Seattle Sun Newspaper - Vol. 7, Issue 8, August 2003
Copyright 2003 Seattle Sun. Please feel free to use the article and photos below in your research. Be sure to quote the Seattle Sun as your source.
Ballard Ave. a well-preserved
slice of area's historic past
By HEATHER TEWS
Established as an Historical District on April 11, 1976, in a proclamation read by none other than visiting King Carl XVI Gustav of SwedenBallard Avenue or old Ballard, is one of Seattle's most well-preserved and largest historical districts.
Originally dubbed Gilman Park, Ballard was named for William Rankin Ballard, captain of the ship Zephyr. Losing a coin toss with a business partner, Capt. Ballard accepted 160 acres of Shilshole "worthless forest" in payment for a debt owed him.
Ballard soon teamed up with other Seattle notables, John Leary, Judge Thomas Burke and Nathan Gilman to develop Ballard into a timber fueled economic powerhouse.
Ballard incorporated in 1890 with a population of just over a thousand making it the third largest city in Washington. Just five years later, Ballard blossomed to a population of 10,000 bumping it down to the seventh largest city in Washington, but the second-largest employment center on the West Coast, behind San Francisco.
Ballard was a boom town and Ballard Avenue, flush with boom money, was the wild northwest complete with brothels, gambling and a flourishing bar industry.
By 1900, Ballard had the largest concentration of taverns west of the Mississippi. But within a few years, Ballard's dizzying success and population boom had out paced its infrastructure.
In 1906, faced with Seattle's refusal to allow access to its water and sewage systems, Ballard was reluctantly annexed.
Despite its placement on the national register of historic places in the early seventies, Ballard Avenue experienced a period of neglect through the 1970s and '80s.
While some down at Hattie's Hat or the Smoke Shop restaurant romanticize the days of a more blue collar, rough and tumble Ballard Avenue, the Internet boom of the 1990s brought the neighborhood the influx of money and new business it sorely needed to combat the crime and vagrancy formerly commonplace on the historic cobblestone street.
Today, Historic Ballard Avenue is a collage of funky retail, innovative art galleries, unique restaurants, venerable supply companies and, of course a thriving nightlife. As you move down Ballard Avenue the building age, thus most of the building on the 5400 block of Ballard Avenue were built after the turn of the century. The Ballard Family Center, The Smoke Shop Restaurant, and the Vik Apartments all date from the 1920s. Flora Bohemia, a charming flower shop, occupying one of this blocks art deco spaces, offers unique live plants, fresh cut flowers and gifts.
Moving down Ballard Avenue, one of the first really striking building you'll see houses the Guitar Emporium, built in 1901. A few doors down, Sassy Madame K's Pizza has fun with Ballard's checkered past with a brothel-themed dining room and scandalously named menu items.
Near Madame K's, the most recognizable and imposing building in the historical district, the G.B. Sandborn Building, was built in 1901. Towering above Ballard Avenue, this building is completely occupied by the Ballard Bookcase Company and is the neighborhood's only example of Richardsonian architecture, a Romanesque style characterized by theatrically arched windows.
As you near the end of Old Ballard, you are surrounding by the oldest the neighborhood has to offer, rivaling the age of many Pioneer Square structures. The Junction Building, built in 1890, houses the feisty Sev Shoon art gallery and studio as well as artist's live/work studios upstairs. A beautiful, wedge shaped structure, it's an excellent place to start the Ballard Art Walk and get a real feel for the flavor of the street.
Nearby stands long-time resident Ballard Hardware, also built in 1890, which holds out against the tide of gentrification by maintaining the feel, look and attitude of your great- grandfather's hardware store quite possibly it was.
The Ballard Art Walk is held the second Saturday of every month from 7 to 10 p.m. It is also home to two great live music venues, the Sunset Tavern and the Tractor as well as a host of colorful eating and drinking establishments such as The Other Coast Cafe and the homey People's Pub. All are excellent excesses to lose yourself while wandering through an off-the-beaten path testament to Seattle's storied past.
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Heather Tews is a freelance writer.