Blog

Month: January 2025

3400 Phinney Avenue North: car barn

Posted on by Valarie

After nineteen years in Fremont, the Theo Chocolate Company has announced closure of their store in February 2025, as well as the store in Bellevue.

The Theo Chocolate building at 3400 Phinney Avenue North which had also been used as their factory, was built in 1905 as a car barn for the trolley system. The centrality of Fremont and the convergence of tracks there, helped earn the designation of Fremont as Center of the Universe. The building was officially landmarked for historic preservation in 1989.

Read more at this Wikipedia article about the car barn.

The J.P. Dean Building at 3508 Fremont Avenue North

Posted on by fremont

The J.P. Dean Building at 3508 Fremont Avenue North was named for Mr. Joseph P. Dean, the original building owner. Mr. Dean was a millwright who lived at 1554 NW 50th Street. He worked at the Fremont sawmill in the 1890s but later moved to Ballard and worked at the Seattle Cedar Lumber Manufacturing Company. He was promoted from millwright to foreman to master mechanic during his career at Seattle Cedar Lumber. His handsome Queen Anne style 1902 house still stands prominently at the NE corner of 17th NW & NW 50th in Ballard.

The J.P. Dean Building was constructed in 1912 by Alex Carter, an English immigrant who lived in Fremont at 3611 2nd Ave NW. He specialized in house moving, but he may have had additional skills. The building permit was issued on March 5, 1912. The cost to build the two-story building was estimated at $8,000. The building has a rusticated cast stone façade similar to that of the Fremont Hotel. Numerous permits were issued to allow alteration of the building for various tenants in 1914, 1917, early-mid 1920s, and again in the 1950s and 1960s.

The J.P. Dean building has been in Linden family ownership since the early 1930s when Andy Linden bought the building as an investment. He was born in Sweden and came to the United States in 1901. He was listed in the 1910 census as a cabinetmaker, living at 317 E. Thomas Street. He operated Linden Furniture store from 1912 to 1948, when he retired. The furniture store was located close to the Fremont Bridge until the early 1920s and then moved to 940 N. 34th Street, close to the intersection of Stone Way.

At the time of the 1938 property survey photos, the Fremont Confectionery appeared to be the only tenant at storefront level in the 3508 building. Other storefronts were vacant during that 1930s time of economic depression. Fremont was economically impacted not only by the Great Depression, but also by the opening of the Aurora Bridge in 1932, which created a bypass and caused a decline in shopping in Fremont.

Mr. Klieros, proprietor of Fremont Confectionery, was born in Turkey. He came to the United States in 1914 and was a partner in a restaurant. He operated the Fremont Confectionery Company for 33 years. He lived at 722 N. 36th Street and later at 714 N. 46th Street. He was a member of St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church.

Today the storefronts along the 3500 block of Fremont Avenue are interesting and add to the nurture of local merchants in the Fremont business district.

Sources: Al Linden; Polk Seattle Directories; City of Seattle permit records; Historical Survey and Planning Study of Fremont’s Commercial Area, Carol Tobin, 1991; Theodore Klieros Obituary,10/24/1958 Seattle Times; Andy Linden Obituary, 10/4/1953 Seattle P.I.;U.S. Census, 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940; Seattle Department of Neighborhoods website, Database of Historic Properties.

The McMullen Fuel Company

Posted on by Valarie

In 1889 J. S. McMullen, age 55, pulled up stakes and went out West.  He had spent most of his life in Michigan but perhaps he was enticed to start a new life by word of the rich natural resources of the Seattle area.  McMullen brought his wife and four adult children, and the family became business leaders in the Fremont neighborhood.

