6/20, Saturday. 10am, I signed up for a walking tour with the Southwest Seattle Historical Society at the Admiral District in West Seattle.
Took a bus, and then walked a mile: not the most convenient destination.
The tour just started in front of William Hainsworth's house, now a lot of flowers, but mostly obscured by the hedges.
The houses along Admiral street all looked very nice, lawns well kept,
Hainsworth family moved here in 1889 when the area was mostly empty, and promoted the real estate.
West Seattle branch of SPL, is our next stop. It's the oldest surviving Carnegie library in Seattle.
Next, Ben Bow Pirate Bar. Too early to go inside. The outside of the building is boring.
West Seattle High School is a handsome building of over 100 years. Some noteable graduates: Frances Farmer – Class of 1931, Jim and Lou Whittaker – Class of 1947.
Right in front of the highschool is a Hiawatha Playfield, a city park. It was designed by the Olmstead Brothers. Our guide specifictly pointed out the large Northern Red Oak tree, designated as a heritage tree.
Our last stop is Sanctuary At Admiral, now the new home of Washington State Black Legacy Institute.
It happens that there's an event here in conjunction with Juneteenth celebration city-wide.
I, and a couple of others in the tour, stayed on for this talk (very few in the audience).
Ryan traces his family migration in his project titled Donaldson Odyssey, using archival microfich, images, and interview with his extended families.
Especially about his (great?) grandfather "Big Jim", weekly newspaper Seattle Republican, the coal mining in Roslyn. Very interesting.
Afterwards I even chatted with him for a bit.
He mentioned that he and others are devising a walking trail in/around Roslyn to showcase the mining and African American heritage.
On returning, I decided to check out this ravine which our group walked over earlier.
Nice street: Fairmount Ave SW. Not too many cars. I met only 1 guy.
I very much enjoyed walking here, pretty deep.
It runs north-south, so unless you walk here ~1pm, there's shade to be have.
The Water Taxi runs more or less on time. A long-ish line. No shade. Hot.
Barnacles on the pillars, jelly fish in the water.
The boat is comfortable. Plenty wind to cool you off.
We speeded past in front of Harbor Island: good view of the shipping cranes.
One oddity is this large barge piled on with crushed trash.
The view of downtown Seattle is very nice. Will be even better if you take the water tax at sundown.
