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Author: Valarie

Valarie was born in Seattle and is a volunteer neighborhood history writer.

The Odd Fellows Building at 3501 Fremont Ave North

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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

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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

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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.

Lenin in Fremont at the Holidays 2024

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The Lenin statue in Fremont at 3526 Fremont Place North, came from eastern Europe where the statue had been toppled after the demise of the Communist regime. In Fremont in Seattle, the statue represents irony, that Lenin now looks out over Fremont which is one of the most free and artistic neighborhoods of Seattle.

The location of the Lenin statue on a public square, lends itself to many celebrations and the Lenin statue is decorated accordingly. In 2024, Hanukkah begins in the same week as Christmas so lights of the Menorah will be added in a ceremony on Saturday, December 28, at 6:30 PM. Hanukkah is a celebration of freedom, resilience and triumph of light over darkness.

Menorah Lighting in Fremont 2024

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This year (2024) Hanukkah begins in the same week as Christmas, adding to the lights and celebrations of the season. At 6:30 PM on Saturday, December 28, there will be the first-ever Menorah Lighting in Fremont! The location will be at the Lenin statue, 3526 Fremont Place North. There is no better place than at the foot of Lenin to celebrate freedom, resilience and triumph of light over darkness.

Ross School in Fremont

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Ross Park on Third Ave NW at NW 43rd Street is the former site of Ross School.  It was named for the family who were the earliest settlers in the western part of Fremont.  

The John Ross family took land in homestead claims on both sides of what is now the ship canal, including the present site of Seattle Pacific University.  Up until the ship canal was created in 1911-1917, there was a stream flowing westward toward Puget Sound. When the Ross family moved to a new house on the north side of the creek, they cooperated with neighbors to build a school for the community’s children at the site of what is now Ross Park.

The school population grew larger until a new building was needed. The building pictured here, was an eight-room schoolhouse which opened in 1903.  The school closed in 1940 and children were then sent to West Woodland Elementary.

The History of Fremont Baptist Church in Seattle

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Fremont Baptist Church, 717 North 36th Street, was organized 132 years ago.

The church group first met in an American Baptist Society Chapel Train Car. Next the church services were held in several different buildings in Fremont, then our first wooden building was opened on this site in 1901. The current brick building opened in 1924.

The story of the founding of Fremont Baptist Church
Mr. and Mrs. A. G. Wooster were the founders of Fremont Baptist Church. After moving to Fremont in the early 1890s, the Woosters began looking for Baptists in the area.  When they found eight other local Baptists, the Woosters first arranged to meet in the Christian Church building on Latona. Then, they arranged for the chapel rail car “Evangel” to come to Fremont.  Mr. Wooster was the first Sunday School Superintendent and the first Church Clerk.

Fremont Baptist Church was established on March 20, 1892, when Rev. E. G. Wheeler and a small group of faithful met in the chapel car Evangel.  The chapel car was provided as a mission tool by the American Baptist Publication Society and was parked on a rail siding between Fremont Fire Station and the railroad depot on Ewing Street (North 34th Street). After the initial organization, the church met in rented storefronts and had eight pastors over the next seven years until Rev. Cairns came in 1899.
 
When Rev. Cairns came there were 28 Fremont Baptist church members at Fremont.  Under Rev. Cairns leadership the congregation bought property and began constructing a building in March of 1900.  The wooden structure was dedicated one year later on March 24, 1901.  When Rev. Cairns retired at the age of 85 in 1909, the church membership had grown to 145.  Over the next 15 years the church continued to grow under the leadership of Pastors Lamoreux, Reading, and Hicks.

By 1924 the congregation was bursting at the seams of the old wooden structure, and it was decided that a new building was needed.  More land was bought, the old wooden structure was demolished, and work on a new brick structure was started.  The present church structure at 717 North 36th Street was finished and dedicated in December of 1924.

The Family Works Food Bank was started in Fremont Baptist Church, originally known as the Fremont Food Bank, with church members volunteering.  Every year at the Fremont Fair, Fremont Baptist Church puts up the Orange Booth as it has for decades to give out free coffee, lemonade and doggie water, with all donations going to Family Works Food Bank. Fremont Baptist Church continues today with involvement in the Fremont community as a beacon of hope.

Fremont Public Art: The Medalist Statue

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The Medalist is an eleven-foot-high figure created from partially-fused medals donated by runners.

This artwork was created to celebrate that the Brooks Running Shoe Store moved its headquarters to 3400 Stone Way in Fremont. About 1,073 race medals were donated and each donor filled out a form telling when and where they received the medal and the story of their participation in that race. The donation forms were collected into a book which is on display inside of the store.

The Medalist was designed by artists and then Larry Tate of Fabrication Specialties did the metalwork, completing the statue in 2014. The Medalist conveys the joy of running and the sense of achievement of personal goals.

Fremont Public Art: The Berlin 1936 Crew Racer

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The Data 1 office building at 744 North 34th Street was completed in 2017 and has outdoor artworks on each side of the building. At one side, underneath the Aurora Bridge, is a fragment of the Berlin Wall which tells of the triumph of the human spirit when Communism fell in 1989.

At the other corner of the Data 1 building (on the left as you look at it) is a metal sculpture of a man holding an oar, labeled Berlin 1936. This is a reference to the Olympic Games of that year, when the crew racers from the University of Washington in Seattle went to Berlin and came out of nowhere to win their race. The story of Seattle’s hardscrabble crew racers has inspired Fremont folks to nickname this metal sculpture, “Joe Rantz” for the main character in the book, The Boys in the Boat (2013).

Fremont Public Art: The Space Sculpture

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At the Fremont Space Building, 600 North 36th Street (northeast corner of Evanston Ave North) planetary orbs hang like lanterns and a sidewalk mosaic of paint & glasswork depicts the galaxy. The artist is Jessica Randall & the Fremont Arts Council for work at this building owned by Brian Regan, wo also owns the Saturn Building at 3417 Evanston Avenue North.