Deano’s Grocery Going Down
June 24th, 2008 @ 1:29 am by Cliffe | Sorted Historic Buildings
On my way into work this morning, I noticed that the old 60’s marina style Bellevue Safeway has just three days of business left before the new monstrosity next door opens up. Very soon it’ll be rubble, with a new tower rising in its wake. Of course that type of thing happens all the time in Bellevue, but surely not in Seattle, right? Well, wrong. The older (and I’d argue, more architecturally interesting) Deano’s Grocery at 2040 E Madison St is about to make way for a new apartment building. Check out this disappointing piece from the Seattle Times. Not a mention of how this building could be re-purposed — just full speed ahead with how quickly can it be torn down. I beat the wrecking ball to the site this past weekend and snapped these photos. Have a look, and enjoy the architecture while it lasts.
June 24th, 2008 @ 6:43 am
This saddens me. It is also one of the reasons I’m moving from Seattle - the powers that be have no idea how tearing down these older building actually hurts the city. Within a 5 block radius of where I live, ther have been 7 older, habitable, multi-use buildings that have been torn down to make room for condos/apartments in the past 2 years. The beautiful architecture, stories, and affordability of living in the city are forever gone.
June 24th, 2008 @ 9:26 am
I have been meaning to do a more in-depth profile of the Marina Safeway in Bellevue (as well as some of the former Marina Safeways in the area that have since been repurposed,) but I wasn’t aware that the Bellevue one was closing this week. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of history in downtown Bellevue that’s been buried under skyscrapers these days.
June 24th, 2008 @ 9:58 am
Well I’ve been shopping at that Bellevue Safeway for over 30 years and it can’t get torn down fast enough. It’s a crappy little store that has always been terribly understaffed. I hope they at least pretend to pay more attention to customer service at the new store.
Bellevue deserves a better store than Safeway has been providing - I hope the new one is much, much better.
June 24th, 2008 @ 1:29 pm
Although I don’t think I’ve shopped at that Safeway more than once or twice in the thirteen years I’ve lived on the Eastside, I’m inclined to agree with you about it. The store is clearly a product of a different time; crowded, narrow aisles, noisy refrigerators and freezers in colors that went out with the Seventies and harsh fluorescent lights that were oh so modern back in the day make for a store. It’s definitely a relic of a time long past, and there’s a reason for it.
By the way, does anyone know when that store would have opened? I’ve been going into the microfilm archives at the Bellevue library to do research on my ongoing Seattle Malls project, and wouldn’t mind being able to dig up some stuff on when it opened. The Eastside Heritage Center’s collection has a couple of old photos of the store (a couple from 1969, and one from 1987; you can find them by going to http://www.eastsideheritagecenter.org/gallery.html and searching for “Safeway”) but I suspect the store probably opened some time in the early Sixties. The original Marina Safeway in San Francisco opened in 1959, so it would presumably be some time after that.
June 24th, 2008 @ 2:10 pm
I will be sad to see the Safeway go…but not Deanos. I used to live across the street from that eyesore, and though the architecture may be beautiful, the clientele wasn’t and I think you would be hard pressed to separate the drug addicts and pushers, the gangbangers and prostitutes from a building the owner (Deano) didn’t care to distance from crime…instead seeming to welcome it (most likely so as to force development and raise the code from L2 to L3). When my wife, newborn son, and I lived across the street, we saw someone shot and murdered in front of our house because he accidentally bumped into the car in front of him, we were approached by crackheads every single time we came home, we had to contend with all night screaming and partying and gunshots…the complaints go on. So, while you can lament the buildings passing, please don’t downplay and dismiss (”fluff piece about how bad”…”rah rah development” — did you ever live there?) the legitimate effects the edifice and its inhabitants had on the neighborhood at large. Thank you.
June 24th, 2008 @ 2:30 pm
Scott: Did I ever live there? Why yes, I did, I lived a few blocks away. Last summer two people were gunned down one block from my house. I saw and heard the whole thing. Officers were surrounding our street, guns drawn, police chopper overhead. Please don’t play the “street cred” thing with me — it’s a waste.
I think you *can* separate drug addicts, gangbangers, etc from a building. What you can’t separate them from is the owner, which is the key here. I’m not defending Dean Falls nor do I want him to keep hold of the building(s). The fact here is that he sold the building and it could absolutely be preserved and restored by the new owner, sans prostitutes and gangbangers.
