Fremont History Articles
B. F. Day Elementary School, 3921 Linden Avenue North in Fremont, Seattle
The Fremont neighborhood was opened for settlement in 1888 and its early residents were very active in organizing their community. Since Fremont was not yet within the Seattle City Limits, there was no school district oversight so some community members, such as the Goddard family, taught groups of children in homes.
The neighborhood grew rapidly. After Fremont was annexed to the City of Seattle in June 1891, the Seattle School District rented a community hall to be used for classes.
The Fremont Branch Library at 731 North 35th Street
The Fremont neighborhood is the site of many “firsts” in Seattle, and it was the first to have a branch library.
In the 1890s there was only one public library in Seattle, located downtown. Residents of the growing Fremont neighborhood set up a reading room with privately donated books and newspapers where anyone could come to sit and read. A Seattle Daily Times article of January 1900 told of the formation of a library committee headed by Sidney Elder,
Fremont Public Art: The Berlin 1936 Crew Racer
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,
Fremont Public Art: The Berlin Wall Fragment
The Berlin Wall divided East and West Germany and was torn down by its citizens on November 9, 1989, during the collapse of dictatorial rule of the Communist countries of Eastern Europe. We remember this significant historical event at the Berlin Wall and what it represents, the freedom of self-rule.
The Berlin Wall was completely demolished at that time, and fragments were carried away as mementos. The fragment which has been installed as public art in Fremont,
Fremont Public Art: The Lenin Statue
In 1981, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia commissioned Bulgarian sculptor Emil Venkov to create a statue that portrayed Vladimir Lenin as a bringer of revolution. Briefly installed in Poprav, Czechoslovakia, the 16-foot bronze statue was sent to a scrapyard after the 1989 fall of Communism.
The statue in the scrapyard was discovered by Lewis Carpenter, an English teacher from Issaquah, Washington, who was teaching in Poprav and knew the artist. Purchasing the statue with his own funds,
The Fremont Neighborhood in Seattle is Founded in 1888
Each neighborhood of Seattle proudly waves the banner of its unique name, and yet many were named in a similar way: by real estate investors. Fremont in Seattle was also named by real estate investors. What made the Seattle neighborhood called Fremont stand out from others, was its good location, its jump-start after Seattle’s Great Fire of 1889, and its vigorous developers who utilized the growing streetcar system to advantage.
The Fremont Hotel Building, 3419 Fremont Avenue North
The Great Seattle Fire of June 6, 1889 made news headlines all over the USA and drew opportunity-seekers to Seattle. Skilled workers such as carpenters knew that they would have a good chance of finding employment in the rebuilding of the city. Others, including teachers, attorneys, bankers and businessmen also sought opportunities in the rebuilding of Seattle.
A young man, Charles Remsberg, came to Seattle in 1889 and settled in the newly created suburb of Fremont where he found a place as an active community member.
