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NW Carkeek Park Road

This street was named for Carkeek Park, which encompasses 216 acres in the Broadview neighborhood, including Pipers Creek and nearly ½ a mile of Puget Sound waterfront (though the usable beach is much shorter, as the main line of the BNSF Railway cuts off public access to the rest). It was one of the “46 new street names to simplify street addresses” The Seattle Times reported on in its issue November 6, 1960, and was made up of “Sixth Avenue Northwest from West 110th to West 111th Streets, West 111th Street from Sixth to Seventh Avenues Northwest, Seventh Avenue NW from West 111th to West 114th Streets, and West 114th Street from Seventh Avenue NW to West 116th Street.” (Part of this route was once Puget Drive, part of the 1911 View-Lands Addition.)

Morgan Carkeek, 1910
Morgan Carkeek, 1910
Emily Carkeek, 1911
Emily Carkeek, 1911

The park itself opened in 1929 and was named for Morgan James Carkeek (1847–1931) and his wife, Emily Gaskill Carkeek (1852–1926). According to the Museum of History & Industry, “Morgan… was an accomplished stonemason and successful building contractor who built several of Seattle’s early stone buildings, such as the Dexter Horton Bank, and large office buildings, including the Burke and Haller buildings.” In 1918, he and Emily donated land to the city for the first Carkeek Park, located along Lake Washington where Magnuson Park is today, but soon thereafter plans were made to develop Naval Air Station Seattle on the land, and the park was taken over by the Navy in 1926. The Carkeeks donated $25,000 to the city to purchase land elsewhere, and with the addition of $100,000 in public funds the city was able to buy Piper’s Canyon.

Report in The Seattle Times, May 28, 1927, on the Carkeeks' contribution of funds to buy Piper's Canyon
Report in The Seattle Times, May 28, 1927, on the Carkeeks’ contribution of funds to buy Piper’s Canyon. The Seattle Historical Society, which they had a hand in founding, never did build a museum in Carkeek Park, but ended up building the Museum of History & Industry in Montlake’s McCurdy Park instead. MOHAI opened in 1952 and moved to Lake Union Park in 2012 after having to make way for the expansion of Washington State Route 520.

NW Carkeek Park Road begins at NW 110th Street and Puget Drive NW and winds ½ a mile northwest to the entrance to Carkeek Park at NW 114th Street. Within the park, it goes a further ½ mile west, ending at a parking lot, picnic area, and playground. (This portion appears to have once been known as Piper’s Canyon Road or Pipers Road.) From here, there is a bridge over the BNSF Railway tracks to a beach along Puget Sound and the mouth of Pipers Creek.

Aerial view of Carkeek Park, 1969
Aerial view of Carkeek Park, looking southeast, July 9, 1969. The valley and outlet of Pipers Creek are clearly visible, as is the main line of the BNSF Railway that separates the park’s wooded and grassy areas from Puget Sound. Courtesy of the Seattle Municipal Archives, Identifier 77628.
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S Kenny Street

This street was created in 1903 as part of the plat of Hillman City Division № 5, filed by real estate developer Clarence Dayton Hillman (1870–1935) and his wife, Bessie Olive Kenny (1879–1947). Hillman also named the Renton neighborhood of Kennydale after his wife’s maiden name.

S Kenny Street begins on Beacon Hill at 21st Avenue S and goes two blocks east to 23rd Avenue S. It resumes in Hillman City at 42nd Avenue S and goes ¼ mile east to a dead end east of Rainier Avenue S. Its final segment, just under 400 feet long, lies west of 51st Avenue S and dead-ends at some private driveways.

