The Tyee Triumph Car Club will be displaying their classic Triumph cars at this year’s Poverty Bay Wine Festival on Saturday, March 6th.

“At last count it appears we will have 17 or 18 cars at the Landmark for display,” said club president John Gebert, who himself owns five Triumphs. “We plan to park them in the spaces at the front entrance of the building, leaving ample room for two lanes of traffic for the buses, handicapped, etc. Our plans are to have a club meeting 10am at my home in Des Moines, and then parade down Marine View to the Landmark Event Center so we can be ready for display by Noon.”

The LBC’s (aka Little British Cars) should stay in the parking lot until around 3pm.

Geber adds: “The majority of our members are buying tickets to participate in your Festival and looking forward to a great time. They are excited about the opportunity to display their cars as well as the drive to get there. Thanks for helping get the word out…the best way you could help us would be to provide a clear and sunny day…but, we’ll be there no matter!”

John tells us that the club currently has over 50 active members who all have at least one Triumph car in various states of repair and renovation.

“Of note, we pride ourselves on being a ‘driving’ club in which the majority of our cars are on the road and used regularly,” he said. “You won’t meet many members with ‘trailer queens’,” said John.

More info on the Tyee Triumph Club is available at their website.

To buy tickets for the Poverty Bay Wine Festival, click here, or visit CorkyCellars (206-824-9462), Des Moines Drug, and/or purchase directly from any Des Moines Rotary Club member. All proceeds go to the service projects of the Rotary Club of Des Moines.

(Photos courtesy the Tyee Triumph Club)

Longtime Burien residents Doug Shadel and Pam and Guy Harper have written a historical book about Three Tree Point, which is being released March 8th by Arcadia Publishing.

This new book, which is priced at $21.99, includes more than 200 vintage photographs chronicling the history of Burien’s beachfront community, and these good creative folks have been working on this project for well over a year.

We hope to be doing in-depth interviews with the authors soon, along with publishing some excerpts and photos from the book.

There will most certainly be a local book signing soon, so stay tuned to The B-Town Blog for updates.

Books may be purchased directly from the Authors, and will be autographed. Interested parties should call the Harpers at (206) 242-4144 for an early delivery. You can also click below to pre-order the book online through Amazon.com:

Here’s the press release, sent out by Arcadia Publishing on Tuesday, Feb. 16th:

Discover the History of Three Tree Point
New Book Traces the History of the Point Through Vintage Images

New from Arcadia Publishing and local authors Doug Shadel and Pam and Guy Harper, is Three Tree Point. This latest volume of the Images of America series is filled with more than 200 vintage images chronicling the history of Three Tree Point.

Three Tree Point is a prominent peninsula on the eastern shore of Puget Sound about 14 miles south of Seattle. Its name came from three massive fir trees that stood on the north side of the point at the beginning of the 20th century. The area remained largely undeveloped until 1903 when the Three Tree Point Company began marketing the community as a place to build summer homes. Seattle’s business elite built houses at the point to take advantage of the beach lifestyle for which it has become known. Over the years, Three Tree Point and its 2.5 miles of waterfront emerged as one of the Northwest’s most unique residential communities. Its history is a diverse mixture of family life, unusual characters, Fourth of July celebrations, shipwrecks, fishing derbies, and storytelling.

Highlights of Three Tree Point:

• Includes a Pulitzer Prize winning photo.
• Features never before published images including some from Asahel Curtis.
• Tells stories of the Point from shacks to mansions and residents past and present.

Available at area bookstores, independent retailers, and online retailers, or through Arcadia Publishing at (888)-313-2665 or www.arcadiapublishing.com.

Arcadia Publishing is the leading publisher of local and regional history in the United States.  Our mission is to make history accessible and meaningful through the publication of books on the heritage of America’s people and places.  Have we done a book on your town?  Visit www.arcadiapublishing.com.

And here’s Amazon’s description (Click here to order: “Three Tree Point (Images of America)”):

Product Description

Three Tree Point is a prominent peninsula on the eastern shore of Puget Sound about 14 miles south of Seattle. Its name came from three massive fir trees that stood on the north side of the point at the beginning of the 20th century. The area remained largely undeveloped until 1903 when the Three Tree Point Company began marketing the community as a place to build summer homes. Seattle’s business elite built houses at the point to take advantage of the beach lifestyle for which it has become known. Over the years, Three Tree Point and its 2.5 miles of waterfront emerged as one of the Northwest’s most unique residential communities. Its history is a diverse mixture of family life, unusual characters, Fourth of July celebrations, shipwrecks, fishing derbies, and storytelling.

About the Author
Pam and Guy Harper’s families have been residents of Three Tree Point for generations, and the couple has an intimate knowledge of the history, culture, and lifestyles of the people who have lived there. Doug Shadel is also a resident of Three Tree Point and an author of five previous books on a variety of topics. Numerous residents of the point generously contributed to this book by donating pictures from their personal collections.

