2022 Haiku Contest Winners!

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR WINNERS FOR THE 2022 HAIKU CONTEST!

 First Place

Tasty, yummy, sweet.

Always eat them with three bites.

Satisfied, so good!
 

Second Place

Third Place

Sitting in the car

Going to pick strawberries

Excited for fun.
Vibrant, juicy fruit

Sweet, scrumptious with chocolate

Flavorful delights.

2022 Haiku Contest

2022 HAIKU CONTEST

Grades 2 to 5

Pre-war Bellevue was home to approximately 55 Japanese American families.  During World War II, these families were incarcerated away from the Bellevue area and their farms and businesses forced to close.  To celebrate the region’s Japanese heritage, Eastside Heritage Center has been holding a Haiku contest for elementary students and the winners have been recognized at the Strawberry Festival or the Downtown Park 4th of July celebration.  This year, we are once again able to share the winning Haiku at the 4th of July celebration plus the use of our webpage and facebook.

CONTEST DETAILS

Topic: Write a Haiku about Strawberries.


A Haiku is a classical Japanese poetry form.  The standard Haiku format is a triplet of lines containing five, seven, and five syllables per respective line.  Sample:

Ladybugs are red,

And have black spots on their wings.

Experts at flying.

Criteria: Winning submissions will show originality, creativity, clarity of expression, good spelling, grammar and syntax.

Prizes: 1st Place - $25 2nd Place - $15 3rd Place - $10


Submissions must include the author’s name, age, address, telephone number and school. These are needed for notification.

Submit entries to: education@eastsideheritagecenter.org  or mail to Eastside Heritage Center, P.O. Box 40535, Bellevue, WA 98015. Submissions will not be returned and will become the property of Eastside Heritage Center.

Submission Deadline: Monday, June 13, 2022

Notification to Winners:  Thursday, June 16, 2022

Questions?  Call 425-450-1049 or email education@eastsideheritagecenter.org 

The Early Community at Northup

BY margaret Laliberte, EASTSIDE HERITAGE CENTER VOLUNTEER

Drivers negotiating the SR520/I-405 interchange can be forgiven for not realizing that they are passing right over the site of the little district of Northup, which developed in 1890s. Virtually all of it has been erased from today’s landscape.

In 1884 or ’85 James Northup recorded his land claim at the head of what is now called Yarrow Bay.  He and his wife Almira built a cabin on property.  They were joined by their son Benson, who in 1889 built a larger house very close to where today’s Burgermaster Drive-In restaurant stands. At some point the Northup Dairy and Cherry Farm existed on the property.

Florella and Benson Northup, 1912. (L85.2)

When the Northups arrived,  King County’s population was exploding: it grew from 6,910 in 1880 to 63,989 in 1890, an increase of 826%!. Just to the north, beginning in 1888, Peter Kirk and Leigh S.J. Hunt planned to industrialize the area with a huge iron and steel mill , a project that soon collapsed. But Northup’s neighborhood was still deep woods and scattered families.  There was never a town, really, more a collection of essential community services that sprang up over the early years. The dock on the bay became known as Northup Landing.   A Methodist Episcopal church was founded in 1888.  A post office opened in July 1892 and lasted until 1897. Local resident Mrs. Ann Dunn was postmaster.  Apparently at some point there was also a store.

Perhaps as early as 1879 a group of local settlers had filed a petition with the King County Commissioners of Washington Territory for a public road to run east and intersect with the only north-south road then existing that connected the area with the mines at Newcastle (now 140th Ave. N.E.).  At first the road apparently ran due east from the bay.  In 1886 its route was altered to run southeast so as to avoid the steep section over “Fagerburg Hill.” Originally called Road 85, it became known as Northup Way.

Northup got its school around 1890, located on what is today’s 116th Ave. N.E. north of Northup Way. In the 1960s an early resident, Hattie Goff Norman, recalled that “it was a very fine building with a belfry and large bell, cloak room, and ink wells in the desks.”  The first teacher, Margaret Yarno, commuted across the lake to Northup Landing from Seattle. In 1893 the school reportedly had 24 boys and 26 girls, although only about 16 children usually attended. In the early years teachers and their pupils put on evening programs—short plays, tableaux, recitations—for parents and the community.

Pupils of the Northup School with their teacher, Margaret Yarno, probably ca. 1893. (L82.050.025)

At one point the hills above Northup were being logged. A wooden chute, greased with axel grease, was built to shoot the logs downhill to the lake, and a gap was left at the point where the wagon road crossed it. A guard was stationed at the gap to insure that passersby wouldn’t be hit by a log hurtling down the chute, jumping the road, and diving into the water.

