White Center through the years

Participants of the 100-yard pancake race pose with the mayor of White Center, Gordon S. Clinton, who judged the event. In the contest, married women had to flip a pancake three times over in a skillet while racing 100 yards down the middle of 16th Avenue Southwest. The winner was Mrs. Gladys Pingatore, shown here standing the the left of the mayor. The race was part of the Pancake Festival, sponsored by the White Center Eagles in 1956. Courtesy of MOHAIHarvey Davis/Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Two robbers forced their way into the White Center State Liquor Store after closing time on Saturday night, April 4, 1959. Three store employees were forced to lie on the floor behind the counter while the chief clerk of the store, Gino Giuntoli, stalled for time while opening the safe at gunpoint. King County deputies Jack Triplett and Jim Foley and reserve deputies M. A. Christopherson and William Hayden arrived on the scene while the robbery was in progress. Christopherson and Triplett entered the rear of the store and fired at the robbers in front of the store counter. One of Triplett's bullets fatally wounded Michael L. Mooney, 48. After a shootout on the sidewalk with the other two officers, the second robber fled the scene with $2,000 of the $6,000 taken from the safe. Mooney's body was covering a cardboard box containing $4,000 of the loot. In this image, the body of liquor store bandit Michael L. Mooney is carried on a stretcher from White Center State Liquor Store at 10034 16th Ave. SW by King County Coroner Leo Sowers (foreground, in jacket) and his deputies. Note the plate glass window at left, riddled with bullet holes.Tom Brownell/Seattle Post-Intelligencer

White Center's Pancake Festival, sponsored by the White Center Eagles, hosted races, parades and other community events. In this photo, several decorated floats parade down the middle of a street, Aug. 11, 1956. The vehicle in front has several girls lounging in front of an open clam shell. A crowd of people line both sides of the street to watch the procession.Harvey Davis/Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Sandwiched between West Seattle and Burien, White Center has been an unincorporated Seattle suburb since the early 1900s when a street car line was first run through the neighborhood from present day SODO.

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The community could have easily been known as Green Center if Hiram Green had won the naming coin toss he had with his co-founder George White in 1918.

It found its place in the mid-20th century as a home for blue collar shipyard and Boeing Co. workers and their families. The Southgate Skate Center and various local taverns became a social hub that brought visitors to the area.

MORE NEIGHBORHOOD GALLERIES:

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Ballard through the years

Capitol Hill over the decades

As time passed, White Center became a diverse, and at times gritty, neighborhood filled with immigrants and entrepreneurs. Over 50 percent of the community is non-white, including many immigrants from Vietnam, Cambodia, East Africa, Latin America and Ukraine.

White Center continues to change at a rapid rate as people and businesses flock to the neighborhood to escape high Seattle real estate prices.

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Check out the gallery to see images of White Center's evolution from the 1930s to the early 2000s.