"A building boom started in Ballard after it was incorporated in 1890. Building streets was a real challenge. Loggers cut the trees, and teams of horses and mules dragged the stumps out of the ground. In a few cases, routes were laid out around stumps that couldn't be pulled. The streets then had to be cleared of debris, plowed, harrowed, and graded. Crews laid down wooden planks on some streets to make it easier to travel in mud .
This photo, taken sometime in the 1890s, shows a street grading crew and their animals posed for the photographer in the 900 block of West 57th Street in Ballard." -MOHAI. Photo courtesy MOHAI, image number shs17199.Courtesy MOHAI
Ballard's old City Hall included the fire department, city offices, community meeting rooms, a ballroom and the jail, according to Seattle Municipal Archives caption information. This photo from 1902 shows the building five years before Ballard cast off its independence in favor of joining Seattle. The building was torn down in 1965. Photo courtesy Seattle Municipal Archives, University of Washington Special Collections, A. Curtis 00881.
Seattle Municipal Archives
Ballard began to struggle as it grew, and water became one major hurdle. In 1901, the city sent this letter as its formal request that Seattle sell water to Ballard. The offered price was $35 per million gallons of water for 20 years. Box 1, Folder 35, City of Ballard City Clerk's Files (Record Series 9106-03),
Seattle Municipal Archives
Seattle Municipal Archives
This photo of two men holding a string of fish between them is dated to July 27, 1906. It appears to be on the west shore of Ballard. Photo courtesy Nordic Heritage Museum.Courtesy Nordic Heritage Museum
This circa 1903 photo shows a wagon pulled up in front of Olaf Weggen and Charlie Homan's store, COD Grocery, at 20th Avenue and 67th Street, just south of where Salmon Bay Park is today. At the time, Marie Simonson was the clerk in the store, according to information provided by the Nordic Heritage Museum. Photo courtesy Nordic Heritage Museum.Courtesy Nordic Heritage Museum
This photo, taken by Asahel Curtis in 1902, shows Salmon Bay on the left and the then Ballard Bridge on the right. (Photo: University of Washington, Special Collections, CUR100).Courtesy University of Washington Special Collections
Butchers working at a meat market in Ballard around 1900. The city was not annexed into Seattle for another seven years. (Photo: University of Washington, Special Collections, SOC9149).Courtesy University of Washington Special Collections
This photo shows a building at the end of a pier, thought to be somewhere in Ballard, dated to 1890. (Photo: University of Washington, Special Collections, SEA2944).Courtesy University of Washington Special Collections
Photo of Ballard Public Library, circa 1906, the same year Ballard residents approved the annexation to Seattle. (Photo: University of Washington, Special Collections, SEA0018)Courtesy University of Washington Special Collections
"In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Ballard was a center for the lumber and shingle industries. This photo, taken on August 10, 1898, shows the employees of the McVay Mill in Ballard. The young boys probably work at the mill too. The men in the foreground hold bundles of shingles from the mill. The man at the far right end of the middle row is missing a finger. This happened often to the men who cut shingles." -MOHAI. Photo courtesy MOHAI, image number shs12890.Courtesy MOHAI
"Isaac C. and Sarah Oleson lived in this home at 2416 NW 64th Street in Ballard. In this 1900 photo, Mrs. Oleson stands in front of her neat and tidy Victorian style home with its shrubbery archway and trimmed hedge. The residence still exists but has been modified through the years." -MOHAI. Photo courtesy MOHAI, image number SHS3473.Courtesy MOHAI
"Signs in image: Metz & Bro. Lager Beer. A.N. Kear. Wines, Liquors & Cigars. Dining Hall - Restaurant.
Typed on verso: Ballard District ca 1890 - Liquors, Dining Hall." -MOHAI. Photo courtesy MOHAI, image number SHS11816.Courtesy MOHAI
"In 1887, the town of Ballard was founded across Salmon Bay from Seattle. Many of its earlier residents were Scandinavian fishermen and their families. After the 1889 fire destroyed Seattle's business district, including Yesler's Mill, the lumber industry moved to Ballard. By 1904, the town had 10,000 residents. Most of the men either fished or worked at the lumber and shingle mills. Ballard became a part of Seattle in 1907 .
This early 1900s photo shows a view along Ballard Avenue, looking southeast. Horsedrawn wagons wait by the wooden sidewalks, and an electric streetcar runs on its tracks in the distance." -MOHAI. Photo courtesy MOHAI, Seattle Photographic Company Collection, image number shs14001.Courtesy MOHAI
"The Ballard Boat House once stood at the foot of 24th Street, near Ballard's business district. People could rent boats at the boathouse to go out on Salmon Bay .
