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Introducing Book IV

MAGNOLIA: More Memories & Milestones

Book IV Cover

An online, ongoing collection in living color!

Our Stories So Far

J.P. Patches

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...

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Hutton's Vireo

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...

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J.P. Patches

The Big Sit

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...

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South Beach Bluff

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...

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J.P. Patches

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... ​

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J.P. Patches

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...

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J.P. Patches

Unbuilt Magnolia

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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J.P. Patches

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...

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J.P. Patches

Milkshakes and Gunpowder

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...

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J.P. Patches

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...

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J.P. Patches

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...

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J.P. Patches

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...

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J.P. Patches

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...

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J.P. Patches

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...

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J.P. Patches

Choosing Magnolia

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...

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J.P. Patches

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...

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J.P. Patches

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...

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Magnolia, Seattle: Pumpkin Patch.

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...

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Fire Station 41

Fire Station No. 41: A Unique Landmark

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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 have a too tight ring cut off safely...​

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Perkins Lane

How Magnolia Got Its Street Names: Perkins Lane

by Benjamin Lukoff

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Perkins Lane boasts one of the best views in all of Seattle...if you’re fortunate enough to own property there...​​

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Magnolia Chorale

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... 

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gim wah menu

Spending New Year's Eve at Magnolia's Gim Wah

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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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Chevrolet_Bel_Air_Convertible

A Grease Monkey in Camelot

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...

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Pink Sidewalks

Novel Solution to Soothe Magnolians' Nerves

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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...

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Wunda Wunda

Wunda Wunda

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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...

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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

Content by the Magnolia Historical Society or used with permission by the credited authors or owners. Authors and photographers retain copyright, except for those works in the public domain. Photographs and illustrations are from a variety of sources and credited within individual image captions. Users must seek permission from the appropriate copyright owners to use material.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this book do not necessarily reflect the views of the Magnolia Historical Society. All writers are sole owners of their material and are responsible for content.

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