Fremont’s Streetcar Loading Platform
In 1927 a streetcar loading platform and cutoff route for cars was created at the intersection of Fremont Avenue North and North 34th Street. This intersection is familiar to us today as the site of the Waiting for the Interurban statue.
As car traffic increased in the 1920s it was found that when the city streetcar or the Interurban rail cars stopped to load passengers at North 34th Street, traffic would back up onto the Fremont Bridge.
4301 Fremont Ave N – Herzig Building
The Herzig Building, located at Fremont Ave and N. 43rd, was constructed in 1927. It housed dentist offices upstairs for most of its life. The street level commercial spaces have housed an ice cream shop (Moore’s Penguin Ice Creamery 1941-42), drug store (Woodland Park Pharmacy 1960s), used furniture (Value U Shop) and several hair salons (Stanfield Beauty Shop, Hair Today and Two’s Company Hair Salon). At the time the historic photo was taken, 1937, there were dentists upstairs and a beauty shop at street level.
4202 Leary Way NW
This classic Fremont working man’s home is located at the intersection of 6th NW and Leary Way, near the turnoff to Fred Meyer. The house was built in 1911 and is located exactly at the point where the streetcars turned north up 6th NW on the way to Ballard. An older commercial building that dates from the era of the streetcar, now converted to apartments, is at the north end of the block.
Michelle and Curtis McGuire bought the house in February 2006 to convert it into a healing arts center.
4039 Whitman Ave N
This lovely 1904 house is located at Whitman Ave N. and N. 41st, a block east of Aurora Avenue. We were unable to reach the present owners, but decided to include it in the display because it dates from an early period of the neighborhood’s history when there were numerous fancy houses located along Whitman Avenue between N. 38th and N. 46th. This home and a Victorian-style home a block north remain as the only intact reminders of that era.
4000 6th Ave NW
This building is located at N. 40th and 6th Ave NW, adjacent to the Burke-Gilman Trail. The owners are Lewis Nasmyth and Nancy Rothwell. The building was constructed as a machine shop in 1926 by Homer Smith. In the shop, automatic canning machinery was made to send to Alaska. The machines were used to slit the fish open and remove the fins and the guts. The equipment was loaded onto barges for the trip to Alaska.
3902 Woodland Park Ave N
This former church, built in 1918, is now a Tibetan Buddhist study and meditation center, Nalanda West. It was purchased in 2003 from the Korean Presbyterian Church, which had outgrown the space and moved to Lynnwood.
The building was functional and in good condition when Nalanda West bought it, but was a little worn. They renovated the interior, including the shrine room/main assembly hall, with paint, new light fixtures, new windows, and patched walls.
3501 Fremont Ave N – I.O.O.F. Building
The International Order of Odd Fellows Building is located at the main intersection of downtown Fremont, at Fremont Ave and Fremont Place/N. 35th. The building was designed by John T. Mattson and constructed in 1927. 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,
503 N 42nd Street
The accompanying article:
503 42nd article
This house was purchased by Karen Newell and Michael Kipling in 1983 from Suzanne Lavick and Kurt Dahl. It was in excellent condition when Newell and Kipling bought it, so they have only needed to do cosmetic work. They were able to repaint it in its original colors when they found a patch of old paint behind an overgrown bush.
Upstairs, the rooms and interior doors of the house are oversized,
459 N 36th Street
A hundred years ago, Frank Laroche constructed this building as an office space for his lumber business, with a residence upstairs for him and his wife, Alice Ann. A building permit was issued in 1904 and it was constructed in 1905-06 for $2,000. It was passed on to Victoria Church Jr. in the 1930s and stayed in the Church family for half a century.
When Chris Webb bought the building in 1989, for about $50,000,
400 N. 43rd Street
At the time when the 1937 photo was taken, there were at least 33 grocery stores in Fremont. This 1912 building, located on the corner of N. 43rd St. and Phinney Ave N., housed Snow’s Grocery in 1937. The building has had a long history as a “mom and pop” grocery stores, including Snow’s Grocery (1931-1961), Young’s Grocery (1961-1973), and the Phinney Street Co-op (1974-1986). Since 1994 it has housed Lighthouse Roasters, a coffee roaster and wholesale business with a retail coffee shop at street level.
