The Log House Museum, home to the Southwest Seattle Historical Society and many artifacts of West Seattle's colorful past was the site of an Ice Cream Social Sunday Aug. 14. The occasion was also a celebration of the 79th Anniversary of a West Seattle institution, the Husky Deli.
Appropriately, Jack Miller, owner of the deli was there to serve Husky Flake ice cream for a $5 donation to the museum.
HistoryLink.org provides this bit of background on the business:
"Herman Miller, a native of Indiana, bought a small grocery store in the Junction. In 1933, he turned the store into a full-service soda fountain, named "Husky Homemade Ice Cream," now Husky Deli -- a Junction institution.
Miller and his three sons, Bob, Hugh, and John, made the ice cream; his daughter Alyce helped run the shop. They sold hamburgers, sodas, and milkshakes in addition to "husky" -- that is, large -- ice cream cones. A delicatessen was added after World War II. Remodeled and enlarged in 1969 and now managed by a third generation of Millers, Husky Deli still features homemade ice cream, in 24 flavors."
The museum itself has projects in the works of course including the restoration of the original Belvedere Park totem pole that once stood at the Admiral Way lookout until it was replaced in 2008. Working with Artech (the same company that restored the Rotary totem pole that was stolen 2 years ago) the museum estimates it will cost approximately $7000 to full restore the currently deteriorated artifact.
The pole once restored will either stand, or possibly lay horizontally adjacent to the museum itself. Carved by two Boeing engineers it's not authentic to the native american traditions of the area but is still a worth historical artifact in its own right.
While there, there one of the actual residents of the museum when it was still a private home Marcy Johnsen was there and talked about her history with the building. "One Sunday we (her family) were driving by and we kind of slowed down and my mom said, 'How would you kids like to live in this house?' and they'd already bought it. It was 1959, in the spring so we moved in. We were like kids in the candy store. A block from the beach and in this really cool barn/house. We didn't know it was the carriage house at the time. But we did know that when we had Sunday dinner, people would just walk in, thinking it was the restaurant. We'd be eating dinner so we had to start locking the door!
People would come around the porch and peer in and we'd go, 'Not the restaurant!' "
Johnsen explained that a series of families owned the building and at one point it was Rose's Antiques but when the last owner was ready to sell, all the smaller homes had been torn down and he did not want it to be destroyed. He contacted the Historical Society which had formed in 1984. That's when the effort began to purchase it and get it named as a landmark building. The museum was once the carriage house to the Fir Lodge (Alki Homestead) that is now going through the process of getting approval for restoration. The most recent story on that process is here.
