Last month we put out the call for nominations for the Queen Anne Historical Society’s garden tour. Perhaps it was a bit early, as mid-March wasn’t very spring-like – very little plants were blooming and the trees still looked naked without their foliage. However, it’s a month later, and neighborhood yards and gardens are literally springing to life.

Parsons Garden
Photo courtesy of QAHS

Perhaps you’ve noticed that your garden is looking particularly good as it starts to fill in, or you’ve been putting in a lot of up-front effort to get a spectacular show this year. Well, the Queen Anne Historical Society is still seeking nominations for a garden tour – so get your submission in!

The Queen Anne Park & Garden Tour is tentatively schedule for mid-May – assuming there are enough gardens nominated. So, take a look around this week, especially as the sunny weather moves in mid-week, and answer the call for submissions of private gardens and public spaces. The gardens don’t have to be immaculate nor do they need be historic, just spaces with great stories to tell.

Here’s the relevant info you’ll need to submit your garden:

It’s time for a monthly trip back into our neighborhood’s history, courtesy of the Queen Anne Historical Society. This month’s photo features the Black House, a home that no longer exists today – although the site will be familiar to anyone who frequents Kerry Park.

The Black House, W Highland Dr & 3rd Ave W
by Michael Herschensohn, President, Queen Anne Historical Society

J.C. Black House, ca. 1940
Photo courtesy of UW Special Collections (image UW13926)

The J. C. Black House was built 1914 on the corner of W Highland Drive and 3rd Ave W facing Kerry Park. Its architect, Andrew Willatsen, trained in Frank Lloyd Wright’s Oak Park, Illinois office before moving to Seattle in 1907.

The Black House embodied many of the characteristic elements of Wright’s Prairie School style, including the deep, overhanging eaves and the ribbon of windows along the front of the second story. Local citizens loved the house for its elegant beauty and its association with Willatsen and Wright.

For many years, its owner thwarted efforts to landmark the house. Consequently, it had no protection under the City of Seattle’s preservation ordinance. The estate of Fred Tolan sold the Black House in 2003 for $2.3 million to Ken Woolcott, a Seattle investor who, shocking neighbors, tore it down over the three-day MLK weekend in January 2004.

Kerry Park Court, 2013

The lot remained empty for seven years. In 2011, the Kerry Park Court townhouses were completed and offered for $3.2 million each. Some of the townhouses remain on the market today.

Seen in the lower center of both images, one small portion of the J. C. Black House garden wall survives to remind us of Andrew Willatsen’s stunning design and Frank Lloyd Wright’s early influence on Queen Anne. To learn more, visit the Queen Anne Historical Society website.

The Queen Anne Historical Society continues its series of guest lectures this Thursday, March 28th with a presentation by Becca Aue of the Seattle Parks Foundation. All are welcome to attend the free talk, which will be held at the Seattle Church of Christ (2555 8th Ave W) at 7pm.

Photo courtesy of QAHS

Becca Aue is the manager of the Neighborhood Parks, Green Connections and Strategic Project Initiatives at the Seattle Parks Foundation. She’ll be speaking about the organization and how it works to improve, expand, and connect parks, trails, and green spaces.

She’ll discuss improvements that have been made to Queen Anne parks through the Parks Foundation and its sustainable development and stewardship of Seattle’s parklands. Included in the foundation’s current Queen Anne activities are the Uptown Triangle, Seattle Neighborhood Greenways, the Lake to Bay Loop, and the Cheshiahud Lake Union Loop.

These projects all include large historically significant portions of Queen Anne. The west side of the Cheshiahud Lake Union Loop runs along the site of the first Seattle streetcar line and the new Lake to Bay Loop treks from Myrtle Edwards Park over the Thomas Street bridge, passing the landmark Seattle Center buildings.

Join the Queen Anne Historical Society on Thursday to learn more about the Seattle Parks Foundation and discuss our own Queen Anne parks.

We’re starting up a new feature on Queen Anne View – a monthly look back at our neighborhood’s history, courtesy of the Queen Anne Historical Society. A new (old) photo will be highlighted mid-month, with a write-up from the QAHS. Here’s the inaugural edition featuring Fire Station 8 at 110 Lee St.

Fire Station 8, 110 Lee St
by Michael Herschensohn, President, Queen Anne Historical Society

Fire Station 8, Queen Anne, 1910

In many Seattle neighborhoods the architectural charms of fire stations are a source of neighborhood pride. Wallingford and Capitol Hill have saved most of their historic stations.  Queen Anne seems to throw its away.

This ca. 1910 building at Lee Street in the photo above is long gone, but its second story shingles, first story clapboard, quaint hose tower, charming balcony, flag pole and lovely curvilinear central gable manifest the city’s concern for blending its early utilitarian buildings into neighborhoods.

Fire Station 8, Queen Anne, 2008

The same view in 2008 shows the new tower that replaced our crenelated landmark and the mid-century firehouse whose extended trucks bays completed that year are already being rebuilt.

For more historic images visit the website of the Queen Anne Historical Society.

You’ve likely seen garden tours in other neighborhoods, and now, thanks to the Queen Anne Historical Society (QAHS), we’ll have one of our own! The Queen Anne Park & Garden Tour is tentatively schedule for mid-May, and they have a call for submissions of private gardens and nominations of public spaces.

