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Category: Fremont People

Sidney Elder’s Orchard Addition

Posted on by Valarie

The notation of “S.S. Elder’s Orchard Addition” on property photos indicates that the building is in a two-block area along North 42nd Street between Woodland Park Avenue to Stone Way. One of the buildings, on the southwest corner of 42nd & Stone Way, is the original Coast Carton Company at 4133 Stone Way.

Mr. Elder arrived just after the Great Seattle Fire of June 6, 1889, and he first lived on Jackson Street near the G.O. Guy Drugstore where he worked. By 1890 he was in Fremont and had become the pharmacist at Fremont Drugstore, 3401 Fremont Avenue.

Mr. Elder became a community booster and founded a reading room, forerunner of the Fremont Branch Library.

Mr. Elder seemed to want to keep moving and expanding his business interests. After more than twelve years in the Fremont Drugstore he left the business to become a real estate dealer. In 1906 he filed a plat map, divided into house lots, on land he owned on North 42nd Street. He & his wife Lillian moved to a house they built within the plat, at 1115 North 42nd Street (southwest corner of Midvale Avenue).

We don’t know whether there really was an orchard at Sidney Elder’s Orchard Addition, but there might have been. It wasn’t unusual for people to plant trees on a site where they hoped to eventually build a house, so that the trees would have time to grow. Mr. Elder would also have known that trees, especially those which were ready to bear fruit, would enhance the land value for prospective buyers.

The Ross and Fremont Post Offices

Posted on by Valarie

Some Seattle-area neighborhoods, like Bothell, were named for early settlers.  With the arrival of the Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern Railroad in 1887, a railway station could give its name to the neighborhood. 

Just north of Seattle’s Queen Anne hill, the Ross family had land claims on both sides of a stream called The Outlet, which flowed from Lake Union westward out to Puget Sound.  The Ross family gave permission for the new railroad to come across their property and the railroad planners named a station in their honor.  This caused the area to acquire “Ross” as a place name. 

Ross was to the west of Fremont, bordered by 3rd Ave NW, and it included land on the south side of today’s ship canal.  The earliest listings of “Seattle Seminary” (today’s Seattle Pacific University) in the City Directory of the 1890s gave its location as “Ross.”  This also had to do with an actual post office for Ross, so that people could list it as their address.  

The Ross Post Office opens in 1888 

The coming of the SLS&E Railroad gave rise to more commercial development wherever a railway station was built.  There was a general store and a Ross Post Office which opened on July 30, 1888, at 318 Ewing Street, on the south side of The Outlet. Today that address is on the west side of a canalside pocket park, near the present King County Wastewater building. 

The first postmaster of Ross was Alfred J. Villars who had been born in 1843 in Clinton County, Ohio, and had served in the Union Army during the Civil War.  As typical of many Civil War veterans, Alfred Villars married in 1865 after the war, and then the couple gradually moved westward across the USA.  In 1888 Alfred & Harriet were listed in the Seattle City Directory as living in Ross where Alfred was postmaster.  We know, however, that Harriet might have been the “default postmaster” because Alfred had another job.  Perhaps this arrangement was not satisfactory, as another postmaster took over by the end of 1888.

Alfred Villars was a “title abstractor,” someone who researches property ownership so that sales of land can proceed without legal hang-ups.  A title search ensures that there are no outstanding “encumbrances” such as liens against the property.  This work would have meant that Alfred spent most of his time in the King County courthouse in downtown Seattle where records where kept.  

In 1897 the Villars moved away from Ross when Alfred got a job at the downtown Seattle Public Library, where he worked for the next 23 years in the library’s “newspaper room.”  In those days before radio, TV and the Internet, newspapers were vital sources of information.  Newspapers were made available at the Seattle Public Library so that people could read them without a subscription.  

The Ross Post Office closed in 1901.  In 1902 the building at 318 Ewing was referred to as Old Post Office, in a list of polling places for elections. 

