Excerpts from this tomb of local history. Reprinted without permission. Items relevant to the line, development, or early transportation.
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... the business section for this area in the late 1890's and early 1900's.
Meanwhile down at the Sound, regular steamer service came to Stone Landing in 1886, with the steamer, Iola, making about one run a week, bringing supplies for the residents of Des Moines and hay and feed for the cattle, etc.
In 1888, Captain Vanderhoef purchased the boat and in 1869, began making six trips a week; three days taking the east route and three days the west route.
As Mike Kelly and the other early Sunnydale settlers were cutting roads and branching off with roads, Des Moines was having this steamer service from Tacoma and Seattle, and Des Moines brought people by boat to Three Tree Point. Then Three Tree Point developers got busy.
The Three Tree Point developers put out a brochure titled, "Scenes and Views at Three Tree Point on Puget Sound." It was printed by Lawman and Hanfords Stationery and Printing Co. (This brochure is now in the Burien Library.)
The Three Tree Point Company, who made the brochure available consisted of the president, J.D. Lowman, secretary Bernard Polly, and manager, C.B. Livermore.
This brochure was a magnificent silent salesman as the information in it sounds so tranquil, and fills one with an urge to go out and truly buy some property. It also shows why Seahurst and Three Tree Point have always been such lovely tracts of land. It is too long a booklet
repeat in its entirety here, but we will take a few excerpts from it:
This little book is written to impress upon you the beauty of a spot that is practically within a stone's throw of either Seattle or Tacoma, and yet so carefully planted by nature as to be, to all appearances, thousands of miles from civilization. Its natural advantages of location make it an ideal spot for a summer home and resort. It is near enough to enable the business or professional man to go daily to and from the city.
The view either way from the Point cannot be excelled anywhere on the Sound. The bathing is perfect. Opportunities abound for aquatic sports of all kinds. The lay of the land and the woods form an ideal and beautiful natural park, and there is an abundance of pure spring water. It is a true resort for seekers after recreation and recuperation near to nature's heart.
There is a healing power in every breeze that bears upon its bosom the breath of pure sea air and the sweet scent of the pines:
[page 36 appears to be missing]
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... protection. The tents will be furnished of either size for the season at $50.00. Parties who have tents of their own and wish to put them up themselves, will be furnished ground room for ten dollars per month.
The purest of water is bad from springs on the land of the Company, and is piped to each lot, and owners have as good water service as is afforded by the present excellent Cedar Mountain system at Seattle.
The Pavillion can be reserved on short notice for the use of parties for all social pleasures, without annoyance from the general public, as the grounds are private and not open for other than its resident patrons, except by regular and special engagement.
The grounds can be obtained for picnics upon application to the management. No application for the grounds for Sunday use will be entertained, as the grounds on Sabbath days a will be used by the resident patrons and their friends. The grounds will be leased to parties only with the EXPRESS UNDERSTANDING that no spirituous or malt liquors will be sold or allowed on the premises.
The waterfront lots are 60 feet frontage and are from 100 to 300 feet deep. The Company own the tide lands and your water rights extend to deep water and no one will be allowed to use your water frontage. Prices range from $75.00 to $300.00 per lot.
Small Cottages from two to four rooms can be put up for use on short notice, prices running from $200 to $300 each. The houses are portable and can be moved from one part of a lot to another.
TRANSPORTATION SERVICE
The Company have purchased a new steamer, which will be used exclusively for the accommodation of its patrons, and the service will be absolutely reliable, fast and safe.
The following is an article taken from an old issue of Highline Times:
I came upon a most unusual story the other day. Trying to tell it as one interesting ...
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chapter to Highline's history.
...
In the past few pages I have stressed the importance of roads, schools, utilities and early industries that have contributed to the growth of our area.
The years of 1940 to 1968 produced an explosive growth in our area because of two major industries that are our neighbors to the east of us. The Boeing Aircraft Company and the Seattle-Tacoma Airport.
In 1916, Boeing Aircraft Company was formed and at that time it was in Youngstown. It hired 21 people.
Within one year space was cramped and Mr. Boeing moved his entire manufacturing operation to a Seattle shipyard. It was here that the first commercial manufacture of Boeing Airplanes began. This called the Seattle Boeing Plant #1 today and is still situated there. (In 1928, hired about 400 people.)
After the entry of the United States into World War I, Boeing became a busy place. It was this period that definitely brought many Boeing workers to our area.
After the war Boeing consistently expanded and kept on hiring more people until at present, over 90,000 people in the Seattle are hired. Of this number 10,000 were hired in 1967. (Many live in the Burien area.)
The Seattle-Tacoma Airport came to the Bow Lake site just east of us.
(41a)
Progress Edition Magazine Supplement, January 24-25, 1962
LAKE BURIEN RAILROAD
Faithful carrier of Burien residents, as it looked in 1915, has been referred to as a "Toonerville Trolley." Conductor Waddington (right) recently retired as manager of Seattle Transit.
In 1912, transportation for the District could have run Competition with Disney - it had its own railroad
Through a community effort, Lake Burien landowners pooled their money and purchased an electric streetcar from Seattle. The line became known as the Lake Burien Railroad, with tracks laid rather nonchalantly, more or less where they would fit without too much groundwork. They began, or ended, depending on which way you were going, at 21st S. W. and S. W. 152nd, in Seahurst. They ran east to the intersection of 152nd and Ambaum, then turned and ambled down Ambaum to White Center, connecting with the Seattle line at Riverside.
Privately-Financed
The privately-financed railway was a real estate venture designed to open the south end to homeowners. The speculation paid off, for the line was a major factor in the development of the land lying within reach of its nine-mile-long track.
Stops along the line had names that are still familiar, such as Michigan Siding, Oak Park, Green, Meetum, Carrvilla, Salmon Creek, Hazel Valley and Summit.
According to the old-time passengers, Green was approximately where the Green Center Trailer Park on Ambaum, is presently situated. Meetum was the station close to Chelsea Park. Carrvilla was the first stop south of White Center, named after a family flamed Carr who lived at 100th S. W. and 16th Ave.
The line was plagued with problems-slides, power failure, caterpillars and kids.
Tickets were used instead of tokens and the children's fare was two tickets for a nickel. The kids claimed they were practicing economy when they were caught hitching rides on the rear cowcatcher. However, worrying about the motorman catching them added a certain spice to the ride.
There were other times when the kids were not responsible for power failure and the car was moved up a grade by old fashioned manpower, provided I by the passengers.
Caterpillars
Mother Nature got into the act when her schedule called for an over abundance of Spring caterpillars. Even if they were the fuzzy kind, they provided no traction and the car would proceed under caterpillar power-backward.
