Dear Editor,

While I applaud Mr. Donat's enthusiasm for Ballard history (click here to read the story), either he was quoted incorrectly or there are some inaccuracies.

First of all, East Ballard was mainly industrial from Market to Salmon Bay, along 14th. Fourteenth was not known as "Railroad Avenue" for nothing! Actually, a 1905 Ballard newspaper complains about "Gypsies" living in tents along 14th, complete with a picture.

There were many houses below Market to Salmon Bay, as well as small stores, but the mills and shipyards took up all of the waterfront real estate. There are a bunch of new condos going up on 17th below Market where the Carlsen family owned four houses, a grocery store and butcher shop.

Secondly, where the Fred Meyer is currently was not residential; it was the site of an ironworks and foundry and the dump.

Leary Way has pretty much always been with us as the main road into Fremont, or, as East Ballard used to be called, "Ross." A 1905 history of Fremont shows "Ross, a Suburb of Fremont" and the streets quite clearly.

The first High School in Ballard was NOT where Schuck's is, it was where Ballard Hospital stands today. That was the Central School on Tallman after Ballard High School was built on 65th and i5th, it became the Irving grade school. My father actually went to that school briefly.

I'm sure that Mr. Donat will discover many interesting facts about East Ballard and Ross neighborhoods, which will greatly add to the research already done on Ballard.

Julie Pheasant-Albright

Author" Early Ballard"