How Seattle Was Shaped

Speaker 1: [0:09] So Seattle is an awesome city. And Jason, I know that you love history. Why do you love Seattle so much and, and all its history?

Speaker 2: [0:18] Yeah, you know what's really fascinating about Seattle to me is that it's a young city. This is particularly notable because Seattle was founded around the time that photography came into vogue. And so pretty much every single step of the way in Seattle's history has been documented in one way or another, most of the time with photographic evidence, and it's really cool being able to look back and see all that. Um, the first permanent settlers to Seattle came, uh, they arrived in Alki- Hmm … in 1851. And this is what's crazy to me, the first photograph that we have of Seattle is from 1860, so just nine years later. Wow. It's shocking. You see, uh, you can look on this… You can find this on Google. I'm looking it up. You just look for, like, uh, earliest Seattle photo ever. And, uh, it's taken from First Avenue looking east up kind of where First Hill is. Um, and what you see is just a couple, like, very, uh, wooden buildings- Mm-hmm … little shacks, and tons of trees just in the distance. And- They needed

Speaker 1: [1:24] a better resolution on their digital camera back in 1860.

Speaker 2: [1:27] Yeah. That and the scanner, I'm sure. It's a little digitized. Well,

Speaker 3: [1:30] you know, they didn't have a lot to go off of, so. They kind of just started.

Speaker 2: [1:35] It was taken from the first iPhone, so give us some credit. Yeah, there you go. But yeah, you'll see a row of trees. Crazy. That's really where Third Avenue is now.

Speaker 1: [1:44] Wow.

Speaker 3: [1:45] Yeah, that's pretty insane to-

Speaker 1: [1:46] Yeah, if you're- … think about … well, clearly you are listening. You need to just Google Seattle's first photo or something in that regard. You'll see what we're talking about. It's pretty cool.

Speaker 2: [1:56] Yeah, so that, those trees behind in the distance, those are, uh, that's really what covered all of Seattle. Um, old growth forest. These trees on average were 1 to 2,000 years old. Um- Jeez … and that was really all of the land around here was that. Um- The, uh, it's funny, the, the first European settlers, they really thought of timber as an infinite resource, so they, uh, tore it down without any regard to its limited supply or the impact it would have. We only today have one area of land left of old growth forest in Seattle. Where is that? Uh, that's actually in Seward Park. Bailey Peninsula juts out into we- uh, Lake Washington, like the south east, west corner of Lake Washington over near Rainier Valley, that area. And, uh, even that forest though, you know, we look at it and we're like, "Oh, it's old growth forest." It really isn't. That, those trees on average are about 250 years old, so big difference. And that's crazy, ' Speaker 4: cause you said just a minute ago that originally the trees were 1 to 2,000 years old. Correct.

Speaker 5: [3:04] Well, imagine downtown, how that looks now, that's how, probably how the trees looked back then. Skyscraper

Speaker 4: [3:09] trees.

Speaker 5: [3:10] Yeah.

Speaker 2: [3:11] It's actually kinda cool. I'm reading a book called Too High and Too Steep- By David B. Williams, and he, uh, he's a local author and naturalist, and he d- writes a lot in this book about going to various areas in the city at various floors in certain buildings, and looking out and being able to say, "This is where this hill used to be," or, "This is the height of the canopy before." So if you're interested in that, you can definitely dig deep, and there's resources to really find exactly where and how the, the environment kind of looked at that time, so.

Speaker 4: [3:42] Yeah, and that's what's crazy about Seattle. I don't know if you guys realize, but we used to have a lot more hills, and they literally just took the hills out. Yep. They regraded the city.

Speaker 2: [3:54] Correct. We regraded it. Uh, the settlers, they … There was a drive to expand as much as possible, and in many ways, some hills were viewed as things that were impeding our growth. Um, and so there was a huge public support. This was not done against public opinion. The public wanted this to happen, and they encouraged, uh, the regrading of massive areas of land, the biggest, the most notable of which is Denny Hill, which is basically now the Denny Regrade area, the or the Denny Triangle, Belltown. Mm-hmm. Uh, that whole area, that was a hill called Denny Hill. It was about 240 feet tall. Geez. Today it's about 120, so they lopped off most, pretty much all of it. Wow. They flattened it, and, uh, there's really nothing that remains of that area anymore.

