By Reid Hale

(Editor's Note: Reid Hale served as editor of the Highline Times for 18 years during the 1950s-1970s.)

Those who now call Burien home, probably do not know that when Al Sneed arrived in 1951 to take charge of the Highline Times, Burien was a very different place.

That was 60 years ago and Burien was a quiet spot, vaguely located a few miles east of Three Tree Point. It had not yet begun to grow.

Al came from a newspaper job (ad salesman) in a real town...Renton. John Muller (a founder of Hiline Savings and Loan) owned Burien's local weekly and needed someone to step in. Burien was beginning to grow. Al arrived and moved into a house on Lake Burien. He stayed on here for the next 25 years.

In the next few years, he built the newspaper, as Burien shook off its stump farm roots and began its emergence as one of our post-war suburban miracles (See: Renton, Kent, Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, Federal Way, Edmonds, Lynnwood). He struck a deal with John Muller and Muller sold the Highline Times to the newly-minted publisher, Al Sneed.

The 1950s roared past and so did Burien.

When he arrived, Burien's retail center was S.W. 152nd, from Kirk's Feed to Joe Farmer's Music, just short of lst Ave. S....with a number of homes in between.

In those days, the Highline Times, typically, published a weekly newspaper of from 12 to 18 pages (full size). In the coming years the paper doubled and re-doubled, again. During the 1950s, Burien (and all the other "burbs") exploded.

This writer wandered onto the scene in 1958.

For anyone wondering just how Burien did grow, we offer this illustration:

A year-end review (written by self-same) included the fact that in the preceding year, Burien had experienced the grand openings of 15 new retail stores (dentists, lawyers, and accountants, not included).

By my careful math that meant more than one a month.

Al was racing to stay ahead of the stampede.

At that time, this Highline Times editor had one staff member...local housewife and former Detroit newshen, Lettie Gudemestad. By the end of the 1960s, our news staff included: Lettie and two more on our Women's section, a sports reporter, a courthouse reporter, a general assignment reporter and a photographer. And, we had the best opinion and columnist page in the state.

Burien was bursting at the seams.

We were producing a weekly newspaper as large as 56 pages and Burien's retail center had spilled onto l53rd, down to Five Corners and waaay up Ambaum to 148th.

Pre Southcenter Mall, Burien was the retail heart of Southwest King County.

Merrill Bell had opened Bell's of Burien, our very own men's and women's department store. We had three shoe stores (one just for children), two appliance stores, two locally owned hardware stores, two locally owned pharmacies (think Frank Finney,) two florists, jewelers, dress shops, children's stores, and even a camera store (think Dick Dahlgard) We even had our own new car dealership, Southgate Ford (think Vin Mennella).

All this bloomed as Al Sneed moved to grow the Highline Times from a small-town paper to an award-winning suburban newspaper.

At the same time, other things distinguished Burien.

School Superintendent Carl Jensen shepherded Highline Schools from one to five high schools and midwifed the creation of Highline Community College. And, Burien showed its local pride, too.

During those same years, Burien produced a Seafair Queen and a Miss Washington. Then, the community really showed its presence by raising enough money to sponsor the popular hydroplane, Miss Burien (see Chuck Hickling).

While all this was going on, Al Sneed and White Center News publisher Jerry Robinson, joined forces to create a separate newspaper printing company, called Rotary Offset Press. Its first printing press was located in White Center. Later years saw a new and much larger press established in Southcenter, printing many commercial publications. Sneed and Robinson sold their interests to the Seattle Times, which still operates the printing company.

Burien residents have little idea what Burien was like during its growth years of the '60s and '70s
Christmas shopping was an experience from a different time.

Traffic was bumper-to-bumper from Seahurst to lst Ave. S.

Housewives, shopping Burien for Christmas, would claim a parking spot for the day. They, then, would unfold their child stroller and push it from store to store to carry their packages...scuttling along in the rain. They were too wise to move their car from store to store. They might not get another parking spot and spend the day cruising Burien, hoping they had enough gas.

Burien, in the intervening years has become a quiet Seattle suburb. What had been a new, bursting community, has settled into its middle age.

The Burien of those years has gone.

And now, so has Al.