Book IV
MAGNOLIA: More Memories & Milestones
An online, ongoing collection in living color!
Ten new stories released May 2026!
Magnolia Historical Society thanks our Managing Editors for the 2026 story cycle, Julia Thompson (Julia Thompson Editing) and Alexandra DuSablon (DuSablon Editorial Services). Their outstanding editorial stewardship ensured that these stories were beautifully prepared for our community to enjoy online.
A Long History of Writing Local History: The 25-Year Anniversary of the Magnolia Historical Society
By Monica Wooton
As the Magnolia Historical Society celebrates its 25th anniversary, we look back on two and a half decades of tireless volunteer work...
By Claudia (Kettles) Lovgren
The TV was on, and two sixteen-year-old Queen Anne High School girls were watching the first US appearance of the Beatles...
Natural and Environmental History of Magnolia
By Lisa Meoli
Magnolia, the peninsula northwest of downtown Seattle, is often described today in terms of scenery with dramatic bluffs overlooking Puget Sound...
Growing Up in Magnolia as Father Doug’s Kid Sister
By Terry Douglas
Father Gordon W. Douglas lived most of his life in Magnolia, where he passed away in the summer of 2024 at the age of 81. He was known to tens of thousands of students and their parents as...
History of Lockhaven Marina, Inc.
By David and Jack Hendrickson with Monica Wooton
Lockhaven Marina, Incorporated was established eighty years ago, on July 5, 1946, and the Hendrickson family has been there through it all. Patriarch Ellis Hendrickson spent countless hours...
Revisiting My Mother’s Childhood Home in Magnolia
By Karen Treiger
One day my mom, Betty Lou (Friedlander) Treiger, and I found ourselves in Magnolia picking up her car. “Mom,“ I said, “we’re in Magnolia. Let’s find the house you grew up in.“...
By Barbara Downward
Lawton Park is hidden in its hilly neighborhood. Find it by going to Lawton Elementary School...
For the Birds: Magnolians Kathy and John Carlson
By Monica Wooton
Kathy and John Carlson are for the birds! The birdhouses they make in their backyard and garage workshops have become homes...
Magnolia/Queen Anne District Council | In Memory of Magnolia’s Advisory Voice for the City
By Janis Traven
In June of 2016, members of the Magnolia/Queen Anne District Council shared disbelief about a rumor that was circulating...
Ship a Snowball? The Magnolia Mailbox Will Do It!
By Norma W. Goldstein
Much of the longevity and success of any business depends on a close connection to its community. The Magnolia Mailbox...
The Seafair Clowns: Magnolian Roots in Clowning Around Seattle…For Good Causes!
By Monica Wooton
When Magnolian George Mockly Anderson had his memorial of a life well-lived for 96 years on February 6, 2025, at Our Lady of Fatima, big, bright red clown noses were passed out by the family...
Magnet for Birds and Birders: Magnolia’s Discovery Park
By Penny Rose
Discovery Park is one of the best places to bird in the Seattle area, with almost three hundred species...
By Neil Zimmerman and Carleen Ormbrek Zimmerman
The Big Sit is a semi-competitive annual bird-counting event that takes place the second weekend in October around the United States. It was started in 1992 by a bird club...
The Hill We Call Magnolia: Puget Lowland Geology
By Bill Laprade
The hill we call Magnolia sits in the middle of a broad basin between two towering mountain ranges. The Olympics, to the west, are still climbing skyward...
More My Magnolia: The Place and People I Love
By Barbara Wade Gates
My Daddy, Harold Wade, was raised at his grandmother’s home in South Tacoma and graduated at age 16...He worked as a logger trimming trees and on a tugboat crew...
How Magnolia Got Its Street Names: Thorndyke Avenue West
By Ben Lukoff with Monica Wooton
Thorndyke Avenue West was most likely named after Grace Chalmers Thorndyke (1868–1929). In 1888, she married Daniel Hunt Gilman (1845–1913), the namesake of Gilman Avenue West...
By Monica Wooton
If city planners of the early 1900s had their way, Magnolia would be a much different place than it is today...
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The “South Shore” Wooden Trestle Story Revisited
By Monica Wooton
In writing history, it is always interesting to see better sources, new research, and time shed light on a previously accepted historical fact, revealing a different story. This is one of those stories...
