Tag Archives: lake view

Confederate memorial in Capitol Hill cemetery targeted

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(Image: CHS)

(Image: CHS)

As the Charleston shootings have renewed and strengthened calls to eliminate the Confederate flag as a symbol of government in the southern United States, a Capitol Hill memorial to the soldiers of the Confederacy here in the Pacific Northwest has again been targeted.

Monday morning workers at 15th Ave E’s Lake View Cemetery were painstakingly scrubbing the porous granite of the United Confederate Veterans Memorial to remove a spray painted message against “white supremacy.”

The 89-year-old memorial hewn from a “10-ton” block of “Stone Mountain, Georgia” rock was created by the Seattle chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy reportedly with money raised at “Dixie Day” during the 1909 Alaska Yukon Pacific Expo. Rather than some kind of early 20th Century historical revisionists, the group included the actual daughters and wives of Confederate soldiers living in Seattle. Continue reading →

CHS Pics | Clampers visit Lake View Cemetery to mark Doc Maynard’s 207th

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Maynard (Image: MOHAI)

Maynard (Image: MOHAI)

Old Doc Maynard and Mother Damnable heard a few words from friends Sunday as E Clampus Vitus Chapter No. 54-40 rumbled into 15th Ave E’s Lake View Cemetery to celebrate the birthday of the only Seattle founding father who might have been comfortable on today’s Capitol Hill.

David Swinson “Doc” Maynard’s gravestone — renewed and rededicated in 2003 — hosted the party in Lake View Sunday where the red-shirted and top-hatted Clampers gathered. The local chapter, which traces its roots to a social order built around the parody of the phony mysticism and very real classism of the Odd Fellows, took Maynard as its namesake. The Seattle pioneer was famous for many things associated with being one of the first white people to “settle” an area — but he is probably best remembered for some of the things you don’t always hear like his “friendly relations” with native populations and a more liberal attitude toward liquor and sex.

With Lake View and Capitol Hill’s history, you’ll likely see Doc Maynard Chapter 54-40 around the area a few times each year for the group’s work parties to help improve Seattle historical sites — or help name boats for Doc Maynard. You can learn more at ecv5440.com. Continue reading →

Death and density: 40,000 and counting make Lake View their eternal Capitol Hill home

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"Cemetery crows" (Image: Kate Clark via Flickr)

“Cemetery crows” (Image: Kate Clark via Flickr)

Mother Damnable turned to stone before she came to Capitol Hill. Mary Ann Conklin, who ran one of the city’s first hotels, and likely one of its first brothels, earned the name Mother Damnable for her foul mouth and the name Madame Damnable for her side job.

She’d been buried in what was a city cemetery and is now Denny Park after her death in 1873. By 1884, Seattle leaders had decided to turn the cemetery into a park, and relocated the bodies, including Conklin’s. When her remains were moved, the legend at the time said it took six men to lift the casket. In doing so, the lid popped open, and it appeared as if she had been perfectly preserved and turned to stone.

Conklin has one of the more colorful stories surrounding those buried at Capitol Hill’s Lake View Cemetery, but it is far from the only one. Continue reading →

Memorial service at Capitol Hill’s Lake View cemetery honors fallen SPD officers of the past

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Severance stands by the new Lake View gravestone for Officer Thomas Roberts, who died in the line of duty in 1898 (Image: SPD)

Severance stands by the new Lake View gravestone for Officer Thomas Roberts, who died in the line of duty in 1898 (Image: SPD)

Thursday morning, Seattle Police from across the decades including men and women currently part of the force will gather at Capitol Hill’s Lake View Cemetery to honor fallen officers.

Seattle Police officer Mike Severance has been working to locate the surviving families of SPD officers who died in the line of duty all the way back to 1881. During his research, Severance also tried to determine where the officers were laid to rest. Severance documented the final resting spots for all the fallen SPD officers — including two who had been buried in unmarked graves.

“Through the generosity of Lake View Cemetery, the Retired Seattle Police Officers Association and another benefactor, new tombstones have been installed for Officer Thomas Robert, EOW 04/10/1898 and Officer Arthur Ruckart, EOW 12/27/1914,” a statement from the group Washington State Concerns of Police Survivors says.

Thursday, officers, family, and supporters will gather in Lake View:

 A memorial service will be held at Lake View Cemetery, 1554 15th Ave. East, at 10 a.m. this Thursday, July 24, to pay respects to the officers with new gravestones, and all fallen Seattle police officers.

The public is welcome to attend. More on Severance’s work and the officers being remembered, below, in an article provided by the Seattle Police Department.

SPD: Fallen Officers: One Man’s Mission to Honor the Dead

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Mike Severance’s quest started with a shotgun blast on April 23, 1985.

That’s the day Seattle Police Officer Dale Eggers was killed after a gunman shot him in the head in a bank robbery on Beacon Hill.

Continue reading →