BTB Reader Rob Ketcherside sent us an email Tuesday, along with a photo of a recent historic find he made that references the “Hi-Line Highway” to Burien.

It’s a map printed in 1927 to promote the “Times Square Garage,” located at 6th and Olive in downtown Seattle. “Times Square” was the name given to the area at 5th, Westlake, Olive, Stewart and 6th, and apparently this garage is still operating.

Here’s a pic, along with Rob’s thoughts on it:

1927 Seattle Highway Map with front and back cover

This map folds out to reveal the 1927 Washington State Highway Map.

I nearly giggled like a little girl when I found this at an antique store last weekend.

The map was published for Times Square Garage, “Your Auto Home” at 6th and Olive in Seattle. Times Square was the name of the area at 5th, Westlake, Olive, Stewart, and 6th, and the district stretching north a bit from there.

At the bottom of the map you can see a road labeled "From Tacoma (hi-line)."

I don’t know what’s more amazing to me. Think about this. In 1909, the nation was enraptured by the race from NY to Seattle on muddy roads. Not even 20 years later AAA could make a map of highways in Washington State. And Seattle had a seven-story parking garage. Both facts are astonishing.

That parking garage was built sturdy in 1925, and you can still park in it today. It’s gotta be one of the oldest continuous use parking garages in the world, doesn’t it? I’m only sad that they’ve covered up the old clock added in the 50s.

The list of attractions includes a “Frozen Fish Aquarium”, and humorously it says which streetcar line to take to each point of interest. I guess the longer you park your car, the more money they make!

Even better than all of that… look at the roads! The route to Vancouver was over the University Bridge. No 99, no I-5. And of the two roads to Tacoma, the one along 1st Avenue is subtitled “hi-line”. Well now. Hi-line, or Highline, of course is the name for the Burien and White Center area. And in the 1970s, local history tome Our Burien and many other sources, the story goes that “Hi-line” was a nickname for the streetcar to Burien, which was intended to go to Tacoma and be an alternate to the Interurban. That never made sense to me, because I’ve found no evidence that the streetcar was supposed to go any farther than Burien. What if, then, the name instead comes from the old brick highway which became Des Moines Memorial Way?

“When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, militarism and economic exploitation are incapable of being conquered.”

– Dr. Martin Luther King,
from a speech delivered in 1967

by Mark Neuman

Contemplating the Giant Triplets
I am embarrassed to admit that, at age nine, I knew more about Forrest Tucker and Larry Storch and a TV situation comedy called “F Troop” than I did about the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I know this because I was watching a syndicated repeat of that silly show on the afternoon of April 4, 1968, when a news bulletin cut into regular programming to announce that Dr. King had been shot and killed earlier that day.

I did not know who he was.

I quickly got to know, in part, on the strength of my third and fourth grade teachers at Holy Rosary Elementary School in West Seattle, and then I never forgot.

Our recent handful of years
With an over half-trillion dollar burden set firmly on the backs of Americans not yet born, the powers-that-be recently bailed out the powerful who failed us.

And some number of millions of everyday Americans participated as well, in the pursuit of a piece of the glittering illusion: unbelievably rapidly appreciating equity.

Any number of common desk working brokers and agents just “did what the boss told us” to earn fast, fat commissions.

Regulators, overseers are somewhat difficult to blame. They, too, like the profits, were largely imaginary, nonexistent. Those who existed sat by, quite silent.

Today, a Senator from Illinois engenders, through no fault of his own, racist sentiments from various pockets all about our country.

And this is seven score and three years after the end of the Civil War.

And meanwhile another chunk of trillion has been thrown at a conflagration, a quagmire, in the Middle East that, inarguably, Dr. King would have opposed.

A great speech
And so I bring to you today words earnestly delivered by Dr. King, less than a year before he died. Officially it is titled: “Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam.”

It could quite well be subtitled: “The Giant Triplets Speech.”

It could also be called: “Please Don’t Make Our Country Look Like This in the First Decade of the 21st Century.”

If only all we Americans had recited or read, daily, his powerful words, spoken forty-one years ago:

“When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, militarism and economic exploitation are incapable of being conquered.”

In our modest blog offices it was suggested: Should we post and highlight this speech two days before Election Day?

We “Woodwarded and Bernsteined and Bradleed” this about. Would some be offended? Might some misunderstand?

Perhaps some will.

Some always do.

Any complaints? Send them to me.

Any credit or compliments? They go to Dr. King.

Here is a recording of, in my opinion, a stunning and timeless speech from the greatest and most courageous leader of my lifetime.

Click here to view the embedded video.

When you hear Dr. King’s words, spoken less than a year before he passed, does your heart beat fast?

I should expect and hope it would.

