, was a famous race car driver at the Aurora Speedway next to Playland, and all around the Pacific Northwest. Though the house was never moved, its address was, at some point, changed by a whole block!

Lake Forest Park Trillium Award winner
Tryon-Proctor/ Lambert home, ca 1951, courtesy of the Washington State Archives


Accepting the award for a historic building in Lake Forest Park was Lauri Lambert, owner of the Tryon-Proctor home at 3372 NE 180th.

The home was built in 1913, one of the famous “First Eight” homes to be built in Lake Forest Park.  Sisters Mary Tryon and Louise Proctor came to Seattle around 1910, and were convinced by Ole Hanson and his nephew Alexander Reid to build a beautiful home in exchange for a piece of property at a prominent corner. The craftsman bungalow may have been designed by W.C. Jackson, who was also the architect for Reid’s home. 

The Shoreline Historical Museum’s Trillium Heritage Awards raise awareness of the community’s roots, and encourages excellence in the maintenance and perpetuation of historic buildings in accordance with their original style. We are so pleased to honor these recipients, who have worked hard to keep the character of their homes intact.

The Shoreline Historical Museum is located at the corner of N 185th and Linden Ave N in Shoreline.



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History of the Buddy Poppies - look for veterans at Fred Meyer Fri and Sat

Thursday, November 7, 2019

Shoreline poppies
Photo by Lee Lageschulte
Veterans from the Blackburn-Aurora VFW Post 3348 will be accepting donations for Buddy Poppies at the Shoreline Fred Meyer, 185th and Aurora, on Friday and Saturday, November 8-9, 2019.

Money from Buddy Poppies goes to veterans' causes.

History of the Buddy Poppy

In April of 1915 a battle-weary Canadian soldier viewed the final resting place of thousands of young men who had fallen in the second Battle of Ypres in Belgium. Despondently he contemplated the rows of hastily dug graves – each marked by a lone white cross. Amid the graves he saw little patches of red – wild poppies.

Inspired, Colonel John McCrae sat down and penned the three short verses of his famous poem “In Flanders Fields”. The poem brought a message of confidence to millions of people in the dark hours of WWI and established the Flanders Poppy as a symbol of faith and hope in a war-torn world.

The Buddy Poppy, the small red flower symbolic of the blood that was shed in World War I by millions of Allied soldiers in defense of freedom, was originally sold to provide relief for the people of war devastated France. Later, its sales directly benefited thousands of disabled and down-and-out American veterans.

The VFW conducted its first poppy distribution before Memorial Day in 1922, becoming the first veterans' organization to organize a nationwide distribution. The poppy soon was adopted as the official memorial flower of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States.

During the 1923 encampment the VFW decided that VFW "Buddy"® Poppies would be assembled by disabled and needy veterans who would be paid for their work to provide them with financial assistance. The next year, disabled veterans at the Buddy Poppy factory in Pittsburgh assembled VFW Buddy Poppies. The designation "Buddy Poppy" was adopted at that time.

In February 1924, the VFW registered the name Buddy Poppy with the U.S. Patent Office. A certificate was issued on May 20, 1924, granting the VFW all trademark rights in the name of “Buddy” under the classification of artificial flowers. The VFW has made that trademark a guarantee that all poppies bearing that name and the VFW label are genuine products of the work of disabled and needy veterans. No other organization, firm or individual can legally use the name “Buddy Poppy”.

Today, VFW Buddy Poppies are still assembled by disabled and needy veterans in VA Hospitals. The VFW Buddy Poppy program provides compensation to the veterans who assemble the poppies, provides financial assistance in maintaining state and national veterans' rehabilitation and service programs, and partially supports the VFW National Home for Children.

The poppy program actually got its start on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

Shortly after World War I, Madame E. Guerin, founder of the American and French Children's League, became concerned that the free world was "forgetting too soon those sleeping in Flanders Fields."

Inspired by Colonel John McCrae's poem, "In Flanders Fields," which spoke of poppies growing in an Allied graveyard "between the crosses, row on row," Guerin decided on the poppy as the most appropriate memorial flower.

She began attending the conventions of any serviceman's organization that would allow her to speak. Her request was always the same - to enact the following resolution: "Be it resolved that every member, if possible, and his or her family shall wear a red poppy."

The poppy program was quickly embraced by the people of France, and also secured the sponsorship of the Prince of Wales, the Governors General of Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, and the President of Cuba. In each of these countries, veteran's organizations and their auxiliaries agreed to sell memorial poppies for the benefit of the children of France.

In April 1919, the "Poppy Lady," as Madame Guerin was now known, arrived in the United States. The Poppy Lady turned to the VFW. In May 1922, the VFW conducted the first nationwide distribution of Poppies in the United States. Then, at its National Encampment in Seattle in August 1922, the organization adopted the Poppy as the official memorial flower of the VFW.

