The state of Ballard in 1900

By Kay F. Reinartz

The May 30 issue of the Ballard News Tribune, commemorating the annexation of the City of Ballard to the City of Seattle, provided a basic outline of the work of the mayor and city council during Ballard's brief time as a city.

Today I will give a brief overview of Ballard at the turn of the 19th century.

By the end of the 1890s Ballard was enjoying a good deal of attention as the fastest growing municipality and industrial center on Puget Sound. On Sunday, July 16, 1899, a reporter for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer wrote regarding Ballard:

"It is a metropolis in Lilliput, of the first class; manufactures, jobbing, scenery, advancement (and) general progress. But 10 years ago Ballard was a wilderness with not the slightest idea in the mind of any of the owners of its present site that it would ever grow to be more than a hamlet of the most diminutive extent. But it took wing on some ascending breeze that blew out of the east and rose to what it is today - one of the chief little cities of the North Pacific."

At the time of Ballard's incorporation as a fourth class city in November of 1889 the census reported fewer than 1,500 residents. Nineteen months later the census reported over 1,600 Ballardites. The 1910 census found the population to be 4,568. Local boosters claimed the population as ranging from 5,000 to 10,000.

In 1900 Ballard was only 30 years beyond being an untouched virgin forest. However, the town was rapidly losing its rural character. Development has pushed up Crown Hill to the north as far as Schooner Street (N.W. 75 St.). People living in Ballard at that time reported that in 1903 this area was still dense forest with only footpaths and rough wagon roads through the woods, except for the streets laid out below Ship St. (N.W. 65th). Ballard was connected with the nearby growing community of Greenwood by the Seattle-Edmonds road. There was an active logging camp at Main St. (15th Ave. N.W.) and Boundary St. (N.W. 85th).

Down by Salmon Bay the city was quickly becoming a substantial city. The original wagon road built by the West Coast Improvement Co. had become unsafe for anything other than foot traffic and wagons reached Ballard via Fremont - an inconvenient and time-consuming detour for the wagoneers. Soon a new bridge was built on Railroad Ave. (14thAve. N.W.) that was shared by the trolley and horse-drawn conveyances. For years Ballardites had struggled through muddy streets that were little more than the original lanes created by much usage. But this changed after Ballard incorporated. The ready supply of lumber available at the Ballard mills made it easy to begin planking sidewalks and streets. By 1900 the community enjoyed over eight miles of graded streets and sidewalks including the business district on Ballard Ave. Market St. was not a business district at this time.

Rail transportation was quickly expanding with a street car line providing regular service down Ballard Ave. Street car service was private enterprise in those days and two different street car lines were petitioning City Hall for franchises: one to provide service to Fremont and the other to Seattle. The Great Northern and Seattle Lakeside international railways passed through Ballard, the rails hugging the edge of the sound. The Great Northern opened a depot on Seaview Ave. near the present day railroad drawbridge.

Dr. Kay F. Reinartz may be contacted via bnteditor@robinsonnews.com