Monthly Archives: November 2015

CHS Re:Take | Electric cars to Capitol Hill, 1901 — waiting just a little longer for the FH Streetcar

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Looking south on 15th Ave East from Mercer Street. Old photo from Washington State Archives, Metro collection, LS0018.

Looking south on 15th Ave East from Mercer Street. Old photo from Washington State Archives, Metro collection, LS0018. I think it’s 1913.

Last month I threw down the gauntlet: a new chapter in the history of neighborhood streetcar service each month until the First Hill streetcar opens. This is month number two. Will we make it to three?

This month, we’re looking at a legit Capitol Hill streetcar: the destination placard actually says Capitol Hill on it. This line to James Moore’s new neighborhood opened on November 17, 1901. There was service on Broadway a decade earlier (read the Re:Take about it here), but Capitol Hill didn’t exist yet (read the Re:Take about it here) and it was one of many independently operated routes in the city. In 1899 and 1900 Seattle Electric Company took control of almost every line, and the Capitol Hill line became one of their first newly constructed streetcars.

Moore described service in a big advertisement before opening day, “The new line opens tomorrow morning for the special accommodation of the best residence district in Seattle”. Initially it started at the bottom of Second Avenue and traveled up to Pike Street, then on Pike to Fifteenth, and Fifteenth to Volunteer Park (then City Park). Cars ran every 12 minutes each way, only taking a break from just after midnight to 6 a.m. Later the cars were switched to Pine Street, the same route that Metro’s #10 trolley bus takes today. Continue reading →

Africatown celebrates first ever Central District Winter Arts and Soul Fest

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1 (4)As plans move forward for creating a new Central Area Arts District to celebrate the area as a hub for black art, business, and community, one of the groups looking to help preserve and grow the area’s economic and cultural assets will hold the first edition of what it hopes will become an annual event.

The first Africatown Central District Winter Arts and Soul Fest is underway:

Friday, Nov. 27th

  • Black Friday Concert & Marketplace featuring Owuor Arunga & Friends. Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute, 104 17th Ave. S. Market Place opens at 12 noon. Doors for concert open at 6:30pm.

Saturday, Nov. 28th –

  • Africatown Small Business Saturday Marketplace at Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute, 104 17th Ave. S.

  • Opening of Black Dot Cultural Innovation Space @ Midtown Center, 1160 23rd Ave

  • 4th Annual Dancehall Reunion Bash @ Eritrean Hall, 1954 S. Massachusetts St.

Continue reading →

Shop local, shop the Hill

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1450973_759900357357854_1816493941_nWe’re once again keeping track of local gift ideas and deals from Capitol Hill area merchants at capitolhillseattle.com/shopthehill/

You can let us know about your favorite shops here via Facebook and we’ll try add regular updates to share through the holidays.

If you’re looking to also spread joy to the needy and less fortunate, here are 2015 donation drives, feed the hungry, and volunteer opportunities around Capitol Hill.

Continue reading →

CHS Community Post | Share your holiday spirit with a gift to a woman at Jubilee

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Picture1For residents at Jubilee Women’s Center who are healing from crisis and trauma, the holidays often stir up pain. Please help us keep the season bright for the women who live in our Capitol Hill residences.

We invite you to share your holiday spirit with a gift to a woman at Jubilee. Your gift makes this challenging holiday season a little more joyful by giving her a treat to open and, even more meaningful, sending a message that others care about her.

You may purchase an item from her wish list, host a drive at work or among friends to collect several items, or choose one of these always-appreciated gifts:

– Grocery gift cards (Safeway, QFC, Trader Joes, PCC, Whole Foods)
– Drug store gift cards (Walgreens, Rite Aid, Bartell)
– Amazon gift cards
– Coffee shop gift cards (Tully’s, Fuel, Cafe Ladro, Victrola, Starbucks)
– Tickets and passes to plays, concerts, movies and sporting events

For more information and wish list details, email Angie at [email protected] or call 206-442-2951. Please bring your gift to Jubilee Women’s Center at 620 18th Avenue East by December 18.

