Though its exact boundaries are debated, Seattle's Wallingford neighborhood has an unique identity. Located at the north edge of Lake Union, between the University District to the east, Fremont to the west, and Green Lake to the north, Wallingford is ground zero for bungalow-lovers.

Paul Dorpat, one of the neighborhood's bungalow aficionados, was one of the founders of the Helix, Seattle's first underground newspaper. He maintains a photograph, film and ephemera repository of unknown size in his Wallingford basement, and is an expert on the neighborhood's history. He will be presenting a "Then and Now" history of the neighborhood this month.

Wallingford Character

Wallingford's development started at the water's edge and moved out along the spine of primary streets running along and around its borders. In 1887, the Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railroad was established along the north shore of Lake Union, which attracted saw and shingle mills, as did the development of a good transportation network. In 1907, streetcar service from the University District down 45th Street helped establish the neighborhood's commercial center.

The industries attracted workers, not the area's wealthier citizens. The Gasification Plant, and other lakeside industries such as the Barber Asphalt Company, a tar plant, a garbage incinerator and the Pacific Ammonia Chemical Company, produced considerable smoke, pollution, and noxious odors.

The relocation of the University of Washington from downtown to its current location around the turn of the twentieth century also helped spur Wallingford's development. Most of this occurred between 1900 and 1920. Latona School (built in 1906 and 1917), now the John Stanford International School, replaced a 1889 school which was the first in the neighborhood.

Workers needed homes and local businesses for their needs, which led to the development of 45th as a commercial center, and the establishment of the Wallingford Commercial Club in 1910. Neighborhood businesses petitioned the city for greater access to downtown and greater building heights on 45th Street prior to World War II, and flourished in the 1940s. New shopping centers built in the 1950s and 60s took some of the wind out of boosters' sails, and by the 1970s, the neighborhood, like many others in Seattle, felt pervading economic doldrums.

In 1956, the Gasification Plant closed, which aided the environmental health of the area, but contributed to its steady economic ebb. Many families moved out of the neighborhood from the 1950s to the 1970s to the outlying suburbs, leaving Wallingford to elderly residents and transient young people. The construction of I-5 in 1962 contributed to dwindling enrollment at Latona and other schools and created a wall between Wallingford and the University District.

In 1960, the gas plant site was purchased by the City through a bond funding. Just how the site would be adapted into a park was a decade long controversy. The Master Plan for Gas Works Park was completed in 1971 by Rich Haag and his office. The plan, its retention of several now-iconic industrial structures, has won international praise, and the site is now one of the city's favorite and a City of Seattle landmark.

The neighborhood, reduced in size but not in gumption. Grass roots activism has contributed to the ongoing success of the neighborhood, and helped residents hold onto buildings and places that contribute to the comfortable character of the place.

Home of the Good Shepherd

The Home of the Good Shepherd, a sanctuary and home for orphaned and "wayward" girls, was established in Wallingford in 1906 after a brief period on First Hill. Sanctioned by Pope Gregory XVI in 1835, the Sisters of the Good Shepherd were established to care for women who needed helping. They came to Seattle in 1890.

The Home of the Good Shepherd, designed by Seattle architect C. Alfred Breitung, stood at the center of a 11 acre property in Wallingford's northwest corner, near 50th, on Sunnyside, and operated first as an orphanage and home for troubled young women, then exclusively served the latter after 1926.

A number of factors led to the home's closing in 1973, much of which related to significant social changes effecting the Catholic church, the conventionalization of women's higher education, and to some degree, the local economy.

The enormity of the site attracted a developer interested in building a shopping mall on its 11 acres. The Wallingford community rallied against this, successfully, and as a result the City of Seattle acquired the property, then turned it over to Historic Seattle in 1975.

The property, one of Historic Seattle's first efforts (the organization was chartered in 1974), was a proverbial "white elephant" preservation project. Over the years, Historic Seattle has had its fair share of complex and difficult projects, but most have fairly contained construction schedules. The size of the Good Shepherd Center and its adaptation into a community center for Wallingford, school, senior center, and nonprofit hub, has taken decades.

