All This, and Strawberries Too: The Bellevue Strawberry Festival

Although you wouldn’t know it by looking at the place today, for much of its history Bellevue has been a predominantly agricultural community.  Strawberries have played an especially prominent role in the growth and development of the city, and at one time before World War 2, there were more than 200 acres of strawberry fields within the present Bellevue city limits.  Because of this, in 1925 a number of civic and business leaders in the community organized the first Strawberry Festival in Bellevue, an event which attracted thousands of visitors, and would continue to grow for years, until World War 2 caused the cancellation of the Strawberry Festival in 1942, as many of the Japanese farmers who grew strawberries in Bellevue were sent to internment camps in California for the duration of the conflict.  For more information of the history of the Strawberry Festival in Bellevue, you can go to this page, and over at HistoryLink there is an essay written in 1934 by a college student describing memories of one of the earliest festivals.

 After the war, it would take more than forty years before the Strawberry Festival was revived; first as a one-night event hosted by the Bellevue Historical Society in 1987, then as a full-scale civic festival by the Eastside Heritage Center in 2003.  This year’s festival was held over the past weekend at Crossroads Park, providing a glance into the history of Bellevue in days now long forgotten, as well as a look at the Bellevue of today.  After the jump you will find some of the highlights of my visit to the Strawberry Festival.

The Beginning and the End of the Old Bellevue Safeway

Over at Vintage Seattle yesterday, I found out that after more than 45 years of continuous operation, the old Marina style Safeway across from Bellevue Square will be closing its doors for the last time tomorrow as Safeway’s new 55,000 square foot flagship store for the Pacific Northwest (more than double the size of this one) prepares to open a block to the south on Friday.  This particular store’s days have been numbered for some time now, and it has already lasted a year longer than it was intended to, as the new Safeway was originally intended to open a year ago.  For the time being, the Bartell Drugs next door will remain open, but this land is now owned by Kemper Freeman, and the chances are good that it will soon become the site of another mixed-use development similar to the nearby Lincoln Square.  As one of the shrinking number of relics from the Bellevue of old, I went to take one last look at this store before it closes for good, and I was also able to find some information from back when it opened.  After the jump, a few photos of the interior of the store, and some background on its history.

Then and Now: The 7-Eleven on 148th

A couple of days ago, I took another trip out to the Bellevue Library to do some research, where I spent some time digging for more info on Crossroads and Factoria.  I was able to find a couple of interesting items for Crossroads that at least pin down the timeframe in which it opened and some of the stores that were there, but I’m still finding little useful information on Factoria.  As far as Totem Lake goes, I think I’ve gotten about as much info out of the newspapers as I’m going to be able to, and I need to start looking at alternate sources from the various historical societies.

While I was doing this searching, I came across an article from October 1977 in the Bellevue Daily Journal-American about the opening of the 7-Eleven store and associated gas station at the corner of 148th Avenue Northeast and Northeast 51st Street in Redmond, which I pass by every day on the way to work and back, and find myself spending more money than I care to at lately (but I’m not going to go into that subject here.)  Although 7-Eleven stores had been selling gasoline since 1971, this particular one was opened in October of 1977, and was the first of a number of planned “Super Seven” stores in the Western United States.  While most of the 7-Eleven stores that sell gas around here have just a couple of pumps in front of the store, this station had a full fifteen pumps and its own attendant.  Although the 1973 oil crisis had passed by this time (to be followed by a second one in 1979,) it had resulted in the closure of many of the traditional service stations, and caused others to turn to other sources of revenue, from which the now ubiquitous ”mini mart” style gas stations sprang up (the article references a combination Arco station and mini-mart located near the interchange of I-405 and Northeast 8th in Bellevue, which remains in operation today.)  With gas stations crowding in on 7-Eleven’s territory, it would be only natural that they would take them on at their own game, and as a reult, the Super Seven gas station concept was born to combine a high-volume gas station with a 7-Eleven.  By combining the two, it allowed them to place stores on more valuable properties than they might be able to otherwise.

Today the gas station is a Chevron, but remains affiliated with the 7-Eleven store.  The farmland which this store was once surrounded by has now become apartments and condos, the City of Bellevue’s municipal golf course and highly sought-after commercial real estate.  Nintendo’s corporate campus (as well as that of DigiPen)  is found directly behind the 7-Eleven, and Microsoft’s RedWest campus is a short distance away to the North, next to an open field which will undoubtedly become a site of future Microsoft expansion.  A lot has changed in this neighborhood since the late Seventies (The expansion of SR520 from 148th to Redmond Way would not be completed until 1979) but all things considered, not much has realy changed on this little bit of land at the corner of 148th and NE 51st. 

