| Dec ’09 |
| 15 |
The Highline Historical Society is holding an online auction fundraiser, which runs until Tuesday, Dec. 15th, and offers local restaurants, foods, trips and unusual experiences – all perfect gifts for the holidays, all the while supporting a great local cause.
You can access the auction here:
www.highlinehistory.cmarket.com.
Proceeds from the auction will benefit the ongoing programs and activities of the Society, including their capital building campaign for the new Highline Heritage Museum on their property in “Old Burien.”
“We cannot thank our local vendors enough for their participation. I encourage everyone to take a look at the website and support the Society by bidding on something fun for the holidays,” said Terry Anderson, Society President.
The new Highline Heritage Museum, designed by Rohleder Borges Architects, will be located on the Southwest corner of SW 152nd Street and Ambaum Blvd. SW, where Karuna Yoga Arts is currently housed.
The online auction is hosted by cMarket, which is the country’s leading provider of non-profit online auction services. On any day there are as many as 200 cMarket auctions underway online nationwide. With their secure servers and a growing number of community-minded vendors, more and more shoppers are finding that this is an excellent way to shop close to home for the holidays and to also assist a worthwhile local charity.
by Josh Hart
Duane Quande, the owner of Burien City Garage, has been involved in collecting and fixing cars since he was seven or eight years old.
Back then it was just something people did.
Duane is also the proud owner of a ‘57 Chevy museum. His museum contains pretty much anything and everything to do with Chevys and Coca-Cola.
The museum is centered around Duane’s prized ‘57 Chevy, a car that is very special to him.
He had stripped down said Chevy back in 1989 (when gas was just 65 cents per gallon) and finished rebuilding it in June of last year – a total of 18 years of work. When he first got it, the car had a lot of rust and he and his buddies (Dennis Biggerly, John Zimmerman and Mike Mintern) decided to strip it down, take the body off the frame, and rebuild or repair all the parts.
This cost him a lot of money and time so he will most likely not try re-building another one (unless of course it belongs to a customer).
Duane’s other belongings in the museum include:
- Old Coca-Cola products
- Models of Chevys
- Old auto parts
- Old ads
- Old gas cans
Duane Quande is also a businessman.
In his younger days he went to junior college, and then technical college to become a mechanic (somehow, mechanics are now called “technicians”). After college he worked at a job for ten years before buying Burien City Garage from John Cabela Jr., whose dad, John Cabela, started the business in 1942.
Burien City Garage does general auto repair, which means they do everything on the car except body work.
Drop on by, check out Duane’s cool ‘57 Chevy, and tell him The B-Town Blog sent you.
[EDITOR'S NOTE: Josh Hart is the B-Town Blog's first Intern! He's also a 15-year old student at Highline's “Big Picture High School” in SeaTac.
You can read more of his writing here...]
Last week we were invited to a special presentation that revealed the new plans for the Highline Heritage Museum, which will be built at 819 SW 152nd Street in Olde Burien at Ambaum Blvd., where Karuna Yoga is now.
Highline Historical Society Director Cyndi Upthegrove spoke about the new museum, along with Architect Tim Rohleder.
The museum will be housed in a brand new building with some rather innovative features, including:
- Interesting “box-on-box” styled building (see pics below)
- Innovative circulation system that utilizes natural cooling from underground
- A large room suitable for Smithsonian traveling exhibits (making it the only Smithsonian-suitable museum in the area)
- Unique ground floor windows with the faces of local pioneers (again, see photos below)
According to Cyndi, the museum will include some rather unusual (and ambitious) elements:
“The environmental system for the building will be geo-thermal. In this particular application we will be digging 25 pits to around 250 deep below the ground to a place where the temperature is a steady 57 degrees. Tubes of liquid will circulate through these pits and a heat exchanger will heat and air condition the building using the temperature of the liquid in the tubes. For example, rather than bringing in 37 degree air and heating it to 68 degrees for the building in the winter, we will be using liquid that is already 57 degrees, not needing as much energy to bring the building to the required temp. For a slightly increased installation cost, we will install a system that will pay for itself in energy savings in 5-7 years, and perhaps sooner.