About Jubilee Women’s Center

Since 1983, Jubilee Women’s Center has supported women as they heal and transition out of poverty and homelessness. Jubilee’s three community-living residences, located in Capitol Hill and the University District, provide a safe, affordable and dignified environment for about 60 women each year. Guided by a care manager, each Jubilee resident sets goals for growth and development and works to address the complex issues that caused her homelessness.

Jubilee is also a critical resource for 1,500 non-resident women each year, providing job readiness and financial management classes, technology and life skills training, an open computer lab, customized referral services, and a free clothing boutique to any low-income woman in need. Learn more about Jubilee at jwcenter.org.

CHS Pics | In this time of sharing — and getting some work done — check out the Capitol Hill Tool Library

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CapitolHillToolLibrary_0230Happy holiday. CHS is going to quiet down for a bit over Thanksgiving but we’re still around. Please feel free to ping us via email, @jseattle, or call/txt (206) 399-5959 if something comes up. Or if you just want to have a nice (brief :)) chat. We’re pretty much always working at least a little bit. Which means we’re pretty much also always on holiday — at least a little bit.

Speaking of bits, manual labor, and breaking news — fix it! — CHS stopped by the neighborhood’s very own Capitol Hill Tool Library last weekend to check out a work party to put the array of donated saws, hammers, wrenches, and more in order and prepare the new lending facility in the Summit Building at 420 E Pike.

The Sustainable Capitol Hill project is volunteer and donation driven:

Don’t know what a tool library is? Imagine borrowing a food dehydrator, a ladder, a fishing rod, much like you would borrow a book from SPL. Imagine learning how to fix your broken toaster, building a worm bin, preserving your summer bounty. Enjoy a local community of knowledgeable fixers, tool lending, and workshops at the new Capitol Hill Tool Library.

To join, you can donate equipment or your time or both. You can view a roster of available implements of construction here. Contact the group for the logistics of checkout. Ideas for what to build with all this DIY goodness? How about some “tiny houses?” Here are some more organizations and groups you can lend a hand to this winter.

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The 50 oldest businesses in District 3

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Auto Accessories
At #87, Barry Vogel and the DeLuxe couldn’t crack our list
Country Doctor
Broadmoor Homeowners Association
Russian Community Center
Alvin Doggett
Seattle Curtain Manufacturing

Screen-Shot-2015-10-08-at-10.19.56-PM (2)While the neighborhoods of Capitol Hill and Central Seattle continue to change and grow, not everything is glossy and new. CHS found that 45% of area business permits within District 3 have been active for 10 years or more. The oldest? Well, you’ll have to scroll to the end of our list.

Below, we’ve called out the 50 oldest active business permits in the neighborhoods of District 3 from Capitol Hill to the Central District.

The list covers businesses and organizations licensed within the area’s ZIP codes but it’s not comprehensive. There are many businesses that have been open for decades but may be registered somewhere else, so they are not included in our list. Others represent businesses that have closed up shop, but still maintain a license.

In general, the businesses and organizations with the most staying power seem to be nonprofits and offices of professional services like architects and lawyers. And food and drink entrepreneurs take note: Only one restaurant — the Deluxe Bar and Grill at 87 — cracks the top 100… not even close to our top 50, below.

District 3’s 50 Oldest Businesses

  1. Genesis House – An inpatient drug rehab center in the Laschi/Madrona area which opened in 1971. It closed in 2014.

    Country Doctor

    Country Doctor

  2. County Doctor Community Health Clinic – Serving the community since 1971, the Country Doctor on 19th Avenue East is planning an expansion, possibly next year, in order to add dental health to the list of services they provide.
  3. Group Health Cooperative – the larger group health organization was founded in 1945, but in 1971, they planted a flag on Capitol Hill.
  4. Roger Newell – the architect whose office is on 19th Avenue East has had his business license in this area since 1971.
  5. Robert E. Frey – One of the first Certified Financial Planners in the state, according to a 1975 Seattle Times article on Frey’s website.
  6. Donald Glover – not that Donald Glover. This Donald Glover was the owner behind Horizon Books, the used bookstore which used to be on 15th, in the spot currently occupied by Ada’s. Now, it operates an online business on 10th Ave. Continue reading →