After the jump, the article from which the above photo came, and some current photos of the 7-Eleven and the gas station.

Crisis? What Crisis?

(Note: This post is crossposted from buzz.mn, with some slight modifications.)

To be honest, the whole future thing seems just a tad overrated these days. Gone are the days when we were told that we could expect a future of rocket-propelled cars, push-button bubble ovens and fashionable evening gowns as far as the eye could see. Mostly these days we’re getting told that we’re either going to drown like all those cute little polar bears up in the Arctic, or we’re going to end up paying twelve bucks for a tablespoon of gas and subsisting on cruelty-free organic fair trade turnips and eating grass as a snack between meals.

Of course, we were being told a lot of the same things back in the Seventies, and most of those things never happened. A lot of the research that I have been doing on the local malls has me digging through a bunch of local newspapers from the Seventies, which seem to be remembered these days as a decade of all sorts of unpleasantness. For example, in early 1977 (where I was doing some searching last night) Carter was in office, OPEC and the Soviets were up to their usual tricks, and things just seemed to be headed for you-know-where in a handbasket. So what was the big scary story on the front pages of the papers? A coffee shortage.

A significant portion of the coffee crop in Brazil had been killed off by an early frost, and as a result coffee prices spiked dramatically. There was talk of a coffee boycott in the air. People were being forced to pay a whole fifty cents for a cup of coffee (and yes, Starbucks was already around at this point, but only as a small-time purveyor of coffee beans and coffee making equipment. It would be another decade before they would start selling coffee drinks or open any stores outside of Seattle.) The local newspaper here ran an editorial (included after the jump) telling people to get used to paying big bucks for their morning fix, and expressing hope that the high price of coffee would get people to reconsider their habits. Thanks to the magic of the Internet, we even have a slightly boring clip from a contemporary CBC news program featuring some talking head from a consumer organization scolding people for guzzling coffee in the first place. Does any of this stuff sound familiar?

Of course, now people pay $3.50 or more for a cup of coffee without even blinking for entirely different reasons, and it’s the price of gas that’s headed for the proverbial stratosphere. Around here at least, I suspect that there are some people who would have an easier time living without gasoline than they would living without coffee, but then again this is Seattle I’m talking about here. Given the choice between no gas and no coffee, which one would you choose? For me it would be an easy choice since I already don’t drink coffee (for religious reasons, although I have found that even if that weren’t the case me and caffeine just don’t get along anyway.) In the meantime, for those of you who long for the rocket car and glass bubble ovens of the future that never was, enjoy the clip below.

Totem Lake Mall Research Update - A Map of the Lower Mall from 1973

 

First of all, I’d like to welcome the influx of visitors that has arrived at my original profile of the Totem Lake Mall via deadmalls.com. Although I am a transplant to this area, and have only been around here for about 13 1/2 years, I have stil seen much of this particular mall’s decline to its current state.  In order to show what it was like in better days, I have undertaken a project to document some of its early history.  So far, much of my information has come from contemporary newspapers from 1973 and 1974 (especially the East Side Journal,) although I have also found out a number of things from comments made to the original post.  Previously, I put together a brief info dump on some of the things that I have been able to determine so far, but since then I have continued to do more research an have been able to fill in some of the blanks, and I think I’ve got a mostly complete picture of what was in the lower mall when it opened.  After the jump, a closer look at what stores were in (and around) the lower mall in 1973, when it opened.

Speaking of the Redmond Wendy’s… (Major Update and Bump)

Update 4/4/08: Added a number of items that I found from the microfilm to this post  Please feel free to send any corrections or additions to any of the info I have here; there are a number of things that I haven’t been able to determine yet.

