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Old Memories of Ballard

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Started 4 months ago by DDF
Latest reply from bambooboy

DDF

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I was having funny flashbacks with my sister about how Ballard has changed over the years. Remember the store Prarie Market, where Value Village is now? They had black wax pens and you wrote the price down yourself. Remember there was an Artic Circle restaurant on 15th and Holman where Phil's Body Shop is now? How about the old lady that lived in the ivy covered house on the corner of 15th and 96th? For you lifers out there, give me some other oldies.

Posted 4 months ago #
Ballardguy

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the Milk Barn on 15th near where Walgreens is or was was that a Chevron gas station?

Posted 4 months ago #
pandabur

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Old is relative! There was an Arctic Circle here? When did it close? The only WA one left is Yakima.

Herfy's where Wendys is now on 15th,
Pizza and Pipes (OK... technically Greenwood),
Grocery Store (can't remember the name) on 32nd and 62nd,
and West Woodland Elementary used to actually look like a school...

Pretty soon we'll say "Sunset Bowl" :)

Posted 4 months ago #
mc7

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JC Penney on Market St (the now multi-use building including vehicle licensing)
Drug Emporium for a brief time where Goodwill is now

Posted 4 months ago #
angeline

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Oh, I think Penney's was still on Market when I moved here. Remember Scandinavian pancakes where India Bistro is now?

And Thriftco where Safeway now stands (before Thriftco it was a drugstore, but I can't remember which one.) Then Thriftco was in Greenwood underneath Top Ten Toys along with a Hancock fabric store. That Hancocks had a weird vibe, I always thought. Thriftco was great though -- many bargains and Buddhist monks shopping there once soothed my infant son.

How about Ernst where Mars Hill is now...

Posted 4 months ago #
phoo

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Wow, the JC Penney going away must have been a big blow for Ballard. That would have brought traffic into the area that wasn't for drinking or yuppies, not to mention very useful for the neighborhood.

Posted 4 months ago #
woodchucker

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I remember the Wigwam on 20th(?) where mom would take me to buy school clothes.
Mannings on 15th & Market, mom called it the Taj Mahall when it was being built.
My favorite place was the little hobby shop on 20th I think, half block south of market.
A friend and I would ride our bikes from Magnolia, buy a model airplane kit and work most of the night to build them, fly them the next day before the Elmer's glue was even dry. Some of my best memories.
And can't forget Stan Boreson music on Market, Used to tag along with my friend when he went for guitar lessons on Saturday morning. I had to play the piano...

Posted 4 months ago #
gordy

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The Safeway block used to have two separate businesses, Pay n' Save/Rite Aid on the 14th end, Tradewell on the 15th end. When Tradewell closed, Shop and Save went in to that space. It was a great thrift shop. H.Salt Esq. fish and chip shop/Skippers was where Ballard Burgers now is.
Remember Dodie's little grocery store by Blue Ridge beach?
Crown Hill Pharmacy, Thurman's Plumbing, Sears on Market St., Wigwam, GovMart.... I still miss that Scandinavian grocery store that was by Kitchen n'Things.

Posted 4 months ago #
Walt

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It was Food Town on 32nd and 62nd.

Posted 4 months ago #
Curtis

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The pet store where, I believe, Cupcake Royale is now...?

Posted 4 months ago #
gordy

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They had a great store sign with a carousel on it. Stuff and Things for Pets.

Posted 4 months ago #
Walt

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I always misread the pet store sign as Stuffing Things for Pets. Gave it a taxidermy spin.

Posted 4 months ago #
great idea

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Ballard could use a good taxidermy shop.

I remember when that great sushi place on 24th (Oshan) was just a shady mattress store.

Posted 4 months ago #
pandabur

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Ha! I remember it was difficult to make the transition to calling it Rite Aid instead of Pay N Save.

And Ernst Hardware where Mars Hill is now...

And the little corner convenience store called Vita Del on Market and 8th (NW corner) - a little fitness gym is there now.

And... Peaches record store in the multiplex retail area (Sylvan learning center and licensing) :)

Posted 4 months ago #
PlantLover

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I remember lots of free parking...

I got my best garden tool at that Ernest. I still have it, a bit worse for the wear. I have never found another one quite like it.

