Archives for April 2011

History Friday, Part 9: A Public Park

April 8, 2011 by Leave a Comment

This is part of the essay “Ravenna Park (Seattle)“, appearing here thanks to HistoryLink.org and author Peter Blecha, under a Creative Commons license.

[If you’re new to the series, you can start with Part 1 here.]

A Public Park

Though the pretty little creek would never be the same — today’s version is but a ghost of its former self — the park would henceforth be a public amenity open to all. The city moved ahead with additional changes to the area. In 1913 it constructed the steel Ravenna Park Bridge — just across from the Beck’s home — on 20th Avenue NE. “The structure is 354 feet long. It has a 250-foot arch composed of two ribs (curved structural members that support a curved shape or panel) that rise 41 feet over the ravine, and support an 18-foot reinforced concrete roadway” (Long). In time, as the automobile era dawned, 20th Avenue NE became a notorious racing strip for University of Washington fraternity brothers (and Roosevelt High School kids) and that narrow bridge portion must have added to the thrills.

After Theodore Roosevelt’s death in January 1919, the city attempted to rename the place Roosevelt Park, but in 1931 a public petition forced them to revert to its original name. Meanwhile, the old Cowen Park Bridge was finally upgraded to a new reinforced concrete one in 1936. (Decades later, and after years of engineering tests, the Ravenna Bridge’s porous concrete was determined to be crumbling and today [2011] it is strictly reserved for pedestrian crossings.)

No longer running his park, Beck continued selling real estate — by 1916 he had a new downtown office (505 Fisher Studio building). But then around 1921 he returned to preaching, taking the position of pastor at the Interbay Presbyterian Church (3236 16th Avenue W). The Reverend and his wife were living near downtown (at 306 1519 3rd Avenue) by 1923, but by 1928 Louise was listed in the Polk Directory as back living near Ravenna (2128 NE Park Road). That same year Louise Beck passed away and was buried at Mount Pleasant Cemetery. A few years later her widower was listed as residing in Room 202, Olympic Place. William Beck stuck around until at least 1946.

Next week: Drying It Up, and Cutting It Down

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Sources:

W. W. Beck, Ravenna Park – ‘Im Walde,’ (1903), Peter Blecha collection, Seattle; W. W. Beck, Ravenna Park – ‘Im Walde,’ 16-page postcard booklet, undated, in Peter Blecha collection; W. W. Beck, Ravenna Park (ca. 1909), Peter Blecha collection; “Ravenna Park Guide,” brochure, 1909, Peter Blecha collection; “Ravenna Or Big Tree Park: It is Famous = “Nature’s Exposition,” postcard, 1909, Peter Blecha collection; Harvey Manning, Winter Walks and Hikes (Seattle: Mountaineers Books, 2002), 42; Betty McDonald, Anybody Can Do Anything (Philadelphia / New York: J. B. Lippincott Co, 1950), 129-130; Paula Becker, “Time Traveling The Roosevelt District With Betty Macdonald,” Seattlepress.com website accessed July 13, 2010 (http://seattlepress.com/article-9455.html); “One of Ravenna’s Giant Trees Christened ‘Paderewski,’” Interlaken, February 8, 1908, p. 1; Sophie Frye Bass, When Seattle Was A Village (Seattle: Lowman & Hanford Co., 1947), 106-108:  David Buerge, “Indian Lake Washington,” Seattle Weekly, August 1-7, 1984; Seattle Polk City Directory (1901-1934); Directory of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution (Washington D.C.: Memorial Continental Hall, 1911), 1340; “Mrs. L. C. Beck Funeral To Be Held Today: Woman Widely Known In Musical and Club Circles Is Mourned By Seattle Friends,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, July 9, 1928, p. 13; Kate C. Duncan 1001 Curious Things: Tales from Ye Olde Curiosity Shop (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2000), 73-78; Andrea Casadio, email to Peter Blecha, January 30, 2008; “No Finer Site: The University of Washington’s Early Years On Union Bay,” Web exhibition, University of Washington Libraries website accessed August 19, 2010 (http://lib.washington.edu/exhibits/site/); HistoryLink.org Online Encyclopedia of Washington State History, “Seattle’s Ravenna Park Bridge is constructed in 1913″ (by Priscilla Long), and “WPA builds Cowen Park Bridge in Seattle’s Ravenna neighborhood in 1936″ (by Priscilla Long), and “John Olmsted arrives in Seattle to design city parks on April 30, 1903″ (by David Williams and Walt Crowley), and “David Thomas Denny (1832-1903)” (by David Wilma), http://www.historylink.org/ (accessed August 1, 2010); Esther Campbell, Bagpipes in the Woodwind Section (Seattle: Seattle Symphony Women’s Association, 1978), 9; William Arnold, “The Great Mystery of Ravenna Park,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Northwest Today section, December 17, 1972, pp. 8-9; Steve Cronin, “Ravenna Park’s Famous Trees Vanished Furtively,” UW Daily, May 25, 1977, p. 3;  James Bush, “Remembering William W. Beck: The Father of Ravenna Park,” The Seattle Sun, August 2003, The Seattle Sun website accessed August 25, 2010 (http://parkprojects.com/2003news/0308aug/hisbeck.html); Mary R. Watson, travel diary (handwritten), 1910, portion accessed on eBay, December 2006, copy in possession of Peter Blecha; Russ Hanbey, “1916 Seattle was a Hotbed of Sin When 2 Officers Were Killed,” The Seattle Times, February 6, 2010 (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com); and Peter Blecha archives.

