Home » SPL History Share: Fremont Founders – Stone, Kilbourne & Phinney

SPL History Share: Fremont Founders – Stone, Kilbourne & Phinney

Once again, the Seattle Public Library (SPL) Special Collections has some digitized images to share from its archives.  As part of the ‘Neighborhood History Project,’ these images form part of a vast collection now accessible thanks to our library.  Beneath each image, find a link to the Special Collections page, or the book in the SPL collection that provided the image, for more information.

From Our Foundations

Fremont began not as a grand scheme in community building, but as an opportunity for people looking to make money and homes for themselves.  From speculators to developers to manufacturers to residents relocating for work, Fremont has been a site of opportunity and experience for generations.

An undated, overview photo of Fremont taken by The Seattle Times. Photo provided by the Seattle Public Library

(More info on this photo at http://cdm16118.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15015coll4/id/1829 )

All the opportunities available in Fremont have created a dynamic community.  This makes it easier to estimate a date for a detailed, Seattle Times photo of the area.  For instance, Burke Millwork relocated to Fremont in 1939, and operated until the late 1950s, and the gas works operated (upper left-hand corner) until 1956.  The date narrows more when considering that the off-ramp from the Fremont Bridge deck into the mill was removed in the early 1940s, and a shed installed at its previous terminus.  Finally, the area where logs lay in the muddy water waiting for milling would be replaced by an earthen wharf in the early 1950s.  The one thing that has stayed absolutely the same up to 2013 – but for the landscaping – would be the large, white, 1921 building of Bleitz Funeral Home on the south side of Fremont Bridge.

Guy Phinney’s Legacy

Long before Bleitz arrived, and Fremont became Center of the Universe, a mill owner and real estate developer arrived here from Nova Scotia.  Guy Carleton Phinney paid $10,000 in 1887 for 342 acres of land at the top of what is now Fremont Avenue North, according to research done by Seattle area students for the ‘Timber to Troll’ Fremont history project.

A photo of a house Guy Phinney, and his family, lived in near the Downtown Seattle area, at Broadway & James Street – dated 1889. Photo provided by the Seattle Public Library

(More info on this photo at http://cdm16118.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15015coll4/id/1471 )

The majority of Phinney’s purchase went for development and sale to settlers, but he did keep 180 acres for himself where he built an elegant English-style estate.  He created formal gardens, and invited visitors (and potential settlers,) to come see the grounds he named, ‘Woodland Park.’

The list of rules for Woodland Park, the formal gardens built by Guy Phinney, advises visitors that the park is free for use to those who obey the rules and conduct themselves in an orderly manner. In the photo are Arthur Emery Phinney (left) and Will C. Phinney (right,) a son of Guy Phinney. Photo provided by the Seattle Public Library, dated 1891.

(More info on this photo at http://cdm16118.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15015coll4/id/1783 )

In 1890, Phinney built a street car line – occasionally declared to be the first – to convey visitors from Fremont’s center to Woodland Park, where he gave specific rules for proper conduct.  However, Phinney died in 1893 at the age of 41, and his street car stopped running soon thereafter.  His widow would later sell the private park to the City of Seattle.  The Mayor vetoed the sale, but the Seattle City Council overturned it and the purchase went through on December 28th, 1899, for a controversial price of $100,000.

A photo of another Phinney legacy, one of Guy Phinney’s sons, Arthur Alexander Phinney, possibly taken in 1912 Photo provided by the Seattle Public Library

(More info on this photo at http://cdm16118.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15015coll4/id/1354)

Stone & Kilbourne

While his influence on Fremont appears to be familial rather than foundational, Corliss P. Stone does have the distinction of being the namesake of Fremont’s Stone Way.

Corliss P. Stone, former Seattle City Councilmember and, briefly, Seattle’s Mayor. Photo provided by the Seattle Public Library

(More info on this photo can be found in the book in the SPL collection at http://seattle.bibliocommons.com/item/show/1395280 )

In addition to developing parts of Wallingford and eastern Fremont, Stone served three terms on the City Council before winning election as Mayor of the City of Seattle, in 1872.  His term ended abruptly in February 1873, when he left town for a visit to San Francisco.  According to an account on HistoryLink.org, he went with another man’s wife and $15,000 in funds from Stone & Burnett, where he was a partner.  Stone did return to Seattle, according to an account on Wikipedia.org, and continued to work in business and real estate until his passing in 1906.

Stone was uncle to Edward Corliss Kilbourne, a dentist by profession, who did vastly more to develop the area of Fremont, as a township.  Kilbourne also had a street named after him, like his uncle, but his would be renamed North 36th Street by 1920.

Dr. Edward C. Kilbourne, a dentist, land promoter, electric power visionary and philanthopist. Photo provided by the Seattle Public Library

(More info on this photo can be found in a book in the SPL collection – at http://seattle.bibliocommons.com/item/show/154091030 )

While Kilbourne actively promoted settlement of the 240-acre Denny & Hoyt holding which formed a large part of Fremont in the late 1880s, he also received the franchise to restore electric power to Seattle in 1889, following the Great Fire.  While credit is often given to Guy Phinney for starting the first street car (also called an ‘electric trolley’,) Kilbourne started the Lake Union Electric Railway with several partners, and built a route that brought potential settlers to Fremont from central Seattle.  The last decades of his life, Kilbourne, who lived until age 103, spent dedicated to philanthropy.

A glance at Fremont’s founders can reveal that they have the same diversity of character that today’s Fremonsters exhibit, daily.  For more information about the images of Fremont, and the Seattle Public Library’s Neighborhood History Project, visit the project webpage at http://www.spl.org/neighborhoodhistory.

Publisher’s Note:  The author of this column is related to the Burke Family, and owners of Burke Millwork.


©2013 Kirby Lindsay.  This column is protected by intellectual property laws, including U.S. copyright laws.  Reproduction, adaptation or distribution without permission is prohibited.

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