The upstairs gallery will not be developed with permanent exhibits. Rather, it will be used for temporary and traveling exhibits. The Society is working with the Smithsonian Institution to become a Smithsonian Affiliate Institution, making it possible to obtain artifacts and exhibits for long term exhibition. It is our intention to use Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibit Services (SITES) several times a year, as well as other nationally recognized traveling exhibit services to bring changing and interesting materials to the Highline community. The entire building has been designed with the security and environmental conditions in mind to house good traveling exhibits.”
Here are some photos provided by Rohleder Borges Architecture, the architects of the design:
Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.
Hard to believe, but at one time the city of Burien had its very own mascot hydroplane, the aptly-named Miss Burien.
She never won a race, but for a scrappy boat on a relatively low budget, she was pretty competitive (kinda like Burien, no?), and certainly helped increase the profile of this here ‘burb.
Here are two recent videos of our namesake boat in action on Lake Washington:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQuwMMHsqe8
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRGTJMCNfUs
The story of this much-loved and historic machine goes back to the late 1950s, and involves an organization called “Greater Burien, Inc.”, a precursor to the current-day Discover Burien (hey, how about a “Miss Discover Burien” hydro? Or “Misunderstood Burien“?), which funded its own hydroplane.
According to the Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum:
The original Miss Burien became kindling on Lake Coeur d’Alene during the running of the Diamond Cup in 1959. Like all unlimited hydroplane aficionados, owner Peter Woeck wanted to see the legacy of his boat continue. Woeck and his supporting cast of Greater Burien Inc. commissioned Ted Jones to build a larger, more competitive Miss Burien.
The Burien remained the flagship of every person who dreamed of running with the big boys. While she never had the depth of financial or equipment resources that the well-heeled teams possessed, she still put on a good show. In her first race, the 1960 Apple cup, she took third behind Miss Thriftway and Nitrogen Too, but out pointed Miss Bardahl. Chuck Hickling, a steady pilot, drove her in the Apple Cup and in a number of other races. Hickling later guided her to a second place finish at the Diamond Cup, winning the final heat but losing on total points. In 1961 Hickling and the Burien took second in the Seafair Trophy Race.
The Miss Burien never raced east of the Rockies, but she always put up a fight on the Western circuit. She campaigned as the Tempest in 1962 and ’63. She continued to be competitive, but never sustained the pressure to earn the winner’s circle. In 1964 she raced under three different names with results similar to her past. In 1965 her registered number was changed to U-50 and she competed as Savair’s Probe and was finally known simply as Probe. The boat was retired in 1980 and later donated to the Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum.
She was restored by the Museum in 1996 as the Miss South Park and finally completed her return to her roots by representing the ageless dream of every racing fan under her given name: Miss Burien, U-4.
Last we heard, the Miss Burien was still doing “vintage hydro” exhibition heats during races. We’re not sure where she’s stored these days, but we bet the good folks at the Hydroplane and Raceboat Museum know.
They’re located at 5917 South 196th Street in Kent; phone: 206.764.9453
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| May ’08 |
| 24 |
| 2:00 pm |
TUKWILA – This Saturday, May 24th, from 2pm to 3:30pm at the Museum of Flight, you’re invited to meet and hear stories from the famed Tuskegee Airmen.
The Tuskegee Airmen were dedicated, determined young men who enlisted to become America’s first black military airmen, at a time when there were many people who thought that black men lacked intelligence, skill, courage and patriotism.
Prior to the Tuskegee Airmen, no U.S. military pilots had been black, so you can imagine the hurtles they faced.
They came from every section of the country, with large numbers coming from New York City, Washington, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia and Detroit. Each one possessed a strong personal desire to serve the United States of America at the best of his ability.
On Saturday, you can meet four actual surviving members of the 477th Bombardment Group out of Freeman Field, Indiana, including:
- Leslie Williams
- Fitzroy Newsum
- Lt. Roger “Bill” Terry
- Robert Maxwell
This historic program is free with Museum Admission.
The Museum of Flight is located at 9404 E Marginal Way South in Tukwila; the phone number is (206) 764-5720.
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!