Posted 4 months ago #
DDF

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I had totally forgot about Pizza and Pipes. The little store at Blue Ridge beach was a great old memory.

Posted 4 months ago #
mc7

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My first job was at Baskin Robbins on 15th (now Taco Del Mar, sigh) It was 1984 and I made $2.85 an hour!

Posted 4 months ago #
Cate

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Funny, this should come up now. Christmas night I was talking with my Mom (81 years old) about Ballard. She came home from the hospital to Ballard, only 2 blocks from where I live now. Her Father, my grandfather, worked for the concrete manufacturing company on the Ship Canal. It was on the Queen Anne side, not the Ballard/Fremont side so sometimes to get to and from work he would swim it. Tuesday was payday and the Ballard Penny's was always open late on Tuesday. Mom, her sister, her father, her mother would all go together to Penny's to get what they needed. Her favorite memory of Tuesday's in Ballard would be when it would be her turn to get a new pair of shoes at Pennys. The little funeral home still there over around 20th and 57th (I think) had an apartment or room above for the night person to stay in. My grandparents lived there for awhile right after they were married as my grandfather was the night caretaker. I think it quite wonderful that much of what my Mother remembers from the thirties is still her in some way (including the two trees I look at from my condo windows)

Posted 4 months ago #
oldguybc

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Ernst Hardware... on Market & 24th, Gerke's Music Store across 24th, hundreds more like that

Posted 4 months ago #
DDF

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My Grandma lived on Queen Anne but went to Ballard High. She had to take a some kind of bridge or train there. There were slums in Interbay. Little shanty shacks. She knew a guy named Lars that lived there.

Posted 4 months ago #
Cate

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DDF - My Mom still thinks of Interbay as a shantytown.

Posted 4 months ago #
Norge

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The meat market on 20th and 65th where "You didn't have to be Norwegian to work there but it helped."

I remember as a young kid in the late 50's when my father still fished, we would board the fishing boat with the crew at Fisherman's Terminal and as we went through the locks the guys that tended the boats would pick us kids off the fishing boat as the water level rose and we would race the boat out to Golden Gardens to wave goodbye to our dad.

Posted 4 months ago #
gordy

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I thought Gerkes was an appliance store. Stan Boreson Music was on Market Street near where Dakota Art is now.

Posted 4 months ago #
MrINTJ

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Remember the former Ballard train station at 58th Avenue on the tracks. Young women dressed in bloomers, a shift away from long skirts or dresses for more daring and progressive women in the 1910-1920s. Bloomers were associated with the suffrage movement and the campaign for women’s voting rights.

Posted 4 months ago #
DimpleDolly

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JCPenneys on market, Grocery store on 20th around 59th, Meat Market on 20th and 65th, CAfe on 65th and 5th, Grocery Store on 30th around 62nd, Smoke Shop before they remodeled when it looked really dark and creepy, Pizza and Pipes in Greenwood, Dairy Queen on 58th and 24th and later turned to Jays, Qfc and Safeway back to back with the alley in the middle, the old library on 24th and 58th, Pay N Save on Market where Safeway is now, Sunset Bowl across the street, Ice cream parlour next to the JcPenneys on market (the owner used to stand outside and visit everyone), and what was the name of that grocery store on sunset hill. I'm going to think about it all night lol Oh yea and Wigwam. I miss riding the horse in front and getting popcorn out of the machine inside. Good memories of that store. Oh and the pet store on market. My big brother brought my parakeet home from the store there and rode it to me on his dirt bike lol cage and all. :)

Posted 4 months ago #
great idea

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the current meat market is on Market & Ballard ave.

it's called the Matador.

Posted 4 months ago #
SmartsyArtsy

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Smoke Shop before they remodeled when it looked really dark and creepy,

That is so funny. It is still dark and creepy!!

Posted 4 months ago #
pennygirl

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Not that old but I miss The Backstage.

Posted 4 months ago #
enatai70

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What was the Ballard Commons before it was the park - was it a Safeway? I can't remember.