Growth of Fremont outstrips Ross 

Although both communities had a railroad stop, in the summer of 1888 the growth of Ross was eclipsed by that of Fremont.  Fremont’s developers set up a lumber mill to help provide for housebuilding, and they advertised that the first hundred people to come to Fremont could buy a house lot for $1.  Fremont, centered around today’s North 34th Street & Fremont Avenue where there was already a bridge across The Outlet, soon boomed with commercial and industrial growth.  In contrast with Ross which was not a planned community, Fremont had developers who planned and organized for growth, including promotion of Fremont in real estate ads in the newspaper.  

The Fremont Post Office opens in 1890   

Fremont’s post office opened on March 25, 1890.  Like the Ross Post Office, at first it operated out of a home on the south side of the existing Fremont Bridge, probably to get clear of the frenzy of building and lumber mill work on the north side of the bridge. 

The first postmaster of Fremont was Thomas C. Ralston, someone who had only arrived in Seattle in 1888.  He joined those going to Fremont for jobs in that first year of the community.  Though he obtained the job of postmaster, it is likely that his wife Ida was the one who was doing that work from their home, while Thomas worked at the lumber mill in Fremont. 

Death of the postmaster

Thomas Ralston’s term as Fremont postmaster was brief.  At age 37 on August 11, 1892, Thomas received a fatal injury while he was unloading logs from rail cars, using a chute to let the logs slide down into the water, at the site of the Fremont lumber mill.  The King County Death Register recorded that Thomas had been struck by a log so that he had an internal hemorrhage (bleeding). 

A Ralston family letter of August 23, 1892, tells that they had heard from Sylvester “Sil” Ralston, brother of Thomas, what had happened to Tom: 
“. . .You ask me if I had heard any more from Sil and if Tom was in Washington yet. Poor man. He is there but under the sod. He was killed the 11th day of this month while unloading logs out of rail cars into the lake. He had unloaded one car… the logs begun to roll down the chute and one of them struck him in the breast and knocked him into the water. There was but one man there with him. He was a car repairer. He got Tom out on the bank and asked him if he was badly hurt and if he should go to get some help.  Tom said, I’ll be all right in a minute. The man soon asked him again and Tom made the same reply, but he then closed his eyes in unconsciousness.  The man laid Tom back on the ground and went for help.  

They took Tom home. The doctor said several ribs were broken, and Tom soon breathed his last. They put a subscription in circulation and realized $102.25. It took $75.00 to pay funeral expenses and the rest was given to his wife Ida. They had a petition going around asking that she be appointed postmistress in his place. It was being signed wherever it went.”     

For the next year and a half, Ida Ralston was listed as postmistress at Fremont but it is likely that there was not enough income for her to support her family.  She was now a widow with four daughters under nine years of age.  In 1894 Ida moved to downtown Seattle where she successfully ran a lodging house. 

Neighborhood names 

At times when there were gaps of service of postmasters, mail for Fremont was directed to the post office of a neighboring community such as Ross or Edgewater.  There was no home delivery of mail; people had to go to the post office to pick up letters.  Newspapers often ran lists of names of people to let them know a letter was waiting for them.   

Edgewater’s post office opened on May 20, 1889. The postmaster was William Ashworth who lived at the present site of the North Transfer Station, on North 34th Street just east of Stone Way.  Like Ross, Edgewater was a railroad stop and a name for a community.  These names didn’t “stick.” Today the former Ross area is referred to as North Queen Anne.  The ship canal, completed in 1917, changed the landscape so that Fremont was defined as on the north side of the canal only. 

The community names of Edgewater and Latona faded away as the name Wallingford gained in common use. Today Stone Way is considered to be the boundary between Fremont and Wallingford.  Now the closest post office which serves the Fremont area is in Wallingford on North 47th Street just east of Stone Way. 

Sources: 

Fremont in Seattle: Street Names and Neighborhood Boundaries.

HistoryLink Essay #494, “Ross Post Office opens on July 30, 1888”, by Greg Lange, 1998.

HistoryLink Essay #508, “Fremont Post Office opens on March 25, 1890”, by Greg Lange, 1998.