I agree that the corner was very bad — I’ve walked past it many times. What I don’t agree with is tearing the building down. There was an old 1909 Craftsman down the street being used as a crackhouse a few years ago. A new owner purchased it, cleaned it up, restored it, and now it’s the nicest house on the street with tons of character. I’m really glad there was no rush to tear that house down.
Cliffe
Vintage Seattle
June 24th, 2008 @ 2:42 pm
Cliffe: I apologize. I didn’t mean to play a “street cred” thing — was simply stating my knowledge of the area. I have read many well meaning blogs and news articles that downplay an area’s unsavory aspects in favor of a more PC worldview with misplaced blame and I find it frustrating. Obviously I was wrong about your familiarity with the neighborhood.
I think it might have been nice if the building could have been repurposed, but my faith in that having been successfully pulled off is more pessimistic than yours. I don’t think Dean Falls was going to sell without cashing in on a big development. He did sell, but for how much? Enough for a new owner not to develop out fully? Also, without a fresh start, I don’t think the crime element was going to go away. My personal opinions…probably not in vogue on a site dedicated to preserving and appreciating Seattle’s finer aspects (and a blog I religiously look at…and love…)
June 24th, 2008 @ 2:51 pm
Scott: Agreed, and I apologize as well, for my slightly snippy reply. I do think I wasn’t very clear in my original post about my criticism. I didn’t mean to downplay the fact that this area was crime-ridden and dangerous, I just meant to highlight the fact that I wished the Times article had mentioned more about the history of the building and why it wasn’t being preserved in some way through the new development. I’ll update my post to reflect this.
I do realize that a lot of what I post here is pretty idealistic. Time and time again when I talk to developers and land owners, the realities of economics come crashing down on me. But I do think that’s a place for some idealism, even if it’s just consciousness raising.
Thanks for the input and sharing your experience. I’ll try to better word my viewpoints in future posts.
Cliffe
June 25th, 2008 @ 12:17 am
Nearly gone now.
http://noisetank.com/hugeasscity/2008/06/24/cd-deanos-almost-gone/
June 25th, 2008 @ 1:46 am
Speaking of the old Bellevue Safeway, I decided to take one last trip over there for a few photos today. I also managed to pin down exactly when it opened (January 30th 1963.) I’ve posted those photos, as well as some stuff from the Bellevue American, over at my own Blog:
http://thesledgehammer.wordpress.com/2008/06/25/the-beginning-and-the-end-of-the-old-bellevue-safeway/
June 25th, 2008 @ 1:07 pm
There was discussion a couple of weeks ago over on the centraldistrictnews.com website about the Deano’s building block redevelopment (http://centraldistrictnews.com/2008/06/14/deanos-property-update). I wrote (as well as many others) in favor on one of the earlier posts there about preserving the Deano’s building and re-purposing it into a pub, etc. But others more familiar with the long coming re-development of that block (such as Andrew Taylor of the neighboring Miller Park Community) wrote that the site was contaminated by a previous dry cleaner establishment in the building and it was not going to be economically feasible to lift the old building, clean up the ground underneath, and be able to re-develop the rest of the block around the building. I wish it could have been preserved, but understand that sometimes it unfortunately is not feasible to do so.
June 26th, 2008 @ 1:14 am
Great post Brian. I was meaning to make it down there after work with my camera, but you really covered it well.
Cliffe
June 26th, 2008 @ 2:32 pm
Thanks Cliffe. I’ve been working on trying to make a focus on Eastside (especially Redmond, Kirkland and Bellevue) history a major part of my Blog, and I am also working on an ongoing long-term project to do profiles and a history of all of the Seattle area malls, since there is a lot that is changing and disappearing. Totem Lake and Factoria are both headed for major redevelopment projects in the near future, and Crossroads and Bellevue Square by themselves could probably make for a pretty interesting history. So far, I haven’t been able to do much more than find things in the microfilm available at the Bellevue library, but I’m hoping that a bit of downtime from work will provide an opportunity to go do some research at some of the local historical societies that should turn up some interesting stuff.
July 7th, 2008 @ 3:33 pm
A friend of mine was mugged outside Deano’s, so good riddance.
July 7th, 2008 @ 3:39 pm
Yes, let’s destroy any building where someone is mugged.
August 1st, 2008 @ 2:24 am
My mother was mugged once in the old neighborhood in Cleveland. I’m pretty sure those houses are still intact.
I actually don’t find this building that architecturally great. I much prefer the old fashioned Marina Safeway. Still, I enjoyed reading the comments, it’s a great post. And don’t worry, Cliffe, you are not the only one who is idealistic.