Bellevue - an Eastside Cornucopia!

BY BARB WILLIAMS, EASTSIDE HERITAGE CENTER VOLUNTEER

For thousands of years, Native Americans harvested the abundance of natural foods on the Eastside of Lake Washington. Good water, soil, and climate made Bellevue ideal for cultivated farming. Downtown was originally covered with huge, old-growth trees. Once logged, they were replaced with farmlands. Much of Bellevue’s success and growth is founded in its agricultural roots as an Eastside Cornucopia; a Horn of Plenty.

Hand drawn map of Bellevue, highlighting agricultural lands. Maker unknown, date unknown. (Reference - Vertical Files)

Early European settlers farmed to support their daily needs followed by cash crop farming for markets. A multitude of successful animal, fruit and vegetable farms sprang up and reached their peak between 1920 and 1942. The distribution of vegetables, fruits, bulb, and ornamental plants to local, national, and international markets was expanded after 1904 when the Northern Pacific Railroad connected Eastside produce to Seattle and beyond. Construction and operation of the Bellevue Growers Association Packing Shed (c. 1933) alongside the NPR railroad tracks at Midlakes significantly enhanced the transportation of the agricultural abundance of Bellevue farms.

In 1889, Ove and Mary Larsen gained title to 160 acres of land at Larsen Lake; a favorite gathering place for Native Americans who had harvested wild cranberries and blue huckleberries there. Ove did the same selling the berries for 50 cents a gallon. He worked at the Newcastle coal mines and farmed on weekends. In 1913, he sold half the property to the Aries brothers; Louis, Tony, and Albert from South Park, Seattle. Their property stretched from Larsen Lake to NE 8th. They grew cabbage, corn, squash, peas, wax beans, cauliflower, carrots, potatoes, celery, and iceberg lettuce; the latter for which they became famous. It was distributed to local, Philippine Islands, Alaska, and Yukon Territory markets. At peak production, they shipped seven railroad carloads of iceberg lettuce and 4,000 sacks of potatoes.   

Aries family harvesting lettuce, 1918. (OR/L 79.79.232)

In 1912, J. Kelfner sold Island Belle grapes grown on his farm at 108th Avenue and SE 8th Street. In the 1930s, he sold nine tons of grapes to one buyer. Adolph Hennig also grew Island Belle grapes at his vineyard on Clyde Hill. He designed and built equipment for pasteurizing and extracting juice. This proved beneficial in 1929 when fresh grapes were selling for only 1 cent per pound, but juice could be stored and sold year-round.

Mary Cruse and Grace Hill in Baker House daffodil garden, 1912. (2001.114.001)

Apples, cherries, pears, and strawberries were profitable cash crops. With the help of Japanese farmers between the 1920s to 1940s, the abundance of strawberries became a profitable and popular crop for Bellevue. Fields of strawberries stretched over the hills providing an incentive for the Strawberry Festival which began in 1925. After WWII, blueberries replaced strawberries as the popular fruit. In preserving this heritage, the City of Bellevue presently owns and operates U-Pick blueberry fields at Larsen Lake and Overlake blueberry farms.

Delkin Bulb Farms, c.1990s (2016.010.004)

Following the example of successful bulb farms in Bellingham, bulb farming was begun in Bellevue in the 1920s. The Boddy family cultivated vegetables and bulb plants growing cucumbers and Easter Lilies in their greenhouses on Hunt’s Point. William Cruse grew fruits and daffodils. His home, the Baker house, and gardens were located where the QFC now stands. Frederick J. Delkin, the owner and operator of Delkin Farms wholesale nursery business, established a warehouse accessible to the railroad tracks at Midlakes in 1926. At one time, he shipped an entire railroad carload of iris and narcissus bulbs to New York.

Perhaps this shipment included bulbs from Cecelia and Frederick Winters bulb farm at the Mercer Slough. Originally they grew vegetables, the abundance of which they sold to summer people at Beaux Arts. In 1924, they switched to iris and daffodil bulbs grown in greenhouses. Andre Ostbo bought several acres of their land in the 1930s and started a successful rhododendron business called “The King of Shrubs” for which he became famous. The Winters’ Spanish-eclectic style house, built in the late 1920s, is presently owned by the City of Bellevue and located on Bellevue Way. Remnants of the many greenhouses and escaped rhododendrons can be seen along the Ostbo Loop trail as can the sinking boiler house used to send steam through pipes to the greenhouses.

It is possible that Andre knew Cal and Harriet Shorts who bought a farm on Main Street in 1946. Their specialty was rhododendrons. In 1984, the Shorts donated their 7.5 acres and home to the City of Bellevue for a park and botanical garden. Today, the Bellevue Botanical Garden is open to the public year-round with the Shorts house at its center. Thanks to the generosity of the Shorts, and visionaries like Iris and Bob Jewett, the Garden is a treasure that reflects the bountiful agricultural possibilities and heritage of Bellevue: an Eastside Cornucopia. 

Resources:

Eastside Heritage Center archives

Lake Washington the Eastside. by Eastside Heritage Center, Arcadia Publishing, 2006

Bellevue, Its First 100 Years.  by Lucile McDonald,  Bellevue Historical Society, 2000

The Bellevue Botanical Garden: celebrating the first 15 years.  by Marty Wingate, The Bellevue Botanical Garden Society,  2007  

Japanese Farmers Post WWII

BY Barb williams, EASTSIDE HERITAGE CENTER VOLUNTEER

After four difficult years at Pinedale, Tule Lake, and Minidoka incarceration camps some Japanese farmers began returning to their pre-WWII farms in Bellevue. Approximately 20 families of the original 70 chose to return.  Those who had leased their farms prior to the war often did not come back. Those having land ownership, often did. However, life was not easy and they had a difficult time recovering their land, jobs, lives, and a sense of Japanese community which had been so strong prior to the War. Their courage, skills as farmers, and contributions to their community have been recognized in multiple ways.  Bellevue is a member of the Sister Cities project, Yao Japan being Bellevue’s sister city.  

