Walking around downtown Bellevue during the workweek I constantly see flashy condo advertisements touting “the new ‘Vue” but I’m more inte rest
ed in “the old ‘Vue.” Check out the ’70′ s era card from Max R.
Jensen. Now, I know it’s fashionable to beat up on Bellevue but I have to admit to liking a few recent additions to their skyline, especially
Bellevue Towers and of course Paccar.
Yes, yes, the old curmudgeon has some positivity in him after all. Click for the high res.
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| Bellevue, Washington, located on the east side of Lake Washington, is the state’s fourth largest city. This aerial view looks east over Meydenbauer Bay and the city’s Business District. Color Photo: Max R. Jensen. |
And yet, even back then there are cranes in the picture. Some things never change
My office is one of the few high-rises in that picture.
The cranes in the lower right are busy building what was once called the Bellevue Red Lion prior to their musical chairs with the Hilton. The tallest building at that point was the Paccar building. Note the downtown park was still a school, and look closely and you can still see single dwelling homes mixed throughout “downtown” Bellevue.
This indeed is the Bellevue I grew up with just as it was changing from “Boeing’s Bedroom Suburb”. Bellevue Way and NE 8th still had a Mobil gas station where the Hyatt today stands, and Jafeco was still selling items from it’s catalog wherehouse showroom (before we had Costco) where Whole Foods is today. Bellevue Square was still in quadrants and had just built the parking garage to the west side, and the Bellevue Downtown Park was still a school with a running track.
If you look carefully, you can still spot the last of the single family homes that had become “offices” near the downtown core. Most are now gone, as are the car dealerships on 112th. Victims each in different ways of the economics of the last three decades.
@Greg,
We seem to be of the same vintage. I remember when the Paccar building went up, and we all thought it was so bizarre to have a thing like that in our town.
I attended Bellevue Jr. High School and slogged around that running track when it was brand new. The school is centered around the very red wall of the open outdoor basketball court shed. Just east across the street that is no longer there we see the school’s Administration building, whose foundations, left in the grass of the current park as a sort of archaelogical art installation, are all that is left of that ancient civilization’s built environment. Biologically, however, there is another survivor, and that is the clump of trees just southwest (toward the camera) from the admin building — they appear here as a single cluster of trees with slightly darker foliage. Actually, a few of the trees visible here exactly east of the track have also survived, even though that street was erased and a new one was wound through this area.
Ah, Matt the Journeyman, I was a “Totem” down the road as Mom and Dad purchased the 4th house built in the new subdivision called Lake Hills. I watched Lake Hills Elementary being built from the window of our modest tri level just in time for me to attend kindergarten. Then a move to Phantom Lake placed me within Tilllicum Jr. High, and of course, Sammamish was next.
My second bicycle was from Uncle Harolds, who had just moved into the old Market Basket, right about where the East wing of the Hyatt is today. First eastside “dining” experience was at the Village Inn, now a jewlery store. First job was picking blueberries for Overlake. First real job was selling camera’s at Christmastime for Jafeco… and when we wanted to chat with Wolverines, we went to Herfys by the post office if we dared…
Bellevue had about 35,000 at first grade, and 135,000 by high school. We had the first 7-11 in the state according to legend, and possibly the last McDonalds without a drive up.
Cakes came from Arthur’s Bakery near the swim club and classy prom nights were limited to the Crabapple or the Barb… Mad Anthony’s came later.
Dive in Brother Bellevueite…
As someone who pretty much never goes to Bellevue, the “now” version of “then and now” was essential.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/Aerial_Bellevue_Washington_August_2009.jpg
Certainly a big change, but Bellevue ain’t all that, even now.
I used to deliver the Bellevue American to Arthur the baker…
I was at Ivanhoe — and remember the “big” store in Bellevue was the Fred Meyer. Bellevue Square was in the thinking stages… there were a few stores downtown, a book store, Bell, Book & Candle, a couple of diners — not much else.
Bel-Red Road was a trip into the woods!
Yes, the single family homes existed downtown in this pic, and actually a number of them existed well into the 90′s. However, the “plan” for downtown Belleuve exists back from the 60′s. Wide arterials, big block zoning, had a very important vision to what Bellevue eventually became.
Great to hear from everyone… Cynthia, before the Fred Meyer came… Before they built Overlake Shopping Mall, out on 140th and Bel Red Road was a ValuMart. Stores within a store somewhat like YardBirds used to be… I remember they had the best price on 45 RPM disks… In the late 1960s it was a weekly shopping trip with a parent to get the latest hit from KJR or KOL.
I think the footprint of the Safeway now there would be about right.