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Welcome our newest ad partner, Blossoming Buds Cottage

April 4, 2011 by 1 Comment

Say hello to the Ravenna Blog’s newest ad partner, Blossoming Buds Cottage!

In November 2004, Tristan Christophilis opened her Blossoming Buds Preschool in the basement of a house in the Laurelhurst neighborhood. The program and educational philosophy of the school proved to be quite popular and successful, and in January 2007, the preschool moved to its current larger location in Bryant (4706 35th Ave NE).

Then in July 2009, a sister facility to the preschool was opened in Wedgwood: Blossoming Buds Cottage (7501 35th Ave NE).

The Cottage shares the same education goals and standards as the preschool, with the added bonus of being a flexible, drop-in style preschool. At Blossoming Buds Cottage, students may attend two-, three-, or four-hour blocks. Every day is broken up into a predictable schedule (ex. story and meet and greet time followed by snacks followed by art) that parents can depend on, but the activities and themes change from day-to-day and month-to-month.

Blossoming Buds Cottage also has other services and events available throughout the year:

  • Semimonthly “Date Nights” – Kids spend a four-hour block playing, eating pizza and watching a G-rated movie while their parents are enjoying some quality kid-free time.
  • Open for afternoon home Husky games – Open approximately one hour before kick-off and up to four hours after the game ends (with a four hour maximum stay).
  • Birthdays or other special events – Two hour blocks of time are available on weekends, and various party packages are available.

My three-year-old son has been attending about once a week since January, and loves it. I love the flexible schedule, and my precious block of time down at the Starbucks (with the wifi). And the staff could not be nicer and care more for my child.

For more information on Blossoming Buds Cottage, click on their ad to the right, or visit blossomingbudscottage.com.

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Power outage affecting over 2,000 customers in Ravenna and U District

April 1, 2011 by 3 Comments

UPDATE (as I was writing): From the Seattle City Light’s Power Lines information page:

City Light crews have restored power to all but 837 customers in the University District area, in an outage that originally affected more than 2,000 customers. The outage began at about 6 p.m., and was caused by a downed wire.

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Seattle City Light (and a few Ravenna Blog twitter feed followers) have reported a large power outage affecting areas of Ravenna and the University District, starting around 6PM this evening.

Seattle City Light Outage Map screen shot taken during the outage on April 1

Seattle City Light has crews working to restore power at this time (though no estimated time of restoration has been given).

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This area is no stranger to outages: I reported on a similarly-shaped outage which occurred on January 24th of this year. I mention this not because I’m looking for a connection (or a conspiracy), just to note that local residents are quite tired of these things.

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History Friday, Part 8: Seattle’s Heavy Hand

April 1, 2011 by Leave a Comment

This is part of the essay “Ravenna Park (Seattle)“, appearing here thanks to HistoryLink.org and author Peter Blecha, under a Creative Commons license.

[If you’re new to the series, you can start with Part 1 here.]

Seattle’s Heavy Hand

Later that year [1910] the City of Seattle condemned the couple’s park, and a court determined a fair market price of $144,920. Eventually Beck would complain in writing about the “false swearing and tricks of Satan” the City had used to acquire his park (Bush).

In 1911 a national membership directory for the Daughters of the American Revolution listed Louise Beck’s residence as being, interestingly, at “Fir Lodge, Ravenna Park.” That same year saw a most tragic alteration to the Cowen-Ravenna ecosystem. Action was finally taken to implement certain recommendations outlined in a Master Plan commissioned by the city from the renowned Massachusetts landscape architect John Charles Olmsted (1852-1920).

