Site Report #3: Audio Tour by Loren Pickard
It is exciting to look back at the past 100+ years and see just how much change can occur in a relatively small amount of time. As I mentioned in my pervious post, before UW moved to the area in the late 1800’s, my block, and the U District was filled with trees and a small settlement near the water to give access to miners and those who worked to transport wood. I then found a map of 1909 where there was complete development of my block and found evidence to support the idea that UW was the main reason for this growth. While this is true, in doing further research I found more maps that contradicted the idea that UW was the sole reason for expansion. On the right, you will see a map of 1905 from Baist's Real Estate Atlas Survey and a 1909 map from US Geological Survey. In the 1905 map it creates questions that I thought had already been answered, since my block still remained undeveloped at the time, when I previously assumed it had been developed by then. All the development on my block did not happen right as the university moved in in 1895, so what prompted the development after 1905 (USGS Survey? The Seattle Department for Neighborhoods illustrated that more expansion had to be done, and more housing and infrastructure had to be created to hold tourists coming in for the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, which was essentially Seattle’s first World’s fair (Tobin, 18). Many hotels and commercial structures were built to serve visitors to the fair, most of which was done in 1907, explaining the gap in development I saw in my maps and giving insight into a key economic event that effected my blocks development.
In finding the 1905 map from Baist's Real Estate Atlas of Survey, I was surprised to find the name of the man who owned the land my block was situated on. His name was Fred Nolte, and using Washington Digital Archives I was able to track down the census from the time he was alive and learn that he was a coal miner who immigrated from Germany in 1871, at just 19 years old. He married Marie Nolte and they had 7 children together during the time of the 1900 census (King County Census). 10 years later in the 1910 census, it shows Marie as a widow, so I did more research. In an old Seattle Times archive I found a blurb informing me that Fred died in 1907. His death may have been what prompted Marie to sell the land for development for the fair.
Fast forward a few years and I was able to find more information on one of the most interesting places on my block. On the corner of 50th and Roosevelt, you will find the Seven Gables Theatre. You can stop by here to watch independent and foreign language films, but if you had stopped by this location a little over 90 years ago, it would have been a completely different scene. This building was originally built in 1925 as a dance hall for the American Legion (Pacific Coast Architechture Database). The American Legion is patriotic veteran’s organization focused on serving veterans and their communities. So you can only imagine the stories that filled this building in the 1900’s. Veterans and their loved ones would come here to socialize and interact with their community all while dancing their sorrows away. I love that the theme of culture stayed with the property as it was later turned into the Seven Gables Theatre in 1978. From the time it was built, this structure has served as a place for community to come together and share in their favorite cultural pastimes, whether that is dancing or film or something else. One can only hope that this tradition will stay with the property if it ever changes owners in the future.