C.D. Hillman, Bessie Kenny Hillman, and family
Bessie and C.D. Hillman and family, from a 1910 abstract of title for C.D. Hillman’s Birmingham Water Front Addition to the City of Everett
Bessie and C.D. Hillman
Bessie and C.D. Hillman and children, n.d., courtesy of his great-granddaughter
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S Ronald Drive

This street, like Cecil Avenue S and Leroy Place S, was created in 1905 as part of the plat of Southside Garden Tracts, filed by Crawford & Conover, a partnership of Samuel Leroy Crawford (1855–1916) and Charles Tallmadge Conover (1862–1961). It appears to have been named after Crawford’s father, Ronald C. Crawford (1827–1924).

S Ronald Drive begins at S Benefit Street just west of 37th Avenue S and goes 1⁄10 of a mile southwest to Leroy Place S.

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Leroy Place S

This street, like Cecil Avenue S, was created in 1905 as part of the plat of Southside Garden Tracts, filed by Crawford & Conover, a partnership of Samuel Leroy Crawford (1855–1916) and Charles Tallmadge Conover (1862–1961). It appears to have been named after Crawford’s middle name.

Samuel Leroy Crawford, 1890
Samuel Leroy Crawford, 1890

Leroy Place S begins at the end of S Ronald Drive and goes around 375 feet southeast to a dead end.

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Cecil Avenue S

This street was created in 1905 as part of the plat of Southside Garden Tracts, filed by Crawford & Conover, a partnership of Samuel Leroy Crawford (1855–1916) and Charles Tallmadge Conover (1862–1961) (E Conover Court). It appears to have been named after Charles’s son Cecil Tallmadge Conover (1897–1967).

Cecil Avenue S begins at Beacon Avenue S and 37th Avenue S and goes nearly 900 feet southwest to a dead end in the greenbelt above Interstate 5.

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SW Niesz Court

This street was created as part of the 1889 plat of West Seattle Park and named after West Seattle developer and Seattle city councilman Uriah Roush Niesz (1849–1929). According to Images of America: West Seattle,

…In what is now the Admiral District, the now familiar moniker “West Seattle” was first used by Uriah Niesz when developing five-acre homesites in 1885.

Born in Canton, Ohio, Niesz arrived in Seattle in 1883, was elected to the city council in 1887, and was instrumental in the rebuilding of the city after the Great Seattle Fire of 1889. According to Clarence Bagley in his History of Seattle from the Earliest Settlement to the Present Time,

[He took] a prominent part in the replatting and upbuilding of the city. He with other members of the council had mapped out the whole plan some time previous to the fire, which made it possible to accomplish their purpose.… As a member of the council Mr. Niesz was made chairman of the judiciary, finance and harbor and wharves committees and the last named took up the whole burden of replatting the business and shipping section of the city.… Herculean as was the task of this committee in bringing order out of chaos in this part of the city; in opening the way for land and water traffic to meet at a minimum cost of transshipment; in providing facilities for a marvelous growth in the business of a future great city; in short in giving the city a new birth, yet this great task paled into insignificance compared with the responsibilities resting upon the finance committee, of which Mr. Niesz was also chairman.

I find that contemporary biographies of pioneers tend to read like hagiographies, but in this case I think Niesz’s entire biography is worth a read.

U.R. Niesz, from a portrait of Seattle's mayor and city councilmen for 1888-1890
U.R. Niesz, from his obituary in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, September 22, 1929
At left, Niesz as part of a portrait of Seattle’s mayor and city councilmen for 1888–1890. At right, the photograph accompanying his obituary in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer issue of September 22, 1929.

SW Niesz Court begins at 50th Avenue SW just south of the College Street Ravine and goes two blocks east to 48th Avenue SW.

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Benton Place SW

This street was named by and for Miles P. Benton (1860-1913) and his wife, Ida Belle Rinker Benton (1860-1919), when they filed the plat of Benton’s “Shore Acres” Addition to Alki Point in 1906.