This provided a thrill at no extra cost. Sand was often released to cover the slick rails and provide enough traction to go forward again.
Land slides were serious enough to put a halt to the privately-owned line. The car was returned, and the tracks deeded to Seattle. The line was repaired and service resumed and continued until 1929, when service between White Center and Seahurst was discontinued. Don Haines, of 16425 Maplewild relates an interesting result of the Lake Burien Railroad. Through his business of surveying, he finds the streets built alongside the tracks are five feet off the center line- which proves the lasting effect of the Lake Burien Railroad.
Pranks
Sometimes the kids were responsible for the power failure, too, by making a half-hitch with a rope around trolley rod. When the car reached a high spot in the line, the rod wouldn't reach and power would be lost. Of course the kids were nowhere near the rope at the time and offered their sympathy to the motorman from their seats which they innocently occupied.
Sometimes the motorman was thoughtful, too, and let them get fresh air and exercise by walking home
41b
Streetcar Part of Burien History
When the old timers get together and reminisce about old times, and the subject of the old street car that once ran along Ambaum road comes up, doubtless there are many versions of what took place in the early days of Burien.
Recalling the days of the early development of Burien, recently, H. L. Virgil, 2405 S.W. 144th street related the story of the old transit line as he saw it, and the development and outmoding of the trolley that once was the pride and pleasure of the early settlers here. Mr. Virgil came to the South End in 1917 and opened up a lumber business on the corner of 152nd S.W. and Ambaum road, where the Bunge lumber company now stands, is partner In this business was T. K. Swift, who later bought Mr. Virgil's interest. The endeavor later passed to B. W. Fatheringham who died shortly after acquiring it. Then the store passed to the Bunge-Harper company, and upon, the death of Mr. Harper, who was Mrs. Bunge's uncle, the business became known as the Bunge Lumber and Hardware company. After Mr. Virgil disposed of his interest in the lumber business, he devoted many long hard years to the development and establishment of he Highline high school. But that's another story. It is easy for who possesses a wealth of memories to digress; especially so when one has taken an active interest in most of the worthwhile things that grow into the web and woof that is the story of a new young lusty community such as Burien was back In the early 1900s.
By 1917 there were five real estate companies at Burien and six at Seahurst, which is an indication of the development of the area as it was at that time. Then the first World War had come; ship yards were building wooden ships, and demanding poles, masts and booms for construction of the Liberty ships. Perhaps the best remembered ship yard was the Skinner & Eddy Company, but there was the Ames company and several others, all needing the lumber for wartime ship building.
Originally, the rails that carried these vast timber cuttings were laid by a group of men who had contracts with the ship yards. This cleared the heavily wooded lands, and paved the way for the real estate development that followed the First World War. When the war was over, there was no more need for the logging line in its original sense, so a group of civic minded individuals, by what is known as the "hat-passing" process, raised enough money to lay lighter rails and the line was converted into a trolley line for passengers. Among the men who led this movement was George White, for whom White Center is named.
In those days, a strip of six tickets could be purchased for 25 cents. For five cents a passenger could ride from Riverside, or from the Spokane street bridge in Seattle, to the city limits-then as now, Roxbury street in White Center. For five cents more, a passenger could ride to the terminal, which was at 22nd street S.W., and at this site now is a modern beauty parlor. Where the beauty parlor is now located, the Seahurst Land company had its office - a timely location indeed to serve the vast army of people who were by then looking toward this part of the country for new homes.
Mr. Virgil smiled when he recalled the "five-centers" and the "ten-centers." Five-centers got off at Roxbury street and walked the rest of the way home. The ten-centers rode all the way to the end of the line! In all history, we find the story of class distinction, even in a new, raw wilderness where five cents made the difference between the classes.
Then the automobile, which changed so many aspects of American life, came along with highway development, and with it came the decline of street cars transportation, in the South End, as in all other parts of the country. By the "law of disuse," the trolley line became of less and less value, and was finally sold to the City of Seattle. Originally, their purpose was to run it to connect with their city lines at the city limits, but time, too, took care of that. The tracks were removed, and the line passed into history.
There was a conductor, or motorman, who worked on the Lake Burien carline from the beginning of its history. The oldsters who read this story will recall if he was a motorman or a conductor. It made a lot of difference then. Now he drives a suburban bus on the Des Moines run, and many will recall him, I am sure. Rube Larson is his name, and doubtless he could write a saga of his own. He is the last known link in the glory that was once the Lake Burien carline.
As Mr. Virgil sat by the dying embers of the fire that burned low in the massive fireplace, his gracious wife listening to recall the old days too, he looked out of the window into the sunset and in his memory he must have seen things one cannot put downs on paper - history is too colorful and wonderful, for mere words.
(page 49)
... left their machinery there. Some machinery was buried and there are homes built right over some of them now.
There was always a question as to where was the first church and who was the first minister. Previous to the first church being built, services were held in various homes. Each landowner was naturally willing for the minister to spend the week-end in their cabin. The first church was built in 1897 by a man called Davis. Davis held revival meetings there. It was a Methodist Church on the east side of Sunnydale School on the Renton-Three Tree Point Road. The property was donated by Mr. Peters, who helped build the church. About 1905, Cyrus Gilbert bought the parsonage. The parsonage (1968) is still standing. (Information from Hilda Carver and later on confirmed by Etta Marasch.)
The west side of Burien had been logged (west of 8th Ave. S.) by the Simmons togging Company as far south as Lake Burien. This area, including Three Tree Point (according to County Engineers' records and maps, which we had photostated) had been plotted as early as 1863. Real estate interests involved were anxious to sell the property.
Brace and Herget Lumber Company of Seattle was doing some logging out here in 1902.
George Carter was a timber cruiser. He then purchased land out here; logged around Gregory Heights.
Carter had the first grocery store in Sunnydale in 1903, then Getner came in later.
Elizabeth (Carter) Sanders remembers delivering groceries and being afraid of all the howling cougars. She was fourteen years of age when she would go to Three Tree Point with groceries.
There were a great deal of loggers in this area--all through Gregory Heights and Normandy Park. There wore many skid roads leading to the Sound from Gregory and to Miller's Creek.
The following is taken from newspaper clippings:
Skid roads went with ox-team logging. Small logs were imbedded crossways on the trail, like railroad ties only farther apart. Big logs were dragged lengthways over the road logs.
Anyone who has lived in the Puget Sound country for 40 or 50 years can remember seeing traces of skid roads in the woods, with the cross-logs rotting by then, because donkey engines long before had replaced oxen.
(A few skid roads remained in use in spite of machinery, but it was for small-scale logging with horses, such as a farmer hauling out trees or a little mill working a left over patch of timber).
The Skid Logs had to be greased, so a crew of men slopped out grease from buckets.