In 1905 the railroad finally came through Northup when the Northern Pacific finally completed its line between the Black River (southwest of Renton) and Woodinville.  One of two “stations” in the Bellevue area—the other was Wilburton—Northup had a depot in an old boxcar and a siding that could accommodate 50 railcars.  The line was primarily for freight and had originally been envisioned as a bypass around the congested railyards in Seattle. 

Perhaps the railroad’s printed schedule of September 1905 was partly responsible for the confusion that developed over the area’s name—was it Northrup or Northup? The schedule listed the station as Northrup.  In the 1930s road engineers furthered the error by installing road signs on “Northrup Road.”  Only in 1970 was the great-great-granddaughter of James Northup able to convince the Bellevue City Council of the correct family name, and the signs were finally rectified.

Heart of Northup in 1913, looking north up116th Avenue NE. Northup School with its belfry is visible on the upper right of the photo. Note the Northern Pacific’s boxcar “station” just beyond the railroad tracks. Courtesy Matt McCauley.

Today Northup is very much a lost landscape.  Benson Northup’s home still stood in 2007 when a cultural resources assessment was compiled in connection with the expansion of the South Kirkland Park & Ride. But today commercial and residential buildings occupy the site. Further to the east, the Northup School building became a private home in 1940, was  eventually purchased by The Little School, and was demolished in 2019.  But the rail corridor—without its tracks—survives as a section of Eastrail, which will eventually link Snohomish with Renton in a continuous biking and walking trail.  And Northup Way survives as well, continuing to wind around the hill to link the Houghton and Overlake districts.

Resources:

Seattle Daily Times, Sept. 23, 1905, p. 6

Kirklandhistory.org/1905-lwbl-ckc/1905-lwbl-history

Felix Bunel, MyNorthwest.com/157612, Nov. 1, 2019

Lucile McDonald, Bellevue: Its First 100 Years and an undated Journal American article

Vertical File, several photocopies of petitions pertaining to Road 85 (Northup Way)

John Caldbbrick, HistoryLink Essay 9621 re 1890 federal census

AMEC Earth and Environment Inc. “Cultural Resources Assessment of the South Kirkland Park & Ride Transit Oriented Development” Sept. 4, 2007

Hans Miller and Albert Burrows Cabins

The Hans Miller and Albert Burrows cabins will be the final article on “Bellevue’s Early Cabins”.  They are located in Bellevue Parks, but not open to the public.  Hopefully, at some future time, Eastside Heritage Center will be able to do outdoor programs at these sites.

Burrows Cabin, Rody Burrows on porch. (OR/L 79.79.533)

The Burrows cabin is the oldest of the five featured structures.  In 1882, Albert Burrows filed a land claim on the east side of Lake Washington and built a 14 x24 cedar log cabin, chinked with clay and moss. Albert was a Civil War veteran from Iowa and this land was part of the Homestead Act. The area became known as Burrows Landing, just south of Chism Park.

In the 30s, the cabin was moved to Bellevue Way, near Bellevue Square, and later, in 1946, to a site on 112th Ave. NE.  It remained a private residence until 2016 when it was transported to Chism Park. It is thought to be located near its original site and can be seen on the upper lawn of the park.

Miller Cabin at Robinswood Park, 1976. (L88.064.006)

The Hans Miller Cabin is found at Robinswood Park, its original location.  The cabin was built in 1884 by a settler from Denmark, Hans Miller, and built quickly for immediate shelter.  He also built a log barn a few years later.  Both structures were built with axes and cedar trees.

In 1978, the city of Bellevue dismantled the cabin, and reassembled it on its original site.  Most of the logs for the four walls are the original ones that Miller chopped down in the 1880s.  The new shakes on the roof were hand-split like the originals.  A floor was installed and unbreakable glass to help with the vandalism.  Ed Kelly, Jerry Garrison, and Jim Fifer were responsible for the restoration work.  It is still hoped that the cabin can be used at some future date.


Resources

Eastside Heritage Center Archives

Blueberries For Bellevue!

BY Barb williams, EASTSIDE HERITAGE CENTER VOLUNTEER

 

Blueberry Facts:

Blueberries: genus Vaccinium.

Swamp blueberries: Vaccinium corymbosum prefer year-round wet acidic peat mixed with sand. Upland varieties: V. pennsylvanicum prefer acidic sandy soils subject to seasonal drought. The necessary presence of a root-fungus supplies nitrogen.