In History of Seattle from the Earliest Settlement to the Present Time, Clarence Bagley writes that Benton, who was born in Iowa and came to Seattle in 1890 from Montana,

…spent many years with different railroad companies. For a time he was connected with the Great Northern and later he became general passenger and freight agent for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad at Seattle. The last few years of his life were spent in connection with the safe and lock trade. He was associated with the Norris Safe & Lock Company… Later Mr. Norris took over the safe and lock company and Mr. Benton the desk department of the business, after which he was joined by Edward Herald in a partnership that was continued under the name of the Benton-Herald Desk & Safe Company until [his death].

Miles P. Benton
Miles P. Benton, 1906. Artwork by Edwin Frederick Brotze.

SW Benton Place begins at Beach Drive SW across from Constellation Park and goes just shy of 300 feet north to a dead end next to one of King County’s combined sewer overflow treatment facilities.

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SW Teig Place

According to Phillip H. Hoffman, director of the Alki History Project, in his paper “What’s in a Name?,” SW Teig Place was created in 1916 as part of the Olson Land Company’s 3rd Addition to Seattle. At the time, Jacob Larson Teig (1865–1945) was vice president of Olson Land. He was also the husband of Clara Isabelle Olson (1864–1944), daughter of Knud Olson (1830–1919), who had platted Alki Point in 1891.

SW Teig Place begins at 57th Avenue SW just north of SW Stevens Street and goes around 450 feet northeast to 56th Avenue SW just north of SW Lander Place.

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SW Wilton Court

As Phillip H. Hoffman, director of the Alki History Project, tells us in his article “What’s in a Name?,” this street was named after Benjamin Wilton Baker (1860–1934), husband of Julia Curry Williams (1861–1950) and father of Marguerite Baker (1890–?), after whom SW Marguerite Court is named. The Bakers were proprietors of Rose Lodge, a summer resort which once stood where the eastern portion of SW Wilton Court is now.

Benjamin Wilton Baker, 1901
Benjamin Wilton Baker, from the November 30, 1901, issue of The Seattle Times
Rose Lodge circa 1913
Rose Lodge and tents from beach, 1913

SW Wilton Court begins at SW Hinds Street across the street from the Bar-S Playground, and goes just over 700 feet southeast to 63rd Avenue SW between Beach Drive SW and SW Marguerite Court. It is a private right-of-way between 64th Avenue SW and 63rd Avenue SW.

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SW Marguerite Court

This street, which is part of the unrecorded plat of B.W. Baker’s Rose Lodge Addition, was named after Marguerite Baker (1890–?), eldest daughter of Benjamin Wilton Baker (1860–1934) and Julia Curry Williams (1861–1950). The Bakers were proprietors of Rose Lodge, a summer resort which once stood where the subdivision is now.

The public right-of-way is a footpath that runs just over 300 feet from 63rd Avenue SW in the southeast to 64th Avenue SW in the northwest. Vehicular access to the homes is from a public alley to the north and a private one to the south.

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SW Campbell Place

This street was created in 1914 as part of the plat of Admiralty Heights, filed by William T. Campbell (1870–1951); his wife, Jennie Bennett Campbell (1874–1948); and Arthur L. Stewart. According to Phillip H. Hoffman, director of the Alki History Project, in his paper “What’s in a Name?,”

W.T. Campbell was a long-time West Seattle resident living on the hillside above Alki. He was an early advocate for Alki annexation to the City of West Seattle, a real estate developer, early West Seattle school principal, banker, and a member of the Seattle City Council beginning 1924. He would serve as a city councilmember until 1929.

W.T. Campbell
W.T. Campbell, from the October 11, 1933, issue of The Seattle Times

SW Campbell Place begins at SW Lander Street a block west of SW Admiral Way and goes just over 550 feet southwest to 56th Avenue SW at the north edge of Schmitz Park.

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Frater Avenue SW

I first came across the Alki History Project while doing research for my article on SW Bronson Way. I’m not sure how I missed it before. The paper that mentioned Ira Bronson was “If at First You Don’t Succeed…,” a fascinating history of municipal governance and elections in West Seattle, and when I looked at their list of other papers I was thrilled to see among them “What’s in a Name?” — an investigation of Alki street names, both current and those changed long ago. Frater Avenue SW is the first of a number of posts in which I will be citing this paper, written by Phillip H. Hoffman, director of the project.