(page 52A)
Seattle Times Wednesday, July 13, 1966 [verify top of page]
Byron Fish
Burien's Success Encouraging
Green space, rapid transit and a ball park were suburban problems in the Burien area 64 years ago. All of them were solved, which should be some encouragement to today's planners.
In 1902, Burien was a suburb of Sunnydale, which was reached by way of South Park. South Park was reached by streetcar from Seattle.
There was one cabin at the east end of Lake Burien. Mr. Burien built it some time before 1886.
Burien had one neighbor to the west. The C. J. McCain lot ran from the lake to Puget Sound and took in much of Gregory Heights.
Over in the valley, the Millers had settled at the mouth of Miller Creek. Miller's Beach now is Normandy Cove, just south of Three Tree Point.
When the people of Sunnydale got tired of urban living, they headed over to Miller's Beach. A picnic on the Fourth of July was an annual affair.
After a while they grew tired of Miller's Beach. "Let's go somewhere else," they said in 1902. Some of them decided on Lake Burien.
That is when they first ran into a green-space problem. There was entirely too much of it. What they wanted was a wide-open space, where baseball could be played. It would not be a Fourth of July picnic without a ball game.
Between the lack of a ball field, the narrow rutted road to get there and all the trees, logs and brush around it, Lake Burien was not a popular choice for the picnic.
However, the Sunnydale backers of the Burien site went over and started clearing a ballfield. By July they had uncovered an acre. Around its edge they put up tables and an ice-cream stand.
It rained on the Fourth, but everybody in the Highline District turned out for the picnic. A mob of 200 showed up.
The ball game, between the Sawmillers and Sunnydale, was played in spite of rain, mud and stumps. Several sawmill men were former professionals and they ran up a lopsided score, 19 to 3.
The next year logging began around the lake and west to Puget Sound. That activity led to numerous roadways being cleared, so it was much easier to hold the 1905 Fourth of July picnic in Burien.
The ball game was played in an open space right on Rainier Street, which later became Southwest 152nd. The teams were Sunnydale and Des Moines. The score was not recorded for history.
We do have the information, though, that one of the loggers, Milton R. Mahaffey, "had the lemonade concession and a rip-roarin' time was had by all."
It was a long hike from Burien to the nearest streetcar at South Park until 1913, when "rapid transit" was inaugurated. The new car line ran to Burien by way of White Center.
It had a schedule. According to an old account of this "fine transportation," the trip from Burien to Riverside varied between "45 minutes and four hours and 50 minutes."
The two streetcars were purchased from the city after Seattle was through with them, but the erratic timetable was not their fault. Trees fell on the trolley line, or sometimes the power just plain failed. In fact, we read, "It usually did."
The cars had to pass a brickyard too, which also was using the clay bank through which the rail line was cut. At annoying intervals, the clay slid onto the tracks.
The passengers got out with shovels and helped clear the way. It is too bad today's motorists are not as self-reliant. The freeway might he finished by now.
As has happened elsewhere, automobiles put the rail line out of business. Suburban residents could drive to town in less than 45 minutes, let alone four hours and 50 minutes.
They still can beat the old streetcars' worst time.
(page 56)
and water the horses. They would ask for hay for the horses. Our well was the kind with pulleys, rope and two wooden buckets.
There were no herd haws here then and our cows were med loose in front of our present fire station, in Burien, (which) was an open pasture.
It was the rainy season and the creek that ran through overflowed and covered the pasture, there was a well, and the high water floated the covering off of the well. One cow did not come home this night, we went to look for her and found she had walked into the well and drowned."
The following is from Beatrice Carpenter:
"I remember leaving 6:30 in the morning to get the trolley. I would get down to Riverside, take the Fauntleroy Trolley to Yesler and from there another one to get to the University. I would then, in the evening, reverse the procedure to get home. I would get home by 8:00 P.M. I never saw daylight out here until the week-ends: This was in 1914."
"In 1914, before the trolley was in, if we missed the ferry, we would have to walk. Where we walked to, depended on the tide. If the tide was way down we could walk on the beach to Fauntleroy. If it was high we would have to walk to South Park. Sometimes, even if we were on time, we might not be able to get the ferry because of breakdown or fog."
"Three Tree Point was one of the prettier places on the Sound. Three large fir trees grew on the Point. That's where the name came from. The dock was near the Point, and a boardwalk to a beautiful park. There were trees and lawn and there was a large round dance pavilion. It was more of a resort. Picnics and outings. Three Tree Point had a baseball team with a ball field.
The first settlers there that I remember was Mr. Colt; a large western style man with long black beard. He was the light house keeper. Mr. Livermore was the man to start Three Tree Point.
Around 1908, Mr. L. I. Gregory took over and started the place to boom."
The following is a letter from Etta Marasch:
"Dear Esther,
I finally have collected as much as I could for you. If you can use any of this, fine. Otherwise, discard it.
I will give you what I got from Joe Marasch and then add mine. They had a golden wedding celebration and Christmas, etc., so it took awhile before I heard and also wrote the second time to get the road as it was and other information and got the second letter today from Ventura, California.
The Marasch family first lived in Seattle then moved and settled on Lake Burien in a log cabin, furnished with feather beds. One thing he remembers. This was in 1897 and the near-
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In 1904, on the west side of Lake Burien where the Catholic Church now stands, an old lady by the name of Hugo lived there for awhile.
Bill Dashley, Ira Covey, Al Shad and Dan West came in the spring of 1905.
William Hood and his wife came in April, 1905 and lived on five acres of adjoining property to ours. A family by the name of Martin, built in 1906, on the back side of property at about Fourth Southwest, and 154th. A family by the name of Vanderlip came in the same year.
Jimmie Head bought Martin's place in 1910. Homer Crosby came in 1907 in February. He built Crosby Road from Ambaum to First Avenue. It is now 146th Southwest. In 1909, he put through Ambaum Road from White Center to Des Moines. Ho used Donkey engines to do the work.
In 1913, Bowens, Beach, Clothiers, Bob Wrop came. In 1906, Don McGuire built on a part of 160 acres on Fourth, Southwest and 153rd.
In 1919 or '18, Muirheads, Tab Thomas and wife, Luther Filchett and family, McCrath, Emils Daniels, Mr. and Mrs. Annis, George Gunis, father and mother, Wagner, Hudson and Sam Hucksons came here.
When we came here in l904, there was no work out here and Mr. Bigelow had to go to Seattle to get work. I also worked in Seattle or anywhere I could get something to do. We didn't have a thing but the clothes on our back and a blanket or two. We put up an old tent and slept on the ground until we could get lumber in and a shack built.
We got an old cook stove that was all the furniture we owned.