Perhaps your eyes water at certain points.

You’re in good company if they do, I assure.

Never heard this speech before? You are not to blame. We live in a “forget the past” society. Additionally, Dr. King’s other stunning and courageous works, including “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” happen to overshadow his own genius, literary and oratory greatness and prescience displayed at other times in his life.

Does the speech seem familiar? Please give it a listen again, in the relative stillness of this, the day most often set aside for meaningful thought, then send a note to that Social Studies teacher from grade six, your History professor from college, your Speech Coach and thank her or him for the initial introduction.

Send the links to your nephew in the Navy, your sisters from the old sorority, your Aunt in Auburn or Alabama, your boss in Bellevue, your kid in college.

Move it along the internet line to your favorite State Rep or least favorite Congressman, the most ethical attorney you know, or maybe even the least trustworthy scumbag Wall Street suit you are glad you never met, or, perhaps, are sorry you ever did.

Print out Dr. King’s words (we’ll get that link to you soon), fold it up and send them along with warmth in your Holiday greetings later this Autumn.

And so, on this Contemplative Sunday
No matter for whom you wish to loft into office with the fuel of your ballot this Tuesday, I am sure we can all agree, today, on this Contemplative Sunday, the following goal: Let us all, now and in these crucial near years, stare down those Giant and Ugly Triplets and knock them off their high perch for good.

Thanks.

–Mark Neuman
mark@b-townblog.com

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”!

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.

According to the Washington State Department of Ecology:

If you see a harbor seal pup alone on the beach, do not disturb them ­ It’s the law.

Human encroachment can stress the pup and scare the mother and other adult seals away.

For your safety and the health of the pup, leave the pup alone.

Do not touch!

Do not wrap a pup in blankets (seals are protected by blubber and blankets will cause it to overheat.)

Do not try to feed a pup. (Incorrect feeding can cause a pup to die.)

Do not try to force a pup into the water.

Keep pets and children away from a pup.

Shortly after these photos were taken, several neighbors who were watching from a safe distance decided to scare the pup back in the water, citing previous experiences where the babies have ended up being “baked” on the beach and passing away.

Burien resident Carolyn Rosenfield stopped by our B-Town Blog booth at the Farmers’ Market last week to tell us about a documentary film about her great-great grandfather, Samuel Ullman.

Documentary filmmaker Judith Schaefer details his life, as well as the impact of a poem he wrote, on the re-building of Japan after World War II in a one-hour film entitled “So Long Are You Young.”

As a child, Samuel Ullman settled in the southern United States before the Civil War with his family, comprised of German-born Jewish immigrants. After a life spent in a variety of fields, including as a soldier in the Civil War, merchant, rabbi, philosopher and community activist, Mr. Ullman turned to writing poetry in his final years.

“Youth” was written in 1917 when he was 77.

“Youth” came into the possession of General Douglas MacArthur, whose framed display of it deeply impressed Japanese visitors to his Tokyo office at the close of WWII. Subsequently spread across the then-broken nation, the poem inspired a generation of Japanese desperate for hope. Today, prominent Japanese businessmen still cite its influence.

Well-known in Japan, this little known American poem has been quoted by Ann Landers, Dear Abby, and both the American (1945), and Japanese (1946) Readers Digests. It was a favorite of Sen. Robert Kennedy, and was quoted by Sen. Ted Kennedy at the eulogy of his slain brother.

This compelling documentary was premiered at the Vancouver Film Festival in 2007. Carolyn is hoping to show it at Seattle’s’ Jewish Film Festival. If you have a group that would like to see this film, please contact us by email here.

Here’s the poem, “Youth” by Samuel Ullman:

Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind; it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees; it is a matter of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions; it is the freshness of the deep springs of life.

Youth means a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity of the appetite, for adventure over the love of ease.  This often exists in a man of sixty more than a body of twenty.  Nobody grows old merely by a number of years.  We grow old by deserting our ideals.

Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.  Worry, fear, self-distrust bows the heart and turns the spirit back to dust.

Whether sixty or sixteen, there is in every human being’s heart the lure of wonder, the unfailing child-like appetite of what’s next, and the joy of the game of living.  In the center of your heart and my heart there is a wireless station; so long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer, courage and power from men and from the Infinite, so long are you young.

When the aerials are down, and your spirit is covered with snows of cynicism and the ice of pessimism, then you are grown old, even at twenty, but as long as your aerials are up, to catch the waves of optimism, there is hope you may die young at eighty.

And here’s an MP3 of a reading of it:
[display_podcast]

It appears that the “Authoritative, accurate and comprehensive map of Three Tree Point and its immediate environs” was drawn by store owner Vi Sparks on Oct. 6, 1974, with “slight assistance” from Bill and Jeanne Sparks.