The VFW had great difficulty obtaining enough Poppies for the 1923 sale. From the frustrations of the 1923 sales year, evolved a plan to pay disabled and needy American veterans to make the poppies. This plan was presented to the 1923 National Encampment for approval. Immediately following the plan's adoption, a VFW poppy factory was set up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. All veterans who would be manufacturing poppies for the 1924 sale were sent to a training workshop by the U.S. Veterans Bureau regional manager in Pittsburgh.

It was from these early disabled poppy makers that the name which would be the flower's trademark came. The name just "grew" out of the poppy makers' remembrances of their buddies who never came back from war. Undoubtedly, because it expressed so simply the deepest significance of the Poppy Plan, the name stuck. All over the country, the little red flower became known as the "Buddy Poppy."

After the 1924 sale, some of the larger VFW (State) Departments suggested that it might improve the value of the poppies, if they were made by hospitalized veterans from their own area.

The delegates at the 1924 National Encampment agreed. They ruled that poppies would now be made throughout the U.S. by disabled veterans in government hospitals and by needy veterans in workshops supervised by the VFW. Currently the little red flowers of silk-like fabric are assembled in 11 different locations.

The VA Facilities in which they are made are located in: Leavenworth and Topeka, Kansas; Biloxi, Mississippi; Temple, Texas; Martinsburg, West Virginia; Hampton, Virginia; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Dayton, Ohio; and White City and Grand Rapids, Michigan.

From the start of the VFW's poppy program, the U.S. Veterans Bureau, the Administrator of Veterans Affairs, and other federal agencies have supported the Buddy Poppy. And beginning with Warren G. Harding, U.S. Presidents have also been staunch supporters of the program. Each year, a Poppy Girl or Poppy Boy selected from the National Home's residents starts the annual campaign by presenting the first poppy to the President of the United States.

Today, there are strict rules governing how profits from Buddy Poppy sales are to be used at different levels within the organization. The National organization assesses a tax of 5 cents on every poppy purchased by VFW Posts nationwide.

Profits are used to fund department service work or other programs for the relief or wellbeing of VFW members. Posts receive their profits directly from public donations for Buddy Poppies. National by-laws require that the profits from these sales be placed in the post's Relief Fund to be used only for the following purposes:
  • For the aid, assistance, relief, and comfort of needy or disabled veterans or members of the Armed Forces and their dependents, and the widows and orphans of deceased veterans.
  • For the maintenance and expansion of the VFW National Home and other facilities devoted exclusively to the benefit and welfare of the dependents, widows, and orphans of disabled, needy, or deceased veterans or members of the Armed Forces.
  • For necessary expenses in providing entertainment, care, and assistance to hospitalized veterans or members of the Armed Forces.
  • For veterans' rehabilitation, welfare, and service work.
  • To perpetuate the memory of deceased veterans and members of the Armed Forces, and to comfort survivors. 

With help from the VFW, the "Little Red Flower" continues to benefit the needy just as the Poppy Lady believed it was capable of so many years ago.

To date, the VFW has sold over a billion Buddy Poppies. As long as Americans continue to spill their blood in defense of freedom, sales of these blood-red poppies will undoubtedly continue strong.



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Ribbon cutting event commemorates Missouri Hanna and the Woman Suffrage Movement in Edmonds

Wednesday, November 6, 2019

Missouri Hanna
Missouri Hanna, newspaper publisher, champion of women’s suffrage and Edmonds resident of the early 1900s, is finally getting her due. 

A new historical interpretive panel on the corner of Sunset Avenue honors the valiant woman leader. Hanna Park Road, just steps away from the panel, marks the entry to Hanna Park, the residential area she developed and where she lived during her years in Edmonds. 

The interpretive panel was created by the League of Women Voters, paid for by grants, and will be temporarily sited on City of Edmonds right of way for the next year.

The ribbon-cutting is part of the upcoming nationwide celebration marking 100 years since the passage of the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote. It will be held at the corner of Sunset Avenue and Caspers Street on Friday, November 8 at 2pm.

Speakers will include Snohomish League of Women Voters President Vicki Roberts-Gassler, Project lead Rita Ireland, and Teresa Wippel, publisher of My Edmonds News, Lynnwood Today, and current Edmonds Citizen of the Year.

Known as the “Mother of Journalism”, Missouri Hanna became the first woman newspaper publisher in Washington State when she purchased the Edmonds Review in 1905. Edmonds was still a young waterfront mill town, and Hanna faced an uphill battle to win the support of the community. In short order The Edmonds Review became known for being politically independent, objective, fair, and a source for reliable local, national and international news.

She brought a civility to the paper that suggested readers to “…always find some good in each and if we cannot, we shall hesitate, look over the beautiful Sound to the snow-covered Olympics and glorious sunset and use our best judgement.”

Five years later Missouri Hanna started Votes for Women, a monthly Northwest suffrage newsletter providing updates on local, state and national activities that added vigor to the suffrage movement. The 32-page journals influenced many women and men, and helped move Washington voters to enact women’s suffrage in 1910, a decade before the 19th Amendment to the Constitution finally gave U.S. women the right to vote nationwide.

What better timing than to honor her now —in celebration of the upcoming 2020 Suffrage Centennial. The spark was ignited when Katie Kelly, Director of the Edmonds Historical Museum, shared Hanna’s documents with Rita Ireland, of the League of Women Voters of Snohomish County.