Mr. Bigelow split poles and nailed them on four blocks of wood for a bed. I took burlap sacks, opened them and sewed them together for a bed tick, then gathered dry ferns, stripped the stems out and filled the tick with them. That was our bed for the first winter.
We had no water on the place so carried it from a spring on First Avenue near Five Corners.
Later on, the next year when Dan McGuire built a house, they drilled a well and we carried our water from there until 1909 when we drilled a well on our property.
I told you that we walked to South Park to go to work in Seattle. We did this for quite a few years. It was solid woods where bears, coons, screech owls and the coyotes ran in packs, so you see we never had a dull moment. We would go to South Park, take a can with a candle in it and matches, then when we got out of the woods on the outskirts of South Park, we would hide our can back of a tree and then we would pick it up on our way home again.
In the winter we would get up at 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning for clams.
Two years after we bought the piece, we bought two little white pigs eight weeks old and carried them home in sacks on our backs. We raised a litter of seven little pigs. We raised a cow from six months old heifer and some chickens. Then we felt like real farmers.
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... policies, hired its own teachers and purchased its own textbooks and other supplies.
Seahurst Burien School
I remember the very first school in Seahurst, It started up in a real estate office in 1913. Located on 152nd and 22nd Avenue, southwest. Later on that year it was moved into a tent. In order to get a teacher, the school had to have ten pupils. There were exactly nine children in the area of school age. Therefore, five year old little me was drafted to go to school. I spent my days playing or sleeping in the back of the room. There was a cat there for me. My oldest sister, Ann, was a pupil in school. The teacher was Miss Snow. (By the end of the first year, 13 pupils were enrolled.)
A year later the new school on the present site of the Burien School was begun. There were two classrooms; a lunch room and playroom downstairs with two rooms and a principal's office upstairs. In the beginning only one of the upper rooms was put into use.
Children walked to this school from Three Tree Point, Seahurst and Hazel Valley.
After the First World War, expansion became necessary and in 1926, six rooms were added. In 1928, four more rooms on the north side were added.
My first two years of high school were at West Seattle High School. We took the trolley car to Riverside and transferred to the Seattle trolley to go to West Seattle. The Seahurst and Burien children went to West Seattle High School. The Sunnydale and Des Moines children went to Lincoln High School via the Des Moines Way route. My third and fourth year was in our own Highline High School.
By Angelo Balzarini
The years of 1369 to 1915 have been years of homesteading, and the gradual influx of people coming to this area. They were years of concentrating on earning a living and working out transportation problems. 1915 to 1918 wore taken up by a great need for poles for the liberty ships used in World War
One. Many of these poles came from the area bore in Burien. 52nd Street was logged out as well as much of Gregory Heights and the Seahurst area. These logs were transported by rail (our railroad to Salmon Creek to a sawmill there) and others were taken by Des Moines Way to a sawmill. Possibly the one on 138th and up the hill. (About where Sunset Junior High is today.)
Many of the young men of our area went to war. Military Road was traveled for transporting troops and materials back and forth from Fort Lewis to Seattle and from all the other outlying areas.
We had many ship yard workers that moved to Burien since our railroad traveled from Burien to Riverside where one of the ship yards were.
The streetcar and better roads in the district indeed played their part in the rapid growth of the south end after 1911. Besides facilitating growth and settlement, they contributed to a subtle change in the economic organization of the community from that of the agricultural settlers to one of dependent suburbanism, characterized by the increasing numbers of families who were dependent upon their city jobs for a livelihood and who commuted because of the greatly improved transportation.
This development had an important effect on the community dooming the Sunnydale Village to one of the corner store variety and placing the bulk of the business on the west side. (152nd and 9th.) of the community.
The Seahurst area began to have a few stores and real estate office.
I Remember by Mabel Clothier
(From 1955 interview)
One of the earliest ship yard workers was Charles Clothier and his wife, Mabel. They moved here from Seattle in about 1912. He bought a piece of ground from Mr. Dashley and built a shack. The stove that they brought from Seattle broke down so they had no heating or cooking facilities for a while. He fixed up a big round piece of metal. This was their stove for two years. Mrs. Clothier canned berries over this stove and cooked her meals.
In 1914, Charles and his wife built their home on southwest 146th and 9th Avenue. They claimed a distinction in the unique way they built their water tank, which stood 50 feet high on a very tall stump alongside their home from 1921 until it was removed in 1953.
The water tank not only provided a landmark for many years, but it also became the subject of an illustrated article in the Popular Mechanics magazine.
Mr. Clothier traveled to work at Todd's shipyard daily on the Burien railroad.
In 1921, fifteen or twenty residents joined efforts to build a Consumers Co-operative store. All had shares in the profit and the work on the store. It was operated approximately on the south side in the center of the block of 152nd between 9th and 10th. This block was to be the beginning area for businesses in Burien. Soon the bend of the road at 152nd Street and Ambaum began to have business. This was from 9th to 10th--152nd, Ambaum Road at that time came into about 9th.
People brought their produce to Co-operative store then.
Swift Lumber Yard built in there on the corner of 9th and Ambaum and Mabel Clothier worked there
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until 1923.
Soon there was a Wheeler Grocery Store, Sheehan's Dry Goods, Jim Head Wood and Coal Co., Hay and Grain Store, Ed Wood's Garage, Powell's Blacksmith Shop, Joe Wodington's Barber Shop and Wright's Pool Hall.
Each of these businesses could come up with some fancy tales and we will get as many as we can. (Depending on how many people we can locate.)
In the meantime, Des Moines Way was cut through to Seattle and in 1913, the Neal brothers, former senator Mel Neal and his twin brothers, Millard and Clarence, originated a bus service between Des Moines and Seattle. Previous to that, most travel from Des Moines and Seattle was by boat or horse. Traveling overland was wonderful in the summer months--but everyone often got out and pushed when the roads were muddy and rutted.
By 1917, the Des Moines road was completely bricked and a gala event it was, as they celebrated the dedication of the new highway.
In 1918, F.E. Edlington, Abner Ellington and Vic Nelson assumed the management of the bus lines and this developed into the Suburban Transportation System.
I Remember by Mrs. Frank (Adele) Sheehan, Sr.
My husband, Frank L., Senior and I came to Burien in the spring of 1919. We had two children. We established a dry goods variety and men's clothing store on the 9th, southwest and 152nd St. corner. We bought this building from a man called Shomb Nath. He had been living in this building. This building was very big. There was a barber shop next to us and then a pool hall.
The building burnt down that year but was rebuilt in 1920. The store building is still standing. (1968)
The first drugstore was Saisbury Drugstore in about 1923. It still stands today and is now called Burien Drugstore.