Who better to describe this exciting new tour and the call for submissions than the QAHS? I’m turning this one over to them – check out the details below and enter your submissions by April 30th.

Queen Anne Park & Garden Tour
Presented by the Queen Anne Historical Society

Parsons Garden
Photo courtesy of QAHS

We can often walk by outdoor spaces without any knowledge of their design, stewardship, or history. These can be common spaces we interact with daily and secret gardens only visible from small meandering paths.

The Queen Anne Historical Society is pleased to announce a tour of public and private parks and gardens of our community. We aim to provide a tour that enlightens us all to these wonderful creative spaces rich with stories and colorful foliage. Each stop will feature lively commentary, experts on garden design and the stewards of the spaces. We all ready have a couple locations set, but would like your help to discover more of these rare gems that make our neighborhood great!

Queen Anne Lace
Photo courtesy of QAHS

Do you have a garden or outdoor space that you would like to share with your community? Do you have a reclusive neighbor who has an amazing garden, that you have always wanted to see more of, but haven’t had a good excuse to inquire about it? These gardens don’t have to be immaculate, and they don’t necessarily have to be historic, just spaces with great stories to tell.

Please submit one image that best represents your garden or public space and a short paragraph description of its history and why it’s important to you.

If you don’t have a garden to share, but would like to join us on this tour, you can become a member of the Queen Anne Historical Society to stay updated, follow QAHS on Facebook, or contact QAHS via email.
[Editor’s Note: I’ll also be posting info on the tour here on Queen Anne View]

Submission deadline: April 30th
Email your submissions or interest in the tour to Aaron Luoma

The tour is tentatively schedule for the middle of May; dates will be published after the submission deadline, as we don’t want to miss anyone!

The National Weather Service is predicting possible snow tomorrow, Christmas day, for the Seattle area – as long as we track to the NAM model:

Now while Cliff Mass disagrees on the possibility (he believes it will be “too warm for snow in Seattle”), we can all agree that there was a lot of snow in 1916. The “Big Snow” of 1916 holds the record as the second-deepest blizzard in Seattle history with 21.5 inches of snow falling in 24 hours.

Queen Anne Ave N, 1916
Courtesy of the Queen Anne Historical Society

So, just in case you don’t get your snow fix tomorrow – and if you do, send us your pictures – check out the Queen Anne Historical Society’s new Queen Anne Snow slideshow that includes images dating all the way back to 1898, as well as photos from the Big Snow of 1916.

Think Snow! And, Happy Holidays!

Do you walk, run, or bike on Queen Anne Boulevard, aka The Crown of Queen Anne? Want to learn more about it and other Queen Anne parks that were designed or inspired by landscape architect John Charles Olmsted?

Well, the next Queen Anne Historical Society meeting features guest speaker Jennifer Ott, Staff Historian at HistoryLink.org and President of Friends of Seattle’s Olmsted Parks. At the QAHS meeting, Jennifer will discuss Olmsted and his impact on Seattle Parks, including Queen Anne Boulevard.

If you frequent the Crown, you’ll likely have noticed the brown street signs that mark the historic Queen Anne Boulevard as it wraps around the top of the hill. Not only is the Boulevard a Seattle historic landmark, it’s also a Seattle city park.

Originally, the Seattle Parks Board opposed the boulevard – it wasn’t part of the Olmsted Plan for Seattle’s boulevard and parkway system because it followed existing city streets and didn’t meet the Olmsted Plan’s minimum width. The Parks Board eventually agreed to the plan, and the community helped pick up some of the costs.

You can read more about the history of Queen Anne Boulevard at the QAHS site, and at HistoryLink.org – and, for even more insight and answers, attend the Thursday talk.

Key Details:

• What: QAHS Guest Lecture – “John Charles Olmsted, His Impact on Seattle and Queen Anne Parks”
• When: Thursday, November 29, 7pm
• Where: Seattle Church of Christ, 2555 8th Ave. W

Just caught this event on the Queen Anne Historical Society web site! Tomorrow there’s a “Seattle by Stairways” series on Queen Anne – it starts at 1pm at the northwest [updated to NW] corner of W Galer St. and 6th Ave W.

According to the web site:

This is the third urban hike of the Fall season with Jake and Cathy Jaramillo, authors of the upcoming “Seattle Stairway Walks: An Up-and-Down Guide to City Neighborhoods.”

The Queen Anne Historical Society’s mission is to preserve the history and fabric of our neighborhood, and this Thursday, QAHS presents “What Oral Histories Can Tell Us About Neighborhood Change” – your chance to hear oral histories from long-time Queen Anne residents, and talk with them about their experiences. Norma Cathey, Bob Frazier, and Kim Turner all experienced the metamorphosis following the 1962 World’s Fair, and their oral histories detail the changes Queen Anne experienced in the 1970s and 80s.

The QAHS will play sound bites from the oral histories and show images of Queen Anne before, during, and after the Fair. Guest speaker Debbie Fant, Deputy Director of Northwest Folklife (2012 winner of an Archie Green Fellowship for the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress), will also discuss the importance of oral histories.

Thursday’s meeting is free and open to all, providing Queen Anne residents with the opportunity to learn more about our neighborhood’s history, how much it’s changed since 1962, and ask questions of the residents who experienced that history.

Key Details:
- What: QAHS Meeting
- When: Thursday, September 27, 7pm
- Where: Seattle Church of Christ, 2555 8^th Ave West
- Cost: FREE