This weekend’s Pacific Magazine cover article on the old “Catholic Hill” illustrates all that is good and all that is bad with Seattle Times nostalgia. “Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood lives on in next generations,” the headline says. And then the article goes on to say it doesn’t:
Today St. Joseph is a destination parish where before it was fed by people who lived within walking distance, says Archdiocese of Seattle spokesman Greg Magnoni, who grew up on the Hill. The church has had to rebuild its identity and attract a much broader group of parishioners, he says.
Today, many church members have to commute to St. Joseph by car or bus because they live so far away.
Anybody who has seen the incredible line of cars lining up to flow through St. Joe’s parking lot to drop off kids on any given school day morning knows exactly what the spokesman speaketh of.
Still, the article is worth reading for its history and its photos and its profiles of a few people who called this place home for a long time. But while we’ve never seen much of a history of gay Capitol Hill or hippie Capitol Hill, we now have another history of the few blocks around 19th Ave. It’s as if the Times leaps from Catholics to grunge.
From the article’s conclusion, it is clear the Times is celebrating the community spirit of the bygone day. But we’re not sure they’ve succeeded in explaining the community that exists on the Hill today. The Times fails because the focus really ought to be on multiple communities — and, we’re guessing — always should have been:
“People still want a faith-based, community-oriented school,” Hofbauer says, noting that St. Joseph School even today is more than 70 percent Catholic. But “you have to market a school, sell it.”
With Hofbauer retiring as principal next year, though, the neighborhood stands to lose another link to the community’s past.
“I think this is kind of the end of it,” Paul Sauvage laments.
Sauvage heads to the patio of his home and looks out over the alley behind the house and the rooftops of his neighbors.
A newer house stands today on what was once a field nicknamed “the clover,” where kids would play British bulldogs, a schoolyard game that’s similar to Red Rover. Every spot holds a thousand stories.
The alleys are mostly silent now, the warm breath of memory the only sign of the lives that used to unfold here.
But for the lucky few who can still call Catholic Hill home, it’s a connection well worth kindling.
Sometimes there are people waiting for the bus on 19th & Aloha, but they are clearly over 25, usually 65. Avoid that area during the drop off/pick up times. Most of the parents seem unaware that 19th and Aloha are main arterial streets, not waiting lots for the school.
Another era shortchanged in Capitol Hill history, is the 1980s(my teens). For a time about half the people on Capitol Hill streets were followers of the Rajneeshi cult. Then after the exposes in the SeaTimes, PI and Oregonian, they were gone and Seattle thrift stores were inundated with orange, red, and pink clothes. By the next weekend.
Also the heyday of Broadway as the cool strip in Seattle, gay and punk/new wave(not grunge that was downtown and U-district). No chain stores(one Starbucks), copy/mail centers, or “smoke” shops. The Rite-Aid on John was a real movie theater and the Broadway Market had 4-6 screens.
Before the Rajneeshis it was the Hare Krishnas, who had the big house at the NE corner of 18th and Harrison when I moved to 18th in 1983. Vaguely recall newspaper exposés involving their enlightened brand of misogyny.
Yup. Seattle Times is so full of out-of-touch incompetents. They need to fade away. Really. The P-I online is so much better. CHS is so much better. So many Seattle Times reporters are so dense, they fail to see the irony or contradiction in anything they write. Pathetic and pretentious.
And, when oh when is anyone (Mr. McGinn, City Council, Gregoire, Obama, Congress, etc, etc) going to do anything about the super high cost of renting or owning, especially in cities such as ours. Big developers, big-time realtors, large property owners and their industries are laughing all the way to the bank, in spite of the hardship they so often so predictably claim to suffer. I’ve never, ever met a developer on unemployment or facing eviction/homelessness threats but I have heard of plenty who’ve gone to jail or been fined for impropriety.
The Pacific Magazine article should have been titled: St Joseph’s a bellwether for our times: As the rich get richer, traditional families cash out leave Capitol Hill in search of more affordable housing”.
Sad times we live in.
“For a time about half the people on Capitol Hill streets were followers of the Rajneeshi cult. “
Well, thank goodness that the Scientologists never caught on.
Half the people on Capitol Hill were Rajneeshis? Bit of an exaggeration, methinks.
1)Yes I was exaggerating a bit, remove the stick from your…
2)Were you around here 1983-85? Strolling along 15th(especially), Pike, Pine, and Broadway you would pass many people(mostly women)wearing red, pink, orange and medallions with the Rajneesh. Many more than actual hipsters on Capitol Hill today.
3)I’m sure the happy reminiscences of the late 50s-early 60s from the Seattle Times story were 100% exactly true! Or as others noted many of those big families had alcoholism and domestic violence along with the community and faith. Email Greg Nickels or John McKay and set them straight!
It must be so much fun to be a pedantic jerk.
This school and Parish is still a big part of the community. The school is big; has over 500 students, 3 classes per grade. I liked the article.
Peace.
Jseattle,
Why has this comment from Volunteer Park not been removed? Is it ok by you for someone to tell another person to stop being a jerk or pull the stick out of their…? Is it ok because you know who they are or they aren’t anonymous. This comment isn’t very community oriented.
Thank you, Mark F…I agree. Mine was a pretty benign comment correcting a factual misstatement. It’s amazing how often anonymous commenters on blogs over-react with angry, insulting messages.
Yes, Volunteer Park, I have lived on Capitol Hill since 1976. Apologies accepted.
“1)Yes I was exaggerating a bit, remove the stick from your…
…
It must be so much fun to be a pedantic jerk.”
If someone politely calls you out for exaggeration, the best option is to come off rude and overdramatic.
Perhaps the title of the Times article is somewhat misleading? It makes it fairly clear early on (5th paragraph) that it’s talking about a specific sub-neighborhood rather than the hill as a whole – just the area between Interlaken and E Roy, which corresponds to the Fancy Pants CHS Sub-Neighborhood. This is the area that was originally called Capitol Hill (by early developer James Moore), so perhaps the Time’s title is correct in a historical sense (insert appropriate jibe about the Times being stuck in the past here); It was only later that Capitol Hill came to mean the entire hill.
One of the things I love about Capitol Hill is that it’s really a collection of adjacent neighborhoods, each with their own character. There’s really little at all in common between Fancy Pants – which was originally developed as a hoity-toity residential area – and PikeOrPine, which was Seattle’s original Auto Row (and later – thanks to urban decay! – became home to its gay/arts/rock scene). It’s perhaps a bit unfair to expect a once-off article thats intentionally written about a specific part to address every other part. Of course, had they the sense to use the CHS sub-neighborhood designations in the first place, this wouldn’t have been an issue – so perhaps we should suggest they change the title to: “Seattle’s Fancy Pants neighborhood lives on in next generations” instead? :)