The Highline Historical Society will be presenting “Soldiers in Petticoats: The Struggle of the Suffragettes” at the SeaTac City Hall on Sunday, Feb. 21st, beginning at 2pm.

Local actress Tames Alan will return, dressed in full period costume and acting in character, to talk about the struggle of American women to gain the right to vote.

Here are the details:

WHAT: Highline Historical Society’s “Soldiers In Petticoats: The Struggle of the Suffragettes”

WHEN: Sunday, Feb. 21st beginning at 2pm

WHERE: Sea-Tac City Hall, located at 4800 S 188th Street.

COST: This is a FREE event.

INFO: From a press release:

In the authentic clothing of a suffragette, Actress Tames Alan returns to talk about the struggle of American women to gain the right to vote.  In 1867, the passing of the 14th Amendment defined “citizen” as “male,” thus denying women the right to vote.  On this 100th Anniversary of women’s right to vote in Washington State, learn how American women adopted the militant tactics of English suffragettes to earn the right to vote and regain citizenship in their own country.  Discover how the suffragettes influenced child labor laws, the use and dispersal of birth control, the Temperance movement, and the right of women to earn a college degree.

This engaging program is free.

It is brought to the community by the Highline Historical Society with the support of Humanities WA.

Immediately followed by a reception for the elected women of Highline.

Tames Alan is an actress, historian, and fashion history teacher who has combined her skills to create Living History Lectures for people of all ages. Since 1986, she has been touring her programs throughout the United States and Canada, where she is known for in-depth research and a lively presentational style. Tames studied theater and history at Willamette University in Oregon and theater at the American Conservatory Theater and the Dell Arte School in California. She taught fashion history at the Art Institute of Seattle, and is a historical consultant to museums, libraries, and historical festivals throughout the Pacific Northwest.

For more information, visit the Highline Historical Society’s website here.

Photos and Story by Scott Schaefer

At 14920 Ambaum Blvd. lies an aging, one-level, yellow cement/brick building that currently houses “Paty’s Furniture,” a discount “Mexican Furniture” shop adjacent to the Burien City Garage.

It’s chock full of discount furniture, couches, loveseats, recliners, mattresses, kid’s beds, “dinning sets” and more, all at marked-down prices, with many signs in Spanish and the words “Mexican Furniture” on their business cards.

One thing that people don’t realize is that the old wooden floors underneath the marked-down couches and recliners hide a secret, nearly-forgotten Burien history:

These were once the wooden floors of “Burien Bowling Lanes,” a 7-lane bowling alley that operated here between 1948 and 1962.

Where wooden dinette sets now sit, gutter balls once rolled.

Where blue velvet couches lie at a 30% discount awaiting to be taken to a new home, 7-10 splits once frustrated B-Town bowlers.

Currently, you can see the remnants of two or three of the lanes, including the aiming marks on what may have been lane two or three:

We were first alerted to this history by an email from researcher Scott Handley, who wrote:

I’m collecting information on local bowling centers, past and present.

Yesterday, I was at the University of Washington Library working with Polk City Directories, and I came across “Burien Bowling Lanes,” 14920 Ambaum Blvd SW.

Best I could figure from the directories, it opened around 1956 and closed in 1964.

Would anyone with a long memory recall how many lanes it had, or whether it closed coincident with the opening of Hi-Line Lanes, located less than a mile away?

Thanks very much.  I’m impressed by your blog.

Scott Handley
Edmonds

Of course, we immediately forwarded the email on to Cyndi Upthegrove, Director of the Highline Historical Society, who quickly confessed to knowing nothing about it.

Our next step of course was to roll on in to Paty’s Furniture and do our own inspection. It didn’t take more than two minutes before we found the first evidence, and we starting snapping photos right away.

Shortly thereafter, we had to explain why were were crouched over, taking pictures of the old floor boards under the La-Z-Boys to Julio, the store manager – “um, I run a local website, and I understand that this was once a bowling alley…”

Julio just smiled a lot and nodded, and seemed to find what he could understand very amusing.

But that’s the truth, and we’re not afraid to admit we love unusual local history and stories. Especially the kind that involves a fun and funky sport that is now being replaced by a virtual video game version that we play with our kids.

If you have any memories or photos of this building when it was the “Burien Bowling Lanes,” or know of any other lost history in the Burien area, please email us – we’d love to do more features like this.

Otherwise, stop in and say hi to Julio, then walk down the ramp to the main showroom of discount furniture. Find an area of exposed wood, and take a look around at the floor and imagine what once went on in this building – people met here, had fun, got frustrated, won games, lost bets, relieved stress, perhaps even heard the first single by a guy named Elvis as they rented shoes, then stuck their fingers in heavy balls that they rolled down a wooden lane trying to knock down ten white pins, not knowing that some 50-60 years later it’d be mostly forgotten, covered by discount “Mexican Furniture” then revealed again on a community news source that wasn’t even printed on paper.