The Suguro family had farmed in Midlakes near Lake Bellevue. Takayoshi and Michi Suguro’s daughter, Sumie, remembers how difficult “it was to come back to a farm in shambles and to return to an unlivable house. The people who lived in our home even had chickens running through the house and our roof was leaking. The Takeshitas, our neighbors, were so kind in having us stay with them until we could clean our house.” Sumie, like other returning Japanese children, had to adjust to attending an almost all-white school after spending four years with only Japanese people. It was a lonely time for her being the only Japanese girl in the class. While going through high school she worked as a live-in nanny to help her family and graduated in 1947. She is proud to say that her father was the last Japanese immigrant (Issei) to farm in Bellevue. He retired in 1953, when the family sold their property to Safeway. Their neighbors, the Takeshita family, had bought their property in 1919 so were able to return to their home and farm; both suffered from neglect. Times had changed making it difficult for Japanese farmers to realize a profit. As land values went up they began to sell their lands to developers. In 1953, the Takeshita family sold their land to the Great Northern Railroad.

Ron Wurzer/Seattle Times: John Matsuoka stands amid his cornfield in Bellevue, where he has farmed for nearly 50 years. (8/20/1997)

Among those to return were John Matsuoka. However, his brother, Tom (Takeo) Matsuoka, a prominent leader in the pre-WWII Bellevue Japanese community, did not. Instead, he continued to farm in Montana where he had been sent during the war. John, who grew up farming in Kent had been sent to Minidoka. In the 1950s he came to Bellevue where he and his wife lived for over 60 years. At the age of 52, he went to work for the Bellevue Post Office from which he retired after 20 years of service. He also leased 3.5 acres of farmland from the Bellevue Parks and Community Services Department at 156th Avenue SE and SE 16th Street. He grew potatoes, brussels sprouts, lettuce and corn. He became famous for his sweet Silver Corn which he sold on Sundays. The Seattle Times and Journal American dubbed him the “Corn Man of Bellevue”. He loved his old tractor and farming. In 1997, at age 82, farming had become a hobby for John; one of the last of a generation of Japanese-American farmers in Bellevue. 

Asaichi Tsushima, a pre-WWII Bellevue Issei landowner and community leader, returned to Bellevue. In 1929, he had been the first teacher at the Japanese language school. In 1952, he wrote an extensive documentary, “Pre-WWII History of Japanese Pioneers in the Clearing and Development of Land in Bellevue”. Much of the information is written from memory because many of his notes were lost during incarceration. The document is a treasure; a fine contribution to the legacy of the Japanese pioneers in Bellevue.

Greg Gilbert/Seattle Times: Joan Seko, 80, recalls the tireless work of creating and maintaining her family’s traditional Japanese garden on Bellevue’s Phantom Lake (9/5/2017)

Reminders of the Japanese farmers and their talent was apparent in the beauty of Seko Garden. Joan Seko and her late husband (owners of the Bush Garden restaurant in Seattle) developed a traditional Japanese garden that sloped to the shores of Phantom Lake. By 2017 at age 80 Joan could no longer maintain the grounds. She was hoping to find a way to preserve the garden once she moved off the property.

Duke’s Bellevue Bar & Grill, Barrier Motors, and the Safeway Distribution Center are located on lands formerly owned and farmed by Japanese farmers. Alice Ito’s family was one of them. In 1999, she volunteered with the Eastside Japanese American History Project that designed a traveling exhibit of photographs and text to be sent to libraries, schools, shopping malls, and museums around Washington State. 

Teresa Tamura/Seattle Times: Alice Ito interviewed Japanese Americans, including her father who is pictured on the computer screen, as a part of an Eastside history project that spans 1898 through the 1950s (4/15/1999)

Rick Schweinhart/Journal: A display about the history of the Eastside Japanese Americans is open at Bellevue City Hall. The exhibit documents the thriving Japanese American community before World War II (4/21/1999)

Michal Friesen, third grade teacher at Woodridge Elementary in Bellevue, teaches her students about Japanese American history (4/2022). She and her fellow teachers notify families before they begin teaching the unit. They stick to the facts, use age-appropriate clips of interviews and picture books. She feels that “You cannot tell the history of Bellevue without talking about the Japanese immigrants and the community that helped form it.”

Resources

Eastside Heritage Center Archives: obituaries, newspaper articles, Sumie Akizuki, Rose Yabuki Matshushita

Publication, The Seattle Times, “A Hidden Past: An Exploration of Eastside History”. 12/1997 - 1/2000

Asaichi Tsushima, Pre-WWII History of Japanese Pioneers in the Clearing and Development of Land in Bellevue,  1992

Japanese Farmers in Bellevue (1898 - 1942)

BY Barb williams, EASTSIDE HERITAGE CENTER VOLUNTEER

Early Japanese pioneers in Bellevue often lived in abandoned Indian dwellings. They mostly worked on the railroads, in the sawmills and clearing lands for agriculture. They cleared Clyde Hill, Wilburton Hill, Hunts Point and Yarrow Point to name a few. Cutting the trees and dynamiting the huge stumps was a dangerous and a slow process. The area was covered with dense forests of old growth trees sometimes five feet in diameter. It could take a week to process one tree.

