Heritage Highlights

The fallout from a washout, ca 1920, Matt Hansen/Teresa Vollan Collection, SHM

Miriam Roger's sister plays with the dog in front of the Roger's new store at 185th and Aurora in 1911.

Well, this could almost be classified as a trick question because the location of the Rogers store was actually revealed in last year’s February trivia question answer (scroll below to find a third image and explanation!)   In the 1911 photo,  amazingly, the street that would become Highway 99′s Aurora  Avenue North is in the foreground, and the semi-cleared path to the left would become Firlands Way.   North 185th Street is a wagon trail, unseen in this image.   But what a difference a year makes!  The 1912 photo tells a very different story.  The North Trunk Road, as Highway 99 was originally called, was graded in 1912, and paved with bricks in 1913.   We see the nice dirt road, with plumb lines barely showing in the foreground,  being readied for paving.   The Rogers store was a going concern at this location until about 1928.  The official Highway 99 was cut straight through, abandoning the jagged little Firlands Way piece for a more direct route northward.  The store building, which stood right in the center of the new road, was demolished, but the business moved to Firlands Way.

Earl Rogers added a post office on the left (west) side of the building shortly after this photo was taken. Firlands Way zig-zags north, past the Biles home and the Steinberger residence, far in the background.

The McArthurs' 1918 store was only the second store in the area to serve Lake Forest Park residents.

Today's "Whizz Kids Academy" on Ballinger Way NE was built as a "mom and pop" general store in 1930.

Ah, the Golden Point Drive In  - how we wish we’d known you!   Here you see more of right side of the photo which includes the address, snapped by the King County Assessor.

Golden Point - Best Hamburgers west of the Mississippi?

The photo was taken on a rainy September 14, 1960 day, shortly after the establishment opened.  The building was located at 17525 Aurora Ave. N. , today the address of the Shoreline Fire Department.   But does anyone remember a similar building at the “old”  (20 years ago) Olson Chevrolet?  Could it have been adaptive reuse, or just a coincidence that they looked so similar…?  We’ve been told that there was another Golden Point down the hill, at 8th NW and Richmond Beach Road.  Anyone else remember that one too?   Alas, we have no picture to share of the second building, yet!

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Answer to our April 28, 2012 Heritage Trivia Question:

 John Franklin Miller, (June 9, 1862 – May 28, 1936), was born in 1862 near South Bend, Indiana.  He studied law at Valparaiso University in Indiana and was admitted to the bar in 1887.  Miller moved to Seattle in 1888 and began practicing law.   He served as King County prosecuting attorney from 1890 to 1894 and as deputy prosecuting attorney from 1905 to 1908.  In 1908 he bcame Mayor of Seattle, and served one term to 1910.  He was a contemporary of other important Seattle boosters such as James T. Ronald, Richard Ballinger and Ole Hanson, all of whom also served as mayor of Seattle, and also had connections to northwest unincorporated King County.  Miller’s connections to “the North End” came

John F. Miller, Mayor of Seattle, 1908 - 1910

through his work to establish Sandpoint, and of course after his death, when he was interred at the Acacia Mausoleum.

The Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, a world’s fair held on the University of Washington campus in 1909, occurred during his term as mayor. In 1916, Miller ran for Congress, focusing his campaign on issues of military development and expansion.   He was a member of Congress from 1917 to 1931, serving on the House Naval Affairs Committee. He was part of a delegation that visited American troops in Europe in 1919.   The Bremerton Naval shipyards, Sandpoint and the Keyport torpedo station are direct results of Miller’s work in Congress to make the Pacific Northwest a center of Naval activity.   Following his 1932 re-election defeat, Miller returned to the practice of law. He died in Seattle in 1936.

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Answer to our April 20th, 2012  Heritage Trivia Question:

A tragic incident occurred on April 21, 1962, at the opening of the Worlds Fair, and it happened in the Ballinger Neighborhood of Shoreline. 

A disabled F-102 Air Force fighter jet and a populated community mixed in a recipe for disaster when the jet, which had been flying over the crowds in an air show at opening day of Century 21, crashed near 24^th Avenue NE and NE 203^rd Street in Shoreline on April 21, 1962.
Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Smith, of  20201 – 24^th NE, were killed and their home was obliterated. 

The home of the Retka family, at 20044 – 24^th Ave NE, was also annihilated. They were fortunately on vacation.

 Also damaged were the houses at: 20036 – 24^th NE, belonging to Mr. and Mrs. Jerry Andrews, who were not injured; 20211 24^th NE, owned by the Robert Jinneman family, all six of whom escaped unharmed;  and 20041 – 24^th NE, Mr. and Mrs. Fred Haines, also unhurt.

For more of the story, and a local view of the Fair, visit the Shoreline Historical Museum and see “The Summer of ’62:  We Remember Century 21″ an exhibit running now through October.

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 The Shoreline Heritage E-News Special Heritage Highlights of March 2012 asks the impossible:  “Where was this photo taken?”  The answer:  The men are facing southwest, in the yard of the Robinson’s farm, where the Robinsons had a horse-rental business (so we’ve been told.)  The farm stood at the northeast corner, more or less, of 200th and Aurora Ave. N.  You would be standing with your back toward 200th, facing the horses and the house.  Today, you’d be facing the back of Costco.  Did you get it right?!

Robinson Farm, ca 1925 at the site of today's Shoreline Costco

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The Shoreline Heritage E-News Heritage Highlights of February 2012 asks:  “Where would you be standing today if you were taking this photo, and which direction would you be looking in?” The answer:  You’d be standing at about 180th (or slightly north of that street,)  and Aurora, on the west side, and you’d be looking north, toward 185th.  In the photo, you see the Rogers store in the distance, and the store appears to be right in the middle of the road.   From 1912 to a few years after the time this photo was taken, the road went to the front door of the little store, and then veered off to the northwest,  taking the traveler within a block or so of the Firland TB Sanitorium – eventually this little section of the North Trunk Road actually came to be known as “Firland’s Way.”   But then, in the late 1920′s, the North Trunk Road became Highway 99 (as well as Aurora Avenue) and the road was widened and continued in a more direct fashion, straight through and past Echo Lake.  The Roger’s store, as well as Haines Garage, seen here off to the right, ceased to exist.   Haines garage, also served as the Interurban stop, as did the Richfield gas station that came later to that southeast corner of 185th and Aurora.   Did you get it right?!

Looking north on the North Trunk Road from about 180th. The sign says "Richmond Higlands - A good place to live."

The Shoreline Heritage E-News Heritage Highlights of July 2011:  “Where was this photo taken?”