Eastside Stories

The Burrows Cabin: The Legacy of Bellevue Pioneer Albert Burrows

Written by Grant Frechtling

2024

The Burrows Cabin, located in Chism Beach Park, is Bellevue’s oldest surviving structure and a testament to the city’s rich history. The cabin is also the legacy of one of Bellevue’s earliest pioneers, Albert Burrows.  

Albert Burrows was born in Morgan County, Indiana in 1837. Not much is known about his early life. But in 1857, at the age of 20, he moved to Des Moines, Iowa. There, he would meet his wife, Martha James, and have four children: Calanthia, Lillian, Maud, and Albert S. (Selden).  

Portrait of Albert Burrows (1837-1896). Ca. 1890. Credit: University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections, POR611 

Married life was soon disrupted, as in 1861, tensions between the North and South would escalate into the Civil War, where Burrows served in the Union Army. Once the war ended, Burrows returned to his homestead in Iowa until his wife, Martha Burrows, died in 1876.  

After her tragic passing, Albert Burrows decided to make the move westward where he would be entitled to 160 acres of land for homesteading as a Civil War veteran. In 1882, after a short stop in Sacramento, Burrows and his four children would arrive in Seattle, Washington, where he would get a job working at a sawmill.  

In Seattle, Burrows would meet George Miller, who had settled in the present-day Beaux Arts area with his family. Intending to establish a school with other families, Miller convinced Burrows to settle nearby on the east side of Lake Washington, in what is now present-day Bellevue.  

Once settled on his land in 1883, Burrows would first build a log cabin, now known as the Burrows Cabin. He would also build a house at the lake end of present-day SE 15th, where Burrows homesteaded a mile of waterfront. Also in 1883, Albert Burrows would donate land on which he and George Miller would build a one-room schoolhouse, a 10x12 log cabin. This would be the first public school in the Killarney area and was built on the west side of 108th Ave SE, north of SE 25th Street.  

In 1892, Burrows, along with other pioneers in the Killarney area, would help build the two-room Main Street School on the SE corner of 100th and Main Street. This school was built with Bellevue’s first bond issue shortly after Washington had been established as a state. 

Old Main Street Schoolhouse in Bellevue. Ca. 1905. Credit: University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections, WAS1807 

Burrows’ daughter Calanthia would be Bellevue’s first schoolteacher in the 1883 log cabin, instructing seven students, the five Miller children and two Burrows children, receiving $40 for three months’ work. Albert Burrows would serve in the Washington State Legislature before passing away from Bronchitis in 1896. 

Burrows served in the Washington House of Representatives for the 43rd district from 1895 to 1896. He lived 59 years, born February 20, 1837 in Morgan County, Indiana and died April 30, 1896 in Bellevue, Washington. He was elected in 1894. Burrows Landing is a 0.25-acre park south of Chism Beach Park. Burrows Landing, now a community dock, was named in his honor. 

The Burrows cabin has had a long history and has been moved several times over the years. The cabin had remained in its original spot on SE 15th, close to Lake Washington, until the 1930s at which point the cabin was moved to Bellevue, near where Bellevue Square now stands.  

The cabin would not remain there for long. In 1946, an expanding city required the cabin to be moved yet again, this time to a private area off 112th Ave NE. At this point, the cabin was owned by Rody Burrows, the grandson of Albert Burrows. Rody made a few additions in 1956, doubling the size of the cabin.  

Burrows family log cabin. Ca. 1945-1950. Credit: University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections, WAS1805 

In 1956, ownership of the cabin would transfer to the Thorpes family after Rody sold it to them, where it would be treated as a rental residence for a while. The cabin went through several accidents, starting with an interior fire in the early 1960s, and then a second interior fire in the 1970’s, at which time the original windows were replaced with more modern glass pane windows.  

In 2016, the land which the cabin stood on was sold by Ty and Terry Thorpe, who decided to donate the cabin to the City of Bellevue, contributing $10,000 to the preservation of the cabin along with $150,000 that the Bellevue City council had voted to allocate to the relocation of the cabin in June.  