Two early Japanese pioneers to Bellevue were Mr. Jusaburo Fujii and Mr. Kiichi Setsuda who arrived in 1898. The latter worked as a houseboy at Mr. Hunt’s place on Hunt’s Point where he grew potatoes. The former worked at local sawmills and as a cook for Mr. Dagwood who owned an Alaskan cannery. When not working at the cannery, Mr. Fujii worked as the ‘field boss’ for the gardens where Mr. Dagwood grew strawberries. As ‘field boss’ Mr. Fujii hired Japanese workers. Thus began the colorful story of the strawberry. The success of this plant as a highly desirable and productive crop in Bellevue was largely due to the hard work, experiments and skilled agricultural practices of Japanese farmers. At first they leased land for the required minimum of five years; the average life of a strawberry field. With this relatively stable commitment, they began to bring their wives and other family members to the area from Japan. Having made enough money, some were able to buy lands from the railroads.

J98.10.01.a-d - Strawberry pickers on the Takeshita farm in Bellevue, 1933

In 1904, the Wilburton trestle was built by the Northern Pacific Railroad bringing transportation and land opportunities to the Bellevue Midlakes area. Several Issei (Japanese-born) families bought land to farm. They set up successful farms growing pole beans, peas, tomatoes, strawberries, cabbages, cucumbers, celery and lettuce. In 1919, with the help of a Japanese-American attorney, the Takeshita family bought 13 acres just east of the railroad tracks and north of Lake Bellevue. Several other families bought adjacent property which they turned into productive agricultural lands located primarily in the Midlakes area. Wilburton and downtown Bellevue became Japanese farmlands as well. Between 1905 to 1938, there were 32 Issei who owned land: some of whom were Takeo (Tom) Matsuoka, Asaichi Tsushima, Itaro Ito and Takayushi Suguro.

Strawberry production was very successful and the fruit so popular that in 1925 a group, including Japanese farmers, got together to initiate the first Bellevue Strawberry Festival, complete with a Queen. The highlight of the festival was the scrumptious strawberry shortcakes with sun-ripened red strawberries topped with thick cream from local dairies. The majority of the strawberries were grown and provided by Bellevue Japanese farmers. The annual festival continued until 1942.

1994BHS.024.001 - 1939 view of Japanese farms near Midlakes

Despite the enactment of the Washington State Alien Land Law (March 2, 1921) that denied Japanese the right to purchase land, Issei (born in Japan) who had already purchased land could retain it and Nissei (Japanese citizens born in the United States) could purchase land. Thus the Japanese community and farmers continued to grow and prosper. With the leadership of members of the Bellevue Japanese Community Association, The community Clubhouse (Kokaido) was built in 1930 at 101st Avenue NE and NE 11th Street. It provided a space for language classes, social gatherings, services and active Japanese sports.

By 1931, Japanese-American farmers on the Eastside were shipping produce throughout the northwest via the Northern Pacific Railroad. Peas sold for approximately one cent per pound and strawberries for about one dollar a crate. As produce continued to flow in and out of Bellevue, the Bellevue Growers Association (organized in 1930) recognized the need for a central distribution site. In 1933 they helped build a shipping/packing shed in Midlakes alongside the railroad tracks at 117th NE & NE 10th. Three full-time, year-round employees were hired: a business manager, bookkeeper and floor manager assisted by 20 seasonal workers. Tom Matsuoka, who was very active in the Bellevue Growers Association, became the business manager. His marriage to Kazue Tatsunosuke was the first Bellevue marriage of a Nisei; Kazue being born in the United States.

Prior to World War II, there were about 300 Japanese Americans living in Bellevue comprising 15% of the general population and 90% of the agricultural workforce. It was around this time (December 7, 1941) that Tom Matsuoka remembers the sunny afternoon when he was preparing plants for the winter. Suddenly his daughter, Rae and friends, came running saying, “ There’s a war started. ---- The Japanese planes have bombed Pearl Harbor!” Tom was thoughtfully silent. Then he went back to tending his plants. Shortly thereafter several prominent Japanese community leaders, including Tom, were taken away to incarceration camps; Tom to Montana. Later he joined his family at Tule Lake, California.

J 89.02.02 - Tom Matsuoka and his sons, Ty and Tats, outside of the Bellevue Vegetable Growers Association shed. 1933

On February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 ordering all people of Japanese decent to incarceration camps. In May 1942, all Japanese people (Issei and Nisei) in Bellevue were taken from their homes and sent to the Pinedale Assembly site near Fresno, California. The fields with strawberries ready to be harvested were empty of Japanese pickers and the Strawberry Festival was cancelled.

Sumie Akizuki, Nisei daughter of Issei Bellevue residents Takayoshi and Michi Suguro, remembers those tough times as she writes:

“We took the train at a station in Kirkland, and what an irony it was that we would go right pass our farm which was located right next to the railroad tracks. We could see the neat rows of the strawberry fields and our house in the distance. As the train went by, my parents saw their farm for the last time, focusing their eyes on the farm until it disappeared into the horizon. I’m sure it was heartbreaking to lose all they had worked so hard for. Going to camp was the first time I had been on a train. When I was growing up, I wished that someday, I could ride a train on the Wilburton Railroad Trestle. I would look up in awe at the trestle, which impressed me so much during my childhood. ——-. It is an irony that my dream came true when I rode on the trestle, on a coal driven locomotive, that took me to the Pinedale, California assembly center. What seemed like an adventure was not at all like I thought it would be, since it was a time of sadness and uncertainly.”

— Sumie Akizuki

Fifty years later, she rode the dinner train across the trestle with family and friends.

In 1993 four Japanese cherry trees were planted in the Bellevue Downtown park to honor the Japanese immigrants and their contributions to the growth of Bellevue. A plaque reads: “To honor the Bellevue citizens of Japanese ancestry who had so enriched our community”.

Sources:

Eastside Heritage Center archives

Sumie Akizuki letter

Journal American newspaper article, “The Clearing of Bellevue”, May 10, 1992.