In the course of doing some more research on the Totem Lake Mall in the East Side Journal microfilm at the Bellevue Library, I happened to stumble onto an article from the Sammamish Valley News in early 1977 discussing the construction and impending opening of the Redmond Wendy’s.  It turns out that this particular Wendy’s was only the second one to be opened in Washington, and the first to open west of the Cascades (the other one was located in Spokane at the time.) Digging further into the matter, I found out that during 1977, there was something of a boom in fast food restaurants in Redmond.  From other articles I found in my research, it appears that Kentucky Fried Chicken and Dairy Queen were already established in Redmond by this time, but I can’t determine when this happened (there is a big hole in the microfilmed archives of the SVN between 1971-1977)  available at the Bellevue Library,) as was Bud’s Drive-Inn, which was located in Redmond Shopping Square and had been around since roughly 1963.  At some point, there was also an Arctic Circle in Redmond, but it had closed by this time, and during this time their former location was taken over by Grub Stake Charlie’s, a locally owned hamburger place that opened around the same time as Wendy’s (I believe that this was where Frankie’s Pizza and Pasta is located on Redmond Way.) 

During 1977, those places were joined by the Wendy’s, as well as a Herfy’s Burgers in Bear Creek Center and a number of locally owned sandwich shops.  Oddly enough, about the only restaurant that hadn’t made it to Redmond yet at this time was McDonalds, which would come a little bit later, although I haven’t determined exactly when yet.  At this time, Herfy’s was a fairly large regional chain, and was considered a major player in the fast food market in the area.  Herfy’s eventually went into decline and was liquidated in 1986, with a few scattrered independent franchisees surviving into the mid Nineties.  In recent years, a new chain bearing the name and logo of the old Herfy’s (but otherwise unconnected) has emerged, and last year this new Herfy’s chain opened a location in Redmond.  In an odd case of role reversal, this new Herfy’s may be the closest thing that Redmond has to a local burger joint right now.  At some point, I will do a more comprehensive post on Redmond’s Burger Boom of the late Seventies, but for now, I have more research to do on the topic.

I have included a number of items that I found in relation to the Redmond Wendys from the Sammamish Valley News archives.  Click any of these thumbnails to get a larger version of any of these.

“Relish the Thought- Wendy’s Hamburgers Hit Redmond,” from the February 16, 1977 edition of the Sammamish Valley News, P. B4.  Discusses the construction of the Redmond Wendy’s, and reports that this will be the first Wendy’s to open in Western Washington, and the second in the state.

A photo that acompanies the above article.

“Wendy’s Hamburger Open in Redmond,” from the May 18, 1977 issue, P. B4.  Right next to this blurb on the page there is a large picture of Grub Stake Charlie’s, indicating that it had just opened at this time as well.

A large ad for the Redmond Wendy’s from the same issue, P. B1.  I couldn’t get the whole thing to fit on the microfilm reader’s screen at once.

A picture of the interior of the recently opened Wendy’s, from the May 25, 1977 issue, P. A11, showing the “newspaper” tables that were a trademark of Wendy’s at that time, and for many years to follow.

An advertisement from the August 10, 1977 issue, Page A3.

A photo from the “Meet Your Merchants” section in the same issue, Page A20.

 The blurb that accompanied the above photo.  This same issue contained photos ald blurbs for Herfy’s, Grub Stake Charile’s and a number of other local restaurants.  I will include the rest of these later.

Totem Lake Mall: An Update and Info Dump

 Update:  Yeah, it’s still empty.  The fly-by-night ink store in the lower mall shut down and it looks like a small closeout store is currently occupying the former Grab Bag location for the time being, but there’s not much to report.  The City of Kirkland hasn’t reported anything  new with regards to the redevelopment plans, and the DDR webpage for the mall hasn’t even bothered to update to reflect the closing of the CompUSA store more than a year ago. 

With that out of the way, I would like to go ahead and give a quick summary of what I have been able to learn so far with regards to the history of this mall.  When I originally wrote my Totem Lake Mall profile, just about all I had to work with was a mostly empty mall sitting in the middle of Kirkland and a few random facts from a Wikipedia article.  Since I wrote that post, it has become one of the more popular ones on my Blog, since information on this mall seems to be rather scarce on the Web.  Since then, I have begun doing some research into the mall and its history in order to show the mall in better days, and give some more insight into how the property has reached its present state.  I intend to do the same with the other malls in the area (I am trying to collect info on the history of Crossroads now, although I haven’t found a lot there yet.  Factoria Mall and Bellevue Square will come later.)  Most of what I have found so far has come from some (admittedly brief) searching in microfilm archives from the East Side Journal, which was a weekly newspaper based out of Kirkland at the time.  The summary can be found after the jump.

