Longtime area residents Doug Shadel and Pam and Guy Harper have written a historical book about Three Tree Point, which is being released March 8th by Arcadia Publishing.

This new book, which is priced at $21.99, includes more than 200 vintage photographs chronicling the history of Burien’s beachfront community, and these good creative folks have been working hard on this project for well over a year.

We hope to be doing in-depth interviews with the authors soon, along with publishing some excerpts and photos from the book.

There will most certainly be a local book signing soon, so stay tuned to The Waterland Blog for updates.

Click below to pre-order the book online through Amazon.com:

Here’s the press release, sent out by Arcadia Publishing on Tuesday, Feb. 16th:

Discover the History of Three Tree Point
New Book Traces the History of the Point Through Vintage Images

New from Arcadia Publishing and local authors Doug Shadel and Pam and Guy Harper, is Three Tree Point. This latest volume of the Images of America series is filled with more than 200 vintage images chronicling the history of Three Tree Point.

Three Tree Point is a prominent peninsula on the eastern shore of Puget Sound about 14 miles south of Seattle. Its name came from three massive fir trees that stood on the north side of the point at the beginning of the 20th century. The area remained largely undeveloped until 1903 when the Three Tree Point Company began marketing the community as a place to build summer homes. Seattle’s business elite built houses at the point to take advantage of the beach lifestyle for which it has become known. Over the years, Three Tree Point and its 2.5 miles of waterfront emerged as one of the Northwest’s most unique residential communities. Its history is a diverse mixture of family life, unusual characters, Fourth of July celebrations, shipwrecks, fishing derbies, and storytelling.

Highlights of Three Tree Point:

• Includes a Pulitzer Prize winning photo.
• Features never before published images including some from Asahel Curtis.
• Tells stories of the Point from shacks to mansions and residents past and present.

Available at area bookstores, independent retailers, and online retailers, or through Arcadia Publishing at (888)-313-2665 or www.arcadiapublishing.com.

Arcadia Publishing is the leading publisher of local and regional history in the United States. Our mission is to make history accessible and meaningful through the publication of books on the heritage of America’s people and places. Have we done a book on your town? Visit www.arcadiapublishing.com.

And here’s Amazon’s description (Click here to order: “Three Tree Point (Images of America)”):

Product Description

Three Tree Point is a prominent peninsula on the eastern shore of Puget Sound about 14 miles south of Seattle. Its name came from three massive fir trees that stood on the north side of the point at the beginning of the 20th century. The area remained largely undeveloped until 1903 when the Three Tree Point Company began marketing the community as a place to build summer homes. Seattle’s business elite built houses at the point to take advantage of the beach lifestyle for which it has become known. Over the years, Three Tree Point and its 2.5 miles of waterfront emerged as one of the Northwest’s most unique residential communities. Its history is a diverse mixture of family life, unusual characters, Fourth of July celebrations, shipwrecks, fishing derbies, and storytelling.

About the Author
Pam and Guy Harper’s families have been residents of Three Tree Point for generations, and the couple has an intimate knowledge of the history, culture, and lifestyles of the people who have lived there. Doug Shadel is also a resident of Three Tree Point and an author of five previous books on a variety of topics. Numerous residents of the point generously contributed to this book by donating pictures from their personal collections.

The Highline Historical Society will be presenting “Soldiers in Petticoats: The Struggle of the Suffragettes” at the SeaTac City Hall on Sunday, Feb. 21st, beginning at 2pm.

Local actress Tames Alan will return, dressed in full period costume and acting in character, to talk about the struggle of American women to gain the right to vote.

Here are the details:

WHAT: Highline Historical Society’s “Soldiers In Petticoats: The Struggle of the Suffragettes”

WHEN: Sunday, Feb. 21st beginning at 2pm

WHERE: Sea-Tac City Hall, located at 4800 S 188th Street.

COST: This is a FREE event.

INFO: From a press release:

In the authentic clothing of a suffragette, Actress Tames Alan returns to talk about the struggle of American women to gain the right to vote. In 1867, the passing of the 14th Amendment defined “citizen” as “male,” thus denying women the right to vote. On this 100th Anniversary of women’s right to vote in Washington State, learn how American women adopted the militant tactics of English suffragettes to earn the right to vote and regain citizenship in their own country. Discover how the suffragettes influenced child labor laws, the use and dispersal of birth control, the Temperance movement, and the right of women to earn a college degree.

This engaging program is free.

It is brought to the community by the Highline Historical Society with the support of Humanities WA.

Immediately followed by a reception for the elected women of Highline.

Tames Alan is an actress, historian, and fashion history teacher who has combined her skills to create Living History Lectures for people of all ages. Since 1986, she has been touring her programs throughout the United States and Canada, where she is known for in-depth research and a lively presentational style. Tames studied theater and history at Willamette University in Oregon and theater at the American Conservatory Theater and the Dell Arte School in California. She taught fashion history at the Art Institute of Seattle, and is a historical consultant to museums, libraries, and historical festivals throughout the Pacific Northwest.

For more information, visit the Highline Historical Society’s website here.

City Councilmember and Des Moines Historical Society member Carmen Scott sent us a very interesting and significant letter, dated Dec. 18th, 1918 (91 years ago today!) with the topic concerning the flu, hard times and the ravages of war.

“Flu, war, hard times, pride in our country, so much has changed, and yet so much remains the same,” remarked Carmen.

She also tells us:

“The letter was tucked away in my Great grandmother Spencer’s bible.