Asaichi Tsushima, document “Pre-WWII History of Japanese Pioneers in the Clearing and Development of Land in Bellevue, 1952,

Rose Yabuki Matshushita, 1997 - Excerpt from presentation on Executive Order 9066 at Marymoor Museum

North American Post, article “ part 3 of an 8-part series: Bellevue’s Nikkei Roots”. 12/12/1997.

Publication of the Seattle Times: A Hidden Past. c. 2000

photo: 1936 showing 7 Japanese farms along 117th NE & NE 11th, photo courtesy of Mitsuko (Takeshita) Hashiguchi

Book: Bellevue Timeline by Alan J. Stein & The HistoryLink Staff, c.2004

The Japanese Farms of Early Bellevue

By EHC Youth Volunteer, Grant

Japanese farmers in King County, especially Bellevue, were essential to providing produce to the nearby populations. Most vegetables in the region were grown by Japanese farmers, and certain crops such as strawberries were a specialty of the farmers. However, their farmlands would later be taken from them and become the foundation of modern Bellevue.

Early Japanese immigrants first arrived in Bellevue in 1898, finding work on railroads, sawmills, and canneries, barely making a living while enduring discrimination in immigration, employment, and housing. Many turned to farming, converting land covered with marshes and tree stumps into productive cropland.

Japanese farmers on the Numato Farm in Yarrow Point, Bellevue. 1925

From the Eastside Heritage Center

Through hardships they raised families, ran their own businesses, and developed a lively community life. Japanese Americans worked hard and became a vital part of the local economy, supplying 75% of Bellevue and King County’s vegetables and half the milk supply. The Japanese cleared and settled hundreds of acres of land near the center of what is now downtown Bellevue. Where shopping malls and office buildings stand today, immigrants grew strawberries and vegetables and worked at a local sawmill. Japanese Americans even had a community center located just north of present-day Bellevue Square.

By the 1920s, Bellevue had become famous for its delicious strawberries, a chief crop of many Japanese families. This led to the first annual Bellevue Strawberry Festival being held behind the Main Street school in mid-June 1925. The festival attracted 3,000 visitors, an impressive number for the small community of Bellevue. In 1935, more than 15,000 people attended the festival -- nearly five times the number of people that lived in the small town.

Truck decorated for the 1930 Strawberry Festival in Bellevue.

From Eastside Heritage Center

Most of Bellevue's strawberries at that time were grown by Japanese farmers, who together managed 472 acres of land. The three-day event continued to be held annually until 1942, the year that 60 local Japanese families were forced to go to incarceration camps.

In December of 1941, Japan launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, generating a fear of national security across the United States. As a response to these fears, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which led to mass incarceration of all people of Japanese ancestry on the West Coast.

Japanese families, knowing that they would lose their homes and belongings, rushed to sell their businesses, properties, and vehicles for next to nothing. On May 20, 1942, Bellevue’s 60 Japanese families, 300 people, were forced to board a train in Kirkland, where they would end up in an incarceration camp located at Tule Lake in Northern California. This camp was the largest of 10 inland incarceration camps.

Japanese farmers occupied many of the 515 vendor stalls at Pike Place Market in 1939. However, during the spring of 1942, crops left by Japanese farmers in Bellevue and elsewhere in the region were not harvested, and white farmers could not fill the gap. The number of stalls at Pike Place Market fell to 196. The Strawberry Festival, which made Bellevue a tourist destination, did not take place that year.

Over in Bellevue, Eastside businessmen, including Miller Freeman, started suburban and urban development, which would transform the city into what we know today. The cleared farmland left by the Japanese farmers became prime real estate for upscale shopping centers and residential areas, that could be made accessible with new highways, including the I-90 bridge which was completed in 1940.

Later, when 11 of the 60 Japanese American farmer families returned to Bellevue in 1945, nothing was the same. Their properties were damaged, they lost their stored possessions, and they experienced financial struggles. This caused many Japanese families to have to move on to other professions as they couldn’t start farming again.

Sources:

https://seattleglobalist.com/2017/02/19/anti-japanese-movement-led-development-bellevue/62732

https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/books/strawberry-days-uprooting-more-than-lives/

https://www.historylink.org/file/4144

https://www.historylink.org/file/298

https://www.historylink.org/File/231

Chicken Farms on the Eastside

By Barb Williams, Eastside Heritage Center volunteer

Pioneer families often raised chickens. The birds were inexpensive to feed, produced eggs for baked goods, meat for the table and a source of feather-down for pillows and quilts. Many of the Eastside pioneers raised chickens for their individual needs.

Dwight Skinner was one of several Eastside residents who raised chickens commercially. In 1912, Dwight and Nell Skinner bought a 40-acre tract of land on the Highland-Larsen Lake Road. The land had belonged to the Churchills and included a home, barn, feed room and two-story chicken house. Dwight suffered from heart problems and was often unable to work. He had 2,000 to 5,000 chickens whose eggs, he figured, would help to supply the income he needed.

L 86.024.004 - Mr. Harmon feeding chickens at Morelli chicken ranch, 1918

The Morelli brothers; Alfonso, Martin, Silvio and Tito immigrated from Italy and bought land along 148th Avenue in Redmond. They ran a thriving chicken ranch from 1915 to 1973. It was the biggest of its kind on the Eastside at the time. They had 15,000 chickens who had the run of long elevated chicken houses. The business became such a success that they operated through a middle-man and never had to advertise. In the 1940s, they pioneered in the use of electricity by installing timed electrical lights in the henhouses. The timers turned on the lights at 4 a.m. extending daylight hours, egg-laying time and egg production. In the 1970s, some of the Morelli land across 148th was developed into private homes. Silvio passed away in 1979 and Microsoft bought the land in the 1990s with the stipulation that Silvio’s wife, Albarosa, could remain in the family home as long as she wanted. She passed away in 1999 and Microsoft proposed turning her home into a library.  