By Greg Shaw
In the 1950s, the Lawton Pharmacy had a full-service soda fountain staffed by a soda fountain girl (1). The milkshakes were hand-dipped and made in stainless steel containers...
Magnolia: The Treasure of Seattle
By Barbara Henry
My mother was walking me to my first day of kindergarten at Magnolia Elementary School one morning in 1957. Suddenly, I spotted a quarter...
Tap Dancing through Magnolia’s Memory Lane: Fieldhouse, Fun Frolic, and Camp Denny
By Mary March
The Fieldhouse, also known as the Magnolia Recreation Center (now called the Magnolia Community Center), was a home away from home for many kids...
Magnolia’s Football Leagues of the Fifties: Lessons for My Life
By Mike Musselwhite
Ah, the 1950s in Magnolia! It was a time when neighborhoods were bustling with school-age children...
The True Story: The Birth of Pickleball
By Frank Pritchard
There have been inaccurate accounts and even fables about pickleball that have taken root over the years. I will now tell you the true story...
Lawton Park: A Volunteer’s Memoir and History
By Barbara Downward
Friends of Lawton Park (FOLP) planted trees; in fact, we planted forests. Enter a ravine at Lawton Park, and you can feel the temperature drop and smell a difference in the air...
By Yuko Enomoto
I still remember our first drive into Magnolia Village, mid-August 2002. We parked at an angle by Tully’s on the corner of 33rd and McGraw, then walked to the gas station...
Magnolia’s Bookstore: A Community Hub for Generations of Book Lovers
By Norma Goldstein
Magnolia’s Bookstore...could be considered a great-granddaughter of Seattle’s first documented independent bookstore, the University Book Store...
Cora Peterson’s Autograph Book
By Monica Wooton
With one sister having emigrated from Finland and settled in on 23rd Avenue West in Magnolia, three others booked passage on the Titanic to join her in America. Luckily...
The Tale of Magnolia's Giant Pumpkin Patch
By Greg Shaw
On July 21st, 1969...I was living in a rented house on West Hayes Street in Magnolia, and my first giant pumpkins were gaining size in the front yard...
Fire Station No. 41: A Unique Landmark
By Monica Wooton
My friend Brian says everyone loves a fire station. For many of us they represent safety. It is the place where you can get your blood pressure monitored, call to get your cat rescued from a tree, and...
How Magnolia Got Its Street Names: Perkins Lane
By Benjamin Lukoff
Perkins Lane boasts one of the best views in all of Seattle...if you’re fortunate enough to own property there...
35 Years (and, Counting…) of People, Talent, and Glorious Music: the Magnolia Chorale
By Patty McKeehan
As weather goes, the evening...was fairly mild for Seattle...when a group of singers, in a fledgling choral group known as the Magnolia Chorale, made their way across the Ballard Bridge at rush hour...
Spending New Year's Eve at Magnolia's Gim Wah
By Monica Wooton
In the 1980s and 90s, the Gim Wah was among my family's first resolutions and rituals of the New Year!
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By Greg Shaw
Camelot and Magnolia—idyllic places; and, I often think of Magnolia as my Camelot. But, both had undercurrents. Paul Muller and I were part of Magnolia’s...
Novel Solution to Soothe Magnolians' Nerves
By Monica Wooton
The creation of the Magnolia Boulevard was literally the concrete version of the Beatle’s song: “The Long and Winding Road." And, Mrs. Grace M. Burt had an idea to calm down all the ruckus...
By Sherrie Quinton
In the Magnolia of the 1950s and 60s, it was an occasional experience to glimpse a petite woman dressed in a colorful harlequin-style outfit, a dab of red on her nose...
We are always looking for writers and peer editors for the next collection of stories. We have topics from which you can choose or writers can bring their story ideas to us. We are always looking for all eras of Magnolia memoirs relating to growing up in the neighborhood!
Questions or interested in writing or peer editing? Reach out to us at: info@magnoliahistoricalsociety.org
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Disclaimer: The views expressed in these stories do not necessarily reflect the views of the Magnolia Historical Society. All writers are sole owners of their material and are responsible for content.