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A House and an Auto Shop at 4031 Stone Way

Posted on by Valarie

In the 1930s Stone Way still had private homes but was increasingly mixed with light industrial buildings, gas stations and auto shops. Willam Berry of 4031 Stone Way combined two categories: his family residence and his place of employment.

William Berry had been born in Illinois and came to Seattle as an eighteen-year-old in 1903, hoping to find employment in what he had heard were Seattle’s good economic conditions. William was on the early, leading edge of the automobile service industry. He learned auto mechanics and worked at one of the car dealerships on “auto row,” on Pike Street on Capitol Hill.

By 1917 Berry was able to move into this house on Stone Way with his wife Blanche. Berry established his own auto service shop with the help of an investor (Kinghorn, name noted on the sign). William & Blanche lived in this house until their deaths in the 1950s.

In the early 1960s all the houses on this block, including the Berry’s, were demolished and some single-story retail and office buildings were built. Former stores and offices on this block were Avo Electronics, Big Tree Bikes, Dance Fremont, and some clinics including acupuncture and chiropractic. In the past ten years these smaller buildings have given way to five-story apartment complexes with retail shops at street level. There are no longer any single-family homes on Stone Way in Fremont.

Sources:

Genealogy & City Directory listings.

Photos: On this blog page, click on the Menu tab, and Photos, to see the collection. These photos are from the survey of all taxable structures in King County, which was conducted circa 1938. The photos themselves are kept at the Puget Sound Regional Archives, repository of the property records of King County. The photos are sorted by plat names. The writing on the above photo, “LaGrande Extension,” is the plat name with the notation of Block D, Lot 3. The new building in place of the Berry house, has the same property description.

House History: 4202 Phinney Ave North

Posted on by Valarie

Captain Herbert E. Farnsworth made the classic Western migration of a Civil War veteran after the war.  Born in New York State, after the end of the war in 1865, Captain Farnsworth married.  The Farnsworth’s first daughter was born in New York and by the time of the birth of their second daughter in 1871, the family was living in the town of Kidder, Caldwell County, Missouri.  It was a railroad town and Captain Farnsworth, who worked as a carpenter, perhaps was attracted to the growing community where there would be work opportunities. 

By or before 1890, the Farnsworth family moved to tiny Garfield County in the southeasternmost corner of Washington State.  Captain Farnsworth’s name appeared there on the census of Civil War veterans which was done in 1890, for pension applications. 

The Heaton family of New York had also migrated across the USA.  Some of their children were born in Iowa and then finally the Heatons settled in Pomeroy, the county seat of Garfield County, Washington, in 1877.  Mr. Heaton was a millwright, a mechanic who often worked at maintenance of sawmill equipment.  Oscar, the Heaton’s eldest son, went to Seattle in 1890 and graduated with a law degree from the University of Washington.  In 1895 Oscar married Viola, Captain Farnsworth’s eldest daughter.  The couple moved to Seattle where Oscar had a long and successful law practice, and he also became a real estate investor. 

The census of 1900 captured Viola Heaton and her little son, two-year-old Herbert Farnsworth Heaton, on a visit to Viola’s parents in Pomeroy, Garfield County, Washington.  The visit, and the naming of their first grandchild in honor of Captain Farnsworth, seemed to show the closeness of the family.  Ten years later, by the time of the 1910 census, Captain & Mrs. Farnsworth and Viola Farnsworth Heaton were all dead, and twelve-year-old Herbert Heaton was living with his aunt, his mother’s sister, Virginia. 

Viola Heaton’s tragic story involved a “health farm” which later became known as Starvation Heights.  An unqualified “health practitioner” was later convicted of manslaughter after several of the residents, including Viola, died of starvation. 

Oscar & Viola Heaton had been living in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle.  After the death of Viola in 1909, Oscar Heaton made plans to start over again with a new wife, Elma, and a new house, so that he could have a place for his son Herbert to live with him. Oscar married Elma in 1910 and built a new house at 4202 Phinney Avenue North.  Oscar & Elma lived in the house for about ten more years and had two children together.  Oscar’s eldest son Herbert became a successful traffic engineer for the City of Los Angeles. 

The house at 4202 Phinney is two-stories with good views out over its western and southern sides. The house has Austrian Alpine or Swiss Chalet design elements including a wide roof overhang, river rock cladding and a river rock fireplace.  Decorative elements include tulip leaded-glass windows and archways between rooms. 

Subsequent owners of the house at 4202 Phinney modified it into an apartment building with four units.  Current residents of the apartments include the owners, and they love the charming design of the building and its convenient location in the Fremont neighborhood. 

Sources: 

Genealogical info including census and Find A Grave. 

Seattle Department of Neighborhoods, Historic Sites Index; description of the house at 4202 Phinney Avenue North.  Search the index under the address of the house, or choose neighborhood search “Fremont” to see all the listings.

Starvation Heights, by Gregg Olsen, 2005. Seattle Public Library 364.1523.

Fremont Public Art: The Fremont Guidepost

Posted on by fremont

“Center of the Universe” guidepost at Fremont Avenue and North 35th Street

Located just north of downtown Seattle beside sparkling Lake Union, the neighborhood of Fremont is known for its geographic centrality.

Since the 1960s Fremont has been known for its quirkiness, when an economic lull drove down rents and attracted more artists and students to the area. Although the local economy has improved since the arrival of several high-tech companies, the funky and eclectic vibe of Fremont has continued.

According to the Fremont Chamber of Commerce and “Fremont Scientists,” this “strangeness” exists because of an “odd gravitational pull” that places Fremont at the Center of the Universe. Here, a unique geophysical force also creates an overwhelming urge “to return again and again.”

Reasoning that Fremont’s “center of the universe” location could “neither be proven nor disproven,” residents set up a helpful “Center of the Universe” guidepost at Fremont Avenue and North 35th Street in the early 1970s. In 1994, this location was officially proclaimed the Center of the Universe by the Metropolitan King County Council.

Here’s more about how the Fremont neighborhood in Seattle became known as the Center of the Universe.