Selleck (Washington)
| Selleck Historic District | |||
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| National Register of Historic Places | |||
| HD | |||
 Selleck, Washington |
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| location | Selleck (Washington) | ||
| Coordinates | 47 ° 22 ′ 33 ″ N , 121 ° 52 ′ 0 ″ W. | ||
| surface | 7.3 ha | ||
| architect | Bungalow / craftsman | ||
| NRHP number | 89000214 | ||
| The NRHP added | March 16, 1989 | ||
Selleck is a former factory settlement in Washington state . As the only remaining sawmill settlement in King County , it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and on the King County's List of Landmarks .
The small town of Selleck, founded in 1908 in southeastern King County, was a factory settlement of the Pacific States Lumber under the direction of the woodcutter Frank Selleck. It was completed in 1916 and reached over the world's tallest railway trestle bridge , which crossed the Cedar River at a height of 62 m . The sawmill played a significant role in the rebuilding of Tokyo after the Great Kanto earthquake of 1923 . At that time, many Japanese workers came to Selleck with their families. It was the first time Japanese workers were employed in the sawmill.
The Japanese area outside the city proper was known as Lavender Town (named after the owner of a local saloon and village shop ), better known as Jap Town . The children of the Japanese workers went to school in Selleck and attended a Japanese-language school on Wednesday and Saturday mornings. However, only a few traces of Lavender Town have survived to this day, not even tombs (which were probably made of wood). The only visible sign of the earlier Japanese presence is a pond made with bamboo . Selleck's sights do not include the former Lavender Town , however, because so few traces have been preserved. It is quite possible that future archaeological excavations will come to a different conclusion.
At his heyday, Selleck had 900 residents, a hospital, a hotel, a community center where hundreds of people came together to dance every week, a school and various sawmill buildings. The Pacific States Lumber declared bankruptcy in 1939, ending the era of Selleck's prosperity. The town of Selleck went through a number of hands - the first it bought for a measly US $ 3,000 - before Robert Schaefer, a general contractor from Renton , brought together a group of investors to buy the town in 1971.
Schaefer's vision for the city was not fully achieved. He was hoping for the restoration of the mill pond for pedal boating, a railroad around the pond and something like a theme park around logging. However, the realization turned out to be impossible because of a series of regulations for the protection of wetlands and a lack of solid funding.
There were serious water supply problems in the city in the 1990s.
Since 2007 the city has been managed by Selleck, Inc. by Robert Schaefer's son Tim Schaefer. The former two-story school building has been preserved - Tim Schaefer has converted part of it into an apartment for himself and his family - and the former parish hall is now also a residential building. Around half of the one-story workers' houses have also been preserved, and around 90 people live in 20 bungalows . Renting a four-bedroom house is roughly what a two-bedroom apartment costs in less accessible areas of the county.
Individual evidence
- ^ National Register Information System . In: National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service . Retrieved July 9, 2010.
- ↑ King County and Local Landmarks List ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , King County (undated, last updated February 26, 2003). Retrieved May 8, 2009.
- ^ A b c d e Cara Solomon, Old mill town a vestige of the past , Seattle Times , July 31, 2007. Retrieved May 8, 2009.
- ↑ a b c d George Foster, County's Ethnic Pioneers: Some Towns They Built Have Died , Seattle Post-Intelligencer , August 4, 1988. Retrieved May 8, 2009.
- ^ John H. Stevens, Water Company For Small Community Is Target Of EPA Suit , Seattle Times , July 29, 1993. Retrieved May 8, 2009.
- ^ PI Staff and News Services, The 150 Residents of Selleck Told To Drink Only Boiled Water , Seattle Post-Intelligencer , March 29, 1997, p. A3. Retrieved May 8, 2009.
- ↑ Heather MacIntosh, King County Landmarks: Town of Selleck (1908–1939), Kangley vicinity ( Memento of the original from July 26, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , HistoryLink, January 1, 1999. Retrieved May 8, 2009.
