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.
Putting 'The Outlet' on the map
Griffith and the Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern Railway
By JOHN NORDSTRAND
In the middle 1880s, when Luther H. Griffith came to Seattle from Fremont, Nebraska, the down-sloped land area above "The Outlet" on the northwest corner of Lake Union was just a small, partially logged-off clearing. Griffith would soon play a major role in reshaping the face of that hill.
Griffith was a promoter who took a broad view of an opportunity, created a shrewd plan to develop the prospect and whose final efforts were practical and consequential. A friend of his once said he wished he could put L.H. in a room and "pay him $50,000 a year to produce nothing but ideas."
But, first things first...
In 1886, original pioneer David Denny formed a real estate partnership with Judge John P. Hoyt. They used their influence in '87 to bring a new railroad to The Outlet.
The Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway was built out north from Seattle through Smith Cove, Interbay and Ross over The Outlet, and from there along the north shore of Lake Union and onward.
The SLS&E became a lifeline of industry. It was responsible for much of the growth of northeast Queen Anne Hill, Ross, Fremont, Latona, Edgewater and other small communities along its route.
On March 1, 1888, with land transportation now in place, the partners platted, in five-acre parcels, the Denny & Hoyt Addition. It was a large subdivision bordered similarly to the current boundaries of the Fremont neighborhood.
Later that year, millionaire pioneer real estate man Edmond Blewett bought the 240-acre Denny & Hoyt Addition for $55,000. This section took in the area from 39th to Florentia and from 3rd N.W. to Albion Place. Blewett replatted the land with smaller plots more compatible to a township and named it Fremont after his hometown in Nebraska. Soon thereafter, deciding to go back to Nebraska, he turned to L. H. Griffith and his partner Dillis Ward to promote the new town.
In what would become a successful attempt to bring more people to Fremont and sell more lots, Griffith partnered with others to: widen The Outlet for improved commerce and transportation, bring Isaac Burlingame's Tumwater mill to its banks for jobs, and develop an electric street car line from Seattle to the south shore of Lake Union where passengers could board a small steamer to carry them to a landing near The Outlet on the north shore.
All this in the span of less than two years.
In ensuing years, The Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway and L. H. Griffith would continue to make a major impact on the development of Fremont and indeed the entire Washington Territory.
John Nordstrand is a freelance writer and the operations director for History House of Greater Seattle.