Continue reading “The McMullen Fuel Company”

The Odd Fellows Building at 3501 Fremont Ave North

Posted on by Valarie

The International Order of Odd Fellows Building is located at the main intersection of downtown Fremont, at Fremont Ave and Fremont Place/corner of North 35th Street. The building was designed by John T. Mattson. The cornerstone at 3509 Fremont indicates that it was dedicated on June 1, 1927, for the Fremont International Order of Odd Fellows, a fraternal organization. It housed the Fremont Lodge No. 76, International Order of Odd Fellows. Prior to the construction of this brick building, the I.O.O.F. had a wood-frame building on this site that was built in 1891.

The Odd Fellows was a group which featured burial insurance, and they formerly owned the cemetery at the top of Queen Anne Hill, now called Mt. Pleasant Cemetery.

Like the Doric Lodge building which is adjacent just to the north, the Odd Fellows group planned that rental income from the retail storefronts of their building would help support their organization, which met on the second floor. The interior includes an auditorium with a small stage that was used for meetings of the I.O.O.F., reached by the staircase at the 3509 Fremont entrance.

Auditorium Cleaners was a long-time street-level tenant, from 1930s to 1990s. At the time of the 1937 photo, Auditorium Cleaners was called “Auditorium Dye Works”.

Michael Peck bought the building from the I.O.O.F. in 1978. He was a tenant in the property at that time. He said the condition of the building was similar to how it is today, although he did some cleanup inside and out. However, after the 2001 Nisqually Earthquake, the parapet structure facing Fremont Place collapsed. This necessitated the rebuilding of walls, re-bricking, new windows and a steel marquee. Peck had these features restored in the same style as the original.

Charles Ottoson’s Artistic Iron Work Shop, 3909 Aurora Avenue North in Fremont

Posted on by Valarie

Charles Nils Ottoson was born in Sweden in 1894. He trained as a blacksmith, which meant doing many kinds of metalwork. In 1919 Ottoson came to the USA and went out to Hollywood, California, where he had been told that there were wealthy people who would pay for custom ironwork such as gates, window grills, and railings. Smaller items he could make included fireplace screens, weathervanes and candelabra. Ottoson developed a clientele of doing custom Spanish-style black iron detailing on the mansions of movie stars. Then the economic crash called the Great Depression hit in 1929, and work dried up.

Ottoson came to Seattle and was able to find work again where he had his own shop at 3909 Aurora Avenue North. Described as an “artistic ironworker,” Ottoson produced custom works in wrought iron but also brass, bronze, copper and aluminum.

Today Ottoson’s shop building still stands at 3909 Aurora Avenue north, occupied by Vallantine Motor Works, a motorcycle service and repair shop.

Sources:

genealogical search on Washington Digital Archives and on Ancestry.com

newspaper search: “Blacksmith Real Man of Distinction,” Seattle Post Intelligencer, 5 January 1960, page 5. “Last of the Red-Hot Iron Artists,” Seattle Daily Times 27 April 1969, page 221, Times photos by Roy Scully.

Photos: Seattle Engineering Department photo of 1955 accessed on Seattle Municipal Archives; contemporary photo from the website of the company, Vallantine Motor Works, which currently occupies the building.

Doric Lodge #92, F&AM, Fremont

Posted on by Valarie

In 1891 Fremont, founded as a separate entity, was annexed to the City of Seattle and became a neighborhood. In September 1892 thirteen members of the Masons group met at Fremont Hall to petition for a new lodge, to be known as Doric Lodge. The Grand Lodge of Washington concurred, and a charter was granted in June 1893.

The new lodge met in Fremont Hall (3400 block of Fremont Ave) at first, but as they grew in numbers they sought out a permanent space. They purchased land in the 3500 block of Fremont Avenue and designed the Doric Temple, completing construction in 1909. Their meeting room was on the second floor with ground-floor spaces for commercial tenants, whose lease payments helped support the Lodge. The first businesses in the spaces were a hardware store and a funeral home. Jacob Bleitz of the funeral home, later moved to the south side of the Fremont Bridge where his former building still stands today, now modified to be an office building.

To find the Doric Lodge, start at the Lenin statue and walk northeast on the same block, to where the Doric Lodge entrance is facing North 36th Street.