Ireland’s “Missouri Hanna and the Suffrage Movement” project was awarded two grants this past spring: a “Votes for Women” Centennial Grant from the Washington State Women’s Commission and the Washington State Historical Society, and a grant from the Snohomish County Historic Preservation Commission.

With the help of the LWVSC’s Centennial Committee, led by President Vicki Roberts-Gassler, other educational programs that are part of the project are in progress. These include League volunteers currently reading donated suffrage books to third graders in over 60 school libraries around Snohomish County, from Edmonds to Darrington. Suffragist stories are also being shared on the League’s KSER radio program.

Two more celebratory activities are happening in June 2020. Look for a public forum at the Edmonds Historical Museum and “Where’s Missouri Hanna?”, a children’s scavenger hunt in downtown Edmonds.

Ireland concluded, “Few history books provide more than a sentence or two about the early women’s rights movements. The persistence of women suffragists like Missouri Hanna is worthy of recognition. After all, the long struggle was not smooth. But the more we learn about the courage and boldness of women and men who fought for equality, the more we recognize the light it sheds on how precious our democracy is.”

The panel was designed by Core Creative, a graphic design firm in Edmonds. Check out the QR code on the panel for credits and more information about Hanna’s life.

Information about Votes for Women Centennial events across Washington, here.



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State Parks collecting oral histories about Mount St. Helens eruption

Sunday, September 29, 2019

To commemorate next year’s 40th anniversary of the Mount St. Helens eruption, Washington State Parks is looking for people who were affected by this major event in Washington state’s history.

Over the next few months, staff from the Mount St. Helens Visitor Center will spearhead an effort to collect stories from current and past residents, as well as from individuals near and far who were affected by the volcano’s eruption on May 18, 1980.

“We want to record these poignant memories before they are lost or forgotten,” said Alysa Adams, Visitor Center interpretive specialist. 
“You can pick up a historic newspaper or read a book about the eruption, but first-hand encounters from community members paint the real picture of that day. These voices need to be heard to preserve this part of history.

People have several options for sharing their Mount St. Helens stories:

Throughout this winter, State Parks staff will be converting these written and oral histories into a temporary exhibit at the center. They plan to make the exhibit accessible to the public from mid-May through October 2020, with this experience included in the visitor center’s regular admission. The temporary display also will showcase historical publications and artifacts from the 1980 eruption.

The Mount St. Helens Visitor Center, run by Washington State Parks, functions as a gateway to the volcano, which lies about 30 miles to the east. Visitors can learn about the historical significance of the landscape before, during and after the eruption and how the eruption affected nearby ecosystems.

On a clear day, a walk on the Visitor Center’s interpretive trail affords a spectacular view of Mount St. Helens in the distance. More information here.



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The Shoreline Historical Museum unveils On-Line Photo Project

Saturday, September 21, 2019

1918. Capt. Smith's family in their motorboat on Lake Washington.
His daughter Dorothy, Horatio "Tink", wife Amy and Capt. Henry S. Smith.
Shoreline Historical Museum photo 854


The Shoreline Historical Museum On-Line Photo Project has just been unveiled. Nearly 2000 photos from the Museum photo collections are now available in an easy-to-use, searchable format for researchers and anyone who wants to study or just browse.

The big reveal represents over 18 months of intense work by numerous volunteers, project manager Ken Winnick, and database program developer Barry Hansen.

The database program is available as open-source code on “GitHub,” according to Hansen, so that other museums may benefit from this project.

The project was initially funded by a grant from the Pendleton and Elisabeth Carey Miller Foundation and continued through the support of Museum members and sustained support from the City of Shoreline and 4Culture.

Go to the museum webpage and click on “photo gallery,” then just let your fingers do the walking!

You can click on “browse images,” for general viewing, or “photo finder” if there are specific things you’d like to see. Proper names can be typed into the text search, or putting in keywords will narrow down what you’re looking for: try “dogs” and “hats” for starters. This will get you a group of amazing photos!

Search for dates, places, people, geographic features and much more. We hope you thoroughly enjoy using the Museum’s Photo Gallery for your next research project.



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Shoreline Racial History display at Shoreline City Hall Lobby

Saturday, September 14, 2019


Shoreline Racial History Display - Welcoming Week Event 
(national initiative to promote inclusive communities)

Monday, Sept 16– Friday Sept 20, 2019. 
Lobby Hours Open 8:00am—5:00pm

Learn about the policies and practices that have impacted Shoreline’s racial history through a poster display created by Shoreline School District Equity Director Dr. Tanisha Brandon-Felder and Melissa Sargent, English Language Learners Teacher Specialist.

Contact Suni Tolton, Diversity and Inclusion Coordinator at 206-801-2256 or by email  for more info.



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The History of the Shoreline School District – 75th Anniversary

Friday, September 13, 2019

Discussing the exhibit of school photos
Photo by Steven H. Robinson


On May 18, 2019, the Shoreline Historical Museum held a ceremony to celebrate a new exhibit on the 75th Anniversary of the Shoreline School District.

