Community Corner
After 76 Years, an Original “Highway 99” Building Still Stands
Most of the buildings constructed along Highway 99 when it was new are long gone, but there are a few gems from the 1930's still standing.
After the extending of the North Trunk Road in about 1928 to become Highway 99, there was a renewed vitality along the north King County part of the road.
Older businesses such as the Rogers store, which had been built on the then-planned brick road in 1911, were torn down and replaced by new buildings snuggled up against the freshly paved and widened highway.
The local name for the road at that time was Woodland Park Boulevard, an homage to the fact that the road cut directly through the Phinney’s revered property. The street called “Aurora” was actually one block west of Woodland Park Boulevard, occupying the territory now covered by Linden. But with the opening of the George Washington Memorial Bridge on February 22, 1932 (the200th anniversary of Washington’s birth) and Seattle’s realigning of streets and street names for consistency, Woodland Park Boulevard became Aurora Avenue North, and the majestic span soon acquired the colloquial name of the “Aurora Bridge.”
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The scene of our “then” photo appears older than it really is. Selgelid’s drug store was built on the west side of Aurora, just south of 185th, in 1935. The large house in the background is the Thompsons’ home. Sisters Betty June Thompson Millan and Irene Thompson Franett recounted how as teenagers in the late 1930’s, they often took over cashier duties while the Selgelids retired to their upstairs home for dinner. The building remained a drugstore for many years, and was more famously known as Nelson’s Drugs.
Our “now” photo shows a somewhat changed building, yet with hints of the original still there. The position of the original photographer, across the street from the building, can be nearly duplicated today, although the pavement is much wider than in 1935, and is soon to be even wider. The upstairs rooms were removed long before Spiro’s popular restaurant took over the space, and the front door no longer faces the highway. The Thompson house was replaced by Market Time, eventually becoming today’s Fred Meyer.