It was decided that the cabin would be moved from its former spot to the current location: Chism Beach Park, which was actually very close to the cabin’s original location. In late August 2016, the cabin was moved to Chism Beach Park on the upper lawn near the parking lot for its third and final relocation.  

Burrows Cabin in Chism Beach Park. Ca. 2017. Credit: Bellevue City Government. 

According to the City of Bellevue, moving the cabin required a series of steps, including the following: removing the cabin from the foundation, removing the roof, placing both the cabin and the roof on a trailer, and transporting the cabin to Chism Beach by semi-truck. At Chism Beach Park, the roof was reattached, and the building was placed on a new foundation. There is a link to a video below that shows the assembly of the cabin at Chism Beach Park. 

Today families can visit the Burrows cabin at Chism Beach Park and learn all about the history of the cabin while admiring Bellevue’s oldest surviving structure. The cabin serves as a reminder of one of Bellevue’s earliest pioneers and the roots of Bellevue, which has evolved into the city that we know today. 

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Kokaido

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By Shannon Advincula, Eastside Heritage Center Intern

The Japanese characters written on the back of these wooden slatted folding chairs indicate that they had been used at the “Bellevue Japanese People’s Clubhouse (ベルビュウ日[本]人会).” Kokaido, the Bellevue Japanese Community Clubhouse (or Community Hall), had been established at 101st Avenue NE and NE 11th Street in 1932, and served as a hub for the Japanese American community on the Eastside.[1]

2008.014.001

Kokaido Chairs, donated to the Eastside Heritage Center by Sumie Akizuki.

Kokaido hosted a plethora of community activities, such as business meetings, Buddhist and Christian church services, flower arranging classes, movies, Japanese language classes, shibais (plays), various sports, and picnics. An article published in the Japanese-American Courier in 1933 describes how the Japanese American community in Bellevue used the space almost daily: “On Saturdays it housed the Japanese Language School. On Sundays it housed church groups. And the rest of the days of the week are filled with activities such as judo, basketball and meetings of all organizations. Occasionally parties and movies are held."[2]

Image: L 89.029.002.

Photograph of the dedication of Kokaido, the Bellevue Japanese Community Clubhouse. Community members stand in front of the clubhouse building which had stood at 101st Avenue NE and NE 11th Street.

Prior to World War II, the Japanese American population in Bellevue numbered over 60 families and over 300 people, comprising 15% of the general population and 90% of the agricultural workforce.[3] The Bellevue Japanese American community pooled together donations to purchase two acres in what is now downtown Bellevue and built Kokaido in 1930.[4] The dedication gathering in 1932 was attended by an estimated 500 people, including Bellevue's leading citizens. Later, in 1937, a second building was added, providing more room for community space and a worship center.

J 89.04.03

Women's basketball team, c. 1930’s. Photograph taken at the Japanese Community Clubhouse in Bellevue.

At the time of the clubhouse’s construction, Tom Matsuoka and the Seinenkai, a club of Japanese American youths comprised of Bellevue Nisei (second-generation Americans of Japanese ancestry born in the U.S.), advocated for the building to be built 60 feet high in order to accommodate indoor basketball activities.[5] Both men and women participated in indoor and outdoor sports and recreational activities that centered around Kokaido, forming Japanese American Bellevue teams and participating in regional tournaments for various sports including basketball, baseball, and the Japanese martial arts of  judo and kendo.

By January 1932, the Bellevue Dojo which hosted judo activities had about thirty-five members, which was about half of the total membership of the Bellevue Seinenkai. The judo club even organized its own events, including taffy pulls, roller skating and Halloween parties, Japanese movie nights, picnics, and demonstrations at the local high school and Bellevue’s annual strawberry festival.[6] The venue for many of these activities and tournaments was the Japanese Community Hall in Bellevue.

J 89.04.01

Photograph of the championship Bellevue baseball team at an annual three day tournament for the Puget Sound Area Japanese teams, held in Seattle c. 1930’s. Tokio Hirotaka was the team coach, and is standing on the right in the back row.