For nearly 40 years around 1922, 116th Avenue NE between Main Street and NE 8th in Bellevue was known as Lebanese Valley because most of the residents were from Lebanon. George Waham was a resident. He bought five acres and started a farm on which he raised chickens, a cow, rabbits, fruits and vegetables. During the Depression he and his wife fed other people including their large family.

OR/L 79.79.342 - Chicken in front of farm building, Willowmoor.

In 1927 two black men, A. Cunningham and C. James, came from Seattle to become the proprietors of the Wake Robin Lodge located in Enatai. Their business was the first on the Eastside to be operated by black people. The Lodge became famous for the fresh food raised on-site, especially its chicken dinners. Fruit trees and a large garden supplied produce. Long chicken coops stretched along the south side of the property with a small dairy nearby. Mr. Jones tended the chicken ranch which consisted of a  number of chicken houses. He raised white leghorns. He lived with his wife onsite in a home under the water tank. The water, used for the chickens and lodge, was pumped uphill from a well on Lake Washington Boulevard. Due to the Depression, the Lodge closed in 1934. 

Presently chickens can be found at Kelsey Creek Farm Park owned and managed by the City of Bellevue. Breeds of chickens are selected for their personalities, egg color, feather color and characteristics appropriate for public viewing. Wyandotte, Barred Rock, Ameraucana and Bantam are some of the breeds selected. The purpose of the farm is to educate people about animal husbandry. Chickens often feature in events and classes taught by farm staff. Some chickens are good egg-layers, others better for meat and some are dual-purpose. Historically they have connected with humans for a long time.

Sources:

Eastside Heritage Center archives

Carla Trsek, Kelsey Creek Farm Park staff

Culinary History of a Pacific Northwest Town by Suzanne Knauss.  2007

Holly Farms in Bellevue

BY Barb williams, EASTSIDE HERITAGE CENTER VOLUNTEER

Who would think that Bellevue in the 1920s had the most extensive holly farm in the United States? But it did thanks to the patience and vision of Edward P. Tremper and Dr. C. A. Holmes. Patience because it takes 15 to 18 years before a crop becomes commercially productive. Tremper ran an insurance business and Dr. Holmes was a dentist. They were neighbors in Seattle. In 1900, Tremper bought 10 acres of land on Yarrow Point and moved there two summers later. He had the unprecedented idea of planting a holly orchard which he did in 1902. He ordered 1,000 young plants from France, planted them and waited for them to mature. His holly farm was the first on Puget Sound.

Ilex aquifolium

Dr. Holmes liked the idea and bought 10 acres at 111th Avenue SE on the east side of Enatai. After he died in 1933, Tremper acquired the land thus making the Tremper family holly plantation the biggest in Washington State, according to the 1929 issue of Nature Magazine. By 1930, the Tremper family planted five additional acres on the east side of 92nd using a variegated type of holly. The farm continued to expand and grow boasting 3,000 trees by the 1940s. At this time Tremper’s three sons were running the business. During the busy winter holiday months, they hired many packers and cutters, the majority of whom were Japanese farmers. The Trempers also bought holly from a farm on Mercer Island and shipped gift boxes all over the country.

As Tremper continued his experiment, he discovered that he only needed a few male(bull) trees and therefore planted mostly female trees. Both sexes were needed for pollination, but it was the females that produced the desirable red berries used for decorations, especially at Christmas time. However when many of the Japanese were forced to leave the area during World War II, it became difficult to find workers. Added to this, weather conditions produced overtime hours which resulted in additional wages. Property taxes increased and by 1946 the Trempers quit operating the Enatai property. They closed the original farm at Yarrow Point in 1956.

Ilex aquifolium

Holly trees can still be found in Bellevue. The evergreen plant continues to be a favorite for winter holiday designs and decorations. Although the berries are toxic to humans and most household pets, they are a winter food resource for birds such as robins. As a shrub-like tree, it can grow in height from foot-high dwarfs to fifty-foot tall trees. Due to its prickly evergreen leaves, it provides a safe, warm place for nesting birds in winter when deciduous trees lack leaves. In England, the holly is often used in hedgerows to contain farm animals or to separate one area from another. The prickly tough leaves provide a formidable barrier.

The holly is one of the most respected and loved trees in Celtic lore. A holly wreath was worn as a crown by Celtic chieftains for good luck. Traditionally, newborn babies were protected from harm by bathing them in water from the leaves. The tree represents peace and goodwill. Due to its resistance to lightening, it was planted near houses to protect people from lightening strikes. The Druids also believed in it’s protective powers. Their legends tell how the leaves, if brought into the house during the winter months, would provide shelter and warmth for fairies who would then be kind to those who lived in the home.

Resources:

Eastside Heritage Center archives

Lucile McDonald Journal American article 4/6/1977 “Holly sprouts left from pioneer farm”

Online:  Holly Tree Meaning,  The Symbolic Significance of Holly,  “Bellevue’s history is rooted in rich farmland” article by Sherry Grindeland

Sunset Western Garden Book,  1995.

Mercer Slough Farms

BY Barb williams, EASTSIDE HERITAGE CENTER VOLUNTEER

For thousands of years Native Americans gathered the rich harvest of plants and animals along the shores of the Mercer Slough. In 1916 when the Ballard Locks were constructed in Seattle, the water level on the Eastside dropped 9-12 feet exposing dry lands such at those along the Mercer Slough. Farmers moved into the area.

