By STAN STAPP

SOME 75 YEARS AGO a number of North End residents became interested in making Green Lake a saltwater lake, with sandy bathing beaches "capable of entertaining 200,000 people on a summer day." Many community and commercial clubs endorsed the idea, including the Council of Green Lake.

An electrical pumping station near Golden Gardens, operated by one of the beach attendants, would send salt water through a 16-inch main on N 75th Street to fill the 246-acre lake and maintain the proper level. The cost would be about $100,000.

Most of the "old" Green Lake water could be drained from the lake by using sewers around the lake perimeter that connected with Salmon Bay. As the sewers were 11 feet below the water level of Green Lake and, as the average depth of the lake was 8 feet, and the maximum depth was 20 feet, there would be little left to pump out.

THE SALTWATER proposal was just one of many suggestions advanced over the years by private citizens, clubs, professional engineers and writers, and government agencies at all levels. A few of the suggestions are summarized below:

Reduce size of lake by filling and establishing an 18-hole golf course.

Construct a dike across the south end, where algae originates, and completely fill in the dike. Devise a multi-colored illuminated fountain in the center, 150 feet high, to rival "Old Faithful".

Construct a large island in the center connected to the shore by three bridges.

Circulate the water by means of pumps to eliminate stagnation.

Pump water from center of lake, chlorinate it, and discharge it along the swimming beaches. Drill wells along the shoreline to supply fresh water.

Divide the lake with dikes and sand the bottom of the swimming areas.

HOWEVER, IT LOOKED like the saltwater proposal might "GO." Proponents pointed out that during the past swimming season many local residents were having to go to Golden Gardens to enjoy a saltwater experience. This entailed descending a steep bluff, hard enough for streetcar patrons at the end of the line to traverse, and even troublesome for motorists.

The estimated cost of constructing a salt lake did not include removal of the muck and algae from the lake bottom as an offer had been made to do that for free - financing the operation by harvesting the muck, drying it, and selling as fertilizer.

Thus Seattle would become known as the only city in the United States with a saltwater lake within the limits of its municipality.

An important advantage Green Lake swimmers would have over Puget Sound bathers it was pointed out, was the warmer temperature of Green Lake. And since the lake bathing would be over a longer period it would get more use by a greater number of bathers, "many of whom shiver at the thought of the cooler Sound temperature."

A saltwater-pouring ceremony was sponsored by the Greenwood-Phinney Commercial Club and the West Green Lake Community Club to promote the salting of Green Lake. A caravan of a hundred cars and floats from all over Seattle participated, first stopping at Golden Gardens where Walter Zainey of the Greenwood Furnace Co. had barrels of saltwater from the Sound. People dipped the water into their bottles, jugs, tea kettles, pitchers, and other receptacles - and then wandered around the North End and to the lake and then, at a signal, simultaneously poured the saltwater into Green Lake.

Mayor Bertha K. Landes (Seattle's only woman mayor 'til this day) backed the project. "Green Lake should be put into shape for complete use for the entire city as soon as possible," she declared.

The West Green Lake Community Club later held a meeting, attracting 200 people interested in the project. This was in May, 1928.

AH, BUT THAT SUMMER the first murmuring of dissent to the project began to emerge. A group of engineers and other officials met and voted unanimously in favor of keeping Green Lake a freshwater lake. They said they would shortly be getting together to draft a definite plan of action.

In November 1928 at a meeting of the Greenwood-Phinney Commercial Club, City Engineer W. D. Barkhuff stated that a survey showed the lake was "practically a stagnant pool," unfit for bathing. State and City Health Authorities and the Street and Engineering Departments were called at the request of the Health Department - and it was decided that there should be no more bathing.

The Engineers declared it would be a mistake to pump saltwater into Green Lake, giving several reasons: "The vegetation in the saltwater would be more subject to deterioration with resulting unpleasantness; the expense would be too great; disposal of the saltwater would be a big problem, since it would have to be carried back through a second pipe to a place below the Government Locks."

Instead they suggested creating three clear-water pools at Green Lake: East, West, and South - the water coming from the Cedar River, where Seattle gets its water. Several North End clubs didn't like this idea of purifying the lake "in portions."

However, this is what we have today, 75 years later.

More or less that is: two, not three, freshwater swimming beaches at West and East Green Lake, an indoor pool at East Green Lake, and a miniature golf course at South Green Lake. But not a saltwater lake.

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YOU MIGHT KNOW that a Safeway store, sited some 50 years ago at N 40th and Stone Way, is soon to be the home of a new QFC supermarket. I mostly recall that the site (actually a vacant lot) was earlier known as the "Goat Lot." That was because some 76 years ago, a man kept several goats there - and I was a little kid myself at the time!

I also remember an older brother, Art, walking my sister Pat and I to visit the goats (as we had several times before) while the body of another brother, Elbert, age 21, who had died of encephalitis, was moved from the house - possibly sparing us kids the trauma of death at an early age, 7 years for Pat, and 8 for me.

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THE MAILMAN mis-delivered a copy of the Seattle Press to me recently, intended for Tiny Violet, 7339 35th NE. So I thought I'd be BIG about it - even though the Press and the Sun are rivals - and drop the paper off at Tiny's. (I think it helped that previously I'd written my column for the Press for some 12 years.} And besides, anyone by the name of Tiny Violet sounded kinda cute. As I would be walking by there anyway to get my hair cut at the Wedgwood Barber shop, it was no big problem.

Then I learned that Tiny Violet is the name of a nearby Wedgwood store dealing in gifts, and miniatures, and not that of it's owner, Eve Hanninen.

In addition, while I was being clipped in the barber shop, which is next to the View Ridge Pharmacy, in walked Janice Williams of the pharmacy staff, brandishing another piece of mis-delivered mail intended for the barber shop. I guess you could say the mail gets delivered in Wedgwood all right - rain or shine - and with a little help from its customers.

Incidentally, Janice Williams father and grandfather for many years owned McVicar's Hardware at 8507 35th NE, now the home of All That Dance studio.

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CONGRATULATIONS to George Benson who was honored recently by having an entire streetcar line named after him, the trolley line that he single-handedly created 20 years ago that runs along the waterfront. I first met George when he was learning to be a pharmacist at the Lincoln Pharmacy in Wallingford, and occasionally have run into him and his wife, Evelyn, Sundays at the Burgermaster. She died recently.

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BEST WISHES for Charles Z. Smith the state's only African-American Supreme Court Justice who is retiring at the age of 75. Today I'm calling him my "Favorite Justice," in return for him publicly naming me "My Favorite Editor" many years ago at a community meeting in Wallingford - in front of my friends. The Judge and I had (among other things) a common interest in a local character, Floyd Turner, who was involved in marching naked with the Doukhobors in Canada, had claimed to have climbed Mount Rainier barefooted, and was falsely jailed as a flag burner.

(Rich Beyer, sculptor of "Waiting for the Interurban" in Fremont, and I, testified in Court that Floyd didn't do it - it was someone else.)