But the bustling daily life of Japanese Americans would ultimately be suddenly disrupted and irrevocably altered. On the evening of December 7, 1941, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the FBI started arresting Japanese American community leaders in Bellevue: the schoolmaster of the Japanese language school, the head of the Japanese businessmen’s association, and Tom Matsuoka, who was president of the Bellevue Vegetable Growers Association. The Seattle Times wrote in a 1997 investigative article that, “[Their] arrest was one of many mistakes the FBI made in those sweeps… It was clear that the three were targeted mainly to decapitate, as it were, the Nikkei community, not because of any actual threat they might pose.”[7]

443 Eastside men, women and children, including 300 of them from Bellevue, were forced into incarceration camps until the end of the war. They were forced to vacate their personal properties, and Kokaido was left abandoned without its community. After the war, many Japanese American families did not return to Bellevue, and the approximately 20 families of the original 70 that did had a difficult time rebuilding their land, businesses, and community.[8]

In 1950, the clubhouse building was sold by the Bellevue Nisei Club, Inc. to the Board of Missions of the Augustana Lutheran Church for $11,000. Pastor Olson of the Lutheran congregation recorded that, “the Japanese-American group had others who wanted to purchase the property, but declined all the offers because they were from businessmen who wanted it for commercial purposes. They were happy to know this sacred property would be used for a church.” Through the purchase agreement, a Japanese American community member named H. Kizu was also provided living quarters at the church and employed. Ultimately, the building was sold again in 1964, and eventually demolished.[9]

Asaichi Tsushima, in his memoir Pre-WWII History of Japanese Pioneers in the Clearing and Development of Land in Bellevue, wrote of the closure of Kokaido, saying, “One of the changes at the end of WWII that saddened and disappointed me was the sale of the Japanese Community Clubhouse and property where so much of our lives had been centered.”[10]

J 89.07.01

Photo of "Dedication: A Play,” possibly from the Kokiado. Copied from Asaichi Tsushima, "Pre World War II HIstory of Japanese Pioneers in the Clearing and Development of Land in Bellevue," 1939.

The economic, social, and cultural life of the Japanese American community in Bellevue was sustained and enriched in part by everyday community and recreational activities such as those hosted by Kokaido. These chairs and photographs are a reminder of the large and vibrant Japanese community of farmers, businessmen, and families that helped to establish and shape Bellevue; a community which almost disappeared and was never the same after WWII incarceration.

Footnotes:

[1] Asaichi Tsushima, Pre-WWII History of Japanese Pioneers in the Clearing and Development of Land in Bellevue (1952).

[2] Japanese-American Courier, 1 Jan 1933.

[3] Publication of the Seattle Times: A Hidden Past. c. 2000

[4] Bomgren, Marilyn, “The Bellevue Japanese American Clubhouse: My Story of Life in the Bellevue Japanese American Clubhouse,” 2008.

[5] Matsuoka, Tom. “Tom Matsuoka Interview.” Courtesy of Densho, 1998. https://ddr.densho.org/interviews/ddr-densho-1000-47-16/?tableft=segments

[6] Svinth, Joseph R., Letter to the Marymoor Museum, 1998.

[7] Keiko Morris, Seattle Times Eastside bureau 8/20/97

[8] The Seattle Times, “A Hidden Past: An Exploration of Eastside History”. 12/1997 - 1/2000.

[9] Bomgren, “The Bellevue Japanese American Clubhouse,” 2008.

[10] Asaichi Tsushima, Pre-WWII History of Japanese Pioneers in the Clearing and Development of Land in Bellevue (1952).

Bicycles on the Eastside

Nellie Provine and Minnie Morris with bicycle, 1898 (L 75.0467)

The first bicycle to come to Seattle arrived by boat in 1879 and was displayed at a stationery and book shop in Pioneer Square. It was a child’s bike, purchased by a man named Jules Lipsky for his son. Innovations in the 1880s, like pneumatic tires and chains, made bicycling easier and more enjoyable for men and women. Bicycles were also relatively inexpensive and allowed more flexibility of route than relying on a trolley line. Cycling clubs sprang up around the area and it seemed like the bicycle would have a bright future.

