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.

The Interlaken:

Short-lived paper covered N. End in 1907

By CLAYTON PARK

When brothers Art and Joe Furbush were growing up in North Seattle in the 1950s and '60s, they remember their dad telling them that their great-grandfather, Prentice Chase Furbush, used to own a newspaper in the University District.

Unfortunately, their dad couldn't remember what that newspaper was called, leaving them to wonder whether the tale was just a family myth.

Three months ago, they found out that the story, indeed, was true. Their sister, Sandra Spencer, was going through old boxes at their dad's house. To her surprise, one of them contained a bound collection of a weekly newspaper called The Interlaken, published from Jan. 5, 1907 (the debut issue) through March 30 of that year.

The paper, whose offices were located at "4141 Fourteenth Avenue NE," listed as its publishers a company called Fisher & Furbush, a commercial printing company. The editor: "P.C. Furbush." Subscriptions were $1 per year.

Spencer immediately called Art to inform him of her discovery: "Hey, I found these old newspapers!"

While The Interlaken was fairly short-lived, its issues offer a glimpse of what life was like in North Seattle in 1907. An editorial, which appeared in the paper's inaugural issue, explained its mission: "During the past few months, a number of residents of the north end of Seattle, i.e., that district embraced in the territory bounded by Lake Washington on the east, Green Lake on the west, and north of Lake Union, have expressed a desire for a weekly publication whose scope should be broad enough to cover this territory. Their contention was that the above districts were so contiguous that their interests were practically one. That whatever movement was planned for the improvement of one section would have a corresponding influence over all others. That Green Lake, Fremont, Latona, Brooklyn and Ravenna were but the component parts of what should be a continuous, united whole.

"... To aid this work and cover the entire field of business enterprises and opportunities, real estate social, local brevities, etc., of the north end, to the best of its ability, will be the aim of The Interlaken. Special attention will also be given to the progress of the Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition," which would be held two years later at the University of Washington campus.

The debut issue prominently featured on its cover a photograph depicting a "Birdseye view of Brooklyn" the Lake Union waterfront looking north, with the "Science Hall & Administration Building of the University of Washington" visible to the right, and throughout the photo the many homes in the communities now known as Wallingford and the University District. The photo caption also noted that North Seattle was also home to a "magnificent natural park, Ravenna, and the new city park recently donated by Mr. Charles Cowen."

Other articles in that issue included one headlined "Immense Regrade District for Fremont," and which went on to report that "An immense regrade district for Fremont the first of any magnitude ever to be created in the north end is about to be formed.

"Thirty blocks will be cut down from a heavy to a very light grade. While the city engineer's office has made no estimate on the work, it was stated yesterday (Jan. 4, 1907) to be the most costly local improvement ever undertaken north of Denny Way...."

Another article, headlined "The Manufacturing Problem," begins: "Old time Seattle made a sorry appearance as a manufacturing center, with its precipitous hills dropping sheer into tide water, with but a small acreage, apparently, available for manufacturing purposes, and that not seen or appreciated at first glance ... The enthusiastic Seattleite in those days was daring fate and a mighty hilly country when in his ardor he dubbed his city the 'Metropolis of the Pacific Coast.' Whichever way he turned, 'No manufacturing room' stared him in the face, but as he was a pretty good figurer he managed to offset that drawback with a thousand arguments proving his claim..."

A cover story in the issue published Jan. 19, 1907 reports "New interest has been aroused" in a proposal to build the Lake Washington Ship Canal, which was eventually completed in 1916. A photo accompanying the article shows a canoe entering "the Portage connecting Lakes Washington and Union" via the original, somewhat narrow Montlake Cut, which was eventually widened in 1916-17, according to historian Paul Dorpat's 1984 book "Seattle Now & Then."

Prentice Chase Furbush, after folding the newspaper, continued running his printing business until his death in 1914. He is buried in a cemetery on Capitol Hill, next to Volunteer Park.

Art Furbush, 59, is a graduate of Lincoln High School (class of 1963) who now lives in the Westlake area, is currently a Realtor who works out of the Lake Union office of Coldwell Banker. For 31-1/2 years, he was owner of the House of Pizza restaurant at Aurora Avenue N. and N. 91st Street. He sold the eatery three years ago.

Joe Furbush, 53, who attended grade school in North Seattle (McDonald Elementary on Latona), moved with his family as a teenager, first to Pierce County and then to Vashon Island. He worked as a cook at the House of Pizza from 1967-72 and returned in 1984 to serve as manager, a job he held for five years. Today, he lives in the Wallingford district, near Gas Works Park, where he has his own business as a home repair/remodeling contractor.