We aren't done yet. The last piece of the project will create a small performance space in its historic double-height chapel on its fourth floor.

Best of Wallingford

Wallingford is home to a number of smaller projects and preservation stories that contribute to the overall character of the place. These include:

Wallingford Center/Interlake Public School (4416 Wallingford Avenue N) This building is a centerpiece in the community, and is the closest thing to a mall Wallingford would probably tolerate. When the property, like other Seattle Public Schools was surplused in 1981, the school district accepted proposals for its reuse, and granted the project to Lorig Associates. Lorig adapted the building's first two floors into retail space, and its upper floors into market rate housing. Alaskan marble from the original restrooms was recycled in the new entrance stairway.

Police and Fire station now the 45th St. Clinic (1629 N. 45 Street): This firestation, one of many in Seattle that have been surplused and adapted to new uses, reflects its bungalow-heavy context. The building was rehabilitated and changed uses in 1986, and is now a public clinic.

Food Giant Sign (45th Street at Wallingford) The community balked when QFC purchased the 1950s Food Giant on site and planned to remove its prominent sign from the building. QFC compromised with the community, saved the "A", "I", "N", "F", and "O" in the original sign, and created new letters which now spelling "Wallingford" where the old sign used to be.

Guild 45 (2115 North 45th) : The Guild 45 is run by Landmark Theaters but isn't designated a landmark by ordinance. Built in 1919, it was a live stage venue named the Paramount, but changed its name when the grander Paramount Theater downtown claimed it. Landmark Theaters has owned the property since 1989; the addition, art-deco-ized, was built in 1983. The Guild 45 sign is one of the commercial district's most iconic elements.

Dicks Drive-in Though Dick's Drive-in isn't an official City of Seattle landmark, it would definitely qualify. Tom Veith, Wallingford resident, historian, and Seattle Landmarks Board Member had this to say about the community hang out:

"Dick's is obviously a landmark of regional importance. It's now 50 years old and thus qualifies for just about any kind of landmark designation one would care to consider. It is important as an early local experiment with fast food operations -- an approach to meal preparation that seems to have taken over the country in the last half century.

"The 45th Street store is the prototype for the chain's various Seattle area shops and is a locale known to just about anyone who has lived in the region. The business has successfully maintained its basic approach -- a simple, unchanging, reasonably priced menu -- in significant contrast with the constant, fad-following menu adjustments that sems to have become typical of other fast food operations. Its business owners remain deeply committed to the community and very supportive of their employees.

"The other early auto oriented stores of Wallingford are rapidly disappearing (e.g., the former Safeway, most recently the Rite-Aid store on 45th), yet Dick's remains, both iconic and viable It is interesting, and perhaps significant, that this industrial approach to food has found such a secure home in a neighborhood that has never viewed itself as a bedroom suburb but, instead, has always featured a vital industrial component."

Hamilton School (1610 N. 41st) This school isn't landmarked, and many have wondered why not. The building's exterior has changed little since it was first built. The Floyd Naramore design can be seen from the Aurora Bridge.

Amazing bungalows: Wallingford's strong residential character is best represented in its signature bungalows. Some are modest, some absolutely spectacular. Somewhat surprisingly, despite of the neighborhood's strong attachment to its houses, there are no historic districts, bungalow or otherwise. Given the neighborhood's strong activist bent, and its awareness of its own history, such an effort would be a natural next step for the neighborhood.

Year of Wallingford

The good times keep rolling in Wallingford. This year, the community will host a number of celebrations and events including a garden tour offered by Weaving Wallingford, bungalow tours by Historic Seattle and the Seattle Architectural Foundation, a number of history-related events, and a lot more.

For more information about all things Wallingfordian, visit http://www.wallingford.org

Sources:

Wallingford, An Inventory of Buildings and Urban Design Resources, Historic Seattle, Folke Nyberg and Victor Steinbrueck, 1975-1979.

Lawrence Kreisman, Made to Last: Historic Preservation in Seattle and King County, Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1999.

Wallingford: A Thumbnail History, Paul Dorpat, HistoryLink.org.

Interviews: Tom Veith, Karen Buschow, Larry Kreisman, John Chaney

View last month's Neighborhoods article

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