As the automobile became more prevalent, bicycles were quickly pushed aside in the late 1890s, despite Seattle laying about 25 miles of bike paths. For subsequent decades, bikes were considered a pastime for children. By 1940, most bicycles manufactured in the U.S. were for children.

Bicycle repair, 1950 (2016.011.011)

The 1970s saw a boom in bicycling, especially in urban communities. An interest in energy efficient transportation and increased concerns over exercise and health led many Americans to take up cycling as adults. Sales of adult bicycles in the U.S. doubled between 1971 and 1975.

In Washington, cycling clubs were founded and groups lobbied for the Burke-Gilman Trail, the first 12.1 miles of which opened in 1978. The Seattle-to-Portland bike ride was established in 1979.

Redmond Bicycle Derby

The Redmond Bicycle Derby was established in 1939 to celebrate bicycling and promote civic engagement. The origins of the derby are often attributed to bike races conducted between local children, especially those who had paper routes. Ray Adams, Charlie Lentz, Roy Buckley, and others raced on their bicycles around Lake Sammamish. In those days, the eastern shore of the lake did not have paved roads, which made the 25-mile race more challenging.

Bike Derby Queen and King, 1956 (L 87.044.041)

These early, informal races evolved into a community fundraiser with tickets being sold for a chance to guess the winning race time. The person with the closest guess would win $25. Funds generated through ticket sales were used to purchase decorations and flags for downtown, as well as athletic equipment for the local schools. The Derby was so popular, it became an annual event.

World War II brought about rationing of many everyday items like sugar, clothing, and gasoline. Bicycles were also rationed, as the facilities and materials used to make them were reallocated to the war effort. To purchase a new bicycle at this time, a person had to attest to their need. Their trip to work or school had to be more than 3 miles, with public transportations being either unavailable or overcrowded. As a result of this, there was no Bicycle Derby.

After the war, bicycle manufacturing came back to pre-war levels and the Derby returned. In 1952, several local mayors entered the Derby in their own bike race. Bothell, Houghton, Fall City, Kirkland, Bellevue and Redmond all competed, with Redmond Mayor Louie Green coming in first place.

2005 Redmond Bicycle Derby - People on old fashioned bicycles 2016.002.005

Over the next two decades, bicycles shifted from child’s toy to a healthy alternative to driving. In 1968, Seattle initiated Bicycle Sunday, which closed Lake Washington Boulevard to cars for a day. An increase in environmental awareness in the early 1970s encouraged more people to take up cycling.

2023 marks eighty-four years since the first official Bicycle Derby. Now known as Redmond Derby Days, the event encompasses carnival rides, parades, live music, and food and craft vendors. But the central theme remains - the bicycle races. 

Resources:

Eastside Heritage Center Archives

Cycling in Washington State, www.historylink.org/File/20810. Accessed 25 July 2023.

“Derby Days History.” Redmond Historical, www.redmondhistoricalsociety.org/derby-days-archive. Accessed 25 July 2023.

“History of the Bicycle.” Wikipedia, 29 June 2023, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_bicycle.

“History.” Cascade Bicycle Club, cascade.org/about/history. Accessed 25 July 2023.

Knute Berge. September 23, 2013. “How Bikes Led Seattle’s First Roads Renaissance.” Crosscut, 21 July 2023, crosscut.com/2013/09/seattles-first-golden-age-bikes.

Malowney, Georgeann. Images of America, Redmond, Washington. Arcadia, 2002.

Way, Nancy. Our Town, Redmond. Marymoor Museum, 1989.

In Mint Condition: A Brief History of Candy in Bellevue

BY Ella Woodward, EASTSIDE HERITAGE CENTER VOLUNTEER

Do you remember when Frango Mints were sold at Frederick & Nelson? The mint flavored candy looms large enough in popular consciousness to warrant its own Wikipedia page.[1] However, Frango Mints had tough competition on the Eastside in the early and mid-20th century. In Bellevue, a sweet tooth could also be sated with the handmade mints of Charlie Younger or Elemina ‘Mina’ Schafer. Eastside Heritage Center has records and objects related to all these candies – all in mint condition!