It is written on December 18th 1918 to my great grandmother Spencer, (who lived in the Kent valley at Christopher, just north of Auburn). That winter the flu epidemic raged, schools closed, our young men were in Europe, fighting in the first World War, and being gassed by German bombs.  The WCTU (Women’s Christian Temperance Union) was an active women’s organization which crusaded against substances they believed harmful to society.  They considered the abuse of alcohol to be America’s #1 drug problem, and spearheaded the drive for prohibition, which became law the following year. They also fought to outlaw the use of tobacco.

“Automobiles had begun to appear in our region during that decade, ending the era of travel by way of the Mosquito Fleet on Puget Sound.  Electricity became available to homes about then, (replacing kerosene Lamps).  Heat was produced by fireplaces and big cast iron wood or coal ranges in the kitchen.  The “accommodations” were often an outhouse, although some bathrooms were being added, usually by enclosing part of the back porch.”

Photo of the Spencer & Hardin extended family celebrating Flag Day in the Kent valley in 1918. Six of the Hardin family are on the right, with Vera standing on the far right next to her mother (the letter refers to them). My mother is the little girl in front on the other side of their mother. Their oldest brother, Ross, is standing at far right in the back row. Ross died at age 21, before there were such things as penicillin and antibiotics. Three of the young children in the photo succumbed to childhood illnesses, which would be easily treatable today.

Here’s the text of the letter:

December 18th, 1918 South Bellingham, Wash.

Dear Sister Spencer:

I received your dear good letter some time ago and now I will answer it so you will get this by Christmas. I hope you and Bro. Spencer did not get the flu. How is Mr & Mrs Hardin and children by this time? I hope they are all well, they certainly must have had a time of it, all down at once but Vera. It is very bad here too. They shut the schools down again here yesterday. We are all well yet, but Fred had to go to the Hospital and his wife was sick in bed at home, they are getting well slowly. Mr. Boddy is working every day but he gets pretty tired.

We received a telegram this morning saying Chester landed in New York yester- day. He will have to stay in the hospital for a couple of months yet. He was gassed on the 3rd of Oct. and was blind for 3 weeks. He was in that last big offensive when they had to march through rain and mud and stand up under the trees to snatch what sleep they gould get. Just as he was standing in a place, a couple of bombs came, and he jumped behind a concrete wall. He was not hurt but his clothes were blown to rags and his gas mask destroyed so the next bomb bursting was gas. He was burned, he did not say how badly, but he says he can see now enough to write and the burns on the outside are well but his lungs and broncheal tubes are not well yet and he has a terrible cough. He is glad to be back in the old U.S.A. The S.S. N.Y. is coming home so he says he will see if Joe & he & his wife cant have Christmas dinner together. We are very thankful their lives have been spared. Poor Chester says he has lost every thing even to his tin helmet and it costs so much to get an officers outfit for the few weeks he will remain in the Army that he cant afford it, so he says he is coming home in a Rookie suit.

It is too bad that the W.C.T.U. is broken up in Thomas & Christopher but I dont see how it could have been avoided there are so few left that used to go to it. I have not hunted them up here, so far I have been busy. We have a Presbeterian church a block away from us and the M.E. church is about as far from us as the Christopher church is from your place. I must close now, give our regards & best wishes to any who may inquire of us.

Love to your own dear selves and a Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to you both from us all.

Yours,
Susan D. Boddy

by Bart Bryan and Mark Neuman

The Landmark On the Sound, host to this weekend’s Poverty Bay Wine Festival, has quite the Masonic history.

In 1926, the Masons decided to build a retirement home for themselves on a ridge with a commanding view of Puget Sound in the then-town of Zenith, which is now part of Des Moines. Constructed of slate and copper, Terra Cotta and Terrazzo, marble and stained glass, this majestic “castle on the hill” played host to the Des Moines Poverty Bay Wine Festival this weekend. This impressive 27-acre campus, as well as the historic Landmark building, is undergoing a complete renovation and expansion into a new senior living community.

In between manning our table, we had a chance to wander around, and on one such wandering, found our way to the top of a ramp near the second floor auditorium tasting room and performance stage, where we found some classic photos of previous Masonic Grand Masters.

Yes, that’s right – photos beginning with, as the caption on the picture says, “Our first Grand Master, Thornton F. McElroy,” [term beginning Dec. 8, 1858].

If you ever have a chance to visit this building, be sure to wander up the ramp and enjoy the mugs of such brethren Masonic luminaries as:

• Selucius Garfielde [1860]
• Yancey Crawford Blalock
• Platt Preston
• Asa Herbert Hankerson [1913]
• Elwood Evans
• Loomis Baldrey [1934]
• Audley F. Mahaffey [1967]

and, of course,

• Fred Winkels [1953]

We recommend re-reading the above names…ALOUD…to anyone in the room at home with you right now.

Particularly: Fred Winkels…and…Audley Mahaffey.

While our Waterland Blog Reporters were upstairs capturing the Grand Masters’ names and the Masonic spirit of the era, they happened to bump into a Wine Festival visitor today, one Phyllis Askren, daughter-in-law of Grand Master Thomas M. Askren, who served his term when Herbert Hoover was in the White House.

From left, Julian Lopez, Betty Askren-Lopez (granddaughter of Grand Master Thomas M. Askren) and Betty’s mother (Thomas’ daughter-in-law) Phyllis Askren.

Living history and enjoying great wine, one unique name at a time!