Ross School in Fremont.

Street names lookup list: Seattle historian Rob Ketcherside has listed old and new street names in a search table. Most of the street names in Fremont were changed over time. Fremont Avenue, for example, was once called Lake. It was changed because more than one neighborhood was using that name. Beginning in 1895 the City of Seattle tried to rename streets for clarity and so that there would not be duplicate names.

A Tribute to Judie

Posted on by Valarie

We all need encouragers in our lives, someone to talk with, work with and pray with!  Judie Clarridge, who died on June 27, 2025, was an encourager of many, and an enormous influence in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle.   

Judie’s Christian faith-based life led her to serve in many aspects of the Fremont community, where she used her influence for good.  Judie was an active member of Fremont Baptist Church and of local organizations including the Fremont Neighborhood Council, the P-Patch community garden, the food bank and the Fremont Historical Society. 

Judie was born in Maryland to parents who were academically oriented.  Her father worked as a scientific aide in the Department of Agriculture in the federal government.  Judie attended college at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., where she met her husband, David Clarridge.  They married in 1967 and moved to Seattle in 1969 because of David’s military service.  David went on to get an accounting degree from the University of Washington in Seattle. 

At the time of David Clarridge’s death from cancer in 2007, the couple were well-involved in community projects.  Judie was able to see through to the completion of a project David had started, the preservation of a lot on their block in Fremont, for a City-owned community garden called the Hazel Heights P-Patch. 

My involvement with Judie began when I joined the Fremont Historical Society in 2008.  While researching the Klondike Gold Rush and its impact upon Seattle, I discovered that David & Judie were the authors of a book I found at the Seattle Public Library called A Ton of Gold, published in 1972.  When I asked Judie how it was that she & her husband wrote this book, Judie replied with a smile, that the book’s origins were as an “out-of-control research project!”  At Judie’s reply, we both collapsed in giggles because this reference to out-of-control projects was an inside joke between Judie and me. 

In our Fremont historical research Judie and I sometimes started out looking for one thing and ended up finding something else.  One of the best times was our participation in the centennial celebration of Seattle’s ship canal in 2016-2017.   

We started out to research the involvement of Fremont community members in the ship canal’s beginnings in 1916-1917.  In the process, we discovered the story of a Fremont resident who went to the Klondike and whose exploits are documented in historic museums of the Klondike today.  This was one of the best of our “out of control” research projects for the Fremont Historical Society.  Our 2016-2017 explorations from Seattle to the Klondike were a fitting full-circle moment to the research Judie had done with her husband for a book in 1972. 

Judie was chairperson of the Fremont Historical Society for about ten years.  She spent hours patiently listening to me babble excitedly about my many other wandering research quests, and her encouragement kept me going.  Her influence was much treasured and will be much missed. 

Fremont’s Pocket Desert

Posted on by Valarie

In Fremont, our neighborhood known for its eccentricity, a small mystery has been hiding in plain sight. The Fremont Neighbor blog has written the following inquiry:

“On the grounds of what is now the Fremont Foundry event venue, 154 North 35th Street, sits a modest postcard-sized plaque reading simply “Fremont Pocket Desert.” No one seems to know its origin story.

The plaque’s location is particularly intriguing given the property’s colorful history. This is where sculptor Peter Bevis, the same visionary who brought us the Lenin statue, once pursued his dream of creating an artists’ community.

Bevis, who died in 2015, was a passionate sculptor who used money earned from commercial fishing in Alaska to slowly build the Fremont Fine Arts Foundry starting in 1979. By 1987, the nearly 22,000-square-foot building housed 11 live-in spaces where artists could work. Back then, Fremont called itself an “Artists’ Republic,” and Bevis believed he could create a true artistic mecca.

But like many of Bevis’ ambitious projects, including his doomed quest to save the art deco ferry Kalakala, the artists’ community eventually faded. By 2012, as tech companies moved into Fremont and the neighborhood’s bohemian character shifted, Bevis sold the foundry for $2.1 million. Currently the building serves as an upscale event venue.