Facing the camera are Museum Director Vicki Stiles
and Shoreline Schools Superintendent Rebecca Miner


Now on Saturday, September 14, 2019 Museum Director Vicki Stiles will present a program on the 75th Anniversary, using many of the photos in the exhibit.

The school district was much larger until
Seattle made a land grab and moved the
Seattle boundary far into unincorporated Shoreline
Photo by Steven H. Robinson


The History of the Shoreline School District – 75th Anniversary - presentation by Shoreline Historical Museum Director Vicki Stiles on Saturday September 14, 2019 - 2:00 pm at the Shoreline Library 345 NE 175th St, Shoreline 98155, large meeting room.

Using stunning historical photos and research, Shoreline Historical Museum Director Vicki Stiles will tell how the Shoreline School District got its start 75 years ago. 

The new Richmond Beach School and classroom
Photo by Steven H. Robinson


Stiles will take the audience all the way back to 1887, when the first school in the district was established, and forward to the present, as the school district meets the challenges of education today.

Jointly sponsored by the by the King County Library System, Shoreline Historical Museum and the Friends of the Shoreline Library.





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What's happening with Ronald Bog Park? Blame it on Mr. Bean

Friday, September 6, 2019

Lush, green Ronald Bog park has been scraped
Photo by Steven H. Robinson



By Diane Hettrick

If you are one of the thousands of people who have driven by Ronald Bog in recent weeks, you may have been shocked at the appearance.

The whole north end of the Bog, at N 175th and Meridian, appears to be in site preparation for a major construction zone. Even the ponies are wearing hard hats.

Even the ponies are wearing hard hats
Photo by AT

What you are looking at, though, is a major wetland restoration of Ronald Bog Park. Sound Transit is creating wetlands at the north and east ends of the park and doing major clean up along the east side. It's a mitigation site for impacts to the unnamed, and mostly unnoticed wetlands which are primarily south of the Shoreline fire station on N 155th, running along the east side of the freeway.

The work at Ronald Bog is complicated by its history of human use.
The photo was probably taken closer to 1920 than 1930
Historically Ronald Bog was marshy peat formed by decaying plant matter, fed by small streams, and full of cranberries which were harvested by the native tribes that moved through the area and by early settlers.

Duwamish people from the permanent settlements beside Lake Washington, Lake Union and Salmon Bay, and other tribes visiting from Snohomish county, came to the bog to harvest the cranberries and other edible plants that grew there. (Shoreline Historical Museum)

1936 aerial view
The faint red lines show the current lot boundaries.
Photo courtesy King county

Over time bogs may build up so much peat that they dry out because they get elevated above the water table. Property owners, such as Paul Weller, might have diverted the streams. For whatever reason, in the 1936 aerial photo, the bog is dry.

Paul Weller acquired the property in 1936 and began peat mining. In the aerial photo you can clearly see the straight lines where the peat has been harvested. A succession of companies continued to remove the peat up into the early 1960s.

George Webster sits on his tractor in the middle of this photo.
The streets are slightly above his head and the lake is to the left
Photo courtesy Shoreline Historical Museum

In 1949 George Webster acquired the north end of the bog, established the Plant Food Company, and continued the mining of the northern half of the bog. A different company mined the south end.

As they removed the peat, they got closer to the water table and the Bog started to fill with water again. A small feeder stream, unnamed, flows in a pipe under Meridian and into the northwest corner of the Bog. The daylighted North Branch of Thornton Creek still runs north-south on the east side of the Bog.

A resident named John, who was a child in the 1950s, remembers a barge in the middle of what was now a lake, still digging peat from the site.

In 1964 the peat mining was discontinued, and Darwin Bean acquired much of the bog property for his business, Marshall Tippey Landscaping. He began filling the north and east shores of the pond with the intention of building a small tract of homes there.

According to John, "The old dump was also to the south and it was the old school dump with old cars from the 30s, and lots of what now would be antiques. Lots for young kids (pre teen) to explore. There wasn’t any ecology then and when the freeway was built they buried the dump, the ponds, and streams much to our dismay."

So the whole area was basically a dump. Darwin Bean was finding fill material wherever he could and certainly would have welcomed debris from the I-5 construction right next to the Bog.

In 1965 a vigorous coalition of citizens, politicians, and press successfully lobbied the King county council to acquire the land and turn it into a park, which it did in 1970.

Now, Sound Transit has accepted the challenge of turning the park built on a dump back into a healthy wetland.

The concrete is being piled up for removal
Photo courtesy City of Shoreline

The land they are working on is full of chunks of concrete and sections of twisted pipe and whatever else Darwin Bean could find to fill up the pit left by peat removal.

On the land at the north end of the Bog, Sound Transit contractors are digging deep and removing concrete, pipe, and other debris.

The contractor reports that in addition to the concrete and metal, they removed a toilet, kitchen sink, automobile license plates from the 1950s, bricks, and asphalt chunks. They have excavated five feet and in some areas, as deep as nine feet in order to remove debris and build the wetlands.

