Around Fremont we can find streets with names of early developers of property in the neighborhood. Lucas Place is a street on the east side of Stone Way, closest to North 40th Street.
Lucas Place is in the plat of the Lucas Addition, filed in 1911. A “plat” is an area of land, any size, for which a map of streets and lots has been laid out. The plat info for the Lucas Addition shows that it was filed by the William M. Lucas Building Company.
Like so many people who came to Seattle in early years, William Lucas had gradually traveled across the USA, working in different places, until he came to Seattle. He had been born in Illinois in 1857. His father died in 1867 while the family was living in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. William Lucas became a carpenter and lived in Wisconsin until he began migrating westward in the 1890s.
At age 50 when he arrived in Seattle in 1907, William Lucas may have been attracted to the city by the news about the world’s fair event to be held in 1909, the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition. Builders knew that the population of Seattle would increase and that there was opportunity to make money in land development and housing. William Lucas was able to buy the section of land shown here and build houses in the period of 1911-1915.