So where does the “Fremont Pocket Desert” plaque fit into this story? Was it one of Bevis’ artistic statements? A remnant from the building’s days as a working foundry? An inside joke among the artists who once lived there?

The plaque’s cryptic message feels entirely in keeping with both Bevis’ unconventional spirit and Fremont’s tradition of playful installations.”

Do you know the story behind Fremont’s “Pocket Desert” plaque? If you have any information about this small but intriguing piece of Fremont history, please reach out to the Fremont Neighbor blog: Home – Fremont Neighbor

Bleitz Funeral Home, 316 Florentia Street

Posted on by Valarie

The Lake Washington Ship Canal was completed in 1917 and the former small stream flowing westward past Fremont, was widened and deepened for the passage of larger vessels. Before that time there had been a much smaller channel and a bridge, and areas on the south side of the bridge were still considered part of Fremont. The new, wide channel caused a demarcation so that today, the south side of the Fremont Bridge is considered to be in the Queen Anne neighborhood.

In 1904 an ambitious young man, Jacob Bleitz, came to Seattle to set up his funeral home business. He had attended the Chicago College of Embalming in 1900, then set up business in Wichita, Kansas, for a time.

In Seattle, Jacob Bleitz gravitated to the Fremont neighborhood where he joined the Masonic group, the Doric Lodge. He accessed his business contacts there and opened his funeral home business in Fremont in 1906. Bleitz seemed to want to keep developing for better facilities. He moved to another intersection in Fremont and then, in 1921, he built his own building on the south side of the Fremont Bridge, at Florentia Street. The Bleitz building is today very visible in its location right next to the bridge.

Changes in cultural expectations of funeral services, such as a greater emphasis on cremation, have caused a decline in the number of mortuary facilities in Seattle. After the Bleitz business closed and the building was sold, a developer applied to tear it down and build a new office building there. This plan was stopped in part, by the historic landmarking of the building in 2017, under the City of Seattle Historic Preservation Program.

The Bleitz building was then sold to another developer who was willing to work with the historic preservation program. Permission was granted to demolish a “non-contributing” structure, a drive-up, on the west side of the building as it was not original. The western side of the property was available for a new building. The new building is joined to the Bleitz by a courtyard and the property has been renamed Fremont Crossing.

Sources:

Bleitz history:  company photos in the Now and Then column of June 16, 2022.

Historic Landmark Nomination, Bleitz Funeral Home, March 1, 2017, Seattle Landmarks Board.

South of the Bridge in Fremont, blog article about the Bleitz and other developments.

B. F. Day Elementary School, 3921 Linden Avenue North in Fremont, Seattle

Posted on by Valarie

The Fremont neighborhood was opened for settlement in 1888 and its early residents were very active in organizing their community. Since Fremont was not yet within the Seattle City Limits, there was no school district oversight so some community members, such as the Goddard family, taught groups of children in homes.

The neighborhood grew rapidly. After Fremont was annexed to the City of Seattle in June 1891, the Seattle School District rented a community hall to be used for classes.

Fremont resident B.F. Day was a real estate salesman who knew that the availability of a school would attract homebuyers. Mr. & Mrs. Day donated land that they owned in the 3900 block of Linden Avenue for the site of the school. On May 2, 1892, four rooms had been completed in the new building which went on to have eight rooms. The population of Fremont grew so rapidly that by 1899 enrollment exceeded capacity. The students at B.F. Day were sent to temporary locations while another eight rooms were added to the school building. Another addition was made in 1915.

B.F. Day Elementary School is the longest continuously-operating school building in Seattle. The building was given “landmark” status in 1981 under Seattle’s Historical Preservation program. In another sense, the school building certainly does serve as a “landmark” in old photos as the roofline is visible on one of the highest elevations in the neighborhood.

Sources:

Seattle’s Pioneers of Fremont: B.F. Day. (Blog article)

People of the Ship Canal: A.J. Goddard, Businessman and Legislator (Blog article)

Fremont Historic Resources Survey – Context Statement by Caroline Tobin, January 2010.   City of Seattle Historic Preservation.

