All about the West Seattle neighborhood around Beach Drive
This Saturday, the home with the lovely rose garden at 61st and Beach Drive is allowing you to dig up their roses from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm for a suggested donation of $10. It is suggested that you bring your own shovel, pick, pruners and buckets.
This event is sponsored by the Mary-Martha Bible Study Circle of Hope Lutheran Church.
For more information, visit the West Seattle Blog.
If you lived around Beach Drive SW in the 50’s & 60’s, one of these children’s book characters may have been modeled after you!
As it turns out, a famous author named Elizabeth Rider Montgomery lived in this home located in the 4800 block of Beach Drive SW.
The address has changed around a little but this is where Elizabeth wrote/collaborated on many of her books.
Moved onto Beach Drive with her husband Norman in 1/8/49
Moved out with second husband on 12/14/1972 (ok, my title insurance background is rearing it’s head again)
Among many other publications to her name, Elizabeth co-authored on several of the iconic Dick and Jane book series. The first coming in 1940…
Ms Montgomery landed a staff writer position with the Scott Foresman Company and published 14 more books as well as a series entitled Heath for All between 1940-1965.
A more complete bio of the author and her life’s work can be found at this site published by Western Washington University where she enrolled in 1925 when it was then called Washington Normal School. The West Seattle Herald also published an excellent story about her in December of 1969.
She passed in 1985 and is buried next to her husband in Poulsbo’s city cemetery.
It just goes to show you, it’s good to know…
Book #4 of her Health for All series
Special Note: The long time current resident of this home informed me that she purchased the home back 1987 from the, at the time, manager of famous Seattle area rock group Queensryche! He also played a key role (founder) in opening Easy Street Records at the “Junction”.
Scupper, reporting for Beach Drive Blog
I've read about the trout pond once located on the old Schmitz estate (formally named Sans Souci), but have never been able to pinpoint exactly where it sat. A cool sketch of San Souci's grounds as depicted by the great niece of the West Seattle pioneers Emma and Ferdinand shows a number of landmarks but no specific mention of the "trout pond"
Note a "small pond" drawn in on the right. The trout pond?
It was time to leash up the dog and sniff this thing out. The Blue Spruce tree was the first landmark we found…
Love the early century concrete work!
Then it was off to find where the waterfall was located. Figured that the trout pond could be somewhere down slope from it.
Appears to be original stone-work for the water feature.
My guess is that the well stocked pond was located further down the hill near Beach Drive itself. The Parks Department just cleared out some diseased trees and brush (in effort to help the recent restoration project ) and may have uncovered the location.
On a hot August day, you can almost smell the fish!
There's even a concrete pad that once was a site for a bench of some sorts.
The bench site looks somewhat new but the Schmitz estate didn't come down 'til the late 60's.
This aerial photo from 1968 clearly shows where the 1907 circa 17 room mansion was excavated as well as the extensive gardens. But no sign of the famous trout pond.
All the gardens were said to be watered naturally from "Spring Hill"
Here's an archived pic named Sans Souci that shows standing water near whats looks to be the shoreline. Is it the pond?
Alan Schmitz, grandson of Emma and Ferdinand, holding a photo of the historic mansion that once occupied the hillside of what is now Mee-Kwa-Mooks park.
Again, no clue as to the whereabouts of the trout pond.
So that's the end of my quest to find the ghost fishing hole of Mee-Kwa-Mooks. If anyone out there actually knows where it existed, please share!
Scupper Sr. for Beach Drive Blog
It's great to see one of our favorite old buildings on Beach Drive coming back to life as a small business again! My wife and I ran into a couple of friendly guys moving stuff into this iconic location as we were taking a stroll north along the Drive. Being nosey bloggers that we are, we had to ask what was up?
A gentleman named Norm told me that he was planning to run his law practice out of the front of the space and use the back as a residence. He also told us he will do everything he can to keep the character of the circa 1928, 1610 sq ft space and was shooting for May 1st to be open for biz.
Norm was gracious enough to let me take a few pics of the inside and around back of the historic building which can be viewed here.
Want to know some history about the place? I knew you did!
An excerpt from Memories of Southwest Seattle Businesses describes the establishment at the northwest corner of Beach Drive SW and Carroll Street from the vantage point of what is now LaRustica Restaurant…
"Diagonally across the street at the northend of Weather Watch park, is another small storefront building. In the 50's it was a beverage store. They sold beer and wine and mixers, but no hard liquor. My friend Claudia Hickerson Moter lived there with her parents, Lyle and Juddy Hickerson. Lyle was seattle fireman stationed in North Admiral, and Juddy ran the store. The big street-side room was the store, with their living quarters at the back and below."
This archive photo from the King County Assessor's Office shows the apartments next door (prior to current brick siding) with another small store-front at street level.
As you can see from this Seattle zoning map from 1923, this particular intersection of Beach Drive was full of small businesses in "the day"…
The checkered section of this 1923 zoning map signifies "Business District" while the stripes stand for "Second Residences".
Hmmm, Law office or Beer & Wine store? Law Office or Beer & Wine store? Oh well, either way…welcome to Beach Drive Norm!
Scupper reporting for Beach Drive Blog
Beach Drive was temporarily closed at the 3800 block of Beach Drive from an apparent car fire that took place in the garage of a condo.
When we arrived at the scene, the building was being aired out and residents were waiting for the okay to return to their homes.
Happy 100th birthday wishes go out to four homes spread out along the Beach Drive strip. Here they are in all their vintage glory from south of Lowman Beach to north of Mee-Kwa-Mooks…
While all these homes are reported to have been built sometime in 1912, King County records may not exactly be the end-all in accuracy. Case in point comes from a fabulous publication "Celebrating 150 Years, Architectural History of West Seattle's North End" (which the owners of the most senior abode of the entire drive graciously lent to me). The assessor's office reports their 4701 Beach Drive home to have been born in 1900 yet research gathered for the book states…
Originally part of a 140-acre tract of land homesteaded during the 1860's by Leonard Oulet and his brother George, who were loggers, two structures at this location were mentioned in the Homestead Certificate from October 1869.
King county records listed several other homes with birthdays prior to 1912. Here's belated birthday wishes to two homes built in 1904, one in 1906, two in 1908, one in 1909, and seven uh… make that six still hanging around from 1910…
Note: There are great houses in the neighborhoods just off the main drag as well. If you are the owner of a 1912 beauty, let us know. You just may find a Beach Drive Blog Gnome sitting somewhere in your front yard!
Scupper, reporting for BDB
Every now and then we run into people that remember a great little restaurant located just down the street on Beach Drive and Jacobsen. I've always wondered what the house looked like back in it's "eatery" days but haven't been able to locate any photos… until now! These pics were recently scanned by the Seattle Municipal Archives Photograph Collection from a folder containing an appealed variance application back in 1961.
props to Seattle Municipal Archives #76903
Seattle Municipal Archive Photo #76902
Seattle Municipal Archive Photo #76904
If you'd like to learn a little more history about this quaint 12 table restaurant, West Seattle Blog posted a fabulous article along with reader's memories of the restaurant's owner/chef that had recently passed away. I also hear that Quesnel's is mentioned in the book Memories of Southwest Businesses that can be found at the Log House Museum off of Alki.
My next quest for photos is to get some choice shots of Sans Souci, the old Schmitz mansion that used to adourn what is now Mee-Kwa-Mooks. If you have any leads on photos, please share!
Scupper, for Beach Drive Blog
Anyone lend these guys a big can of Raid?
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