Senior Synthesis Project Series: Pillar 1 - History

Seattle has a deep connection to land and water. Present-day Lake Union was a launching point for many indigenous people and their canoes. Canoes are a deep part of native culture in this region and the western red cedar was typically the tree of choice. Before the name Lake Union came about, it was known to the Duwamish in the Lushootseed dialect as Ha-AH-Chu or Littlest Lake (Source). Native culture in this area was rich and thriving. Canoes were the main transportation and Lake Union was essential for local commerce. By the mid-1800s white colonizers had moved into the area known today as Pioneer Square. In 1855, the Treaty of Point Elliott was signed, near Mukilteo. This treaty ensured rights for hunting, fishing, and land reservation for each tribe represented in the treaty. This treaty was quickly violated and tribal rights were denied. Many of these promises have still not been kept to this day. In 1865, the city of Seattle passed an ordinance to remove all native people but many tribal leaders refused to leave. In 1893, white terrorists burned down the last Duwamish village in what is now West Seattle (Source).

In 1854, Lake Union and neighboring Lake Washington gained their names from Thomas Mercer. The name for Lake Union came from the idea of eventually connecting Lake Washington to Puget Sound. His goal was to have a canal that could facilitate the movement of goods between the lakes and the sound. At this time the area that is now the Montlake Cut was land that stood in the way of these lakes connecting.  Lake Union is not a man-made lake but it has significantly changed through Seattle’s industrialization.

Current Day 

Early Seattle settlers built the economy on the bountiful resources the Pacific Northwest had to offer. Due to the California gold rush in 1849, there was a growing market for fish, lumber, and coal. Early transportation efforts focused on rivers, but around 1860, Harvey L. Pike started digging a canal, equipped only with a shovel and pick, on the land he owned there. It wouldn’t be until 1914 that the Montlake Cut was finally completed. In 1882, The Lake Washington Improvement Company was formed by David Denny and several landowners in the area. The company hired Chinese immigrant laborers through the Wa Chong Company to dig the canals, using only hand tools. Much of the labor at this time was coordinated through third-party companies such as Wa Chong and relied on the exploitation of Chinese immigrants. Before 1870, all efforts to build the ship canal had been led by individuals and private entities. The Seattle City Council and Chamber of Commerce worked to gain the federal government’s support of the project. Washington officially became a state in 1889. In 1892, another committee from the Army Corp of Engineers considered five possible routes for a canal. These routes would support the regional economy and assist with flood issues at the Lake Washington outlet in Renton. In 1907, Major Hiram M. Chittenden came to the Army Corps of Engineers Seattle District and he believed the canal was an important matter for the area. In 1908, Chittenden had established a plan the Corp of Engineers could approve. The Lake Washington Ship Canal stretching from Lake Washington to Shilshole Bay on the Puget Sound was completed in 1917. 

In 1915, three planes dominated the lake. These planes were all owned by Bill Boeing and the start of what would become a legacy of aerospace and seaplanes on Lake Union. Seaplanes are still seen today on Lake Union, operating under Kenmore Air and Seattle Seaplane Co. At this time it was not uncommon for boatyard and sawmill fires. The fireboat Duwamish was designed in 1909 to be able to put out fires along the Duwamish River. Boatshops appeared on Lake Union before there was a fireboat. Today, there is still no designated fireboat for Lake Union, but they do have a police boat with powerful water guns to handle shoreside and vessel fires. 

Houseboats became a popular summer home in the early 1900s on Lake Washington. When the Ballard Locks opened there was only one houseboat on Lake Union but as the industry grew on the shoreside so did the need for living. Houseboats on Lake Union became a small, simple, and cheap living option. Lake Union historian and The Center for Wooden Boats founder described the early boathouses as, "...places to escape from the drudgery of mill and shop. The buildings of the 1880s and '90s were fanciful designs, with towers, turned posts, Victorian filigree, and colorful pennants. The livery rowboats and canoes were the finest types available. They were the yachts of the workingmen" (Wagner 50).

In 1917 there was only one boatshop in the area, the Tokyo Tea House on the Portage Bay shoreline. This was the location where the Pocock brothers, George and Richard, built rowing shells for the University of Washington crew team. They had been convinced just five years earlier to build competitive shells by U.W. crew coach, Hiram Conibear. The shells they built would train the gold medallists of the 1936 Berlin Summer Olympics from the University of Washington. The first boatyard to officially claim a stake in Lake Union was the Lake Union Drydock Company in 1919 (Wagner). Many boat shops were popping up between 1919 and 1929, six boatyards on Lake Union became known for their quality of wooden boats: Lake Union Drydock Company, Blanchard Boat Company, Grandy Boat Company, Jenson Motorboat, Vic Franck’s Boat Company, and Prothero Boat Company. In the 1930s, the depression was pushing big yachts out of the picture but that did not stop the newly sailing-addicted Puget Sound population. Blanchard Boat Co was busy building Geary-designed Flattie’s, and 24’ cruising sailboats. The Lake Union Drydocks was building the low-power raised-deck Lake Union Dreamboats. These companies were constantly busy building small boats that were affordable and of high quality.

