Lena and Ralphie as Queen Bee and Baby Bee
A Hilloween tradition is back. The Volunteer Park Halloween Pet Parade is Saturday.
The annual Volunteer Park Trust event returns for 2022 with plans for a day of fuzzy buddies, costumes, and prizes:
The Schedule
11:00 AM to 2:00 PM
— Emcee: Matt Smith
— Parade Leader: TBD Continue reading
It never existed at 14th and E Valley, that’s for sure (Image: CHS)
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Like most good ghost tales, the legend of the Winchester House of Capitol Hill is mostly a mixture of confusion, fear and a good story. Continue reading
(Image: Kate Clark)How about including a tour of Capitol Hill’s most populous final resting place in your Hilloween plans?
The Capitol Hill Historical Society is back with its popular walking tours with plans for a visit to Lake View Cemetery in October:
As perhaps Seattle’s most famous cemetery, Lake View is the final resting place of many prominent early Seattleites, including the Dennys, Maynards, Mercers, Yeslers, and Chief Seattle’s daughter, Kikisoblu, also known as Princess Angeline. The tour will explore their stories, along with those of the notorious Madam Damnable, beloved martial artists and actors, Bruce and Brandon Lee, and more. Those on the tour will also gain insight into the history of the cemetery itself, as well as its place in the wider surrounding neighborhood.
CHS showed you the spirit of a reopening-era Capitol Hill on Hilloween Saturday night. Above — and below, here are scenes CHS found on Hilloween Sunday from 20th Ave to 10th Ave across the Hill. Thanks for all the candy, neighbors.
There will probably never be a moment when we get to say, “It’s over. We made it!” But a Saturday Hilloween weekend night with people crowding Broadway and Pike/Pine and filling Capitol Hill vaccination-required bars and restaurants felt like one of the moments along the way.
83% of King County adults are fully vaccinated. Proof of vaccination or a recent negative test is required. Happy Hilloween 2021.
Below, CHS shares images from the night from around Pike/Pine and inside a few venues where vaccination card carrying people celebrated the holiday. We also have some trick or treating advice to hand out. Continue reading
Yes, there will be trick or treating on Capitol Hill in 2021. And, yes, Pike/Pine’s bars will be vaxed, masked, and packed. Here are this week’s special Halloween edition highlights from the CHS Calendar. You can also Add Your Event here.
Wear your mask… and your Hilloween mask and don’t forget your proof of vax.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28TH
Under a dry, crisp fall sky and with promise of a full moon, Capitol Hill’s trick or treat zone was much quieter than normal Saturday night and even Pike/Pine’s nightlife scene was subdued if not sober as Seattle marked a Halloween of social distancing and masks under masks amid the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.
Socially distanced dance party in Cal Anderson for Halloween 2020 pic.twitter.com/bbQKDENul2
— Alex Garland (@AGarlandPhoto) November 1, 2020
(Image: CHS)
A modern day Pike/Pine superimposed over the scene as captured by the Seattle Times in 1925 (Image: Seattle Times November 1, 1925, page 1 and Rob Ketcherside)
Originally written by Robert Ketcherside for CHS — Dec, 2015 — On Halloween 95 years ago, Capitol Hill burned. We first published this account of the Great Automobile Row Fire of 1925 a few years back. An updated take on the huge fire and the way it changed the neighborhood is below.
The Great Automobile Row started at 6:30 PM on Saturday, October 31st — Halloween night — on the southeast corner of Pine and 11th.
A witness across the street where Richmark Label is today described the scene to a Seattle Times reporter, and her words made print the next morning:
“We were sitting close to our front window when the explosion rocked our walls,” said Mrs. [C. T.] Dawson. “We looked out and saw a dense cloud of smoke pouring from the Miller-Norton building.
“The whole building was sheeted in flame, and we saw clouds of sparks falling on nearby buildings.”
Your mental image needs calibration. There was no daylight savings time in 1925. So, the sun set before 5 PM that Halloween. The fire raged in the dark, in a city with much weaker streetlights than we have today, with comparatively little light pollution. The city was much, much lower. The Seattle Times declared, “The fire made a red glow in the sky which could be seen from downtown and drew hundreds to the scene.”
You know how any fire draws a crowd. This turned into a huge fire, destroying several buildings and damaging others. The crowd on that dry night was huge, as the Seattle Times related the next morning: Continue reading
#3
Here are some of the best tales of mystery and paranormal activity from around Capitol Hill from the CHS archives. Feel free to tell us any Capitol Hill ghost stories you know about in the comments.
Wear a mask
There are bigger worries in the world but CHS is here to also help give some thought to the smaller things. Neighbor Leo writes:
Hey @jseattle can we talk publicly about Halloween? I live in one of Seattle’s trick-or-treating hot spots where in normal years we get >1,000 kids at our door. This year, we are doing nothing. Lights out. No candy. Stay home. Do you have a sense for what’s happening this year?
Pre-COVID, Pike/Pine and Broadway are typically a Hilloween circus and the trick or treat hot zone stretching south from Volunteer Park, a candypalooza of unearthly delights. And most of it is community driven, organic, and fully unplanned. The effort, however, is high, with some spending hundreds on candy and putting hours and hours into costumes and displays.
The only thing CHS knows for sure is that will not be happening in 2020. Continue reading