Andrew (3rd from left) and Marc (far left) Balatico with workers in fields, c. 1930

EHC Research Collection, courtesy Balatico family

One of the farmers was Andrew Balatico and his brother, Marceliano.  By 1977 they were the only truck farmers in Bellevue. Customers came from far and near to buy their vegetables. The Balatico’s pumpkin patch was well-known to local residents. As orphans in 1926, the brothers immigrated to the United States from the Philippine Islands. They worked on the railroads then moved to Bellevue in 1930 to work for Japanese farmers. After leasing Newport Hills farmland and hiring Japanese workers, the brothers purchased 23 acres near the Mercer Slough. They dynamited the plow-breaking stumps in the peat marsh and added lime to sweeten the acidic soil before anything would grow. Their farm became successful. However, during World War II they feared they would be drafted. But due to a decree issued by President Roosevelt, they were able to continue farming.  In 1985, Andrew sold his property to the City of Bellevue. Much of the old farm is presently covered by the Light Rail parking garage on Bellevue Way SE and is part of the Mercer Slough Nature Park. He passed away in 2002 at the age of 92.

OR/L 79.79.358 - Cecelia Winters, 1917 with produce.

Other people who came to farm were Cecilia and Frederick Winters. In 1917 they bought ten acres of land just north of the Balatico farm. They built one of the most successful wholesale floral businesses of the time specializing in greenhouse-raised azaleas, daffodils and iris.  Fortunately for the Winters, they had purchased carloads of imported Dutch and Spanish bulbs before a ban on imported bulbs was enforced in 1926 due to the spread of an infectious bulb disease. Their bulb business became highly profitable and they were able to build their lovely home “The Winters House”;  the only building in Bellevue on the National Register of Historic Places. Their home exists today along Bellevue Way SE. The Spanish Eclectic style building was built for $32,000 in 1929 by contractor, Anson Ralph Grosvenor. During this time, Cecelia grew vegetables that she and her sons, Walter and Forrest, sold to summer residents in Beaux Arts. In 1937 the Winters sold part of their estate to Andre Ostbo who raised prize-winning rhododendrons in and around the greenhouses that are partially visible today along the Ostbo Loop boardwalk east of the house. He operated his King of Shrubs business there until the 1970s. In 1943, the house and grounds were sold to Frank and Anna Riepl. The Winters eventually moved to Vashon Island where they established a business specializing in carnations. By 1988 the property had been purchased by the City of Bellevue and included in the Mercer Slough Nature Park.

Bill Pace at Overlake Blueberry Farm. Seattle Times, 2003.

The boggy, acidic soils of the Mercer Slough may not have been ideal for the Balatico and Winters farms, but it was perfect for growing blueberries which have been in the area since 1933. About this time Lee Denison settled on land located between the Balatico and Winters farms. This became the Overlake Blueberry Farm. Denison’s daughter, Mrs. E.L. Van Tine helped develop the business and cultivate the fields. Since then there have been changes. Nancy Harding operated the farm for 14 years until her lease ran out and the City of Bellevue wanted to keep the blueberries while preserving the natural environment and opening the Mercer Slough Nature Park to the public. Bill Pace, Bellevue resident and owner of Bill Pace Fruit and Produce, leased the farm in 2002 which he successfully managed until he was forced out by the Light Rail operation that presently runs through the property. The public has enjoyed fresh produce and “U” pick blueberries at the Overlake Blueberry Farm for over fifty years. The farm still exists and will most likely continue to be managed by the City of Bellevue.

Sources:

Eastside Heritage Center Archives

Books:

Eastside Heritage Center,  Lake Washington The East Side

Lucile McDonald,  Bellevue Its First 100 Years

The Winters House

Frederick W. Winter moved to Spokane from New York in 1906.  He began working with Hoyt Brothers Florists, where he met Cecelia Roedel, the firm’s bookkeeper. The two married the following year.

1994.34.03 - Frederick & Cecelia Winters in Winters House. Circa 1935.

Frederick and Cecilia Winters settled in the Bellevue area in 1916, after purchasing a farm in the Mercer Slough. The Winters raised azaleas for sale in several greenhouses on the property, which was expanded in the early 1920s. Frederick Winters raised narcissus, Dutch irises, and Spanish irises.

“F. W. Winters, internationally known Bellevue bulb grower, recently purchased 60 acres in Mercer Valley, which he plans to eventually have in production.  Twenty acres of this land is cleared and Mr. Winters plans to clear about ten more this summer.”

— Lake Washington Reflector, April 11, 1929

The Winters constructed their home in 1929 for $32,000. Cecilia's brother, Elmer H. Roedel, designed the home using the popular Spanish Eclectic style, and based it on his own home in Portland, Oregon. The decision to use this Spanish Eclectic style was influenced by the 1915 Panama-California Exposition in San Diego, as well as the architecture they enjoyed on a trip to Cuba.

1999.09.01 - The Winters House, 1930s.

“Fred W. Winters, pioneer florist in Mercer Valley, has just received eleven tons of King Alfred, Spring Glory, Emperor, Victoria and Golden Spur daffodil bulbs from Holland, which he will plant on his property south of the Factoria bridge.  The magnitude of the order may be imagined when you realize that over 110,000 bulbs are included and the freight and import duty amounts to over $1500.

This lot which is now being booked under government supervision for sterilization is the first of three shipments.  One of the shipments yet to come will include 20,000 fancy varieties of Dutch Iris bulbs.  There are already a half a million Dutch Iris bulbs planted on the Winters’ Floral Farm.

These bulbs are imported under special government permit and are held in bond for a period of two years, after which they may be sold.

Mr. Winters was the first man to experiment with the Mercer Valley soil following the lowering of the lake and his pioneer efforts in the culture of this wonderful soil has induced many others to follow in it’s cultivation.  The entire valley will some day be under intensive cultivation and no one can estimate it’s eventual value to the Bellevue District.”