Posted 4 months ago #
enatai70

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Ooh! Also, the ballard apartment featured in that show on haunted places (it's still there, but really weird location)

Posted 4 months ago #
pennygirl

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enatai70, I think it was this episode:

http://www.tv.com/shows/a-haunting/the-apartment-1130727/

Posted 4 months ago #
enatai70

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YES!!! =]

Posted 4 months ago #
boatgeek

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My father in law was Ballard born and bred, and tells us about who lived where when he was a kid. They're still there (at least for a while), but the portables at Loyal Heights Elementary were installed in the late 40's or early 50's.

Posted 4 months ago #
PaytonKemp-AlleyOop

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Grew up in the 80's and 90's in Ballard. Peaches video which became Backstage Music and Video where Silvans learning center currently is. I still have music I bought there. Crown Books on Market, the Scandinavian bakery where Pho Big Bowl is, used to see the old lady who worked there take a wagon to where they kept the ovetstock and refill out of a freezer. That freezer used to sit behind the bike store on 24th. The Azteca on shilshoe, which used to be a dance club my parents saw people snort cocaine. It's now some rich guys private house, I miss that view.

Posted 4 months ago #
PaytonKemp-AlleyOop

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Don't know if anyone remembers Jacks on 15th, it used to be where that Blockbuster is. Had diner type of food and all things Jack, posters of Jack Nicholson movies and movies with the name Jack in it. Kind of a cheesy place but my dad and I liked it.

Posted 4 months ago #
PaytonKemp-AlleyOop

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Also the Gob Shoppe on 32nd, right before going down to golden gardens. "What are those funny looking tube things in there" I would ask my mom.

Posted 4 months ago #
gordy

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Mode O Day dress shop on Market Street near where Trove is now. Mom always said that the rich wives of fishermen shopped there. We shopped at Sears or GovMart. There was a hobby shop somewhere near there too. Ballard Blossom used to be where Twice Told Tales is moving to, I think.
The optometrist who had his store on 24th in or near the QFC lot...is that where Scooters is now?

Posted 4 months ago #
enatai70

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Totally, the Gob Shoppe - first time I saw that place I had to do a double take. Now it sounds like something from Arrested Development.

Posted 4 months ago #
boatgeek

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When we moved to Ballard in 1995, the Scooter's location was Ballard Dairy and Burger (or Burger and Dairy?). It looked like it had been there for a long time, like the TV repair place just up 24th.

Posted 4 months ago #
greenwoodjon

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Grandma lived in one of the RR shacks along Seaview Ave. across from where Anthony's now is located. Spend many a happy day on the pristine beach. Remember the old Tregoning Boat building and the beached ship that the fire department burned up in a 1959 training exercise just before construction began on the breakwater and piers. It was back in the day when Ray's Boathouse was actually a boat house! Dingy rentals by the hour for the fishermen.

Posted 4 months ago #
ballardmike

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Used to be a record store about where Cupcake Royal is now. Bought my first vinyl there!

Posted 4 months ago #
Sunset Hill David

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I haven't been in Ballard as long as some of you, but it's more than 25 years. Before the Azteca on Shilshole was there it was the Golden Tides, a bar and disco, and it got pretty wild there as I recall. The new place (the fancy house) there even has a little plaque saying Golden Tides.

And of course, there was Charlie and Quinn's, which was torn down to make room for (we were told) an Anthony's Beach Cafe, which was never built. It was quite a scene at Quinn's in the parking lot when the music stopped and the bar closed. Neighbors used to complain about the rowdiness in the parking lot. Not sure who the neighbors were, maybe the houses on the ridge?

Posted 4 months ago #
bambooboy

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I remember the old Arctic circle. One night after I left goofys (drunk of course) I was hot rodding it in the snow and smashed into the sign base there. Was able to drive home after that. They never fixede the damage and I always remembbered that as long as the sign base was there and it was there longer than Arctic Circle was. Of course Frontier lanes, and what about the whore house which sat approximately where Pizza hut is (ndext to Goofys).
I barely remember the Horshoe Club which burned down and you can see the last 2 ft of facad next to the tavern on the down hill side of that Strip club next to Goofys (can't remember it's name. The Horshoe club was where the chinese resturaunt is now and where Taco Time used to be.

Posted 4 months ago #
magia76

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Really miss Ernst! Wish Mars Hill would move to Mars and oppress the Martian women instead of Seattle women. We need Ernst back in that location!

Posted 4 months ago #
great idea

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oldguybc said above that there was an Ernst at 24th & Market.

were there really two that close together? (mars hill doesn't seem all that far).