This photo was taken in 1905, looking south across Salmon Bay. It shows the Ballard Boat House dock and boats for rent. Rafts of logs float offshore. The farms and houses of Magnolia can be seen in the distance." -MOHAI. Photo courtesy MOHAI, PEMCO Webster and Stevens Collection, image number 1983.10.6979.Courtesy MOHAI
"The Stimson Mill Company was one of the largest lumber mills in Ballard, and this building at Shilshole Ave. N.W. and N.W. Vernon Place was the headquarters. It is extant and used as a private residence." -MOHAI. Photo circa 1907, courtesy MOHAI, PEMCO Webster and Stevens Collection, image number 1983.10.7757.Courtesy MOHAI
Salmon Bay waterway, circa 1900. Photo courtesy MOHAI, Anders B. Wilse Collection, image number 1988.33.33.Courtesy MOHAI
"In 1873, the Ross family left Seattle for their then-wild homestead near Salmon Bay. Mrs. Ross insisted that the family needed a school. They turned the second floor of their home into a classroom and hired a teacher at $20.00. a month. The Ross homestead grew into the Ross community, between what are now Fremont and Ballard. In 1903, the city built a new Ross School building in the community .
This photo, probably taken around 1903, shows the wood-frame Ross School, at Third Avenue NW and West Forty-third Street. The design of the school is a variation on designs also used for Green Lake, University Heights, and other Seattle schools. Ross served as the area's elementary school until it was torn down in the 1940s." -MOHAI. Photo courtesy MOHAI, image number shs17502.Courtesy MOHAI
"Shilsole, near present-day Ballard, was once a large Native American village. By the early 1900s, only the home of Salmon Bay Charlie and his wife Madeline remained. Salmon Bay Charlie was also known as Indian Charlie, but in his own language, his name was Hwechlchtid .
In this 1905 photo, Salmon Bay Charlie's home stands by the edge of the water. Although the wood planks of the house were not hand-hewn as in older dwellings, the traditional smoke hole with its adjustable cover is visible." -MOHAI. Photo courtesy MOHAI, PEMCO Webster and Stevens Collection, image number 1983.10.9067.Courtesy MOHAI
"In the late 1890s, when this photo was taken, the mouth of Seattle's Salmon Bay was sparsely settled. There were farms on Magnolia (center), but much of the land was still wooded. Fishing families lived across the bay near Ballard (foreground), convenient to Puget Sound .
This photo of the mouth of Salmon Bay was taken from the Ballard side by Anders Wilse sometime between 1897 and 1900. Two children play in a dugout canoe at low tide while a fishing boat chugs by in the distance." -MOHAI. Photo courtesy MOHAI, Anders B. Wilse Collection, image number 1988.33.130.Courtesy MOHAI
Looking out the window of a new luxury apartment in Ballard, it's probably hard to imagine what this hip little neighborhood once was.
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But 108 years ago, things were more than a bit different.
Just imagine it: Mills dominate views of the waterfront, and docks are home to the many fishing vessels that call Ballard home when not out to sea gathering their bounty. The city boasts that it's shingle capital of the world for its not insignificant shingle production.
Natives come and go from the beaches along Salmon Bay in dugout canoes. And saloons (some known for their rowdy crowds of Scandinavian fisherman) dot the streets of the city's downtown.
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OK, maybe that last part isn't so different.
But in 1907, the booming city of 17,000 gave up its independence to become one of several neighborhoods annexed by Seattle.
The reasons for joining Seattle are harder to pin down 109 years after the vote that sealed the deal, but the overwhelming evidence suggests two major views.
The city was first settled in the 1850s, but the development of railroad through the area and subsequent development of fishing and timber industries ensured that growth would come fast and with little control.
Ballard incorporated in 1890, but as the population surged from 1,636 to more than 4,000 in 1900 and continued to grow even faster, problems arose that the little city couldn't handle, according to the archives' story.
City officials couldn't expand services fast enough to keep up with the booming population, and water, in particular was a big problem.
In 1902, the city inked a deal with Seattle to buy water for its residents, but the cost only added to the mounting debt of the local government, making annexation seem the best option for many residents, so the story goes.
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But rumors and what may sound like fairly wild speculation suggest instead that something of a conspiracy forced Ballard into the fold of a city bent on expansion.
Toy and gift company Archie McPhee includes a post about "Free Ballard" on its website, where it recalls that Ballard was fine on its own.
"It had its own City Hall and provided all necessary services to its citizens," the post reads.
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Seattle, however, was "obsessed" with expanding its borders, wanting to annex anything it could.
The post even mentions an old rumor that a dead horse was found floating in the Ballard reservoir, except this version of the story says agents for Seattle put it there to help their cause.
"Through tricks and sabotage Seattle finagled the citizens of Ballard to vote for annexation," the story continued. Even the timing of the vote was chosen for when fishermen would be away, so not to stand opposed to being put under the stricter drinking laws of Seattle, according to the tale (it's worth noting that the date of the vote was Tuesday Nov. 6, 1906, which would have been Election Day).
The truth probably lies somewhere in between the mild city archives version and the far more entertaining Archie McPhee tale, but with 108 years between, it's hard to say exactly where.
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Ballardites approved annexation by a vote of 996 to 874 on Nov. 6, 1906 and the city formally joined Seattle on May 29, 1907.
Anyone who has been around Seattle long has probably seen a "FREE BALLARD" bumper sticker, suggesting that Ballardites would like to secede from Seattle. And while some Ballard fishermen were probably a little more than displeased to return to a city with new ordinances and a new government, they probably also came to appreciate the infrastructure that came with it, like the Ballard Bridge, significant street repairs and other features of a wealthy city government.
Take a look through the photos above to get a few glimpses of what Ballard looked like before it was annexed into Seattle.