The Fremont Branch Library at 731 North 35th Street

Posted on by Valarie

The Fremont neighborhood is the site of many “firsts” in Seattle, and it was the first to have a branch library.

In the 1890s there was only one public library in Seattle, located downtown. Residents of the growing Fremont neighborhood set up a reading room with privately donated books and newspapers where anyone could come to sit and read. A Seattle Daily Times article of January 1900 told of the formation of a library committee headed by Sidney Elder, a pharmacist at Fremont Drug Company, 3401 Fremont Avenue. The committee included other businessmen and their wives, who organized a community fund drive to buy books.

The Fremont Reading Room moved several times until the community petitioned the Seattle library system to build a branch library in Fremont. Philanthropist Andrew Carnegie provided funds for the building itself. Another community fund drive and funds from the City of Seattle were used to purchase the land and add Fremont to the Seattle library system.

Architect Daniel R. Huntington received the commission to design the Fremont Branch Library building, which opened on July 27, 1921. The building’s architectural style is Mission Revival/Spanish, with red clay roof tiles, stucco walls and ornamental black ironwork on windows, railings and front gates.

In 2003 the Fremont Branch Library was “landmarked” as a significant structure worthy of historic preservation, under the City of Seattle’s Historic Preservation program.

Sources:

“Fremont Branch, Seattle Public Library.” HistoryLink Essay #3967 by David Wilma, 2002.

Fremont Drug Company in Seattle: Part One, Beginnings.” This blog article tells about an early business in Fremont and the active community members who helped organize Fremont’s reading room.

The Fremont Hotel Building, 3419 Fremont Avenue North

Posted on by Valarie

The Great Seattle Fire of June 6, 1889 made news headlines all over the USA and drew opportunity-seekers to Seattle. Skilled workers such as carpenters knew that they would have a good chance of finding employment in the rebuilding of the city. Others, including teachers, attorneys, bankers and businessmen also sought opportunities in the rebuilding of Seattle.

A young man, Charles Remsberg, came to Seattle in 1889 and settled in the newly created suburb of Fremont where he found a place as an active community member. He studied to earn a law degree and was elected Justice of the Peace in Fremont, so that ever after, he was referred to as Judge Remsberg.

Judge Remsberg became a business investor in Fremont real estate. In 1901 he built in the 3400 block on the west side of Fremont Avenue. The building had storefronts at the sidewalk level and some office spaces on the second floor, which also contained the Fremont Hotel. In June 1903 a fire started, possibly in the chimney flue of one of the businesses. The fire destroyed much of the building and Judge Remsberg determined to re-build with more fire-resistant materials. Remsberg’s next venture was as founder of a bank across the street at 3416 Fremont Ave, with business partner Samuel Dixon. The Remsberg & Dixon Bank also sold fire insurance.

In 1911 a new street, Fremont Place, was cut through on the diagonal at the corner of 35th, giving more space for traffic to and from Fremont Avenue’s approach to the Fremont Bridge. Judge Remsberg’s corner Fremont Hotel building was slightly sheared off by the creation of the street, so he commissioned architects to adapt the building to the remaining land. This created the curved facade of the Fremont Hotel building, very eye-catching at this prominent intersection. A prefabricated building material, rusticated concrete blocks, also made the building stand out from its surroundings of mostly wood-frame or brick-fronted buildings.

Today the Fremont Hotel building appeals to the eye with its curved front, unique rusticated facade and large windows into shops. In 1979 the building was nominated for historic preservation due to its “visual prominence that underscores its historical associations with long-term business and civic institutions in the Fremont District.”

Sources:

Caroline Tobin, Historical Survey and Planning Study of Fremont’s Commercial Area, Fremont Neighborhood Council, 1991.

“Destructive Fire in Fremont,” Seattle Daily Times, June 24, 1903, pages 1 and 2.

“People of the Ship Canal: Remsberg & Dixon, Fremont Businessmen.” Blog article, 2017, by Valarie.

