A Little Pinehurst History

The following historical information is from the Landmark Preservation application for Pinehurst K-8 School cited in the previous post. The map at left  is too small to be useful (but you can click on), but what’s interesting is that Lk Washington was called Lake Dwamish at the time.

“Early settlers in the area included the D.M. Little family who were instrumental in logging and sawing much of this area, and had a sawmill on Victory Creek near the future location of the Pinehurst School. Further to the southwest, George F. Meyfarth owned and developed a large farm at Oak Lake in the area north of Licton Springs, and Abbie and Edward Lindsley had a homestead between Oak Lake and Haller Lake. The area’s first school, the Oak Lake School, was located in that general area, near N 100th Street adjacent to the North Trunk road.

The wagon road between Seattle and Bothell, eventually developing as the paved Pacific Highway, allowed for  development of the upland areas of what would become Maple Leaf, Victory Heights, Pinehurst, Lake City, Cedar Park, and other neighborhoods along the road. In the early 1900’s, this road meandered between what is now 15th Avenue NE and 25th Avenue NE, running through a logged off landscape of small truck farms, berry farms and orchards. The community’s name derives from a 1926 plat by W. G. Hartranft and tract development named the “Pinehurst Addition.”

In 1927, the City of Seattle purchased approximately 150 acres west of 15th Avenue NE and south of NE 145th Street to build the Jackson Park Municipal Golf Course. Several riding academies and polo grounds were located along 15th Avenue NE, including the Olympic Riding and Driving Club where humorist Will Rogers played a game of polo just prior to his flight with Wiley Post which crashed near Point Barrow, Alaska, killing both men in 1935.

In the mid 1920s, Thomas R. Gaynor built a roadhouse restaurant just south of the subject property called Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The restaurant served “southern fried chicken and delicious T-bone steaks” to motorists driving north from Seattle, until it closed in late-1950s.

….

The Pinehurst Community Club was organized between 1934 and 1935, becoming a social and political action group representing the area. They advocated for improved roads, commercial zoning along 15th Avenue NE, opposed the creation of a sewer district, and actively fought off efforts to annex the Pinehurst District into the City of Seattle, attempting to retain its rural character.

In 1943, the Pinehurst Community Club spearheaded efforts to create a small playground on 14th Avenue NE near NE 120th Street. Post World War II development brought suburban tract home development to the north Seattle areas, and a large influx of families. The Shoreline School District built the Pinehurst School on a triangular parcel north of Pinehurst Way NE and west of 15th Avenue NE in 1950. That same year, Allied Stores and the Simon Property Group opened the Northgate Center at the intersection of 1st Avenue NE and NE 110th Street, one of the United States first shopping malls, radically changing the retail shopping dynamics of the area.

The general Lake City area was annexed into the city of Seattle in 1953, after a three-year process resulting in the Washington State Supreme Court overturning the voter-approved annexation of 1951. In 1952, the Pinehurst Community Club reversed its previous position and supported to annexation of the area, citing lower tax assessments, water rates, added fire protection and lower insurance rates.

The area lying between 1st Avenue NE and 15th Avenue NE, and from NE 115th Street and NE 125th Street, voted to approve annexation in January of 1953, becoming one of several north-end communities to merge into the City of Seattle. The north-end annexations increased Seattle population by approximately 18,000 people. A large portion of the controversy surrounding the annexation focused on the school district, and whether the existing Shoreline School District would be merged into the Seattle School District, or kept separate, particularly as the annexation affected Jane Addams Junior High School, where approximately half the student population remained in the Shoreline School District service area. The transition period took longer than initially anticipated, with several years passing before transportation and utility services were brought up to City standards.”