MOHAI Collection 
Blanchard Knockabouts

    The Blanchard Boat Company came into existence in what Dick Wagner called the “golden age of wooden boat building, 1900 to 1950” (Wagner 77). Norman J. Blanchard (1885-1954) in 1919 started building boats under the name N.J. Blanchard Boatbuilding Company. They were producing two small, inexpensive sailboats, named the Senior and Junior Knockabouts. At the time both of these boats were incredibly popular. In 1932, N.J. Blanchard and Ben Seaborn designed the Blanchard Senior Knockabout.  This boat was built in response to comments they had heard among local sailors about the International Star design and how it had no cabin. The Blanchard Senior Knockabout was designed with a small cabin as a day sailor with the rig of a Star (Source). The Blanchard Junior Knockabout came shortly after as a new design. This was a 20’ open sloop and the hull was scaled down. The Blanchards, in total, built nearly 2,000 boats which are some of the finest built the Pacific Northwest has seen. 

The Flattie, now known as the Geary 18, was created in 1928. This boat was specifically designed for the Seattle Yacht Club by Ted Geary after the drowning of four youth sailors on a 23’ International Star when it ultimately flooded and sank (Wagner 86). The goal of this boat was to be easy to construct, low cost, safe, and designed to provide excellence for new youth sailors. Ted Geary (1885-1960) studied under N.J. Blanchard. Previously he designed the R-class sloop Sir Tom, which would dominate the West Coast race circuit for three decades.

For Dick and Colleen Wagner collecting and preserving Pacific Northwest History was a passion. Dick and Colleen Wagner established their traditional boat rental business in 1968 at their houseboat on the West Side of Lake Union. Their houseboat, built in 1909, is Seattle’s oldest floating residence and was moved to Lake Union from Lake Washington in 1940 (Source). Their houseboat became a gathering place for people interested in history, boats, and woodworking. They also became a community gathering place where friends met and you could always find a cup of coffee. Colleen taught painting on Wednesday evenings and often the local firefighters would stop in for coffee and to say hi. In 1976, the Wagners first started the Third Friday Speaker Series. This was a space for boatbuilders, sailors, and enthusiasts to gather and share information. This created the fantasy for a small craft museum on Lake Union. The Center for Wooden Boats officially received a nonprofit 501(c)3 status in 1979 and in 1983 CWB would officially move into its current day location in Waterway 4.

Dick & Colleen Wagner 

Sources: 

“Blanchard Junior — the Center for Wooden Boats.” The Center for Wooden Boats, 29 Mar. 2019, www.cwb.org/livery-boats/blanchard.

“Builders of Classic Boats, Lake Union (Seattle).” HistoryLink, www.historylink.org/File/20366.

“Cedar-Sammamish Watershed.” HistoryLink, www.historylink.org/File/20273.

Exhibits. lakeunionhistory.org/Exhibits.html.

“Geary Sailboat Flattie — the Center for Wooden Boats.” The Center for Wooden Boats, 1 Feb. 2020, www.cwb.org/livery-boats/geary.

“History — the Center for Wooden Boats.” The Center for Wooden Boats, www.cwb.org/history.

Hoehne, Kurt. “Dick Wagner, Founder of the Center for Wooden Boats.” sailish.com, 25 Apr. 2017, sailish.com/index.php/2017/04/24/dick-wagner-founder-of-the-center-for-wooden-boats.

Hopper, Frank. “Reclaiming Salish Canoe Culture in the Shadow of Tech Giants.” YES! Magazine, 13 Mar. 2023, www.yesmagazine.org/social-justice/2023/03/13/reclaiming-salish-canoe-culture.

“Montlake Cut (Seattle).” HistoryLink, www.historylink.org/File/10221.

Riddle, E. (2021, August 11). This Lake Union houseboat is home to Seattle history - Unreal Estate. king5.com. https://www.king5.com/article/entertainment/television/programs/evening/lake-union-seattle-washihngton-houseboat-for-sale/281-30cc09f9-675a-42e4-b659-3bc090c9f884

“Treaty of Point Elliott — Duwamish Tribe.” Duwamish Tribe, www.duwamishtribe.org/treaty-of-point-elliott.

Video, Houseboats. lakeunionhistory.org/Video,_Houseboats.html.

Wagner, Dick. Legends of the Lake. 2009. 2nd ed., vol. 1, Seattle, Washington, The Center for Wooden Boats, with assistance from Loud Monks Inc., 2012.