Some of our favorite elements of this map:

• Some very cute drawings of ships, airplanes, cars, fish, birds, dogs, houses and even a donkey pulling a cart labeled “What is it??“!
• “Scale: 1 = an unknown number of feet!” scribbled at the bottom as a key
• Humorous 1970s-era Smiley Face drawn in some blank space near the center

Click the image to see a larger and more detailed version:

From the film’s press release:

Ever wonder what a sustainable and affordable community might look like?

Ever wonder if a “zero emissions” neighborhood where solar energy, energy efficiency, and changes in behavior eliminate the need for fossil fuels is possible?

Let us look at one community and how they did it, based on principles of sustainability.

After watching DESIGNING A GREAT NEIGHBORHOOD (54mins), we’ll talk about these principles, how they can be incorporated into our everyday lives and in plans for our future. Imagine!

To people driving past the old Holiday Drive-In Theater site in Boulder, Colorado, it might seem like a new neighborhood has sprung out of the ground overnight. But those who worked on the project’s development know better. Collectively, hundreds of thousands of decisions and choices were made to create the 330-home neighborhood, where affordability and sustainability are primary goals. It wasn’t exactly a simple mission.

In DESIGNING A GREAT NEIGHBORHOOD, director David Wann follows the progress of the Wild Sage Cohousing Community project, where future residents participate in the design of their own neighborhood. The stated architectural goal at the Wild Sage site in Boulder is a “zero emissions” neighborhood in which solar energy, energy efficiency, and changes in behavior eliminate the need for fossil fuels.

The master site developer, The Boulder Housing Partners (BHP), has a vision for creating affordable neighborhoods that are also lively, efficient and pedestrian friendly. More than 400 people with low and middle incomes will live at Holiday, many as first-time homeowners.

Awards:

• Black Bear Film Festival
• Princeton Environmental Film Festival
• Brownfields Conference Film Festival

Reviews:

“Finally, a film that goes beyond green building to address the comprehensive benefits of green neighborhood design! By prioritizing quality over size, we can achieve better neighborhoods for people in all stages of life and income brackets. The market for great neighborhoods will flourish once people know what’s possible, and can ‘vote with their dollars.’ Developers, governing officials and the public need to see this film!” – Alexis Karolides, AIA, Principal, Green Development Services, Rocky Mountain Institute

“‘People don’t really understand there are choices about how you build and where you live,’ says Wann. ‘This story enables them to see an example of something different to make them happier, save them money and save the environment. It’s a lay person’s look at what green building means.’…Higher density, a community garden, walkable and interconnected streets, nearby shops and even shared car rentals encourage a sociable existence.” The Denver Post

Co-sponsored by St Francis Just Faith, Southend Neighbors for Peace and Justice, and Sustainable Burien.

• St. Francis Church, Unity Place
  15226 21st Ave SW
• Wed, Aug 20th at 7pm

A study guide (in PDF form) is available here, and a video guide is available here.

Tonight’s moonrise will be at 8:33am, so if you’re out and about (and the skies are clear), be sure to look to the easterly sky for some amazing beauty!

Intrepid B-Town Blog Reporter/Sales & Promotions Diva Janet Grella had a random encounter last night with a TV Producer who was scouting the beach at Three Tree Point for a production he’s doing this weekend.

Turns out that the production is all about sharks.

That live in Puget Sound.

Off Burien.

Big, Six-Gill Sharks (these ain’t Dogfish) that grow up to 18 feet, as seen in this video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

The TV Producer, Vince Patton, who works for Oregon Public Broadcasting, explained the production via email:

The animal: The 6 Gill Shark.  (Check Wikipedia for details. Their summary is accurate as I read it).

The Seattle Aquarium has an exhibit specifically on 6 Gill Sharks here.

Our show is “Oregon Field Guide” and we are shooting a story for OFG’s upcoming 20th anniversary season which begins in October.  This story could run anytime between October and next spring.

The folks who sell Diving Tours with the Sharks on the boat you may see in the area are here.

The tours move around, depending on where they find the sharks hanging out.  This year, it’s right near Des Moines.  Dives happen at night. Yes, from 10pm to 5am.  They have lots of lights set up on the shark cage where the divers go.

The 6 Gills have made the news in the Seattle area a few times since the late 90′s, but overall most of the public don’t know they’re here. They’re not aggressive to humans and there’s never been any human/shark incidents here.

So, next time you’re swimming in Puget Sound (ya right, at temps around 55 degrees! ha), and you hear a low, deep bass “da-duhm…” music sting, be sure to look closely, as you may see this friendly fella:

Click here to view the embedded video.