Sandbags and a turbidity curtain protect the lake
Photo courtesy City of Shoreline


They are also working a few feet into the lake to remove the fill and debris. Temporary best management practices, such as sand bags and a turbidity curtain, are in place during the work to keep from disturbing the rest of the lake.

When they have finished excavating, they will backfill the land with compost and topsoil. Then they will create two separate wetland areas. The central area of the park will be kept clear so residents still have access to an improved trail system and a view of the lake.

Rotary picnic shelter
Photo by Steven H. Robinson

The Rotary shelter is in good shape and will be refurbished and remain in place. Shoreline Parks Director Eric Friedli wants to create some seating areas in the new park with possibly a picnic table under the shelter.

Trees had to be removed from the site in order to create the wetlands -- many because their roots were entwined in concrete and pipe and growing on the fill material.


The new wetlands will not be open to the public but will be designed so that people can see into them. They will help absorb and store floodwater in wet years – another way to help prevent flooding at the intersection of Meridian and N 175th.

The dotted green area on the map will be wetlands which will be boggy or completely under water, depending on the season and rainfall.

The darker green is the buffer area. It will protect the wetland and can also serve to absorb water in wet years.

2010 was a very wet year.
This is along Meridian
Photo by Janet Way

Taller trees will be planted in the northwest wetland, except where the view is being protected. A variety of native species of trees, shrubs and other types of plants will be planted in the wetland and the buffer.

Sound Transit hopes to reintroduce native plants which were there historically, such as Bog laurel and LavenderLabrador tea. LavenderLabrador tea is mentioned in several of the historical records as being native to the site but it has since died out.

The site will be monitored for over 10 years, to make sure the native plants thrive and that invasive plants, such as reed canarygrass and knotweeds, are removed and the wetlands are healthy.

Dick Decker and volunteers worked in the park for several years
removing invasive plants and planting several hundred native plants
Photo courtesy Dick Decker 2010

Work done over the years by volunteers to restore native plants was primarily in the far northwest section of the site and has not been impacted. (See 2011 article). However, the area is very overgrown now.

Photo by Steven H. Robinson

The popular arboretum remains intact and the large sculpture, The Kiss, has already been moved to a new position on an elevated area. The trail will be raised and leveled with gravel to ADA standards. It will be expanded around the sculpture to reach the Rotary shelter by the lake.

Interpretative signs will be added throughout the area.

The work is expected to be complete by this winter, although some planting may be done in the spring. Sound Transit will continue to monitor the site for up to 10 years.

If you want to do more research or want more specific information on the history of Ronald Bog, check in with the Shoreline Historical Museum at N 185th and Linden, where they have the references, maps, aerial photos, etc. and information on bog use back to Native Americans.

Thanks to John Gallagher, Karin Ertl, and Rebecca McAndrew of Sound Transit, Vicki Stiles of the Shoreline Historical Museum, and Shoreline Parks Director Eric Friedli for material in this article.



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Potential Town Center redevelopment in Lake Forest Park

Wednesday, July 24, 2019

Town Center now with MGP property
outline in red dashed line


Merlone Geier Partners (MGP) hosted a town hall last week in Lake Forest Park to discuss conceptual plans for a potential Town Center redevelopment.

MGP owns the commercial buildings at Town Center, including the bank and office building. They do not own the land or building with City Hall, Starbucks, or Windermere.

Sound Transit is planning a major bus rapid transit hub there and would like to build a multi-story parking garage.

MGP said that they "hope they can take a more active role in shaping the future of our property as we strike a balance with various stakeholder demands."

More than 100 people joined the town hall.

For those who couldn’t attend, MGP is putting the materials online on their website

Part 1 of 2  has been posted here. It recaps the conceptual plans from the town hall PowerPoint presentation. Part 2 will include a video to be posted in the coming weeks. 

The public is being involved very early in the process. In the conceptual plans, nothing is off the table. Retail, residential, parking, with some designs using all the land, and others fitting themselves around City Hall. Combinations of all the above abound.



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Summer Shorts for Seniors - History of Asian Culture in Puget Sound

Tuesday, June 25, 2019


The Shoreline Library and the Shoreline/Lake Forest Park Senior Center have teamed up to offer short readings on a variety of topics of local history.

Come to the Shoreline-Lake Forest Park Senior Center this summer on the 1st Friday of the month, and settle in to listen to excerpts from short stories and nonfiction pieces focused on local history.

In July, hear readings on the History of Asian Culture in Puget Sound Area.

Friday, July 5, 2019 at 1pm – 2pm

Shoreline/Lake Forest Park Senior Center 18560 1st Ave NE, Shoreline 98155




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Happy Father's Day

Sunday, June 16, 2019

Father and sons


Father's Day has multiple origins, but is generally agreed to have been established in Spokane. The original celebration was inspired by a single father of six.

On June 19, 1910, a Father's Day celebration was held at the YMCA in Spokane, Washington, by Sonora Smart Dodd. Her father, the civil war veteran William Jackson Smart, was a single parent who raised his six children there.