First Hill Streetcar Safety Day planned to help keep tracks safe as SDOT works on line’s parking problem

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First Hill Streetcar - Trainset Test Run

Streetcar-11-15As Seattle Department of Transportation officials are preparing the First Hill Streetcar for the start of service, they are also ramping up the process of educating people who are living, going to school, and working around the 2.5-mile Capitol Hill to Pioneer Square route about how the system works — and, importantly, how to be safe around the tracks and trolleys. They are also working to address a major hindrance to efficient service — an ongoing spate of poorly parked cars and trucks that have repeatedly caused the trains to come to a halt during testing in recent weeks.

Next week, SDOT will host a “First Hill Streetcar Safety Day” to help make sure the line gets off to the safest start possible as the streets along the line mix with streetcar, motor vehicle, and pedestrian traffic:

The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) will host a “First Hill Streetcar Safety Day” on Thursday, December 3 from 11a.m. to 3 p.m. at three station locations.

The Safety Day will feature Metro streetcar operators onboard stationary streetcars at the Broadway & Denny, 14th & Washington, and Occidental & Jackson stations. The public is invited to come aboard to check out the new streetcars, ask questions about how they work and learn streetcar safety tips. Continue reading →

You’ll have to wait a little bit longer for the new Charlie’s

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The old Charlie’s (Image: CHS)

33fc02_654fdf1b50f7495e965cdad0329db76fCharlie’s — the legendary Broadway restaurant space poised to transcend ownership and continue a new lease on life — will have a few more weeks to enjoy its rest following longtime owner Ken Bauer’s June retirement after one last Pride weekend. The new owners tell CHS the new Charlie’s won’t make its planned Friday-after-Thanksgiving opening.

The new ownership from the Lodge Sports Grille family of restaurants says it will need around two more weeks to get the rehabilitation and upgrades of the old Capitol Hill restaurant complete and make sure service is up to the necessary Charlie’s standards. Don’t chuckle, old timers.

When it reopens in December, the space will have all the same old stuff but cleaned-up, we’re told. The menu will be pared back and overhauled, however — new co-owner Kelli Kreiter said part of the reason for the changes is they couldn’t get some of the old recipes. Bauer and management did have an agreement over continuing the Charlie’s name but Kreiter said she couldn’t discuss if there was any financial implications to the deal. Bauer helped open Charlie’s in 1976, taking it over in 2000 after the restaurant’s namesake owner passed away. As an end to his lease agreement approached five years ago, Bauer told CHS he started looking to sell but found no buyers. The Lodge Sports Grille deal to lease the space followed.

Kreiter said the new ownership loved the quirkiness of the longtime Broadway watering hole and wanted to bring “new light” to the space without changing the nature of the restaurant. She also said she is aware of concerns about higher prices and that she and the new owners hope to keep Charlie’s an affordable, “fair” place to hang out and enjoy a meal or a drink.

You can stay tuned to charliesonbroadway.com for updates on a new opening date.

Pride 2015, Capitol Hill Seattle

Pride 2015, Capitol Hill Seattle

Here is why news is wrong about SPD’s Capitol Hill patrols

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Seattle Police gang detectives believed they were circling in on suspects involved in Sunday morning’s drive-by shooting at Pike and Broadway as the investigation continued Tuesday but reports of increased patrols in the neighborhood in response to the incident are not accurate.

“In response to the shooting, police plan to increase nighttime foot patrols in the area,” the Seattle Times reported. Other media outlets have followed.

But a SPD spokesperson tells CHS that no actual increase in the number of patrol officers is hitting the streets in response to the shooting — ongoing weekend emphasis patrols started earlier this year to curb nightlife-related crime, however, will continue.

“We increased the number of officers on foot beats earlier this year and have kept them in place because we know they’re important,” a SPD spokesperson said in a statement.

Continue reading →