The kids at Capitol Hill’s St. Joseph School sometimes probably can’t wait to go home and get out of the place but they joined together recently to mark a big milestone. The school marked the 100 year anniversary of its 18th Ave building by recreating a historical photograph of the student body across the ages.
The school has continued to grow with an expansion to the campus about ten years ago and plans for a new playfield structure in the works.
The photographic celebration came on the 100th anniversary of the school building but a few years short of the present-day church structure’s centennial. They’ll mark that milestone in 2030. Continue reading →
Capitol Hill community center the Polish Home and a neighborhood p-patch have been selected for $75,000 in support from the city’s Neighborhood Matching Fund.
The grants are part of $818,698 supporting 21 different community-initiated projects in neighborhoods across the city part of the latest matching fund awards.
The Polish Cultural Center was awarded $48,875 to upgrade 18th Ave’s Dom Polski with a new HVAC system “to enable the community to continue to use this special space for Polish cultural events and community gatherings like National Night Out, Neighborhood Block Parties, and other programs.” Continue reading →
Thanks to CHS readers for the pictures and reports from the scene
Seattle Fire quickly knocked down a garage fire in the 300 block of 18th Ave E Sunday morning. There were also downed wires reported and a small power outage in the area.
Crews responded just after 7 AM to the detached garage and began efforts to protect surrounding houses and structures, SFD reports.
The fire was brought under control without further damage.
Downed wires in the area left around 30 customers without power as of 8 AM, Seattle City Light reports.
There were no reported injuries.
UPDATE 9/12/2022 9:30 AM: SFD reports that the cause of the fire remains under investigation. UPDATE x2: Investigators were not able to definitively identify a cause, classifying the fire’s source as “undetermined.” Damage was estimated at $115,000.
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Theater in the park is one way to enjoy the arts in a pandemic-safe way. Friday night, it will be theater in a parking lot as Capitol Hill’s Polish Home hosts the touring Dacha Theatre’s drive-in play Dears in Headlights:
Dacha’s summertime spectacular, DEARS IN HEADLIGHTS, invites audiences back to the drive-in theatre for an evening of movie magic—only this time, with a troupe of live actors instead of a silver screen. Accompanied by an FM radio soundtrack, this fully devised and larger-than-life love letter to classic cinema combines pastiche, clowning, vignettes, and physical theatre to create a playful immersive experience for viewers with and without cars. Whether you’d rather scare yourself silly with a horror movie or laugh along to a rom-com, you’ll be delighted by this original new take on a beloved summer pastime. Intended for audiences aged 10+, DEARS IN HEADLIGHTS asks you to keep your arms, legs, and laughter inside the vehicle at all times.
The show’s soundtrack is broadcast by low-powered FM radio. You’ll get the frequency when you arrive so you can tune in.
Tickets for Friday night’s 8:30 PM show at the 1714 18th Ave Polish Home are a suggested $70 per vehicle but are also available on pay what you can basis. You can also purchase chair/blanket tickets — though the car option sounds more fun.
“Car seats will offer an extra bit of immersion,” Dacha promises. “We’ll bring the action right to your windshield and rearview mirror.”
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Capitol Hill’s Polish Home is planning to honor its neighbor
The King County Medical Examiner has identified the man who died in last week’s house fire as Michael Gross.
Friends and neighbors who knew Gross or were familiar with the 18th Ave resident and his dog and cat Vince and Max are making plans to remember his remarkable life.
The 70-year-old died last Wednesday in the fire which has been ruled an accident. Investigators say the deadly blaze was started by “a portable space heater placed too close to combustible materials.” The dog and cat were reported to have safely escaped.
Gross’s house neighbors the street’s Polish Home. The community group is planning to honor gross with a gathering: Continue reading →
Thanks to @tygraham for the picture from the scene
One person was found dead as firefighters battled an early evening fire in a house near 18th and Madison Wednesday.
Seattle Fire confirmed a person was found dead inside the two-story house as crews continued to battle the blaze first reported in the 1600 block of 18th Ave just before 5:30 PM.
Neighbors reported a non-ambulatory elderly male lived at the residence with pets. Continue reading →
Born in a hot pink Volkswagen van turned cookie truck and a familiar part of area farmers markets and coffee shops, Alexandra’s Macarons and Cafe is joining the community at 18th and Union.
“I feel really honored to be stepping into that place,” Alexandra Greenwald tells CHS, “Especially in these times of COVID and the social justice movements.”
Greenwald’s new cafe will be filling the space left empty by the closure of Tougo Coffee and giving the coffee shop owner Brian Wellsa successful exit as he sells the business to Greenwald and focuses on his other ventures including his Yesler cafe. Continue reading →
When it comes to the life of Capitol Hill and Central District businesses, we might not know with certainty about any sad passings until the COVID-19 crisis subsides.
Two neighborhood cafes are closing this week — one is clearly saying goodbye while the other’s fate is obscured by the fog of the crisis.
The Central District’s Tougo Coffee will become one of the area’s first confirmed business casualties of the COVID-19 crisis. Owner Brian Wells announced his decision Wednesday: Continue reading →
In 1918, the same year the modern state of Poland was formed, a group of Poles came together on Capitol Hill. The neighborhood barely existed at the time, and the group purchased what had been a country club, remaking it into the Polish Home.
100 years later, the Polish Home still stands on 18th Ave.
As America was forming, Poland was falling apart. In the last decades of the 1700s, the country we now know as Poland had dissolved and was divvied up by Prussia, Russia and Austria. Once that happened, Poles starting emigrating in waves, explained Pawel Krupa, president of the Polish Home Association.
By 1918, after World War I and the Russian Revolution, the countries that had once controlled Poland were shadows of themselves, if they still existed. Poles took the opportunity and modern Poland was formed.
But more than a century of upheaval had caused many Poles to look for a better life in other parts of the world, including America. While most who came here stayed on the East Coast, Krupa explains that some, inevitably, made their way westward. A lot, he said, were miners, drawn to the coal mines in eastern King County like those at Black Diamond.
Once here, they sought each other out. Like many immigrant groups, they wanted a sense of community: people who speak the same language, have a taste for the same food, and know the same dances. They also sought a place to commiserate about the difficulties of assimilating into a culture that was, as it can still be, both overtly and covertly hostile to new immigrants. The Polish Home was born. Continue reading →