Frater Avenue SW originates in the 1955 plat of Anderson’s Soundview Terrace Addition № 2. Why Anderson, Caple, or Knowlton weren’t chosen instead for the honor (this being the only new street in the small subdivision, and those being the surnames of the three couples who filed the plat) isn’t clear. But, as Hoffman notes, SW Frater Street and SW Frater Place (both of which have since been vacated) were just to the west in the adjacent plat. In addition, an earlier Frater Avenue SW had existed, until it was vacated in 1942, just southeast of where today’s Frater Avenue begins at SW Spokane Street. The current Frater Avenue must have been named after one of these three streets.

But, of course, that leaves the question of who those three streets initially honored, and according to Hoffman,

Frater Avenue first appears in the plat Partition of Crawford Tract as ordered in King County Superior Court, Cause № 64110, June 17, 1915. [A.W.] Frater was the presiding judge.… The court commissioners assisting in the adjudication of a land title and ownership dispute before Judge Frater that resulted in the Crawford Tract plat probably named Frater Avenue in 1915, along with all the other streets appearing in the plat.

Archibald Wanless Frater (1856–1925), according to Cornelius Holgate in Seattle and Environs, was born in Ohio and came to Washington in 1888. Initially settling in Tacoma, he moved to Snohomish the next year and came to Seattle in 1898.

Archibald Wanless Frater
Judge Archibald Wanless Frater, from the front cover of The Seattle Mail & Herald, June 3, 1905

Today’s Frater Avenue SW begins at 57th Avenue SW just north of SW Hinds Street and goes ⅛ of a mile southeast to SW Spokane Street just west of 56th Avenue SW.

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SW Bronson Way

This West Seattle street was created in 1900 as part of the Replat of the West Seattle Land & Improvement Co’s. Third Plat. Originally Beach Way, it was renamed Bronson Way in 1907, when Seattle annexed West Seattle. Given that Ira Hull Bronson (1868–1930) was attorney for and vice president of the WSL&IC, it seems a fair assumption that it was named for him.

Ira Bronson, from his June 17, 1930, obituary in The Seattle Times
Ira Bronson, from his June 17, 1930, obituary in The Seattle Times. He had died the day before.

Bronson, a former president of the American Bar Association, was described in the June 18, 1930, issue of The Seattle Times as a “pioneer Seattle attorney and leader in admiralty circles… [who] was one of the founders of the Inland Navigation Company, which later became the Puget Sound Navigation Company.” (The PSNC’s domestic ferry routes were bought by the state in 1951, forming Washington State Ferries, and most of its Canadian routes became part of the new BC Ferries system in 1961. The firm, now known as the Black Ball Ferry Line, now runs one boat, the MV Coho, between Port Angeles and Victoria. Through a series of mergers, Bronson’s law firm is now Stoel Rives.)

Though the right-of-way begins further inland, SW Bronson Way only physically exists between Harbor Avenue SW and Elliott Bay. About 180 feet long, it is nearly 90 feet wide (quite a length-to-width ratio!) and essentially serves as a public parking lot. It is a shoreline street end, platted into the water, and features an unobstructed view of the city across the bay.

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Weedin Place NE

Originally Ravenna Avenue in the 1890 plat of the Woodlawn Addition to Green Lake, Weedin Place NE was named for the Weedin brothers, early settlers of the area. (Weedin’s Homestead Addition to the City of Seattle, filed by Robert Weedin, his son, and their wives in 1904, lies to the south; it would seem that when Ravenna Boulevard NE was established slightly to the west, Ravenna Avenue needed a new name, and that of the Weedins was chosen.)

