UPDATE: Apparently Hansen wasn’t done yet. Here’s his op-ed published Tuesday in the New York Times. 

Wednesday marks the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s transcendent “I Have a Dream” speech.

As the occasion approaches, media outlets across the country are striving to place the historic day in context. For help, some are turning to islander and state legislator Drew Hansen.

Few people are as intimately familiar with King’s speech as Hansen. The Bainbridge lawyer and 23rd  District representative is also author of “The Dream: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Speech that Inspired a Nation,” a study of the meaning, context and legacy of the famous oration.

“The Dream” was published by Harper Collins in 2003 coincide 40th anniversary of the March on Washington. Hansen became a popular guest speaker after the book’s release, giving numerous talks on King and the speech over the last decade. As the 50-year anniversary of the march approaches, he is once again sharing his insights.

In a USA Today story published earlier this month, Hansen noted the “Dream” speech slid toward obscurity in the years after it was delivered. The speech returned to prominence only after King’s death in 1968, and became – “one of those things we look to when we want to know what America means,” Hansen told the paper. Continue reading →

Photo on left courtesy the Bainbridge Historical Museum; photo on right by Tad Sooter.

Bainbridge Island’s Bethany Lutheran Church is marking its centennial this year. As part of the celebration a group of congregants spent Sunday afternoon revisiting the original Bethany Lutheran, a 1913 church house on Pleasant Beach Drive.

There are still a number of Bethany Lutheran members who attended the old church (Bethany relocated to Finch Road in 1961). Some were baptized there, confirmed there, and even married there. Today the church is a private residence.

Shirley Jenkins (formerly Ostrand) recalls when her extended family filled several pews at the Pleasant Beach church. In the early days the Ostrands drove a horse cart south from their Manzanita homestead to attend services.

Though the exterior of the building remains largely unaltered (see the photos above), the interior has been remodeled by a succession of owners. Jenkins offered to share a few pictures of how the church house looked inside when it was still a church:

Tristan Baurick here. On my way back from Colorado I got a chance to represent Bainbridge in a unique bike race. Here’s my story…

Your great-grandfather would have told you that a long day of bicycle riding is a bone-shaking and nerve-racking affair. He would have advised you to mind the smoke from your brake, and bring along a hunk of wood to drop like an anchor if the overworked brake gives out. And if a prostitute offers you whiskey in a hail storm, take a swig. You’ll need it.

I know all of this because I rode your great-grandfather’s bike – a 97-year-old, single-speed steel contraption – for last month’s L’Eroica Junction to Glenwood Vintage Bicycle Race. The 102-mile, one-day trek through western Colorado combines sports, history, and a touch of theater. Also, a lot of wool knickers and several waxed mustaches.

Continue reading →

Street of the Week: Ravine Lane 

Location: Runs north/south off Winslow Way, just west of Highway 305

History: Winslow was once a city divided but not because of any rift between its citizens. The city literally had a line running through it thanks to a deep gulch that split the town in two. 

On the west side stood the church, the school, the grocery store and steamer dock. On the east, the butcher, baker and barber.  Needless to say, running errands in early Winslow took a good deal of strategic planning.

Near the shipyard stood the Winslow Hotel. In 1904, two sisters, Margaret Bradley and Katherine Clements, became the new proprietors. 

The pair remodeled the hotel and added a washroom where the shipyard workers could clean up from work before sitting down to a hot meal. Most ate there whether or not they also called the hotel home.

Then in 1924 the hotel burned to the ground. It was never rebuilt. But if it had been, the hotel would stand directly across the street from the present day police station located at the intersection of Winslow Way and Highway 305.

As Winslow continued to grow and prosper, the residents realized something had to be done about their city’s physical divide so a wooden bridge was built across the gulch, offering at least temporary relief to the problem. 

Today, the ravine is hardly noticable alongside the wide streets of Winslow. Located to the east of Ericksen Avenue under Winslow Way, it no longer hinders the people of Bainbridge from enjoying their city.

Source: “A History of Bainbridge Island.” Katy Warner, 1968, page 41-43.

This occasional Islander series explores the history of island street names, as compiled by Elinor Ringland and fellow Bainbridge Island Historical Society volunteers.  If you have an island road story to share, email Ringland at elinorjoe@msn.com.

Street of the Week:  Lytle Road

Location: Runs north/south from Pleasant Beach Drive, south of Baker Hill

History: There once was a beer-drinking monkey named Mike. The beloved pet and local celebrity lived at Lytle’s Saloon in Pleasant Beach where many a visitor bought him a round just to see a monkey enjoy a beer at the bar.

Saloon owner and monkey owner Billy Lytle was a character, too. Often smartly dressed in a fashionable derby hat and garters, Lytle was known as a friendly, witty businessman who understood the financial benefits of keeping a monkey on a chain in a bar.