Frederick & Nelson’s Frango Mints

(2002.100.001) Frango Mints Canister

Unlike the other mints in this article, Frango Mints were conceived in Seattle, rather than Bellevue. Nonetheless, they remain a popular candy in this area, and many Eastside residents remember receiving boxes of the chocolates from Frederick & Nelson. In 1930s Bellevue, the “practice of offering a box of fancy chocolates on special occasions” was cemented by the “arrival of home candy-making enterprises”.[2] Frango Mints benefitted from the legacy of this practice. Barb, Sylvia, and Marg (EHC volunteers) all associated the mint candy from “Freddy and Nellies” with Christmas and birthdays. Stephanie (EHC Collections Manager) remembered sending a box as a gift to her grandmother each year and considering them “fancy” chocolates for adults – “not for us children”.[3]

Frango Mints were first sold from the Seattle branch of Frederick & Nelsons at the corner of 5th Avenue and Pine Street.[4] The shop opened its candy kitchen in 1921 and started producing the rectangular mint truffles shortly after.[5] They were created by Ray Clarence Alden and made from cocoa beans, peppermint, and butter.[6] In 1929, Marshall Fields bought out Frederick & Nelson and the rights to ‘Frango Mints’.[7] They produced a Midwestern variation of the Frango recipe, which they sold in their stores, while the original recipe continued to be sold at Frederick and Nelson stores in the Northwest.[8] After the bankruptcy of Frederick and Nelson in 1992, Bon Marché obtained the right to sell the candies and kept this right until they were bought out by Macy’s in 2005.[9] Macy’s sells the candies today.

(2000.036.085) Frango Mints Canister

The EHC collection contains examples of the two different packaging designs for Frango Mints. The earlier box design is a mint green cylindrical tube with a brown top and bottom. Marg remembered the newer design – a hexagonal box with an intricate folding lid.[10] The box forms a flower-like shape when viewed from above and twists open and closed. It was one of these boxes that sparked my interest in the history of mint candy in Bellevue.

 

Charlie Younger’s mints

The defining feature of Charlie Younger’s mints was the product of an accident. In 1925, when the population of Bellevue was a tenth of what it is today[11], Charlie Younger’s mother was making taffy for a Masonic Lodge Bazaar when she added too much butter to the mix. This led to an unexpectedly delicious result: the batch of candy turned creamy! With no time to make another batch, Mrs Younger gave the sweets out at the Bazaar for free. [12] The strange batch of taffy was very popular, so the Youngers started selling the candies from their home. Not much later, in 1926, the family opened ‘Younger’s Candies’ on Main Street, selling their mints and a variety of other confections.[13] Soon, the Younger’s were shipping cans of mints outside of Washington State.[14] In 1947, the business was sold by the Youngers.[15] Later, it became part of the automated ‘Vernell’s Fine Candies’ from Seattle. In the mid-1950s, Vernell's was the largest producer of buttermints in the world.[16]

(2002.125.004) Addie Hurley behind counter in Charley Younger's Candy Shop, c. 1942

 

Jane McDowell’s Candy Shop

In 1930, Jane McDowell’s Candy Shop ran from the home of Mina Schafer (nee McDowell) at NE 20th on Bellevue Way.[17]

Although Mina Schafer’s mother did not feature in the creation of the recipes sold at the candy store, the shop did bear her name – Jane McDowell. This was both a tribute to the woman that had raised Mina, and reclamation of the name ‘Jane’ from negative connotations. Family anecdotes indicate the name ‘Jane’ had been associated with ‘loose women’ in Western states.[18]