Small Tales from Route 66

For those of you who have seen the post I made on abandoned Route 66 gas stations a few months ago (which seems to consistiently be among the most popular posts on this site, mostly from people searching for abandoned gas station photos,) I thought I’d call attention to a very interesting comment that was posted to it earlier today by Don Christiano, a former resident of Truxton Arizona in the early Seventies before I-40 bypassed this particular stretch of the old Route 66:

The two gas stations in Truxton are different stations. I lived at both of them in the early 70’s. The Texaco at that time was owned by Ralph and Emily Hunter. They lived in a doublewide behind the station. Ralph caught himself on fire while smoking a cigarette and standing in gas. Burned badly. Not sure what happened to them after that. The other station was part of the Truxton Cafe. Went out of business when I-40 went through. Most of those cars have been there since the 60’s. People would break-down, have no way to pay and hitch a ride to california. Most of them never reclaimed the vehicles later. Belive it or not, before I-40 went through the town had tons of life. There was a bar across the street where the Indians from Peach Springs would walk over to drink at and tons of traffic. We moved a few months before I-40 went through and I haven’t been back since.

When most people think of Route 66, John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath is one of the images that comes to mind, with its Depression-era tale of people fleeing the Dust Bowl in Oklahoma for a new life in California.  With the recent surge in nostalgia for the glory days of Route 66, with its images of sparkling roadside diners and motels with gaudy neon signs, we should keep in mind that for a lot of people, their trip on the Mother Road was a one-way journey, and with cars generally being a lot less reliable and hitchhiking being generally more socially acceptable than it is today, I could see where someone might have just decided to ditch their car and thumb it the rest of the way to their new life.  There are some cars parked at the Texaco that are clearly newer than that (the link goes to the full-size version of that photo,) which leads me to wonder what the story behind those might be.  It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words, but in some cases, that same picture just might have a thousand stories behind it as well, and it’s fortunate that we get to hear a couple of them.

 Oh, and just in case anyone here hasn’t figured it out yet, don’t smoke cigarettes while you’re standing in a puddle of gas, OK?

Wooo! Stainless

I think someone at the local appliance shop here in Redmond is just a little too enthusiastic about their products here:

The fact that none of the Os in the word “Wooo!” match the others is a nice touch as well.  Also note that the sign at the top is original from when this particular shopping center was built more than fifty years ago.  A photo of the sign, as well as what is billed as “Redmond’s first modern shopping center” can be found at the Redmond Historical Society website.  A couple of additional historic photos of this shopping center  from shortly after it opened in 1956 can be found here and here, as well as a photo showing the center under construction here.  I will make sure to go take some photos showing the center (which has actually changed little over the years) in its present state.

Classical Gas - Abandoned Route 66 Gas Stations

Over at buzz.mn today, James Lileks made an interesting little post about old gas stations.  He makes an interesting point:

 …in the old days you could get a comb and a soda, nothing more. Maybe the plague, if you used the restroom. But the modern stations lack pizzazz. With a few exceptions they’re bland utilitarian structures smothered with ads for lotteries and smokes. The fifties and sixties saw the finest gas station architecture – and much of it is still around.

This post also called for the readers to submit their own photos of old gas stations.  Gas stations in general tend not to be built to last, and tend to also be built in cookie-cutter designs that face the wrecking ball swiftly and unlamented when their usefulness has waned.  Oddly enough, it’s that relative fragility that gives us this scene from the 1963 comedy epic It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, which is almost as notable for it’s depiction of a contemporary gas station as it is for the manner in which said station is systematically demolished:

Around here, one of the few surviving 60s gas stations (for the time being, at least) can be found in downtown Bellevue, on Northeast 8th Street.  The station has slanted windows and a triangular canopy over the former location of the pumps, which are the hallmarks of a former Phillips 66 station (although I can’t recall ever seeing a Phillips 66 station in the time I’ve lived here.) This former station has most recently hosted a toy store, but now sits vacant, serving as an impromptu parking lot.  Given the rapid growth in Bellevue, chances are the station will probably be bulldozed as soon as someone decides to put up another hi-rise on the land.  An aerial photo of the station can be found here (you can switch to the birds-eye view for a better look,) which shows the encroaching construction which will probably eventually seal this old station’s fate.  Maybe if I have some time in the next few days I’ll go take some better photos.

Although there aren’t a lot of interesting old gas stations to be found around here, a roadtrip I took through the Southwestern United States back in April took me to one of the longest remaining stretches of the old Route 66 in Arizona, between Seligman and Kingman, a route lined with a number of ghost towns.  After the jump, a few photos of some gas stations I took along the route.