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The Highline Historical Society will hold its annual meeting on Sunday, Nov. 23rd at 2pm at the SeaTac City Hall, which is located at 4800 South 188th Street (see map below).

This meeting will also feature an encore showing of the Ken Slusher Documentary “The Seike Garden: An American Story.” This 27-minute film tells the story of the Seike family and their beautiful Seike Japanese Gardens that were moved by the cities of Burien and SeaTac to make way for the 3rd runway at SeaTac International Airport.

It chronicles the history of the garden, cooperative efforts by local governments, nonprofits, and citizens to save the garden, and the physical challenge of relocating and replicating a 45 year-old living work of art. It also highlights the seminal roles that immigrant families have played in building the Highline community, a story that has been repeated in thousands of communities across America.

The film tells the (literally) moving story of the community effort to save this living gem. Using personal interviews and images drawn from family photos, Super-8 footage of original garden construction, and more recent still and motion photography, the film details the fascinating array of social, financial, and logistical hurdles involved in such projects.

A question and answer session with the filmmaker and one of the project managers involved with relocating the garden will follow the premiere.

Admission and parking are free.

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Alexander Sasonoff grew up in "Rat City" and lived to write about it.

by Scott Schaefer

Alexander Sasonoff is a longtime Burien resident whose acronym could easily be “AAA” – Architect, Artist and now…Author.

Just don’t call him if your car breaks down (although he could probably fix that too…).

Sasonoff, an accomplished local architect, grew up in neighboring White Center, and has just released an autobiographical book called “Growing Up in Rat City and Beyond” which he has generously allowed us to post exclusive excerpts from right here on the White Center Blog.

Sasonoff’s book takes readers on a gritty, often humorous journey from his earliest days in “Rat City,” starting when his Russian immigrant family moved here in 1936, through his childhood growing up in a tough neighborhood, playing in swamps, hanging out with boxers, getting fresh milk for 10-cents a jug from “Frenchie’s Farm” and much more.

Here’s part one of “Growing Up in Rat City and Beyond” which can be purchased online for just $13.04 by clicking here.

Part I • The Move to Rat City

The Move

As I sat in the front seat of the moving van clutching my cat, Reezhik, I had mixed feelings about moving to the house my parents had purchased near White Center. I was leaving all of my friends at F.A. McDonald Grade School as well as the other kids in my neighborhood. It was 1936 and the Boeing Aircraft Company was hiring workers. My Dad landed a job there.

The drums of war were starting their death rattle in Europe and the U.S. government ordered the construction of thirteen B17 bombers. These same thirteen bombers were flying into Hawaii when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. It was a typical gray overcast day in Seattle. We were moving during a mid-school term so I would have to start all over again with new friends. Many good memories were being left behind. We lived across the street from lower Woodland Park. There were many picnics in the park and on the shores of Greenlake. Visits to the zoo will always be with me.

The driver of the moving van hated cats and threatened, if the cat got loose, he was going to throw him out the window. I tightened my grip on Reezhik. He made me sit as far from him as possible so I was squeezed up against the door panel with my brother, my Dad sat in the middle. I could not convey the threat to my cat but the cat must have sensed the hatred and did not move. Our dog, Spot, had already been safely transported to his new home.

It took about two hours in the lumbering moving van to get from Green Lake to our destination. We arrived without incident. The house was located on a double lot so there was plenty of space to play. Fruit trees abounded, there were apple, cherry, pear, plum and peach throughout the yard.

The oldest portion of the house used to be an office for a logging company that had cut all the timber in the area years before. It rested on a log foundation with the rest of the house added later. The newer portion had a very strange concrete foundation. I believe the basement was dug out after the house was constructed. The concrete was stepped and appeared to be about two feet thick. There were no sewers in the area and all of the streets were gravel. The sewage system was a simple cesspool that we all were warned to stay away from for fear of the wood planks collapsing.

Years later this area was sewered and after that came paved streets and sidewalks. My brother, Leon and I shared one bedroom while my two sisters, Vera and Ireda shared another. Later, we refurbished the attic creating two more bedrooms, so eventually each of us had our own room.

The house had only one bathroom. The water was heated by a coil of pipes in the wood burning furnace and kitchen stove. In the summertime there was never enough hot water generated by the kitchen stove. It was too warm to fire up the big furnace. Kettles of water were heated atop the kitchen stove to supplant the weekend baths. To save hot water, my brother and I used the same bath water.

