Squire Park Community Newsletter

12^TH AVENUE NEIGHBORHOOD PLAN UPDATE

Street Improvements from Columbia to Marion

This summer the first phase of street improvements (sidewalk widening, bicycle lanes, textured crosswalks, pedestrian lighting, and street trees) will be put in place on the east side of 12^th Avenue in the block from Columbia to Marion. With proceeds from additional sales of City-owned property on and near 12^th Avenue, street improvements will be made in additional blocks of 12^th Avenue. If you would like to participate in planning the “amenities” (benches, banners, kiosks, and art, for example) call Bill Zosel, 329-3986, to be put on the notification list for the next 12^th Avenue stewardship committee meeting.

Seattle Academy & Gardner Distributing Building

Following discussions with 12^th Avenue committee members, the Seattle Academy has agreed to take steps so that its new development on 12^th Avenue between Spring and Union (the Gardner Distributing Co. building) will better promote the goals to make that street more of a center of pedestrian activity. The Seattle Academy development will be an arts education center including a 250-seat theater and a smaller “black-box” theater. The development will include a commercial space on the ground floor, and the theater lobby will be designed to be highly transparent, with a gallery space in the lobby. The Academy will encourage performance and lectures to take place in the space at times when the space is not needed by the school’s own programs.

Mixed-Use Redevelopment of Halfon Candy Building

A developer has announced plans to replace the building recently occupied by the Halfon Candy warehouse (on 12^th between Marion and Spring) with a mixed-use building including 49 residential condominium units. The existing building has had a notable history, mentioned in Paul DeBarros’ book about Seattle’s jazz and blues history, Jackson Street After Dark. One of the more popular clubs in the city—known at different times as the 908 Club and Doc Hamilton’s Barbecue—operated at that location for several decades.

Lloyd’s Rocket Murals

With funds from a grant application by the Squire Park Community Council, and with much assistance from the Spruce Park Community Council, youth volunteers painted and installed temporary murals at the site of the former Lloyd’s Rocket gas station at 12^th and Boren. The Lloyd family plans to redevelop the site as a gas station and convenience store, restoring the existing build to something close to its former appearance (probably not including the great neon Richfield eagle that some remember).

—Bill Zosel