Hotel Dixon at 3400 Fremont Avenue North

Posted on by Valarie

Walter A. Shorey was one of the enterprising young men who came to Seattle to get in on its opportunities for growth. He arrived just in time for the opening of a new neighborhood, Fremont, in 1888. Shorey obtained a prime site at the main intersection of North 34th Street & Fremont Avenue, to build a large hotel/boarding house. Fremont’s founders had planned ahead to establish resources for the community, so they had already set up a lumber mill which provided jobs and materials to build houses. A boarding house was needed for temporary residents or single men like the sawmill workers.

After about ten years Walter Shorey sold the hotel to Samuel Dixon, another early Fremont businessman. Shorey continued to live in the area and listed himself as a real estate agent. Perhaps Shorey sold the boarding house business because he’d had to slow down due to poor health, as he died in 1903.

In the 1901 photo shown here, people on the veranda of Hotel Dixon are standing with their bicycles. The reason for this might be because hotel proprietor Samuel Dixon also owned a bicycle shop, right across the street. During his years as a businessman in Fremont, Dixon juggled several enterprises, including insurance, banking and real estate developments.

Hotel Dixon stood on this site, northeast corner of 34th & Fremont Avenue North, until 1927 when it was replaced by the McKenzie Building.

The J.P. Dean Building at 3508 Fremont Avenue North

Posted on by fremont

The J.P. Dean Building at 3508 Fremont Avenue North was named for Mr. Joseph P. Dean, the original building owner. Mr. Dean was a millwright who lived at 1554 NW 50th Street. He worked at the Fremont sawmill in the 1890s but later moved to Ballard and worked at the Seattle Cedar Lumber Manufacturing Company. He was promoted from millwright to foreman to master mechanic during his career at Seattle Cedar Lumber. His handsome Queen Anne style 1902 house still stands prominently at the NE corner of 17th NW & NW 50th in Ballard.

The J.P. Dean Building was constructed in 1912 by Alex Carter, an English immigrant who lived in Fremont at 3611 2nd Ave NW. He specialized in house moving, but he may have had additional skills. The building permit was issued on March 5, 1912. The cost to build the two-story building was estimated at $8,000. The building has a rusticated cast stone façade similar to that of the Fremont Hotel. Numerous permits were issued to allow alteration of the building for various tenants in 1914, 1917, early-mid 1920s, and again in the 1950s and 1960s.

The J.P. Dean building has been in Linden family ownership since the early 1930s when Andy Linden bought the building as an investment. He was born in Sweden and came to the United States in 1901. He was listed in the 1910 census as a cabinetmaker, living at 317 E. Thomas Street. He operated Linden Furniture store from 1912 to 1948, when he retired. The furniture store was located close to the Fremont Bridge until the early 1920s and then moved to 940 N. 34th Street, close to the intersection of Stone Way.

At the time of the 1938 property survey photos, the Fremont Confectionery appeared to be the only tenant at storefront level in the 3508 building. Other storefronts were vacant during that 1930s time of economic depression. Fremont was economically impacted not only by the Great Depression, but also by the opening of the Aurora Bridge in 1932, which created a bypass and caused a decline in shopping in Fremont.

Mr. Klieros, proprietor of Fremont Confectionery, was born in Turkey. He came to the United States in 1914 and was a partner in a restaurant. He operated the Fremont Confectionery Company for 33 years. He lived at 722 N. 36th Street and later at 714 N. 46th Street. He was a member of St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church.

Today the storefronts along the 3500 block of Fremont Avenue are interesting and add to the nurture of local merchants in the Fremont business district.

Sources: Al Linden; Polk Seattle Directories; City of Seattle permit records; Historical Survey and Planning Study of Fremont’s Commercial Area, Carol Tobin, 1991; Theodore Klieros Obituary,10/24/1958 Seattle Times; Andy Linden Obituary, 10/4/1953 Seattle P.I.;U.S. Census, 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940; Seattle Department of Neighborhoods website, Database of Historic Properties.