That 1903 document had envisioned a 20-mile-long system of scenic boulevards that would tie together various parks and playfields across the city. Unfortunately one of those streets — Ravenna Boulevard — was to be created after lowering nearby Green Lake, which effectively negated its need for an outflow creek. The plan envisioned a new boulevard along the creek’s former path through a winding ravine that had helped carve out the Ravenna canyon.

Thus, city engineers diverted Ravenna creek, forcing it underground into Thomson’s North Trunk Sewer line (which discharged into Union Bay), nearly drying up its old route (along with the once-bountiful fish runs) through the two parks. Although the resultant Ravenna Boulevard had its own positive attributes, many have lamented the fate of Green Lake: “The poor lake had been diked, dredged and drained, and its once-free-flowing outlet stream, Ravenna Creek, had evolved into a wetland dependent on springs and minor tributaries” (Hanbey).

Next week: A Public Park

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Sources:

W. W. Beck, Ravenna Park – ‘Im Walde,’ (1903), Peter Blecha collection, Seattle; W. W. Beck, Ravenna Park – ‘Im Walde,’ 16-page postcard booklet, undated, in Peter Blecha collection; W. W. Beck, Ravenna Park (ca. 1909), Peter Blecha collection; “Ravenna Park Guide,” brochure, 1909, Peter Blecha collection; “Ravenna Or Big Tree Park: It is Famous = “Nature’s Exposition,” postcard, 1909, Peter Blecha collection; Harvey Manning, Winter Walks and Hikes (Seattle: Mountaineers Books, 2002), 42; Betty McDonald, Anybody Can Do Anything (Philadelphia / New York: J. B. Lippincott Co, 1950), 129-130; Paula Becker, “Time Traveling The Roosevelt District With Betty Macdonald,” Seattlepress.com website accessed July 13, 2010 (http://seattlepress.com/article-9455.html); “One of Ravenna’s Giant Trees Christened ‘Paderewski,’” Interlaken, February 8, 1908, p. 1; Sophie Frye Bass, When Seattle Was A Village (Seattle: Lowman & Hanford Co., 1947), 106-108:  David Buerge, “Indian Lake Washington,” Seattle Weekly, August 1-7, 1984; Seattle Polk City Directory (1901-1934); Directory of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution (Washington D.C.: Memorial Continental Hall, 1911), 1340; “Mrs. L. C. Beck Funeral To Be Held Today: Woman Widely Known In Musical and Club Circles Is Mourned By Seattle Friends,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, July 9, 1928, p. 13; Kate C. Duncan 1001 Curious Things: Tales from Ye Olde Curiosity Shop (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2000), 73-78; Andrea Casadio, email to Peter Blecha, January 30, 2008; “No Finer Site: The University of Washington’s Early Years On Union Bay,” Web exhibition, University of Washington Libraries website accessed August 19, 2010 (http://lib.washington.edu/exhibits/site/); HistoryLink.org Online Encyclopedia of Washington State History, “Seattle’s Ravenna Park Bridge is constructed in 1913″ (by Priscilla Long), and “WPA builds Cowen Park Bridge in Seattle’s Ravenna neighborhood in 1936″ (by Priscilla Long), and “John Olmsted arrives in Seattle to design city parks on April 30, 1903″ (by David Williams and Walt Crowley), and “David Thomas Denny (1832-1903)” (by David Wilma), http://www.historylink.org/ (accessed August 1, 2010); Esther Campbell, Bagpipes in the Woodwind Section (Seattle: Seattle Symphony Women’s Association, 1978), 9; William Arnold, “The Great Mystery of Ravenna Park,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Northwest Today section, December 17, 1972, pp. 8-9; Steve Cronin, “Ravenna Park’s Famous Trees Vanished Furtively,” UW Daily, May 25, 1977, p. 3;  James Bush, “Remembering William W. Beck: The Father of Ravenna Park,” The Seattle Sun, August 2003, The Seattle Sun website accessed August 25, 2010 (http://parkprojects.com/2003news/0308aug/hisbeck.html); Mary R. Watson, travel diary (handwritten), 1910, portion accessed on eBay, December 2006, copy in possession of Peter Blecha; Russ Hanbey, “1916 Seattle was a Hotbed of Sin When 2 Officers Were Killed,” The Seattle Times, February 6, 2010 (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com); and Peter Blecha archives.

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