We’ve crossed Stone Way from the west side of the block. After walking by Bank of America, Sea Wolf, and ending at The Cline Apartments, this installment picks up the east side of the 3600 block.
Historian Sarah J. Martin of Historic Wallingford traced this block’s beginnings to its 1901 plat, filed by Corliss P. Stone and his wife, Elmira, along with John and Mary Bailey. We met C.P. Stone – merchant, mayor, developer, and namesake – in an earlier installment.
On the original plat map, Stone Way is labeled “Stone Street” and North 36th is “Kilbourne Street.” This is named after Stone’s nephew Edward Corliss Kilbourne, a Fremont founder.
The block was carved into 18 narrow lots, each about 40 by 146 feet, short end facing Stone.
It didn’t develop right away. The Sanborn fire-insurance maps Martin reviewed show nothing here but a couple of sheds in 1905, and still no buildings in 1919.
Matching the industrial character of nearby Lake Union, the lots filled in through the 1920s with the trades that would define Stone Way for decades to come: lumber, millwork, and fuel.
Fuel yards and coal bunkers (3616 Stone Way N)
By the 1920s the block held a fuel yard. According to local historian Valarie Bunn, Fremont’s own coal dealer, the Hocking Fuel & Lumber Company, operated here.
Thomas James Hocking was born in Cornwall, England, in 1885 and came to Seattle in 1914. He joined Fremont’s Doric Lodge and networked with the city’s coal and lumber men.
The millwork shop that became an eatery (3620 Stone Way N)
Hocking also found other income streams. Bunn said he allowed Swedish immigrant Abraham Branlund to build a 748-square-foot workshop on his property and pay rent. It was incorporated as the Stoneway Millwork Company in 1926. Millwork companies made the wooden pieces of a house, like window sashes, doors, cabinets, baseboards, and trim. Branlund’s shop likely bought its lumber straight from Hocking’s yard.
As he neared retirement, Branlund took on partners and sold the business to cabinetmakers named Thomas & Caskey.
In the 1960s, 3620 Stone Way became a restaurant, Guy & Hulda’s French Mill Café. Over the decades it has been the Stoneway Café, the Rowdy Cowgirl, RoRo BBQ & Grill, and currently, Tacos El Lago. Stoneway Café was closed due to a fire around 1983 and didn’t reopen until 1987, according to the Seattle Times.
Public Storage and a governor
Shifting back to the larger portion of the block, by mid-century, 3616 Stone Way’s fuel-and-lumber trades had faded. Coal gave way to oil and electric heat in the area around 1950. Hocking’s last trace at the address was in 1941.
Storage and distribution came next. In 1990, a short plat divided the block: most of it, about 27,300 square feet spanning 3600 to 3622 Stone Way, sold that year for $600,000 to Public Storage Realty. The small 3620 lot was split off and kept separate.
According to King County records, the sellers were Albert D. and Ethel K. Rosellini. This is the same Albert Rosellini who served as governor of Washington from 1957 to 1965.
The land had another life under the governor’s ownership. Suzie Burke, president of the Fremont Dock Company, recalled, “Al was in the beer business!” According to HistoryLink, once he retired after his governorship, Rosellini was an “attorney and consultant specializing in the affairs of the liquor and entertainment industries.”
The beer era came to an end when a building known as the “old Olympia Brewery warehouse” caught on fire in July 1987. It was a three-alarm fire that drew 70 to 80 firefighters and destroyed the building, according to the Seattle Times.
Public Storage constructed its mini-warehouse in 1991. It wraps around 3620 Stone Way on two sides, leaving Tacos El Lago standing alone against the orange and beige. It’s Stone Way’s own version of the house from the movie, “Up.” Seattle’s best-known “Up” house is Ballard’s Edith Macefield house.
Bunn has a theory about why the little building was spared: it kept landing successful restaurants, so its owners were never tempted to sell. By now, she figures, it may be too late anyway, since Public Storage wouldn’t need it.
The 3620 Stone Way owner may simply have a soft spot for old Seattle buildings. County records show 3620 belongs to Ulysis L.P., the partnership of attorney Ron Bozarth. He also owns most of the College Inn in the University District.
Next time, we’ll head to the property that borders Tacos El Lago along the north edge at 3626 Stone Way, and keep working our way north up the east side.
Thanks to historians Sarah J. Martin of Historic Wallingford and Valarie Bunn, whose research on this block made this installment possible.
Leave a Reply