January 20th, 2010 @ 12:11 am by Cliffe | Sorted Past Post
Walking around downtown Bellevue during the workweek I constantly see flashy condo advertisements touting “the new ‘Vue” but I’m more interested 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. |
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January 20th, 2010 @ 10:00 am
And yet, even back then there are cranes in the picture. Some things never change
January 20th, 2010 @ 10:11 am
My office is one of the few high-rises in that picture.
January 21st, 2010 @ 4:13 am
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.
January 21st, 2010 @ 10:46 am
@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.
January 21st, 2010 @ 9:02 pm
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…
January 22nd, 2010 @ 10:24 am
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.
January 22nd, 2010 @ 6:22 pm
I used to deliver the Bellevue American to Arthur the baker…
January 23rd, 2010 @ 9:56 am
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!
January 23rd, 2010 @ 9:47 pm
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.
January 24th, 2010 @ 3:21 pm
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…
March 2nd, 2010 @ 10:50 pm
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.