Dodd was a member of Old Centenary Presbyterian Church (now Knox Presbyterian Church), where she first proposed the idea. After hearing a sermon about Mother's Day in 1909, she told her pastor that fathers should have a similar holiday to honor them.

Although she initially suggested June 5, her father's birthday, the pastors did not have enough time to prepare their sermons, and the celebration was deferred to the third Sunday in June. Several local clergymen accepted the idea, and on June 19, 1910, the first Father's Day, "sermons honoring fathers were presented throughout the city".

However, in the 1920s, Dodd stopped promoting the celebration because she was studying at the Art Institute of Chicago, and it faded into relative obscurity, even in Spokane.

In the 1930s, Dodd returned to Spokane and started promoting the celebration again, raising awareness at a national level. She had the help of those trade groups that would benefit most from the holiday, for example the manufacturers of ties, tobacco pipes, and any traditional presents for fathers.

By 1938, she had the help of the Father's Day Council, founded by the New York Associated Men's Wear Retailers to consolidate and systematize the holiday's commercial promotion.

Americans resisted the holiday for its first few decades, viewing it as nothing more than an attempt by merchants to replicate the commercial success of Mother's Day, and newspapers frequently featured cynical and sarcastic attacks and jokes. However, the said merchants remained resilient and even incorporated these attacks into their advertisements. By the mid-1980s, the Father's Day Council wrote, "(...) [Father's Day] has become a Second Christmas for all the men's gift-oriented industries."

A bill to accord national recognition of the holiday was introduced in Congress in 1913. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson went to Spokane to speak at a Father's Day celebration and he wanted to make it an officially recognized federal holiday, but Congress resisted, fearing that it would become commercialized.

U.S. president Calvin Coolidge recommended in 1924 that the day be observed throughout the entire nation, but he stopped short at issuing a national proclamation. Two earlier attempts to formally recognize the holiday had been defeated by Congress.

In 1957, Maine senator Margaret Chase Smith wrote a Father's Day proposal accusing Congress of ignoring fathers for 40 years while honoring mothers, thus "[singling] out just one of our two parents".

In 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson issued the first presidential proclamation honoring fathers, designating the third Sunday in June as Father's Day. Six years later, the day was made a permanent national holiday when President Richard Nixon signed it into law in 1972.

--Selections from Wikipedia article



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Pub talk: The Centralia Massacre

Wednesday, June 12, 2019


UW Bothell Pub Night Talk at McMenamins: “The Centralia Incident: A Historical Interrogation”

Daniel O'Donnell, labor educator, Washington State Labor Education and Research Center. O’Donnell examines the deadly clash between the American Legion and the Industrial Workers of the World during the 1919 Armistice Day parade in Centralia, Washington. 

Pub Night Talks, a free monthly lecture series, is cosponsored by the University of Washington Bothell and McMenamins, featuring university and community experts. Topics have ranged from butterflies to black holes. 

7-8:30pm Tuesday, June 25, 2019. Doors open at 6pm. 
Haynes’ Hall, McMenamins Anderson School, 18607 Bothell Way NE, Bothell. 

Free and open to the public. All ages welcome. Seating: first come, first served. Talk followed by Q/A.  


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70th anniversary of 1949 earthquake

Saturday, April 13, 2019

Seattle Municipal Archives from Seattle, WA
[CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)]

By Diane Hettrick

April 13, 2019 is the 70th anniversary of the (according to History Link) "largest earthquake in Puget Sound since non-Indian people started to immigrate and settle along its shores."

The History Link article (Earthquake hits Puget Sound area...) says that "In King County, the quake's strongest ground shaking was in Auburn, Richmond Beach, and in parts of Seattle."

I don't remember ever hearing a name for it other than "the 1949 earthquake." The Burke Museum at the UW (The Big One) calls it the "Olympia earthquake".

1949 - April 13 - Centered on Olympia. Deep (30-40 miles). Magnitude 7.1 with a modified Mercalli of VIII. Substantial damage to masonry buildings with inferior mortar. Differential ground movement. 
Most damage in Seattle was concentrated in areas of filled ground around Pioneer Square area, where many older masonry buildings suffered. Washington schools sustained a disproportionately high level of damage. 
Thirty schools, normally serving 10,000 students, were damaged. Ten condemned and permanently closed.

Who was living in Richmond Beach at the time? Would you like to share your memories? Send them to Editor@ShorelineAreaNews.com



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Full house for the Amazing History of Lake Forest Park

Monday, April 8, 2019

Vicki Stiles lectures on Lake Forest Park
Photo by Jerry Pickard


Shoreline Historical Museum Executive Director Vicki Stiles had a packed house for her presentation Saturday, April 6, 2019 on The Amazing History of Lake Forest Park.

An overflow crowd filled the small meeting room at the LFP Library and expanded out into the library itself.

Vicki started with the Native Americans living in the area before the settlers arrived and brought everyone up to modern times. She covered Lake Forest Park, Kenmore, and Bothell in her presentation.

The audience was enthralled, listening with rapt attention to her lecture.