Lytle and his wife Mamie also owned a parrot, a gift from a visiting seagoing captain. Though unlike his fellow animal counterpart, the parrot didn’t indulge in the saloon’s alchoholic beverages, his salty language always kept things lively at the Lytle’s establishment.

The animal Lytles weren’t the only ones with reputations. Mamie was a small woman known for abbreviating everyone’s names and for frequently prefacing most of what she said with “wait ’til I tell you.” Mamie’s favorite exclamation of all, however, was supposedly “Oh Jesus, Mary and Joseph.”

She had good reason to call upon the sacred trio one morning when she awoke to the maniac cackling of the chickens she kept outside her and Billy’s home near the saloon.

Upon looking out on the coop, Mamie saw chickens running around no, not with their heads cut off but almost as upset. It seemed Mike the Monkey had found his way to the Lytle home and taken an interest in the flock. He was now in the coop, chasing the frenzied fowls around and pulling off their feathers.

“Bill, come quick!” Mamie was said to have yelled upon seeing the monkey-chicken war being waged in her yard. “Wait ’til I tell you what Mike did to the chickens!”

Billy, upon seeing the commotion, likely laughed at the antics his furry barkeep had gotten up to that morning. The monkey always cheered him up with its foolish tricks.

And when Kitsap County went dry and Lytle’s Saloon closed, Bill could have used a laugh. The couple fell on to hard times with Bill taking work in the taxing business, meeting ferries at Port Blakely to find fares.

As for Mamie, she outlived her husband by many years. In the twilight of her life, she sold her home and moved to a small cottage not far from the site of their  once merry saloon. Let’s hope she still had Mike the monkey and that colorful parrot to keep her company.

Source: “A History of Bainbridge Island.” Katy Warner, 1968, page 83.

This occasional Islander series explores the history of island street names, as compiled by Elinor Ringland and fellow Bainbridge Island Historical Society volunteers.  If you have an island road story to share, email Ringland at elinorjoe@msn.com.

Street of the Week: Gideon Lane

Location: Runs east/west off Grow Avenue, just north of Wyatt Way

History: The Gideons come from pioneering stock. Hailing from Germany, the first offshoots of the family to push west landed in Minnesota before packing up again and heading for the Pacific.

Charlie was the first to land on the West Coast but was soon followed by his younger brother Josiah. The family relocated to Seattle in 1902 and eventually made a home on Bainbridge Island where Josiah worked at the shipyard until his death in 1920. His wife Margaret continued to live on Bainbridge; she was instrumental in the first island library, school and newspaper.

Josiah and Margaret’s son Kenneth also called Bainbridge home and constructed the cabin that still stands on the edge of Gideon Park.

This occasional Islander series explores the history of island street names, as compiled by Elinor Ringland and fellow Bainbridge Island Historical Society volunteers.  If you have an island road story to share, email Ringland at elinorjoe@msn.com.

Street of the Week: Kono Lane

Location: Runs east/west off Tani Creek Road near Blakely Harbor

History: When a representative of the Japanese Consulate arrived in Port Blakely to oversee the local mill and its large base of Japanese workers, he was shocked at what he found.

Crammed together in bunkhouses, working 10-hour days with minimum pay and then gambling the night away, most of the employees were not, the consulate reported, “honest workers.”

It was up to mill boss Hanjiro Kono to set things straight. Kono stopped the rampant gambling and freeloading. By the time he was done, many workers had left to be replaced by Japanese farmers and their families. To encourage the new arrivals to put down roots, the mill set aside land for the families to live on rent-free in homes built from donated lumber.

By 1903, the area had hundreds of residents, as well as bathhouses, barbershops, churches, a restaurant and even a hotel owned by none other than mill boss Hanjiro Kono.

This occasional Islander series explores the history of island street names, as compiled by Elinor Ringland and fellow Bainbridge Island Historical Society volunteers.  If you have an island road story to share, email Ringland at elinorjoe@msn.com.

Location: Runs east/west between Weaver Road and John Adams Lane. A middle section of Shepard Way is now a walking path.

History: “The man who knows the most about the insides of Bainbridge Island.” That was how the Seattle Times referred to island doctor Frank L. Shepard in an article published in the early 1960s.

Educated at Northwester University and Seattle General Hospital, Dr. Shepard was originally from Fargo, North Dakota. He and wife Charlotte McEown moved to Bainbridge Island in November 1911.

A couple months after they arrived, Dr. Shepard, assisted by his wife, delivered his first baby on Bainbridge. By the time he retired from medicine more than four decades later, Dr. Shepard would deliver nearly 2,000 more bouncing baby Washingtonians. Continue reading →

Street of the Week: Grow Avenue

Location: Runs north/south between Winslow Way and High School Road

History: Grasshoppers drove Ambrose Grow to Bainbridge Island. Grow, a Civil War veteran, left his home of Kansas after reading a New York newspaper article about “beautiful Bainbridge Island.” (The article was supposedly written by Riley Haskinson, an early settler of Eagle Harbor.) The Northwest locale, Grow hoped, would mean fewer bugs to contend with every year.