The first lumber company to my memory, was Banam and McGraw and was about where 8th Avenue, southwest and 153rd Street is. (The railroad was there and it was used to ship lumber.)
The Puget Sound Power and Light Company was in that block. (1922)
Mr. Wheeler had a grocery and meat shop.
There was a gas station, I believe it was owned by a Mr. Hatfield, first, then sold to Ed Good--but it was then purchased by Ivan Phillips about 1920. Ivan Phillips has owned it since and up to his retirement.
There was a W.K. Swift and Lumber Company where Highline Savings and Loan is today; 8th Avenue southwest and 152nd. It was placed there because of the railroad.
People by the name of Foss had tailoring and cleaning shop in our building.
The Co-op store was on 10th Avenue, southwest end just south of 152nd.
We sold some property on 10th Avenue, southwest and 152nd and sold it to Mr. Beemans--and later Mr. Tennis bought it. He put up a bakery shop. Mr. Tennis also sold insurance and he was a justice-of-the-peace.
I Remember by Mr. Virgil
When the old timers get together and reminisce about old times, and the subject of the old street car that once ran along Ambaum Road comes up, doubtless there are many versions of what took place in the early days of Burien.
Recalling the days of the early development of Burien, recently, H.L. Virgil, 2405 S.W. 144th Street, related the story of the old transit line as he saw it, and the development and outmoding of the trolley that once was the pride and pleasure of the early settlers here. Mr. Virgil came to the south end in 1917 and opened up a lumber business on the corner of 152nd, S.W. and Ambaum Road, where the Bunge Lumber Company now stands. His partner in this business was U.K. Swift, who later bought Mr. Virgil's interest. The endeavor later passed to B.W. Fatheringham who died shortly after acquiring it. Then the store passed to the Bunge Harper Company, and upon the death of Mr. Harper, who was Mrs. Bunge's uncle, the business became known as the Bunge Lumber and Hardware Company. After Mr. Virgil disposed of his interest in the lumber business, he devoted many long hard years to the development and establishment of the Highline High School. But that is another story. It is easy for one who possesses a wealth of memories to digress; especially so when one has taken an active interest in most of the worthwhile things that grow into the web and woof that is the story of a new young lusty community such as Burien was back in the early 1900's.
By 1917, there were five real estate companies at Burien and six at Seahurst which is an indication of the development of this area as it was at that time.
Then, the First World War had come; ship yards were building wooden ships, and demanding poles, masts and booms for construction of the Liberty Ships. Perhaps the best remembered ship yard was the Skinner and Eddy Company, but there
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was the Ames Company and several others, all needing the lumber f or wartime ship building.
In those days, a strip of six tickets could be purchased for 25 cents for rides on our railroad. For five cents a passenger could ride from Riverside, or from the Spokane St. bridge in Seattle, to the city limits--then, as now, Roxbury Street in White Center. For five cents more, a passenger could ride to the terminal, which was at 22nd Street southwest, and at this site now is a modern beauty parlor. Where the beauty parlor is now located, the Seahurst Land Company had its office-a timely location indeed, to serve the vast army of people who were by then looking toward this part of the country for new homes.
Mr. Virgil smiled when he recalled the "Five-Center' and the "Ten-Center". Five-Centers got off at Roxbury Street and walked the rest of the way home, the Ten-Centers rode all the way to the end of the lines. In all history, we find the story of class distinction, even in a new, raw wilderness where five cents made the difference between the classes.
Then the automobile, which changed so many aspects of American life came along with highway development, and with it came the decline of street car transportation, in the south end, as in all other parts of the country. By the "law of disuse", the trolley line became of less and less value, and was finally sold to the City of Seattle. Originally, their purpose was to run it to connect with their city lines at the city limits, but time, too, took care of that. Some tracks were removed. Some of the tracks are under the pavement on the new paved highway.
There was a conductor, or motorman, who worked on the Lake Burien car line from the beginning of its history. The oldsters who read this story will recall if he was a motorman or a conductor. It made a lot of difference then. Rube Larson is his name, and doubtless he could write a saga of his own. He is the last known link in the glory that was once the Lake Burien Canine.
As Mr. Virgil sat by the dying embers of the fire that burned low in the massive fireplace, his gracious wife listening to recall the old days, too, he looked out of the window into the sunset and in his memory he must have seen things one cannot put down on paper-history is too colorful and wonderful for mere words.
From an article in the Burien Press 1947
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I remember, by Piero Balzarini:
The Balzarini family settled in the Highline area in 1911.
Louis Balzarini and his wife, Ernesta, with three children; Anne, Piero and Angelo Balzarini, moved from Vanassalt to Seahurst in 1911. Their first home in the area was a stunner cottage on the beach at No-Ko-Mis Park. (Now part of Seahurst on 152nd and 23rd Southwest.)
No-Ko-Mis Park was named by the Puget Sound Mill Company, who previously had owned the property.
In 1912, the Balzarini's moved from the cabin at No-Ko-Mis to a fourteen acre tract of land in Seahurst. It was there that the first home was built in Seahurst.
It was also there that another daughter was born to the Balzarini's. She was the first child born in Seahurst.
At the time, Mr. Balzarini lived there. He was in the employ of Doctor Gardner, who had purchased the land from the Puget Sound Mill Company. The property was in a wild state, heavy with brush and many old-growth trees. There were black bears and cougars. Through the dynamic effort of Mr. Balzarini, it was but a short time before the land was made to blossom forth with fruit trees, berries and the finest of vegetables.
At this time, there was no mode of transportation between Seattle and Seahurst except old logging roads and an occasional run by boat between Seattle and Seahurst, Three Tree Point and Des Moines. Except for a very, very few families, the only residents around Seahurst and Three Tree Point were the people who lived in their summer cottages at that season.
Burien had only four homes on the lake and between Lake Burien and First Avenue, there were a few more. The Sunnydale area had still more.
Mr. Balzarini began selling his vegetables to the summer residents. Ho did this by rowboat since there were no roads around the point. Later on a few dirt roads were constructed end he used a horse and buggy. At this time, about 1913, whenever he bad to go to town in Seattle, it meant a long walk to South Park where he was able to board a street car.
The eldest daughter, Anne, had to walk from Seahurst to Sunnydale in order to go to school.
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We had a community hall across from the Co-op store and there again we were constantly raising money to pay the rent. Saturday night dancing was fun but we always have hoodlums. The boys, one night, chased a fellow under the boardwalk in Burien and hung around all night. The poor fellow was so frightened he stayed under the boardwalk all night.
The Community Hall was sold in 1928.
We had a doctor's office here in Burien. The doctor came in one or two days a week. He lived in Riverton. I was in Burien all day in the garage, and since most men were working in town I made many a rush trip to Riverton with expectant mothers. A deputy siren and light on the car was helpful in those times.