— Lake Washington Reflector, October 20, 1926

In the early 1930s, the Winters property included additional bulb houses, guest residences, and multiple greenhouses. In 1937, a portion of the estate was sold to Endre Ostbo, who established a rhododendron business and built greenhouses.

The Winters sold the house and bulb house to Anna and Frank Riepl in 1943 for $40,000. They retired to Vashon Island and established a floral business specializing in carnations.

1994.34.01 - Winters House, 1940s.

1994.34.02 - Winters House, 1940s.

Winters House is one of the few buildings associated with the past agricultural activity in the Bellevue area that remains on its original site. Purchased by the City of Bellevue in 1988, the Winters House was restored to its 1929 original design. Through a project spearheaded by the Bellevue Historical Society, the house was listed on the National Register in 1992. It is the only building in Bellevue on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Bellevue Historical Society, which later became Eastside Heritage Center, moved into the renovated home, along with antique furniture donated by Bellevue residents and businesses. Since then, the City and EHC have partnered to provide programming, exhibits, and public access to the historic site.

The building was closed in 2016 for construction of the East Link Extension light rail project along Bellevue Way. Winter’s House remains closed due to construction.

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Resources

Eastside Heritage Center Archives

Wikimedia Foundation. (2021, March 30). Frederick W. Winters house. Wikipedia. Retrieved January 4, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_W._Winters_House

Winters House. City of Bellevue. (n.d.). Retrieved January 4, 2022, from https://bellevuewa.gov/city-government/departments/parks/parks-and-trails/parks/winters-house

The Island Belle Story

BY margaret Laliberte, EASTSIDE HERITAGE CENTER VOLUNTEER

We don’t think of western Washington as prime grape-growing country today.  But during Bellevue’s early years as a farming community, seven different families grew grapes between about 1912 and the 1940s.  The Kelfner farm was located at the intersection of today’s SE 8th St and 108th Ave. N.E., near where Surrey Downs Park now stands.  North of it, R.T. Reid’s farm lay where the new light-rail station at 1112th and Main Street is nearing completion.  On the north side of the community, between today’s Bellevue Way and 100th Ave. N.E., the eastern slope of Clyde Hill was covered with vineyards owned over the years by the Clarke, Loughran, Hennig, Simpson and Borg families. Some of the farmers sold the grapes fresh, others made grape juice, and Borg’s Summit Winery sold wine, once Prohibition ended.

Photos from the time and ads in local newspapers touted the sale of “Island Belle” grapes, suggesting that they were special in some way unknown to us today. And in fact, they were.  Island Belle was Puget Sound’s very own grape variety.

2002.147.008 - Kelfner produce stand with sign announcing Island Belle grapes for sale.

The Island Belle story begins on little Stretch Island in Case Inlet on the western shore of southern Puget Sound.  In 1890 Lambert Evans settled there and began experimenting with grape cultivation.  He was joined on the island in 1899 by Adam Eckert, a New York grower, who developed a variety by crossing the Concord grape with a native North American grape.  Named Island Belle after Eckert’s elder daughter, the belle of a ball held on the island, the variety does well in the Puget Sound climate.  Very hardy, it withstands Fall frosts and can be harvested into December. It’s a versatile variety, making delicious juice and jelly.  Stretch Island eventually became the center of what was hopefully known as “Puget Sound’s grape belt,” including Harstine Island and the lands along Pickering Passage.  In 1918 the Island Belle Grape Growers’ Union was founded to market the area’s grapes in what was hoped to be, according to an article in Olympia’s Washington Standard newspaper, “a new Puget Sound industry.”  Island Belle became the most widely grown grape variety in Puget Sound country. The record harvest in 1920 returned $1,000 per acre (over $13,700 in today’s dollars). In 1928 California’s Oakland Tribune paper ran the story that Grace Mason had been crowned Miss Island Belle at the Island Belle Grape Grower’s celebration in faraway Shelton.  By 1930 Stretch Island supported two grape juice plants, owned by Eckert and a Charles Somers, who had bought the Evans property in 1918.

So it’s not surprising that Bellevue’s grape growers grew Island Belle grapes as well, although the harvest here typically began two weeks later than further to the south, where the climate was slightly more moderate.  John Kelfner bought his initial stock from a grower on Vashon Island and propagated his vines on his farm. When John Clarke began farming below Clyde Hill in 1919, he planted Island Belle and eventually opened Bellevue’s first grape juice plant.  (He later sold his land to the Hennig and Loughran families.)

2013.046.101 - Hennig grape juice ad.

The Depression years caused western Washington’s grape industry to crater, and it never fully recovered, although Robert Borg continued to grow his Island Belles on Clyde Hill into the 1940s.  A small remnant of the story remains alive today.  In 1978  Dick and Peggy Patterson founded their Hoodsport Winery on Hood Canal, the 16th winery to be licensed in the state.  They bought up virtually the entire harvest of Island Belle grapes from the Stretch Island vineyards, for which there was virtually no market at the time.  Over the years they expanded to create wines from other grapes as well.   In 1994 the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms announced it would drop Island Belle from its approved list of wine grape names and rename the grape the “Early Campbell.” But the Island Belle is tenacious. Hoodsport Winery is still in business, and among the offerings of varietal wines on its website is “Island Belle,” “a red wine bursting with flavors of fresh raspberries and cherries. A perfect wine for picnics and barbecues.”

2011.025.003 - Vineyard on the Loughran property in Bellevue, circa 1930.