In 1881, Grow and his wife Amanda moved west with six of their children (older sons Frank and W.M. joined their parents later). The family started the long journey with a wagon train but ran into difficulties as their traveling money ran out. Eventually though the Grows made it safely to the shores of Bainbridge where they played a prominant role in the island’s early history.

Among other contributions, the Madrone School was built on land donated by Grow; his youngest daughter, Carrie, was the school’s first teacher.

The family patriarch died in 1909, at the ripe old age of 84 leaving behind a whole new crop of Grows.

Source: “Bainbridge Through Bifocals,” Elsie Frankland Marriott, 1941.

This occasional Islander series explores the history of island street names, as compiled by Elinor Ringland and fellow Bainbridge Island Historical Society volunteers.  If you have an island road story to share, email Ringland at elinorjoe@msn.com.

Street of the Week: Boulder Place

Location: Runs east/west off Rockaway Bluff Road

History: Excavators met a rocky start when constructing roads in this part of Bainbridge Island back in 1996.

As the native woodlands were upturned, rocks of all shapes and sizes slowed down construction, but it was one particular boulder that required reinforcements be called in.

A mammoth bulldozer arrived on the scene to move the troublesome rock. For 600 feet, the machine pushed and it shoved, it revved and it rolled until finally that burden of a boulder came to a stop at the entrance of the street.

Now the rock rests like nature’s own gatekeeper, inspiring the street’s name and offering a handy landmark for all to navigate by.

Sources: Bill and Karen Meyer.

This occasional Islander series explores the history of island street names, as compiled by Elinor Ringland and fellow Bainbridge Island Historical Society volunteers.  If you have an island road story to share, email Ringland at elinorjoe@msn.com.

Streets of the Week: Brien Drive, Shannon Drive, Bjune Drive

Location: Winslow waterfront.

History: Developer Ed Stafford worked in the area just south of the bustling Winslow Way business district.

Nearby Eagle Harbor and the island yacht club kept the area busy while Waterfront Park ensured the developement’s natural beauty.

As Stafford’s work in the area drew to a close, he had to decide what to name the development’s streets. He looked to his three children for inspiration when christening the three parallel roads.

Brien got his own street. So did Shannon. But what about Betty June? It was from a light-hearted blending of Betty June’s names that Bjune Drive was born.

This occasional Islander series explores the history of island street names, as compiled by Elinor Ringland and fellow Bainbridge Island Historical Society volunteers.  If you have an island road story to share, email Ringland at elinorjoe@msn.com.

Street of the Week: McDonald Avenue

Location: Runs north/south between Eagle Harbor Drive and Old Mill Road

History: Old McDonald had a farm, yes, but on Bainbridge Island he also owned two hotels and a popular community pavilion.

In the early twentieth century, Malcom “Mack” McDonald was one of the largest landowners in all of Kitsap County. As owner of the Port Blakely Hotel and Pleasant Beach Hotel, McDonald was a well-known leader in the island’s community.

McDonald’s Pleasant Beach Hotel featured more than 20 rooms, a bowling alley, a saloon, a swimming pool and a bathhouse.

The posh hotel was, as the name may suggest, adjacent to a rather pleasant beach. The hotel’s large pavilion and picnic grounds covered 30 acres, an expansive property which drew huge crowds throughout the year and particularly during sunny summer months.

Pleasant Beach’s beautiful location, delicious food and wide variety of fun activities contributed to its widespread reputation as the Coney Island of the Puget Sound.

Locals and tourists alike would arrive by boat at the hotel’s lengthy deck. Many traveled across the Sound to see the famed hotel and equally well-known grounds.

Visitors frequently shipped in from Seattle, Port Orchard and even as far south as Tacoma. Crowds of more than 2,000 were known to swing by during the course of a single day.

The Pleasant Beach Hotel’s pavilion was also popular among locals, and it became famous for hosting prize fights. One story about a world championship fight shares the adventure of several ambitious but shortsighted sailors who climbed to the very top of the pavilion. Hoping for a bird’s eye view of the excitement below, they tore shingles off the roof—and promptly fell into the crowd below.

McDonald’s personal home was nearly as impressive as his hotel holdings. The family ranch in Eagledale featured a large house, several barns and many acres under cultivation.

There was even room to spare. In the early 1900s, McDonald donated part of the land for the amptly named McDonald School. It was located on the corner of what are now McDonald Avenue and Eagle Harbor Drive.
The McDonald School was built in 1905 and enlarged a decade later. Generations of children from all over Bainbridge Island received an education at the school until it eventually closed in 1940.

Source: “Bifocals,” Elsie Frankland Marriot, Gateway Printing Col., Seattle, 1941.

This occasional Islander series explores the history of island street names, as compiled by Elinor Ringland and fellow Bainbridge Island Historical Society volunteers.  If you have an island road story to share, email Ringland at elinorjoe@msn.com.