(2016.053.001) McDowell's Mints Tin

It was a family business. Mina’s husband, Louis, helped with the productions of butter mints and peanut brittle, so that Mina could focus on making fondant and hand-dipping chocolates.[19] Mina’s grandson, Lance, remembers the local fame of “Grandma’s mints with her signature green can”, adding that “We always gave our teachers in grade school a tin of mints for Christmas.”[20] Indeed, Christmas was a popular time for the candy store – with notables such as President Roosevelt receiving shipments of the McDowell’s sweets and orders of up to 80 pounds![21]

During WW2, the business survived off the generosity of friends and family, and donations of sugar ration coupons.[22] In 1955, Mina sold the business to Benjamin and Ina Johnson, who renamed it ‘Kandy Kottage’, moving it a new location[23]. Still, it “drew lines of people around the block, satisfying many a sweet tooth.”[24] Mina herself continued working at the store until 1961.[25]

(2002.133.002 ) Mina Mary Schafer behind counter of Jane McDowell's Candies, c. 1940

Footnotes:

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frango

[2] S Knauss, Culinary History of a Pacific Northwest Town (Eastside Heritage Center, 2007)

[3] Stephanie Mohr, EHC Collections Manager

[4] https://www.historylink.org/File/5771

[5] ibid

[6] ibid

[7] S Knauss, Culinary History of a Pacific Northwest Town (Eastside Heritage Center, 2007)

[8] https://drloihjournal.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-story-and-myth-of-the-famous-frango-mints.html

[9] S Knauss, Culinary History of a Pacific Northwest Town (Eastside Heritage Center, 2007)

[10] Marg, EHC volunteer

[11] AJ Stein and The HistoryLink Staff, Bellevue Timeline: The Story of Washington’s Leading Edge City From Homesteads to High Rises, 1863 – 2003 (University of Washington Press, 2004)

[12] Bellevue Its First 100 Years by Lucile McDonald The Bellevue Historical Society, 2000 Revised Edition

[13] S Knauss, Culinary History of a Pacific Northwest Town (Eastside Heritage Center, 2007)

[14] ibid

[15] ibid

[16] ibid

[17] ibid

[18] ‘Heritage Recipes Jane McDowell’s Candy Shop’ from the Vertical Files

[19] S Knauss, Culinary History of a Pacific Northwest Town (Eastside Heritage Center, 2007)

[20] Lance McDowell Schafer, Vertical Files

[21] S Knauss, Culinary History of a Pacific Northwest Town (Eastside Heritage Center, 2007)

[22] ibid

[23] https://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/digital/collection/imlsmohai/id/6852

[24] AJ Stein and The HistoryLink Staff, Bellevue Timeline The Story of Washington’s Leading Edge City From Homesteads to High Rises, 1863 – 2003 (University of Washington Press, 2004)

[25] Vertical Files

Bellevue - an Eastside Cornucopia!

BY BARB WILLIAMS, EASTSIDE HERITAGE CENTER VOLUNTEER

 

For thousands of years, Native Americans harvested the abundance of natural foods on the Eastside of Lake Washington. Good water, soil, and climate made Bellevue ideal for cultivated farming. Downtown was originally covered with huge, old-growth trees. Once logged, they were replaced with farmlands. Much of Bellevue’s success and growth is founded in its agricultural roots as an Eastside Cornucopia; a Horn of Plenty.

 

Hand drawn map of Bellevue, highlighting agricultural lands. Maker unknown, date unknown. (Reference - Vertical Files)

 

Early European settlers farmed to support their daily needs followed by cash crop farming for markets. A multitude of successful animal, fruit and vegetable farms sprang up and reached their peak between 1920 and 1942. The distribution of vegetables, fruits, bulb, and ornamental plants to local, national, and international markets was expanded after 1904 when the Northern Pacific Railroad connected Eastside produce to Seattle and beyond. Construction and operation of the Bellevue Growers Association Packing Shed (c. 1933) alongside the NPR railroad tracks at Midlakes significantly enhanced the transportation of the agricultural abundance of Bellevue farms.