The Shoreline Historical Museum is located at N 185th St and Linden Ave N in Shoreline.




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Reminder: Saturday presentation on Astonishing History of Lake Forest Park

Saturday, April 6, 2019

The Lake Forest Park Library is offering a special event on Saturday, April 6, 2019, 2:00pm.

“The Astonishing History of Lake Forest Park,” presented by Vicki Stiles, Executive Director of the Shoreline Historical Museum.

Co-sponsored by the King County Library System. The library is located on the lower level of Town Center, intersection Bothell and Ballinger Way, Lake Forest Park.

Resident Sally Yamasaki, who grew up in LFP, said that she believes Vicki Stiles and the Shoreline Museum “holds the key to the city’s history’s heart.” 

Come join in for a short but insightful journey with Vicki as she opens the history’s heart up to us all.

The Shoreline Historical Museum covers North Seattle, Shoreline, and Lake Forest Park. It is located at 18501 Linden Avenue North, just one block west of Aurora Avenue North, in Shoreline.



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All Twisted Up About Gerrymandering?

Tuesday, March 26, 2019

Jane Fellows as Mary Ellen McCaffree
in Many Maps, One Voice
Many Maps, One Voice, a short and informative history of redistricting in Washington State, will be shown in two performances at the Everett PUD building’s auditorium on April 6, 2019 at 7:00pm and again on April 7 at 2:00pm. 

Tickets are available online, starting at $5 for students.

The one-woman play, sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Snohomish County and produced by Politics of the Possible in Action, engages the audience—educators, students, elected officials and the general public — with the challenges of redistricting.

Actor Jane Fellows
This lively and entertaining production is based on the actual experiences of four-term legislator, Mary Ellen McCaffree, played by veteran stage actor Jane Fellows.

McCaffree was a League member in Seattle in the 1960s who advocated for more equitable school funding. 

She became well known and respected for her efforts, so much so that both political parties asked her to run for the legislature. 

She did so, was elected, and then fought to redistrict the state for the sake of education funding.

Mary Ellen McCaffree
McCaffree wrote a book about her experience in the Legislature, Politics of the Possible co-authored by Anne McNamee Corbett. 

From this book the play was developed. 

With redistricting about to happen again in 2021, this one-woman play couldn’t be more timely or relevant. 

Many Maps, One Voice, is a short history of how redistricting was done in the '60s. 

The play, with references to Governor Rossellini, Senator Slade Gorton, Governor Dan Evans, and other politicos will appeal to history buffs. 

Importantly, the play brings audiences a deeper understanding of what citizens need to do in the future to ensure that redistricting is fair.


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The Astonishing History of Lake Forest Park Apr 6

Sunday, March 24, 2019


The Friends of the Lake Forest Park Library are sponsoring a presentation on LFP history on Saturday, April 6, beginning at 2pm, in the LFP library on the lower level of Town Center, intersection Bothell and Ballinger Way NE.

Vicki Stiles, Director of the Shoreline Historical Museum, will share historical perspectives and fascinating anecdotes about this local community.

All are invited, and admission is free. The KCLS plans to follow up with similar presentations at the Shoreline and Richmond Beach branches.



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Meet Mary Daheim, Seattle’s own maven of mystery, Apr 11 at Third Place Books

Tuesday, March 19, 2019

Mary Daheim has written nearly 70 novels
By Luanne Brown

If you love mysteries, you won’t want to miss an evening with Seattle author, Mary Daheim on Thursday, April 11, 7pm at Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park at Town Center, intersection of Bothell and Ballinger Way NE.

This event, sponsored by the Puget Sound Chapter of Sisters in Crime, celebrates the publication of Daheim’s 31st (!) novel in her ‘Bed-and-Breakfast’ mystery series, “A Case of Bier” which was published, Tuesday, February 12, 2019.

Daheim will be joined by her friend and fellow author, Candace Robb for a conversation about Daheim’s notable career.

The two have been friends since 1993 when they met at a local meeting of the Mystery Writers of America. “By the end of that meeting we were friends for life,” said Robb.

Daheim and Robb will be discussing Daheim’s long and productive career, which includes not only the “Bed and Breakfast” series, but the “Alpine” series. There will be some writing tips, perhaps a tall tale or two, and lots of laughs, “Because, of course, it’s Mary Daheim,” Robb said, referring to Daheim’s legendary sense of humor.

At 81, how does Daheim keep producing best sellers? “It’s a bit of a mystery, even to me,” she said. But she admits to using the famous writer, Ernest Hemingway’s advice, when he said, “The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair.” And that’s pretty much what she does, writing almost everyday for as many hours as she can.

When it comes to what she writes, Daheim makes it up as she goes along—without an outline. “I like to be surprised along with my readers.” Although she has outlined, at the suggestion of an editor, she still prefers to write spontaneously.

Whatever her method, it seems to be a productive one, having written almost 70 novels over her long career. Alice Boatwright, president of the Puget Sound Chapter of Sisters in Crime, said, “Her clever, well-researched, and entertaining mysteries have attracted a wide readership – and she is an inspiration to all writers, no matter whether they are facing page one for the first time, writing book two, or publishing number twenty.”

