MAGNOLIA HISTORICAL PANEL INSTALLED

The Magnolia Historical Board takes a moment and stands proudly with the installed sculpture, on June 18th, 2011: Dale Forbus Hogle, Jan Parent, Mimi Sheridan, Jeff Cunningham, Monica Wooton, Dee St. George (missing, LuAnn Mitchell, Jen Ryan, Roxanne Tillman). They commissioned it for their 10th anniversary from John Leglar, Magnolia sculptor, www.leglarstudio.com.

It was nine months in the planning and creation stages. Thanks to Art van Der Wel, who took ownership of it before he passed away, it is permanently installed 3214 W McGraw outside the Windermere Building.The sculpture depicts iconic scenes of Magnolia history in bas relief, hand carved on a 4x3 foot Texas limestone panel:
1. Madrones have long lined the Boulevard.  Far offshore they were misidentified in 1897 by Dr. George Davidson as Magnolia trees which is how we got our name. 
2. We pay tribute and mark the spot where the ancestral Duwamish hunted and gathered food at West Point 4,000 years ago.
3. Dr. Henry A. Smith was the first Euro American to stake a claim at Smith Cove, where he believed the first trains would be.  Smith sold that land and Seattle, Lakeshore, Eastern Railroad was begun at the Cove in 1887. 
4. 1886 saw the construction of the West Point Lighthouse.  In 1931, the steel Magnolia Bridge (Garfield Street Bridge) replaced the wooden trestles. 
Center: The Kroll plat map shown is the oldest land record of Magnolia.

100 commemorative postcards were passed out by the Board the day of the installation.

Magnolia News publicized the installation.