This became a greater problem when our cousin moved in with us after being freed from a Japanese prison camp after the war. My Dad used to call me into the bathroom to wash his back. He sat in the tub while shaving. On one such occasion I asked him why he did not have any gray hair. I had noticed everyone getting on in years had gray hair. He answered me in Russian, “Ya vsegda moyu golavoo s holodnoi.” Translated, “I always wash my head with cold water.”

As the years passed and when I was in my twenties, washing my hair with cold water, I burst out laughing at the realization that he was telling me to keep a cool head. In that old house we finally had an electric hot water tank installed and there was much rejoicing.

Next week: part two of our continuing exclusive excerpts of “Growing Up in Rat City and Beyond”!

Courtesy BTB Reader Maureen Hoffman comes this interesting artifact from days gone by – an old price tag from a long-gone store called “Bell’s of Burien” which used to exist where the Burien Town Square is being built now:

Here’s what Maureen emailed:

Here’s a little bit of memorabilia I was amused by – my brother, a carpenter, was remodeling a local house recently and found this price tag from Bell’s of Burien, the original store (across from Mick Kelly’s) that was later Lamonts, (then Gottschalk’s) then sat empty for a long time before being torn down for Town Square.

I shopped there as a kid.

Courtesy of the Highline Historical Society comes this week’s B-Town Blog Past and Present Photo Series, this week featuring pics of the Tradewell Building, located at the corner of SW 152nd and Ambaum Blvd. South.

PAST: 1940’s view of SW 152nd Street looking west from Ambaum Blvd. SW. The Tradewell Building (on the left side) once housed Burien’s first movie theatre. “They would set up wooden chairs for us to sit on,” said the late Angelo Balzarini, long-time resident. Another early pioneer recollection notes that the first talking movie was shown there. This building subsequently housed Pacific Fabrics, then an Oak Furniture store before being purchased by the Highline Historical Society:

PRESENT: Currently housing Karuna Yoga Arts (notice the recognizable facade of the building across the street, on the north side):

In 2009-10, the building will be razed and replaced with the Highline Heritage Museum:

The Highline Historical Society is seeking donations to help build the museum, and you can dontate quickly and easily online by clicking here.

If you’d like to join the Society, prices start at just $20 per year!

Do you have a historical photo or anecdote about the greater B-Town area? If so, please email us!

Courtesy of the Highline Historical Society comes this new B-Town Blog Historical Photo Series, this week featuring Then and Now pics of the now-gone Lou’s Diner, once located at the corner of SW 150th and First Avenue South, and once offering 19-cent burgers!

THEN: Lou’s Diner

NOW: Taco Bell

Note the exact same placement of the light pole on the left side of the shot, as well as the same building still present on the left (the former Schuck’s Auto Supply). We’re not 100% positive, but there may even be an existing tree on the right side of the “Now” photo as well.

The Highline Historical Society is preparing to build its new museum on the corner of SW 152nd and Ambaum Blvd. (where Karuna Yoga is now)…

…and needs donations, which can be done quickly and easily online by clicking here. If you’d like to join the Society, prices start at just $20 per year!

Do you have a historical photo or anecdote about the greater B-Town area? If so, please email us!

The Highline Historical Society is presenting its own version of “Antiques Roadshow” this Saturday, April 5th, from Noon – 5pm at Karuna Arts Yoga Center, which is located at 819 SW 152nd, at the corner of Ambaum (in the future home of the Society).

From the Society:

Start pulling out those stashed away antiques that you have always been curious about and bring them in to be appraised. We have put together a “Treasure Hunt” to give you and your friends the opportunity to bring your articles to us for discussion and valuation. The Society is pleased to retain Certified Appraiser Mike Wall for this event. He will help you decide whether you want to simply value the item and keep it, or sell it, (or perhaps donate it to the Society).

Mike has a strong background in fine art and antiques, is degreed in Art History, university trained in appraiser studies, and has completed course material with the Gemological Institute of America, International Society of Appraisers and a Sotheby’s program in London. He has owned three antique and fine art galleries since 1977 (to 1995) and has done certified appraisal work since 1978 – often appearing in court as an expert witness.

A world traveler and retired military officer, Mike is a professional appraiser who also does “Treasure Hunt” events similar to Antique Roadshow, for retirement communities, charity events and other miscellaneous group functions. Together with his team of seasoned professionals, Mike also organizes estate or business liquidation sales, in addition to the type of event he is doing for the Society. We look forward to an interesting day.

Your items will be appraised at a fee of $7.00 per item. One free item with your membership card. The appraisal you receive will be authentic, but a verbal one. Please bring your own notepad to write down information the appraiser gives to you.

All Society and community members are invited to attend this event. In other words, bring your friends and neighbors!

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The Highline Historical Society has a great page chock full of amazingly interesting oral history audio recordings about these here parts.

Here’s one of our favorites, of long-time B-Town resident Robert Lynch describing several fires in the area during the 1920s:

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Robert Lynch’s Oral History of Burien
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