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Resources

Knauss, Suzanne, Culinary History of a Pacific Northwest Town, Eastside Heritage Center, 2007

McConaghy, Lorraine, ed., , Lucile McDonald’s Eastside Notebook, Marymoor Museum, 1993

Nick Rousso, Grape Farming in Washington, HistoryLink Essay #21302

Jack Swanson,   Puget Sound: Island Belle grape on endangered list, Kitsap Sun, April 19, 1994, https://products.kitsapsun.com/archive/1994/04-19/292256_puget_sound__island_belle_grape.html (retrieved October 18, 2021

Richard Bell, Island Belle Story, activerain.com/blogsview/790969/the-island-belle-story (retrieved October 18, 2021)

Eastside Stories: The Matsuoka Family

Eastside Stories is our way of sharing Eastside history through the many events, people places and interesting bits of information that we collect at the Eastside Heritage Center. We hope you enjoy these stories and share them with friends and family.

In the early 1900s many families left Japan and traveled across the Pacific to the United States. These immigrants settled in areas like the Eastside and became integral parts of building the cities and towns we know today. One of them was the Matsuoka Family. Leaving Kumamoto-ken, a province on one of Japan’s most southern islands, Mr. and Mrs. Matsuoka brought their two sons, Takeo (Tom) and Yoshio (John) to Washington state in 1919 after briefly living in Hawaii.

Increased immigration around the time of the Matsuoka Family’s arrival had led to the passing of the Washington State Alien Land Law , which prevented immigrants from buying land in 1921. For this reason, the Matsuoka family leased land in Kent during the 1920s and 30s, first clearing away the large stumps that had been left by the timber companies in order to farm. This extremely difficult work was remembered vividly by both Takeo and Yoshio later in their lives. To remove the stumps that littered the area and develop it into farmland, they used only horses and dynamite. They dug holes under the stumps and dynamited them to hasten their removal. Historian Asaichi Tsushima estimates that many of the stumps Japanese-Americans pulled up were 4 and 5 feet in diameter, often taking almost a whole month to remove entirely.

Once this tremendous work was complete, the Matsuoka family tended 20 acres of vegetables, sustaining themselves through the depression with farming. Yoshio recalled in a 1997 interview that the depression didn’t hit farmers as hard as others because farmers were always struggling to make ends meet. Farming led the Japanese-Americans of the Eastside to work together with their neighbors and create the Strawberry Festival in 1925 which attracted over 3,000 people across the lake. The Matsuoka family were among the many farmers who donated large quantities of strawberries and other produce to this event.

Tom Matsuoka and his sons, Ty and Tats, outside of the Bellevue Vegetable Growers Association shed, a farmer run organization which Tom helped create in the 1930s.

In 1927, Takeo was also a crucial organizer of the Seinenkai (Youth Club) for the young men who were growing up in Bellevue so that they would have a place to gather. He was also among the group that built the Kokaido (Club House), completed in 1930 where men came together as a community for recreation and to celebrate their cultural heritage. Buddhist worship was held at the Kokaido so that citizens of Bellevue no longer had to travel to Seattle to practice their religion.

After their father was crushed by a horse in 1932 and died of related injuries in 1937, Takeo and Yoshio found employment where they could. Both sons continued to farm throughout their lives. Yoshio worked on a farm leased by an Issei (first generation Japanese-American) in Auburn, WA. Takeo farmed land owned by his brother-in-law Tokio Hirotaka at 124th street in the Midlakes area where the Safeway warehouse complex is now located.

Bellevue Grade School - Fifth Grade 1940 - 1941, just before World War II and the Matsuoka Family incarceration. Takeo (Tom) Matsuoka's son, Ty, is among the students in the second row from the top.

When the United States declared war on Japan in December 1941, Japanese-Americans were incarcerated across the nation. The Matsuoka family was taken along with all Issei and Nissei (second generation Japanese-American) citizens of King County to the Pinedale Assembly Center near Fresno, California. Overall 110,000 Japanese-Americans were taken to concentration camps across America’s Western States. Individuals were allowed only one suitcase, leaving behind their personal belongings and the farms they had worked so hard to make arable. Many lived until the end of the war with very little in prison camps. The Matsuoka family was once again saved some of this hardship by their excellent agricultural skills.

In 1942, Takeo went to the Chinook area and voluntarily worked in the beet fields in order to leave incarceration. Takeo and his wife chose to stay in Montana, returning once in 1946 and leaving again for the East. His son Ty did move back much later, in 1985.

Likewise, in 1943, Yoshio requested a transfer and was moved to Hunt, Idaho where he was required to get permission to work on a sugar beet farm. In 1944, Yoshio moved with his wife and daughter to Michigan for a work opportunity. They eventually returned to Washington towards the end of the 1940s for the birth of their second daughter.

In 1950, Yoshio leased the land which he occupied until he retired, becoming known for his ability to grow the best sweet corn on the Eastside. By 1997, Yoshio (John) Matsuoka was the last Japanese-American Farmer left in Bellevue, still working his farm and growing food. It is thanks to families like the Matsuokas that the Eastside was settled. They created the farmland which made our area a resource for Seattle and led to its future development. Theirs is just one story of many that the Eastside Heritage Center strives to preserve and share.

4 teenagers, with one adult, from Bellevue on their way to a Seattle baseball game at Columbia Playfield on the 4th of July in 1932. From left to right: Guy Matsuoka, Betty Sakaguchi, Mitsi (Shiraishi) Kawaguchi, Mrs. Kazue Matsuoka, Yuri Yamaguchi

The Matsuoka Cabin was moved to Larsen Lake in 1989. At the time it belonged to the Masunage Family. This photo shows the Masunaga Family along with this historical cabin. From left to right: Yeizo Masunaga, Yeizo's wife, and Mrs. Taki Masunaga.

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Our Mission To steward Eastside history by actively collecting, preserving, and interpreting documents and artifacts, and by promoting public involvement in and appreciation of this heritage through educational programming and community outreach.

Our Vision To be the leading organization that enhances community identity through the preservation and stewardship of the Eastside’s history.

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