One day I got a call from a woman--help--my daughter pulled the grate off the floor that leads to the furnace--she fell in! I went and pulled the child out.
About this time, in 1928, we had telephones and we all had ten party lines. Well, can you guess what went on!
Ivan moved to a new location in 1932.
(Editor's note:
Ivan Phillips has just recently retired, in 1964, and be is one of the most helpful and interesting persons our community has had. We all call him Pop Phillips. He could write a complete book of the joys and sorrows of many of us here in Burien.)
My garage had a pot belly stove and chairs around the stove. Many of the men would stop and sit and chit chat a spell. It was nothing to have the telephone ring and have some irate woman say, "Ivan, is that man of mine there? Send him home, he has to chop wood."
One week-end I made three trips into Riverton because some man had chopped his thumb as he was chopping wood. Some times, eh!
The following excerpt is from the Highline Times, December 18, 1947:
Back about 1921, Mr. Phillips said, he came to make his home in Burien City. Before the war he'd been with the Seattle fire department. After seeing service in the First World War he came to Burien and started a garage. The only road that came out this way at the time was the Des Moines road. Mr. Phillips started his garage back of the location now occupied by the barber shop and shoemaker on 152nd S.W., which businesses are across the street from the present site of the Puget Sound Power & Light Company. Dad Wright had a pool hall where Jamie Whiteley's store now stands. The only board walk in the area was one that ran from the corner of 152nd S.W. and Ambaum Road, down to the present site of the Masonic temple. The street car line that came out along Ambaum Road from White Center went between the drug store on the corner and his garage, thence to its terminal at Seahurst. There was no regular service, one couldn't be sure just when the car would come. Lack of power precluded the company from giving regular service, and at times the condition of the rails was in such poor state that newcomers got seasick and had to got off because they just couldn't stand the ride. John Wilson had a little grocery store where the Puget Sound Power & Light now stands; it was a typical little country store, and Mr. Phillips likened it to Lum and Abner's Jot 'em Down store that we hear today on the radio. Mr. Wilson had a competitor in the grocery business in the person of John Wheelor who had an establishment on Ambaum Road in the building now occupied by the cabinet shop. Mr. Wheelor outdid Mr. Wilson, for he sold everything from groceries and notions to cultivators! In the same building was a bake shop operated by Joe Tennis, who concocted his pies and bread with the help of an old wood-fired bake oven. While Mr. Phillips was relating this part of his story to me, Mr. Tennis came in and I sensed that warm feeling between the two men that only years of close association can weave. Now, in a tiny building by Mr. Tennis' bakery was a movie-the type so common in the days of the old silent pictures. The theater was about 30 feet long and 12 feet wide. Later another theater replaced this, and was established on the site now occupied by the Tradewell store. One night in the projection room, 13 rolls of film, all lying loose, caught on fire and in a matter of minutes the building was ablaze from end to end. A lumber yard had burned shortly before this, and feeling was strong that something, should be done about fire protection. So a few of the civic leaders got together and got an old truck and a chemical tank. It was natural enough to put Mr. Phillips at the head of the fire protection group, and ho was the first fire chief that Burien City over had.
As time went by, the fire department grew into a sort of first aid outfit, and Mr. Phillips also played a leading part in this service. Now, those of you who know Mr. Phillips, know he is not without his sly humor, and when he unfolded some
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of his experiences as driver of the first emergency car, I felt it was a shame that many columns were not allotted to me to write his full story. In his day, he has taken at least 50 women into Seattle, racing usually with that long legged bird, and he told me of one race he had with the stork in which ho was the winner by a. scant 15 minutes. He had to go in over the old highway then and usually worked with Dr. Nichols who lived at Riverton and covered all the newly opened country in the South End. Mr. Phillips recalled that on more than one occasion he had been called out with the fire department or to assist Dr. Nichols as many as five or six times in one night. Speaking of the first doctor, he recalled Dr. William Crawford, too, who was Burien's first dentist.
Now, in the development of any now country, there are always the rough and the lawless. It is a. picture as American as the country store cracker barrel. Out of chaos that comes with rapid settlement comes order, always, and Mr. Phillips was a strong factor in developing a city of high standards and moral courage and cultural attainments such as Burien City is today. At the time he took up residence here the country was raw, cruel and violent. Public or private parties wore invaded by drunken men, women were insulted on the street and robbery was common. Once Mrs. Phillips was hold up on the street and lost over $60. Accordingly, the sheriff's office in King county was contacted and Mr. Phillips was deputized to keep law and order in the new town. In all his years as a peace officer he has been known to be a fair and impartial judge and a friend to youngsters who have erred. He recalled that only twice was it necessary for him to use his gun, and one occasion was when he found two youths breaking into a store. He called the sheriff in Seattle, and said that he bad apprehended the two boys but was reluctant to, bring them in, since it was their first offense. The officer told him to use his judgment, so he obtained confessions from the boys, and from that day on, they were law-abiding young men. Their confessions lie today in Mr. Phillips' safe, along with many others. Attesting his wisdom are the young people whom ho had to correct in one way and another, that have grown here, some have gone into and come out of the service. They come to him from time to time, even now, and thank him graciously for straightening them out. Few men know the gratification that comes from things like that in their lifetime.
In the early days, too, bootlegging was a common practice, and the offenders kept dogs ostensibly to protect their property but, in truth, the animals were kept to hide their crime. Mr. Phillips knows in his secret mind many people who gave themselves away by their actions, and though much of what he knows is locked up within him, I think he could tell many a lusty tale of early days before repeal eliminated bootlegging from the public scene.
Chicken stealing was one of the ugly things to be contended with in those days, and once he was called by a citizen who said he had shot a chicken thief and didn't know if the offender was alive or dead, and didn't care much which, to go and look.
An interesting story was told me about the time he had newly painted the front of his garage. A bandit had been loitering around the front, and had leaned against the wet paint. Mr. Phillips took issue with the man, not knowing he intended to hold up the garage, concerned only for his new coat of paint. When he told him to get away from the paint, the men walked directly across the street and held up the establishment there, and when the sheriff was called from town, the siren on the patrol car could be heard as far away as Boulevard Park, and the hold-up men was never apprehended.
Yes, there's violence and crime and ugly things in the settlement of a new, raw country. Mr. Phillips' recalled six or seven persons from Lake Burien who had been drowned; he has helped recover several bodies from the Sound, and helped cut down five or six suicides that used a. rope to end their lives. There have been other ugly forms of suicide out here, too.
After World War I, a. memorial of trees were planted on both sides of Des Moines Way honoring the dead soldiers.