Louis Fiset writes for HistoryLink.org:

In the fall of 1879, 10 years after the first homesteader arrived at Green Lake, a newly erected, simple log cabin schoolhouse opened its doors to 11 pupils.… This was the first Green Lake School.… The children came from four households on the east side of the lake: seven were sons and daughters of the brothers W. L. and Robert Weedin.… Thus began public school education in the territorial School District № 25.

And Valarie Bunn tells us on her blog, Wedgwood in Seattle History, that Robert Joseph Weedin (1842–1910) and William Luther Weedin (1845–1930) were Civil War veterans from Missouri who “did not have to take a full five years to ‘prove up a claim’ and be awarded ownership of land, according to the Homestead Act of 1862,” but could count their time in the service toward that total. Robert’s claim, as noted above, was southeast of Green Lake, while William’s was further east, in Wedgwood and Bryant.

A photograph of brothers W.L. and Robert Weedin that ran in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, May 23, 1965, in an article about early schools in Green Lake
A photograph of brothers W.L. and Robert Weedin that ran in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, May 23, 1965, in an article about early schools in Green Lake

Today, Weedin Place NE begins at 5th Avenue NE and NE 70th Street and goes ¼ of a mile southeast to just past 8th Avenue NE and NE 66th Street, where the right-of-way becomes a park. It is notable for being the location of the Weedin Place fallout shelter, located under Interstate 5. Read more about it in “‘Lifeboat Ethics’ Under the Interstate: Seattle’s Prototype Highway Fallout Shelter,” by Washington State Department of Transportation historian Craig Holstine, who writes that

…The Weedin Place facility was apparently the first, and only, fallout shelter ever constructed in the U.S. under a public roadway. It was built under what would become Interstate 5 at the height of the Cold War in part as a way to demonstrate more effective uses of public rights-of-way.… The Commissioner of Public Roads… proposed putting shelters under the interstates as a way to save costs by combining needs of the national shelter and federal-aid highway programs and provide shelter for the traveling public.

Weedin Place Fallout Shelter
Weedin Place fallout shelter, May 2010. For more photos, see this 2018 article by Feliks Banel. Also see this 2010 blog post by the Washington State Department of Transportation, as well as their Flickr album, featuring 18 more photos of the shelter. Photograph by Flickr user Washington State Department of Transportation, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic
Street sign at corner of Weedin Place NE, NE 66th Street, and 8th Avenue NE, January 30, 2010
Street sign at corner of Weedin Place NE, NE 66th Street, and 8th Avenue NE, January 30, 2010. Photograph by Benjamin Lukoff. Copyright © 2010 Benjamin Lukoff. All rights reserved.
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Rob Mattson Way

This is the first honorary renaming we‘re covering on Writes of Way. It was named for the former “Mayor of Ballard,” Rob Mattson (1949–2018), the year after his death.

Honorary renamings differ from straight renamings in that:

  • They are done via resolution rather than ordinance
  • They do not replace the original street name in official records and addresses
  • They appear on brown, rather than green, signs

Speaking of signs, there appears to be some variation in their design; compare that of Rob Mattson Way, below, to that of Gerard Schwarz Place.

Rob Mattson Way covers 22nd Avenue NW between NW 56th Street and NW 57th Street.

Sign at corner of NW 56th Street and 22nd Avenue NW (Rob Mattson Way), November 10, 2020
Sign at corner of NW 56th Street and 22nd Avenue NW (Rob Mattson Way), November 10, 2020. Photograph by Benjamin Lukoff. Copyright © 2020 Benjamin Lukoff. All rights reserved.
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S Corgiat Drive

This street was created in 1905 as part of the Corgiat Addition to Georgetown (then an independent town), filed by John Corgiat (1858–1936) and his wife, Caroline Genasci Corgiat (1866–1954).