In 1889, Ove and Mary Larsen gained title to 160 acres of land at Larsen Lake; a favorite gathering place for Native Americans who had harvested wild cranberries and blue huckleberries there. Ove did the same selling the berries for 50 cents a gallon. He worked at the Newcastle coal mines and farmed on weekends. In 1913, he sold half the property to the Aries brothers; Louis, Tony, and Albert from South Park, Seattle. Their property stretched from Larsen Lake to NE 8th. They grew cabbage, corn, squash, peas, wax beans, cauliflower, carrots, potatoes, celery, and iceberg lettuce; the latter for which they became famous. It was distributed to local, Philippine Islands, Alaska, and Yukon Territory markets. At peak production, they shipped seven railroad carloads of iceberg lettuce and 4,000 sacks of potatoes.   

Aries family harvesting lettuce, 1918. (OR/L 79.79.232)

In 1912, J. Kelfner sold Island Belle grapes grown on his farm at 108th Avenue and SE 8th Street. In the 1930s, he sold nine tons of grapes to one buyer. Adolph Hennig also grew Island Belle grapes at his vineyard on Clyde Hill. He designed and built equipment for pasteurizing and extracting juice. This proved beneficial in 1929 when fresh grapes were selling for only 1 cent per pound, but juice could be stored and sold year-round.

Mary Cruse and Grace Hill in Baker House daffodil garden, 1912. (2001.114.001)

Apples, cherries, pears, and strawberries were profitable cash crops. With the help of Japanese farmers between the 1920s to 1940s, the abundance of strawberries became a profitable and popular crop for Bellevue. Fields of strawberries stretched over the hills providing an incentive for the Strawberry Festival which began in 1925. After WWII, blueberries replaced strawberries as the popular fruit. In preserving this heritage, the City of Bellevue presently owns and operates U-Pick blueberry fields at Larsen Lake and Overlake blueberry farms.

Delkin Bulb Farms, c.1990s (2016.010.004)

Following the example of successful bulb farms in Bellingham, bulb farming was begun in Bellevue in the 1920s. The Boddy family cultivated vegetables and bulb plants growing cucumbers and Easter Lilies in their greenhouses on Hunt’s Point. William Cruse grew fruits and daffodils. His home, the Baker house, and gardens were located where the QFC now stands. Frederick J. Delkin, the owner and operator of Delkin Farms wholesale nursery business, established a warehouse accessible to the railroad tracks at Midlakes in 1926. At one time, he shipped an entire railroad carload of iris and narcissus bulbs to New York.

Perhaps this shipment included bulbs from Cecelia and Frederick Winters bulb farm at the Mercer Slough. Originally they grew vegetables, the abundance of which they sold to summer people at Beaux Arts. In 1924, they switched to iris and daffodil bulbs grown in greenhouses. Andre Ostbo bought several acres of their land in the 1930s and started a successful rhododendron business called “The King of Shrubs” for which he became famous. The Winters’ Spanish-eclectic style house, built in the late 1920s, is presently owned by the City of Bellevue and located on Bellevue Way. Remnants of the many greenhouses and escaped rhododendrons can be seen along the Ostbo Loop trail as can the sinking boiler house used to send steam through pipes to the greenhouses.

It is possible that Andre knew Cal and Harriet Shorts who bought a farm on Main Street in 1946. Their specialty was rhododendrons. In 1984, the Shorts donated their 7.5 acres and home to the City of Bellevue for a park and botanical garden. Today, the Bellevue Botanical Garden is open to the public year-round with the Shorts house at its center. Thanks to the generosity of the Shorts, and visionaries like Iris and Bob Jewett, the Garden is a treasure that reflects the bountiful agricultural possibilities and heritage of Bellevue: an Eastside Cornucopia. 

 

Resources:

Eastside Heritage Center archives

Lake Washington the Eastside. by Eastside Heritage Center, Arcadia Publishing, 2006

Bellevue, Its First 100 Years.  by Lucile McDonald,  Bellevue Historical Society, 2000

The Bellevue Botanical Garden: celebrating the first 15 years.  by Marty Wingate, The Bellevue Botanical Garden Society,  2007