Candace Robb will appear with Daheim
Where does Daheim get her ideas from? The Alpine series, which has 27 books in it so far, was inspired by the isolated logging town of Alpine, where her grandparents lived from 1915 until 1920. Her parents moved there in 1926 after they married. “My father had been working on the Alaska fishing boats, and started running the mill boilers in Alpine,” Daheim said.

“When the logging parcel was finished, people left on the train and the town was no more,” Daheim said, adding that the Clemans family, who owned the Alpine Lumber Company, moved the logging operation to the Robe Valley in Snohomish.

“I would ask my dad where the town was, from time to time, but he always said, ‘Bug’, his nickname for me, ‘I wouldn’t know how to get there. The only way we got in or out was by train.”

Daheim’s interest in this now abandoned company town spurred the curiosity of her daughter Maggie and her husband Paul, who explored the area and rediscovered the town. And their curiosity spread. 

“Mary is possibly the only author whose books have stimulated the formation of a group like the Alpine Advocates. These enthusiasts were inspired by her fictional portrayal of Alpine and devote themselves to rediscovering, preserving, and sharing the vibrant history of this lost logging town in the Cascades,” Boatwright said. 

It’s this deep connection to her own family’s history and a lifetime spent in the Pacific Northwest that helps Daheim convey the uniqueness of our area in her books. Born to Hugh and Monica Richardson, she was raised in Seattle, where she got a degree in journalism at the University of Washington. Then she went to work for a newspaper in Anacortes, where she started to collect ideas for characters that would later show up in her stories. 

Daheim also spent time working at a newspaper in Port Angeles, after her marriage to the late David Daheim, who worked for MGM in the early years of his career.

They eventually moved back to Seattle, where her husband became a respected teacher at Shoreline Community College where he taught English, journalism, cinema, and literature, and acted as the school’s newspaper advisor.

Their three daughters wandered a little farther from home than their mother, who lives only three miles from where she was born. But they all still live in the greater Seattle area. Daheim also has three grandchildren.

After some years in journalism, Daheim turned to work in public relations. Then, back in the 1980s, she began writing romance novels. After publishing several of those, she began writing the two series she is so well known for. Her work has appeared in several anthologies as well.

Sisters in Crime is a national organization that was founded in 1987 to promote the ongoing advancement, recognition and professional development of women crime writers.

For more information on Daheim’s work, visit her website. Purchase her books at Third Place Books.

3-21-19 Corrected nickname "Bud" to "Bug". Logging operation was in the Robe Valley.


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History: relics of the past

Saturday, March 2, 2019

Tower for air raid siren at Northacres Park
Photo by Andrew Thompson


By Diane Hettrick

During the Cold War with Russia after WWII, Americans expected nuclear bombs to rain down on them at any moment.

In the aftermath of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, there was great fear of nuclear fall out.

Air raid shelters were built and stocked and marked with the distinctive sign. Personal fallout shelters were built in basements and dug into yards. There was agonized public conversation about the moral issue of what you would do if your unprepared neighbor wanted into your shelter. Would you let them in?

Schoolchildren were taught to crouch under their desks for protection.

The whole system depended on being warned of attack, so public air raid sirens were installed and tested every Wednesday at noon.

There are relics of those days still left. Northacres Park at 127th and 1st NE in the Haller Lake neighborhood of Seattle still has the tower for the air raid siren, rusting away among the trees.

Dan Short, who photographs odd corners of Shoreline, says that "There used to be one of these sirens at the entrance road to Hamlin Park on NE 160th St. It would sound off very loudly every Wednesday at noon."



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American Legion will hear from author Denise Frisino at Mar 5 meeting

Sunday, February 24, 2019

The American Legion Post 227 in Shoreline will hold their monthly meeting on Tuesday evening, March 5, 2019. A meet and greet starts at 6:30 pm and the program starts at 7:00 pm. Both veterans and the public at large are invited & welcome to attend.

The meeting will be held at Post 227, located at 14521 17th Ave NE, Shoreline 98155. [Behind Goodwill @ NE 145th St and 15th Ave NE]

Local award-winning author, teacher, actress, director and producer Denise Frisino interviewed men and women from the WWII era and many local veterans in preparation for writing her historical fiction book, Orchids of War.

Books by Denise Frisino
She will speak on the sophisticated spy network the Japanese military established before WWII along the U.S. West Coast from Alaska to Mexico and across to Hawaii. 

She continues to interview and is writing a sequel book, Storms Across a Clear Sky. There will be an opportunity to ask questions after the presentation. 

Her Orchids of War book, which she will sign, will be available at a military discount.

A brief intermission for refreshments and time with the author after the talk will allow visitors to depart. Post 227 members are urged to stay for the post meeting that will follow the intermission. We hope to see you at the meeting.

While you are at the meeting, you can check out the Post Library that includes a large collection of military related books, video tapes and DVDs. Any of these can be checked out, used and returned by post members and community without charge.



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