Born Giovanni Domenicio Corgiat in Italy, John was a real estate investor who, according to his Seattle Times obituary, was also notable for “establish[ing] the Louvre Restaurant, the first French-Italian eating place in Seattle, in 1888.” (It was destroyed the next year in the Great Seattle Fire.) He was also apparently involved in a number of legal cases relating to the explusion of restaurateur John Cicoria from the Joseph Mazzini Society in 1907: not only the lawsuit demanding Cicoria’s reinstatement in the Italian-American fraternal organization, but one in which the society succeeded in making him pay its legal fees, and three libel suits — one which Cicoria won against Corgiat, and two which Corgiat filed against The Seattle Times and the Message-Vero-Italo-Americano with Cicoria as co-defendant in each. The suit against the Times was dismissed at Corgiat’s request; I haven’t been able to find any more information about the other.

John Corgiat, from his obituary in the Seattle Times, December 10, 1936
John Corgiat, from his obituary in the Seattle Times, December 10, 1936

Originally Corgiat Street, S Corgiat Drive begins at the railroad tracks just east of Airport Way S and goes 300 feet northeast to just past Ursula Place S, at which point it turns northwest and becomes S Corgiat Drive (not in the original plat). From there, it goes ⅖ of a mile to S Albro Place, just west of Interstate 5.

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Sturtevant Avenue S

This street, established in 1913 as Sturtevant Place, was named for real estate investor, banker, and antique store owner Cullen Kittredge Sturtevant (1865–1946), who developed a number of tracts in what is now Rainier Beach. Unlike many developers, he didn’t name this street after himself; it was added by the city nearly a decade after he filed Sturtevant’s Plat of Rainier Beach Acre Tracts.

Cullen Kittredge Sturtevant (1865-1946)
Cullen Kittredge Sturtevant (1865–1946), courtesy of Find a Grave user SturtevantBV

Today, Sturtevant Avenue S begins at Rainier Avenue S between 51st Avenue S and 52nd Avenue S and goes ⅕ of a mile southeast to 52nd Avenue S and S Roxbury Street. Sturtevant Ravine, through which Mapes Creek runs on its way from Kubota Garden to Beer Sheva Park and Lake Washington, lies to its west.

Ad for Sturtevant's Rainier Beach Lake Front Tracts, The Seattle Times, April 8, 1906
Ad for Sturtevant’s Rainier Beach Lake Front Tracts, The Seattle Times, April 8, 1906
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Sturgus Avenue S

This street was created in 1900 as part of the plat of the Orchard Hill Addition, filed by Martin Dean, Sarah J. Dean, Elizabeth H. Lewis, William H. Lewis, the W.C. Hill Brick Company, and the First National Bank of Seattle. According to Don Sherwood, it was named for John J. Sturgus, “realtor and agent of [the] W.C. Hill Estate” (Hill had died in 1890).

I do find mentions of a John J. Sturgus, associated with the Hill Company or the Hill Estate, in a number of Polk directories. However, it appears a Dr. John J. Sturgus (1859–1907) was also the brother of Hill’s wife, born Alice Bradley Sturgus (1847–1904).

Article in the (Washington, D.C.) Evening Star, September 9, 1890, on the death of W.C. Hill
Article in the (Washington, D.C.) Evening Star, September 9, 1890, on the death of W.C. Hill, mentioning Mrs. Hill’s mother (“Mrs. Sturgus”) and brother (Dr. John J. Sturgus).

Given the unlikelihood of two completely different John J. Sturguses being associated with the Hills, I’m going to assume that the physician and real estate man were one and the same, and that the street was given its name either because Dr. Sturgus was Hill’s brother-in-law or because Sturgus was his wife’s maiden name (or both). If the latter, that puts it in the same category as Perkins Lane W, Thorndyke Avenue W, and Keen Way N.

Today, Sturgus Avenue S begins at S Charles Street, just east of the Jose Rizal Bridge, and goes ½ a mile southeast, then south, to S State Street. The right-of-way continues a block further, to the S Grand Street right-of-way, but houses with addresses on that block are accessed by a private alley north of 16th Avenue S.

