History

Read more about the article Historic Wallingford virtual meeting on historic district Tuesday

Historic Wallingford virtual meeting on historic district Tuesday

Historic Wallingford is hosting a public meeting to discuss the development of a National Register of Historic Places residential historic district nomination and the use of historical census data. The meeting will be held at 7 pm on Tuesday, October 12, 2021, via Zoom. Join the meeting by registering at this link or by going to the Historic Wallingford website. The historic district effort builds on a 2019 feasibility study. It is led by a grassroots volunteer team guided by preservation consultants Northwest Vernacular. The purpose…

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Read more about the article Celebrate the original “Brexit” at Gas Works this Monday

Celebrate the original “Brexit” at Gas Works this Monday

Unlike Brexit, things moved swiftly following the vote for Independence on July 2, 1776, formalized by the adoption of the Declaration of Independence just two days later. The Founding Fathers were so pleased with themselves that John Adams foretold of celebrations for generations to come that would include “Pomp and Parade…Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other". But because Adams believed the holiday should be occur on July 2, he was known to turn down invitations…

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Aurora Tour

Aurora Avenue North: vile but vital, yes? Whether you love it or hate it, Aurora still supasses, in my opinion, that lousy stretch of I-5 from downtown to Mountlake Terrace, in terms of efficiency. If you're a history buff and you'd like to learn a little about Aurora's humble beginnings this Saturday, take a look at the following walking tour, offered through the Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI). A little north, but...Aurora! Aurora: Life on Seattle's Mother Road Thousands of…

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See ‘Now and Then’ at MOHAI free on Tuesday

Our favorite neighborhood historian, Paul Dorpat, wrote to tell us that the "Now and Then" repeat photography exhibit at the Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI) is winding down and will close when the museum closes its McCurdy Park location in Montlake in June. If you haven't gone to it yet, you've got an opportunity to see it for free on Tuesday evening (April 24) from 5:30PM to 8:30PM.   The "Now and Then" exhibit features Paul's time lapse videos he took…

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Happy Birthday, Wallingford!

According to HistoryLink.org, exactly 142 years ago today (June 3, 1869), Philip Ritz purchased 80 acres of land from the federal government for a mere $1.25 per acre. His purchase stretched from what we know today as Woodlawn Avenue N. to Meridian Avenue N. and from N. 40th to N. 45th Streets. A year later, Dexter Horton bought 160 acres adjacent to Ritz's land, which is now N. 42nd to 57th Street, and from Meridian all the way to 5th Avenue…

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Fisticuff Follow-up

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In response to Paul Dorpat's Wallingford Fisticuffs post, a flashback to a 1952 high school brawl here in Wallingford, Adam asked "Do you know where, exactly, on 42nd or Woodlawn that fisticuffs photo was taken?" Adam guessed "on 42nd looking south at the house on the southeast corner of 42nd and Ashworth." (See map of his guess) Paul and John did their own research on this. "I took John to the scene of the fight," Paul said, "which I had discovered…

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1912 Baist Map of Wallingford (and Seattle)

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Paul Dorpat, Wallingford's official unofficial historian is at it again. This time, he worked with Ron Edge to scan in a huge map of Seattle from 1912, breaking it down into individual PDFs for careful viewing. What's amazing to us is how much the basic layout and grid of the city was already well established by that time (we'd always thought of Seattle as "newer" than that), but it's also fun to see how street names and such have changed. Take…

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