A Journal American 1996 article stated: blueberries are the only indigenous North American fruit grown in large commercial quantities; Washington produces about 6.2 million pounds of blueberries annually and ranks fifth behind Michigan, Maine, New Jersey and North Carolina in production. The oldest living blueberry bush (10,000 years) is located at Losh Run, Pennsylvania. 

Children in blueberry field, Bellevue (2002.135.001)

Bellevue owns two major blueberry farms: The Overlake Blueberry Farm at the Mercer Slough; the Larsen Lake Blueberry Farm at Larsen Lake. Historically, indigenous peoples gathered wild blue huckleberries at Larsen Lake. Both Bellevue farms are organic (no pesticides or fertilizers), U-pick and sell produce. Roger Hoesterey, Bellevue City Parks Department and Resource Manager (1990s), helped preserve these lands as farmland ecology sites and for blueberry production. They total 36 acres (Larsen Lake/Blueberry Lake = 14,  Overlake/Mercer Slough = 22), have approximately 24,000 plants that yielded an estimated average per year of 35,270 pounds of “U-pick” blueberries, and 8,594 pounds of “over the counter” blueberries from 2006 to 2016. 

Blueberries are relatively easy to grow, harvest, transplant, store, pack, and ship making them a productive commercial crop.

Historic Perspective:

After extensive research, Louis Weinzril, a chemist and bacteriologist, bought a 45-acre farm in Bellevue (1944) on which to grow blueberries. He and his wife named the farm, Blueberry Lake Farm which was later renamed Larsen Lake to honor Ove Peter and Mary Larsen, the original owners. Louis planted nine varieties of blueberries and hired teenagers who were paid $600 to $1,000 a year. In 1957, they picked 50 tons of berries and shipped them to many states.  

W.D. Sydnor, a horticulturalist for the Southern Railway, introduced blueberries to Bellevue in 1933 when he planted four acres of berries on his land at 108th just east of  the current Barnes and Noble store. His plants came from all over including China, Maine and Florida. He could net a thousand dollars per acre, sold to the dinner trains and hired five to ten pickers. He believed upland blueberries, like his, were sweeter than swamp/bog blueberries. He grew nickel-sized berries and farmed from 1933 to 1944. 

Overlake Blueberry label, 1947

M. Lee Dennison and Ernie Van Tine believed the blueberry would be the opportunity crop for the next half century, Puget Sound would become the greatest global blueberry-growing area and the Mercer Slough one of the most productive. In 1947 Dennison moved his Des Moines plants to the Mercer Slough and the Overlake Blueberry Farm was born. In the 1980s the City of Bellevue purchased the lands.   

Different people have leased the Larsen Lake and Overlake blueberry farms from the City of Bellevue since the city purchased the lands in the 1940s and 1980s. Ted and Nancy Harding (1980-1994) and Bill Pace (2001-2016) worked the lands and managed the produce stands at the Overlake farm. A piano tuner, Tim Randall, leased the Larsen Lake farm (1984-1990). Dale Christensen of Christensen Farms worked the Larsen Lake and Overlake farms in 1999 with an expected yield of 140,000 pounds of berries. The Cha New Life Garden group of Cha Family Farms presently operates the fruit and produce stand at Larsen Lake. Currently, the City of Bellevue manages the crops for both farms.    

Blueberry Festival Princess, Bellevue American, 1957

After World War II, the blueberry displaced the strawberry as the Bellevue fruit. The annual Blueberry Festival (1951 to 1961) replaced the Strawberry Festival. Blueberry pies and a Blueberry Festival Princess crowned the celebration. Arthur’s Bakery baked all the pies from 1957-1959 using Overlake Blueberry Farm berries in their recipe for “Arthur’s Blueberry Festival Pie”. 

Today one can hear happy chatter in multiple languages among the blueberry bushes as people of all ages gather to pick, converse and experience the delights of outdoor activity. It is thanks to Bellevue and its visionaries that the blueberries and local farm history has been preserved for the public to enjoy.


Resources:

Eastside Heritage Center archives

Bellevue Parks and Community Resources

Blueberry Culture, Gardenology.org - Plant Encyclopedia and Gardening wiki

Eastside Heritage Center book, Images of America: Bellevue Post World War II Years. Arcadia Publishing 2014

Eastside Heritage Center book, Images of America: The East Side.  Arcadia Publishing 2006

Knauss, Suzanne book,  Culinary History of a Northwest Town - Bellevue, Washington. Eastside Heritage Center publishing 2007