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N Lucas Place

This street was created in 1911 as part of the Lucas Addition to the City of Seattle, filed by William Mortimer Lucas (born 1857 or 1858) of the W.M. Lucas Building Company. According to the National Register of Historic Places registration form for the Ravenna-Cowen North Historic District,

William Mortimer Lucas… was born in Illinois. Between 1908 and 1913 he was a speculative builder of houses in Seattle’s north end, houses that were financed by the sale of stock.… His office was located in the White Building in downtown Seattle. By 1912, the company was also selling plans for bungalows.

N Lucas Place begins at Stone Way N between N 40th Street and N 41st Street and goes about 375 feet east to Interlake Avenue N.

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Swanson’s Alley

Officially, this alley off 34th Avenue E between E John Street and 35th Avenue E is unnamed. That proved inconvenient for Jack Sussman and Cathy Nunneley, who live at 184 and 128 33rd Avenue E, respectively. Yes, 33rd Avenue E, even though their house is accessed from 34th.

I don’t know how it works in other cities, but in Seattle, you can have an address on a nonexistent — or, more accurately, unimproved — street. This is the case with W Semple Street — the three residences with a Semple address are only accessible from 45th Avenue W. And this is the case here. Unlike Semple, 33rd Avenue E is improved… but not for the entire length of its right-of-way. From about 450 feet south of E Harrison Street to about 175 feet north of E Denny Way, 33rd Avenue E is unimproved and makes up part of the Harrison Ridge Greenbelt.

Swanson's Alley and surrounding streets as shown on King County Parcel Viewer
Swanson’s Alley and surrounding streets as shown on King County Parcel Viewer. Address points appear in green, except for 128 and 184 33rd Avenue E, which appear in purple.

Sussman writes in the July–August 2010 issue of The Valley View, the newsletter of the Madison Valley Community Council:

We have a problem because our address is one that people cannot find. Get a new mailperson and we won’t see any mail for a week!… How many Roto-Rooter men, phone line fixers, and Craigslist contacts have been lost trying to find us? GPS and MapQuest systems are useless for locating my house. How many times have I run out to the street vainly searching for the delivery truck going round and round the neighborhood?

He goes on to explain that “a fine article lamenting [the] neglect of city alleys” written by Knute Berger inspired him to put up a sign reading “Swanson’s Alley” underneath the city’s official sign directing people to his and Nunneley’s houses. He chose the name to honor “Swanson, a Swedish carpenter, [who] lived here in the 1930s,” and happily reports that giving the alley a name, albeit unofficial, did indeed help people find his residence.

Swanson's Alley sign, May 29, 2010
Hand-painted Swanson’s Alley sign, May 29, 2010. Photograph by Benjamin Lukoff. Copyright © 2010 Benjamin Lukoff. All rights reserved.

In the next issue of The Valley View, Sussman reports that he was able to locate a grandson of this Swanson, to give him the news and get further details on the alley’s namesake:

The grandfather who founded the family here was Elof Svenson [1881–1958]; the name later became Swanson in America. Elof was a teenage laborer, a Swedish immigrant who spoke little English. I had one detail wrong: he was not a carpenter but a landscape worker who specialized in rockeries. He put in all the bulkheads that hold the ground above the Harrison Greenbelt.

In general, I’m not a fan of unofficial signage (especially signs proclaiming public rights-of-way to be private, which I’ve come across in Blue Ridge, Montlake, and Wedgwood) but I have no problem with this one. It doesn’t imply private ownership and it’s meant to improve navigation. And it honors someone most people would otherwise never have heard of.

By the way — in case you’re wondering why Swanson’s Alley shows up in Google Maps and OpenStreetMap even though the name is unofficial, it’s because I added it. The name, that is — the alley was already present on both. (I’m trying to get it added to Apple Maps as well, but that may be a bit more difficult.)