The house/office of Bell, Book and Candle I think is still there…
And before the Fred Meyer was a Valu-Mart it was originally opened as a White Front (a California-based chain that opened stores here in 1969, closed them in 1972, and went bust by 1975, although the parent company lives on as Toys ‘R Us.) The little key shop in the Fred Meyer parking lot is actually a leftover from the White Front store.
BHS 1961 here, began in Kindergarten 1948 Mrs. Johnson NW corner room of Bellevue Elementary which is low brick building behind the Bellevue Junior High campus visible above the running track. In 1948 my Dad taught alongside Frank Odle in the taller brick building which was titled Union High, but by then was Bellevue High School. I began my teaching career in Frank and Dad’s basement corner room in 1971, then to Totems when BJHS became today’s park.
The postcard views over Pickle Point (where some may have used the rope swing, at night even nakedly, smile) then over Meydenbauer Yacht Club. In 1948 the road from home, Killarney Way, led into this area from the lower left, crossed a failing wooden bridge then up to Main Street, past the bakery to Mayrand’s where we paid a nickel for a green river.
Wikipedia has a 1902 view quite similar to this one.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/15/MeydenbauerBay1902.jpg
Oops, Meta Burroughs had the drug store with soda fountain on Main Street. Our other neighbors, the Mayrands had a similar establishment on the Seattle side of Lake Washington. Bellevue Elementary was first known as Overlake Elementary and later became admin offices. Vet Dr. Duey had his offices just behind the grade school separated by some great old black cherry trees.
I grew up in Bellevue. house was near VueCrest? The Downy family owned most the land back then… Sacred Heart had a huge cross you could see from anywhere, dairy queen was a great place, john danz was the place to be, Farells… Bellevue Square had Fredrick and Nelson, Nordstrom Best, JC Penny (with an escalator), Bell Book and Candle is where you got tickets to shows (before *ticketmaster*)… etc etc
Does anyone remember the name of the old fish market in Bellevue? It used to be next to Arthurs Bakery and I think a butcher.
Does anybody remember the Egyptian Cake from Arthur’s Bakery? It had marzapan on the bottom… oh, it was so good and it was my Mom’s favorite. She will turning 82 on Friday and would love to try and either find one or make one. I wonder if anyone knows relatives that might have recepies.
To Kevin… the meat market was Fisher Meats, but I can’t remember the fish market.
Patti,
I have been thinking about Arthur’s Egyptian Cake for days now and, like you, would love to find a bakery that makes one or get the recipe.
It was such a wonderful cake and we had it for all special occasions. I even had Arthur’s make it into a sheet cake for my Mother’s 65th birthday party. That recipe has to be out there somewhere! The staff from the bakery was great to deal with and perhaps one of them or one of Arthur’s family managed to save “the recipe”.
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The three adjacent shops were Arthur’s Bakery, Bud’s Meats, and Mike’s Produce. All mouth-wateringly memorable.
There was a fish market, earlier, in the row along 104th south of N.E. 8th, but I can’t remember the name. Kingen’s (later the Carousel) drive-in stood out by itself, but the row of shops included the laundry, the fish market, the delicatessan, Welch’s Drugs, the Lakeside Super Market, Larkin’s 10c store [later Wilner's department store, later a ski shop], and then a travel agent, then a jeweler.
Earlier, on Main Street in Old Bellevue, there was the Dainty Maid Bakery, that made pizzas you took home to bake.
Does anyone remember how the public library moved around to diffeent places? In the basement on Main Street under the bank building, then to the old school house on 100th that was later the Boys & Girls club, then up Main Street to the old Catholic church building.
But all this makes your head spin–I once agreed to meet someone “where the Bleu Dolphin used to be”–and then we couldn[‘t agree on where the Bleu Dolphin used to be….
Umm, “Go, Totems!”
I found this page while searching “Arthur’s Bakery”. As a four-year-old in the early 70s, I took swimming lessons at the neighboring swim club (was it called the Olympic swimming pool?). I can still smell the chlorine and feel the muggy warmth of its greenhouse atmosphere, ivy climbing up the cement walls.
After each swim lesson, my mom took me to Arthur’s for a treat. I chose their iced, yellow & black smiley face cookie every time. As a four-year-old, I thought that cookie was nearly the size of my head!
Later, in my growing up years, I’d find an Arthur’s smiley face cookie on my bed after a hard day at school, a breakup with a boyfriend, a particularly torturous piano lesson, and on occasional birthdays and holidays – each cookie compliments of my fun and loving mom.
Does anyone else remember those cookies?
Also, does anyone know when and why Arthur’s closed?
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