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.