Posted 4 months ago #
angeline

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I share the sentiment about Mars Hill, but no longer miss Ernst now that we have Stoneway Hardware.

I don't think there was an Ernst at 24th and Market in my time here, which admittedly is pretty short. Only about 20 years.

Posted 4 months ago #
pennygirl

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I only remember the huge Ernst that had great prices on shrubs they had forgotten to water. But I'm not a lifer.

Posted 4 months ago #
great idea

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maybe the other one was an Eagle Hardware?

I'm no lifer either, but I remember both of those stores.

Home Depot still carries on the tradition of (sometimes) good prices on plants that are either dried out or totally root-bound.

Posted 4 months ago #
pennygirl

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How long have you been here gi? Not snarky - just interested.

Posted 4 months ago #
bambooboy

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there was never an Ernst on 24th and Market. It was off of 15th and what, Leary? Eagle hardware is a fairly new chain at least to Seattle

Posted 4 months ago #
bambooboy

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Didn't know about Gerke's Music Store. I bought a guitar at Stan boreson's music shop though. anybody mention Kress's Dept (or 5 & dime) store?

Posted 4 months ago #
pennygirl

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That's what I remember bambooboy. If there was something closer I wouldn't have gone all the way to Ernst. Unless of course I was looking for good deals on plants :-)

Posted 4 months ago #
bambooboy

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I'm trying to remember exactly what was at the corner of 24th and Market. I know there was always a gas station there, but it wasn't always the highest price gas in the world like it is now. Where the bar is now used to be either Harris Electric or Lundy eletric, I forget which. The kitchen store was just some kind of store. Azteca has been there for years but it's not old Ballard old. Again, don't remember what was there.
I miss Ernst. I bought my garage door opener there. It was a refurb and it's still working.

Posted 4 months ago #
Curtis

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Nope, think it was just a mistake. It was across from the Ballard Blocks on Leary. Ernst was the first charge card I ever had!...How low-budget is that? Wait, it gets better...it's also the first time I ever dealt with collections! Ah, what a difference 25 years makes!

Posted 4 months ago #
MrINTJ

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Saturday morning guitar lessons on Market somewhere. Mom would spend the time in a dress shop nearby then pick me up and we would go to Kress on the way home.

I moved away with my Dad soon after that. We come back to good new Ballard once a year and stay for a little over a month, so the changes seem major to me but it has actually been a normal progression for a city/town this size.

Posted 4 months ago #
oldguybc

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MrINTJ... 58th Avenue?? Where was that??
Bambooboy... there certainly was sn Ernst hardware on 24th and Market, I won a toaster there once on a drawing, know what was right next door? A Tradewell Market, closed during my college years and Harry Karl built a shoe store there, his wife Debbie Reynolds came down and opened it, got my picture taken with her...

Posted 4 months ago #
oldguybc

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The 3 GIs surplus store on Holman Rd almost across the street from Crown Hill School, they actually sold WW2 surplus stuff...
Ask SunriseSunset about anything in "Old Ballard", most of you all are far too youngto remember it... talking about "OLD ENGLISH-AS-A-SECOND-LANGUAGE BALLARD"!!

Posted 4 months ago #
bambooboy

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Bought my first fly reel at that 3GI store. they sold me a salmon reel for trout, but then again, I was a kid and didn't know better.
OH, no one mentioned it (I think but somethings perservere. Dicks Drivin. Same spot, same looks, same great food. Best gut bomb burger in the city, and you could heat your house with the oil just from a pack of french fries alone!

I am very skeptical about an Ernst at 24th and Market. That would have been 2 Ernst stores well within a mile of each other. Unless of course it was totally unrelated to the one mon 15th and Leary. Unless you are talking early the 60's for the one at Market. I was around but not thinking too much about stores unless I could get an ice cream cone from them.

Posted 4 months ago #
bambooboy

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hold it, wasn't Tradewell right next to the Pay and Save? That was on 15th and Market (where Safeway is now) and up several blocks from Ernst on Leary.

Posted 4 months ago #
Walt

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I just checked my handy 1952 Seattle phone book and it shows Ernst had a branch at 2322 Market.

Tradwell only had two entries back then, none in Ballard.

Posted 4 months ago #

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