Ballard Avenue

In 1887 Captain William Ballard’s West Coast Improvement Company began developing 160 acres on the north shore of Salmon Bay, then called Gilman Park. The City of Seattle says the town incorporated in 1890, took the name Ballard, and was linked to Seattle by rail. By 1895 it was home to the world’s largest shingle industry. Much of the lumber that rebuilt Seattle after the 1889 fire came from Ballard. By 1904 twenty mills turned out three million shingles a day.

Fishing mattered too. The city says the Salmon Bay fishing fleet has long called Ballard home, and that Scandinavian immigrants staffed much of the early industry. A shortage of water, plus sewage and school-funding problems, led Seattle to annex Ballard in 1907. The population then was 10,000, making Ballard the seventh-largest city in Washington.

Ballard Avenue was the old main street until Market Street took that role and, the city says, arrested development at a mid-1940s point. Granite curbs still hold hitching rings in places. The Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board designated the district on January 14, 1975. The City Council created it by ordinance on April 13, 1976. Mayor Wes Uhlman signed the law in the district beside a proclamation from King Carl XVI Gustav of Sweden. The source below is the City of Seattle landmark-district page.