Here is an article describing the trials and tribulations of upkeep of this memorial. It also tells of whose memory some of these trees are for:
Three trees in front of Sunnydale School were planted in memory of the Sunnydale boys who were killed in action during World War I:
Thomas Hughes
Charles Anton Utz
Earl Dawes
I noticed a name, John Hazeltine on the memorial. John Hazeltine was a member of the first family in Hazel Valley. (The area was named after this family.)
The following is from The Highline Times, dated May 2, 1957. It is entitled Highline's "Living Memorials":
At 8:30 a.m. this Memorial Day a small band of individuals will gather near Sunnydale school a-
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NOTES ABOUT THE FIRST DECADE
The opening, September 2, 1924, of Highline Union High School was a great event for the area south of Seattle since it was the first high school of its kind in the state.
The firm guidance and steady hand of Highline's first principal, Mr. A.R. Terpening, along with his excellent core of teachers, soon had the school well organized and welded together into a strong community school.
Miss Lucile Wilson (Mrs. L.O. Wiggins) had the job of unpacking equipment for the cafeteria, buying the food, organizing and planning the menus, plus a full teaching load. Girl's athletics was also a part of her program. This same general program was carried on by all the other teachers, too.
The first student fund-raising project:
Money was scarce and the student body didn't have money or equipment for sports and activities. To help provide needed supplies, the teachers and the parents staged a big all school carnival early in the fall. All rooms in the building were used for carnival events of one kind or another. The gymnasium was the place of a big country fair.
This was the first time for an all district affair, and it proved to be a great unifying force, bringing the seven separate school districts in the area together to form a Highline Community.
One thing that is noticed in researching this history, is the fact that many of the youth of this community from the late 1800's and clear into the early 1900's and even today...have stayed in the community, raising their families here and entering the business world right here at home. I believe this speaks well for our advancement.
In 1914, Jack Stokes came to Seahurst from Seattle. His Father had Stokes Ice-Cream Company in Seattle. (Ice-cream and candy co.)
He had one of the first large restaurants. It was the restaurant in Seattle.
He moved to Seahurst because be liked the country and the residential area of Seahurst. He bought from the Seahurst Land Company. (Mr. Cecil, developer.)
Jack was two years old when they built their brick home. Mr. Stokes was a former brick layer in Pennsylvania. He built one of the largest six-bedroom homes and the first brick house in Seahurst. It still stands at 1462O 25th, S.W.
Jack roamed the woods with the other neighborhood children, Jack Williamson and Donald and Delmar Fadden and Gene Fadden...other early old timers.
They combed the beaches, swam, made their own rafts and spent hours in the out-doors. They had the Sound and Lake Burien to swim in. There were only five houses on the lake in about 1920--Bill Dashley, Schoenings, Fred Dashley, and Jack and Tobias homes, so the boys swam in their birthday suits.
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Jack has been on the same piece of property for 52 years. He remembers the two-story Lake Burien School had a large rock-- about 15 feet high and 18 feet across on the southwest corner of the school grounds. This rock was removed when the school was torn down and the new school was built.
Jack fished down Stearns Creek where the Seahurst Park is today.
Jack Williams and Jack Stokes had horses that they rode to school and pastured them across from the school. (These two boys were about the only two that did this.)
Jack started with Northwestern Mutual Fire Insurance Company in Seattle in 1936. About 1942, he started his own agency in the central building in Seattle. Now, in 1950, when Burien businesses began to explode, Jack came back to borne territory and with a partner, Frank Huntley, put up one of the first buildings, down in what everyone felt was the sticks of the city. (152nd and 4th S.W.) Now the heart of Burien business area.
Jack is one of the examples of the many young men in our area who has enjoyed growing up here and taking an active part in the overall growth of our community. Many of these boys have shouldered the responsibility of a businessman helping the Chamber of Commerce run an unincorporated area--city problems and no city council--nearly everyone in the area has assisted.
People coming to our area in the early '20's were attracted to the community because of the beauty and lovely trees and also the transportation of the street car line. This car line opened up the way for many white-collar workers coming here. Many of them settled in Seahurst. Seahurst and Three Tree Point area was designed for definite residential areas.
The Harold Baggatts were a young couple married in 1911 in Chicago. They came to Seattle on their honeymoon to attend the potlatch ceremonies. Seven years later, they returned to Chicago. The First World War broke out and Harold was sent to Officers Training School. His lovely blonde wife, Mildred, and their three children, Bill, Janice and Dick, lived at the army base.
The Baggatts' thoughts constantly wandered back to the Pacific Northwest's beauty and therefore after the armistice was signed, it was no wonder that they came back to Seattle. They stopped once in Omak for nine months, where Mr. Baggatt helped his brother in some work.
They came to live in Seahurst--the lovely residential F area of our community, in 1920. They lived on the property between the Gilbert Duffy's property and Mr. Balzarini's property--on 152nd and 2)4th Avenue, S.W. Their view was from Seattle to Tacoma on the Sound.
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Mrs. Baggott [original text has sudden change in spelling] remembers the lovely young French bride that Mr. Mercer (Lake Burien's school principal) brought home from France.
The roads in Seahurst were cow trails. The road from Seahurst to the Point was just a very narrow, steep buggy road.
'We would walk a night to the neighbor's with a candle in a can to give us light," she said.
People would gather in each other's homes for many parties, but Friday nights were children's night at the Baggott home. This was an evening that Mildred and Harold Baggott reserved for teen-age parties for their children's friends. Whether at the beach, yard or in the home, the determining factor as to where it would be held was the weather. This night entailed games, popcorn feeds, marshmallow roasting parties and dancing.
The early years of some of the Seahurst youths was spent in the three tree-houses in the Baggott's acreage. Their sleighs drove many a child on the icy or snowy roads in winter.
Normandy Park development was in its first throes of development. These notes are taken from Bagley's History of King County, page 170, and from a brochure the League of Women Voters put out in November of 1962.
Albra, Sr. and Amanda Gardner came to Seattle in 1883. He served as city engineer for Seattle for awhile.
Albra Gardener, Jr., as of 1929 was city planner for the Seattle, Tacoma Land Company, who were developers of Normandy Park, a twelve hundred acre residential park, development on the shore of Puget Sound between Tacoma and Seattle. They planned and in 1929, were constructing the improvements, including the development of a water system and deep wells for an ample supply of pure water for the tract. (This development was started to be another Broodmoor--the depression stopped the advancement and then it was dropped by this company.)
