[photopress:shilshole_boats.jpg,thumb,alignright]The City of Seattle’s website has an interesting tour of Ballard history that has some fun gems of information (including some wonderful historic photos).

“The first claim in the future city and neighborhood of Ballard was filed in 1852, the same year settlers arrived in Seattle itself. Development proceeded slowly until railroad entrepreneurs Thomas Burke and Daniel Gilman (remembered now with the Burke-Gilman Trail) assembled a large tract in 1888 for the construction of a new community.
Meanwhile, a ship’s captain named William Rankin Ballard lost a bet with a business partner and found himself the owner of 160 acres of seemingly worthless logged-off land adjacent to the planned Gilman Park development. Burke and Gilman hired him to manage their project, and appreciative residents named their new city after Ballard when they incorporated in 1890.”

“The large wave of Scandinavian emigrants were coming to this are and in 1889, when Seattle all but burned down, Ballard’s sawmills supplied materials to rebuild the city. For years, Ballard was the No. 1 producer of wood shingles in the world, earning it the nickname “Shingle Town USA.”

“Back than Ballard was a rough-and-tumble town. Factory whistles signaled the start and end of the day. Ballard was also a fishing town, and on Salmon Bay – the birthplace of Ballard – Alaska fishing trawlers remain a dominant presence. Men heading home would stop along Market Street to buy supper or hoist a beer in one of Ballard’s many saloons.”

“Now we define Ballard by boundaries on North 110th NW st. , South and West Salmon and Shilshol Bays and the East by 3rd Ave NW and Phinney Ridge. Ballard includes the neighborhoods of Loyal Heights, Crown Hill, Blue Ridge, Bitter Lake and Broadview. While the others are primarily residential, Broadview, roughly the area between North 105th Street and 145th Street from Puget Sound east to Aurora Avenue, is a community that has seen big changes in housing and urbanization. “