Normandy Park was a planned community from its inception. Though many of the original concepts have changed, the residential area with rural atmosphere has remained. In the middle 20's the Seattle-Tacoma Land Company was formed to develop a crescent shaped piece of land surrounding a beautiful stretch of Puget Sound beach. This was to be a community with distinctive architecture, (French Normandy), a yacht club and two community beaches. A promotional effort to induce people to see the area was made. Free refreshments and band concerts were offered on Lot A and a beach club house was built. Developers stressed the eight miles of gravel roads and pure water pumped from local wells. This water made it possible for the fountain in Brittany Circle to operate for the grand opening in May, 1929. Access to the area was via Des Moines Way from Seattle. Extension of First Avenue South was started in April, 1930.
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Building in the platted section started with a distinctive brick house on Loti, Block 20, built by CS. Hughett. This is generally considered to be the first home built according to the original plan and is the oldest house in the park. Other homes of the same general style were being built. (Prudence Penney homes advertising and floor plans used are now in our Burien Library Files.)
The depression of the '30's affected development. An attempt to encourage building was the construction of the Prudence Penny Budget House, on Edgecliff Drive. Never the less, the original development company dispersed and the club house was sold to the late Ben Tipp in 1934 as a residence. Most of the property passed into private hands. During the '40's, because of its proximity to the expanding Boeing Company, rapid development came.
There was little activity at Five Corners until Mr. Balzarini started clearing land. in 1928, when he bought his property. We can say that 1928 was the beginning of Five Corners growth.
Mr. Drackenburg put in his nursery, Mr. Balzarini put in his nursery, Mr. Schoening sold a piece of his property to a man who put up a gas station and a very small store and later sold to Mr. Holland. In about 1929, Mr. Caspar Winter purchased a portion of the John and Bill Clark homestead from Mrs. Martin, a widow, who had purchased it from the Clarks. Mr. Winter put up a real estate office. In about two years, C.V. Henry put another real estate office on the southwest corner of 160th and First Avenue. Five Corners was starting to build up. The Corners became six corners in 1930 when First Avenue was cut through and traffic began to flow from Manhattan and Normandy and into town. Previous to the opening of the sixth corner on 160th and to the opening of Myers Way into Seattle from over the hill in 1928, people used Des Moines Way. Even with all the clearing of grounds in this area in 1928, the Corners were still quite heavily wooded.
When the Balzarini's moved to Five Corners, the Corners were called Sawerby's Corners because Mr. Sawerby had owned so much of the property around there.
The following is a newspaper article out of the High- line times entitled, Five Corners Residents Recall How It Was 30 Years Ago:
The few homes in the area were "lost" in the dense acreage of alder, hemlock and cedar. Underbrush hid deep gullies. A creek was discovered for the first time when new residents moved into the area and cleared spots for their homes and gardens.
"We found the creek running through our property," said Winter, "after we settled and started
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building our home. Later we damned it and installed a slide and diving board, much to the delight of our daughter, Betty Marie and neighborhood children."
Mr. and Mrs. C. M. Winter moved to Five Corners in the winter of 1929-1930. They purchased the three acres that now lay in the pie- shaped strip bordered by Ambaum Rd. on the east and First Avenue, S. on the west.
"Our property was covered with big timber," said Winter. I cleared a portion of the corner for our home and for a small garden that first spring, and I recall using as many as 30 sticks of dynamite on one stump"
"We raised all of our food in those days," he continued. "We pastured our cow on the tall, thick grass that grew on the corner and raised pigs, beef and veal, too.
"My wife made butter and sausages and we had home-cured hams and sides of bacon. Our large garden, located where 1st Ave. S. is now, provided us with berries and an abundance of fresh vegetables. It was a good life.
When the highway (1st Ave. S. ) came through in the early part of 1931, there were many residents who fought against it. Travel to Seattle and points north was satisfactory via Military Road and Des Moines Way and there were those who hated to see the beautiful trees and woods replaced by the ribbons of concrete.
Mrs. Winter chuckled when she told of their little daughter driving her bike straight across the freshly-poured surface. "One member of the road crew," she said, "was very angry with Betty Marie. The dud was fascinated with the deep rut she was making and to this day remembers his anger."
Thirty years ago--lush pasture for cattle, large garden sites, acres of timber, plenty of wide open spaces. Today--wide roads going in all directions, drug stores, grocery markets, lumber stores, shopping centers, garden stores, realty stores, businesses of all kinds, with homes and apartment buildings close by.
Today, an estimated 29,290 cars pass through Five Corners' intersection every 2 hours. During peak hours the traffic backs up in all directions, slowing cars to a crawl. The state is now planning an extensive project which will, for the time being, solve this traffic plug.
Who knows what measures will be needed 30 years hence?
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... News, those businesses were listed as Burien merchants that expressed their views on the Community Club House:
Burien Food Store, operated by Mr. and Mrs. Bob Wray
Ivan Phillips Garage
Sunshine Grocery - Proprietor, W. J. Conlon
Burien Drug Co. - managed by Mr. 0.W. Langness
Pirates Den and Post Office - managed by Mable Clothier
Burien Electric Bakery - Oskar Christenson, proprietor
Puget Sound Power and Light - manager, E.J. Gault
Sheehans Dep't Store - Mr. and Mrs. Sheehan
Wrights Pool Hall - Dad Wright
Jamie Whitley's Hemstitching Shop - Jamie Whitley
Burien Coffee Shop - manager, Mrs. George Pallow
Wyld and Thayer Real Estate - operated by H.K. Wyld and J.P. Thayer
Frazer's Restaurant - Mrs. Frazer
Burien Grocery - operated by H.J. Summers
Tillie's Hamburgers
This previous list gives us an idea of some of the businesses in Burien in 1935. There were other businesses here such as the lumber companies and etc.
Growth in our area had really began to take effect on the roads. The clop-clop of horses hooves pulling light carriages and heavy wagons and the old well-known days were gone. Since 1922, the purr of motors and the Model T cars wore being used more and more. This necessitated the widening of many roads. It was in 1936, that 6 feet of pavement was laid on each side of 152nd to widen the street adequately. They now had a nice two-lane road. (No sidewalks)
This growth also meant the widening of many other roads. By now First Avenue was cut through to Des Moines and also the hill to a little bridge over the Duwamish. The residents did not have to go through South Park unless they traveled the Des Moines Highway.
As the cars increased and they became faster and more modern, our roads had to be widened, and widened and traffic seems to be a constant problem.
This article tells the growth of Burien businesses during this era. Compare this with the previous notes of Mrs. Sheehan's (of 1921) and the last article of listings in 1935.
From Burien City Press, February 6, 1941:
Burien City is growing. (Notes from this article)
From a wide spot in the road of six or seven stores, to a thriving business district of 37 businesses, in the span of 20 years.
Now we have eight places where the shopper may purchase his groceries, instead of one garage (as of twenty years ago) we have six dispensers of gas and mechanical aid. We have three restaurants