Speaker 4: [4:45] So did they regrade this 'cause they were just sick and tired of hearing their, their grandpa tell about, tell them about how they had to walk uphill both ways with no shoes in the snow to school every day?

Speaker 2: [4:54] Uh, there's actually amazing pictures showing trails going up the hill. Uh, to … There was a school up on the top. Um, I think it was called Denny School, and there's amazing pictures showing, like, this deer trail basically, like kids would walk up m- this crazy steep la- uh, side- … of the hill. So- Um, yes. But yeah, but no, in, in reality, they were actually very They s- they wanted the city to level it out, uh, to lower the land because they knew that their property values would in- would increase. And so- Hmm … the other thing, the city paid for the regrade in the public areas, in other words, the streets. The local homeowner, the property owner, had to pay out of pocket for the regrade underneath their land.

Speaker 5: [5:37] Whoa. So there were, there were buildings built on this land while they were- Hundreds

Speaker 2: [5:43] of buildings. Yeah, hundreds of buildings. It was actually a really nice development, kind of what you'd consider kind of like Queen Anne today. It was a residential suburb hill- Hmm … of the greater Seattle downtown. Um, there was a church up there. There … A really pretty school called Denny School, like I said. Um- And, uh, a lot of these things reali- you know, realize these things were built maybe 10 years before, five years before, because it was a new, new city. The Denny regrade occurred between 1898 and 1930. So these buildings were very new, and, uh, either they tore them down… A lot of them, they actually moved, which is f- amazing. Yeah. They moved them off the hill.

Speaker 4: [6:23] I remember seeing, at some point somewhere, pictures of, like, homes literally on stilts just- and the hill is just being cut out from around them, and the house is just sitting there on stilts. It looks like shipping crates almost that's holding it up. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2: [6:42] Yeah, and what… There's multiple pictures, and you can see them in sequence, where you'll see, uh, you know, before the regrade, the house, and then okay, they started the regrade, so now it's like 10 feet below the house, and they have like 10 feet of wood pallets beneath the house holding it up. And then three months later, it's a- 100 or 50 feet in the air, you know? Jeez. God, imagine

Speaker 3: [7:02] living in that house during the regrade.

Speaker 2: [7:04] Yeah. And so they had… There was a joke apparently. They, uh, s- p- this was a very much an enterprise and a professional enterprise. Um, and people would, uh, market themselves. You could, "I'll move your house. You won't even know it. You can still play pool." while the house is being moved.

Speaker 5: [7:21] Imagine showing that house.

Speaker 2: [7:26] Yeah.

Speaker 4: [7:26] This

Speaker 1: [7:27] house is for sale. Yeah. You have to go up seven ladders

Speaker 2: [7:30] to get in. Well, it's cra- none of the houses from Denny Hill w- exist today, not a single one- Oh … except one. Um, and I honestly, off the top of my head, I forget what it is. But, uh- Hmm … but it's, uh … But pretty much nothing remains, but, uh … Speaker 4: Yeah, it's crazy. So was that … I don't think this is true, but was that the only major regrade, or were there other ones as well? So there were several more, but they were all much lo- smaller in scale than the Denny regrade. The most notable of one of which, that I would mention, is Jackson Hill, which is really kind of where International District is, between First Hill and Beacon Hill. Mm-hmm. There used to be a hill there. The other thing, so regrade, it's not always about lowering the land height. It's also about leveling it or changing the slope. So if you're going up, uh, tor- uh, Olive Way towards Capitol Hill, that slope, um, u- used to be much steeper, and so they filled that in with land, with artificial landfill-

Speaker 3: [8:30] Hmm

Speaker 2: [8:30] to, to make it less dramatic. So we've really reshaped a lot of the grade, uh, up and down within Seattle. It's, uh, from where it was. And

Speaker 1: [8:40] yet we still don't know how to drive in the snow. It's true.

Speaker 2: [8:45] It's

Speaker 3: [8:45] true. Well, I mean, yeah, it's kind of crazy to think about, like, all the regrading that they've done, and it's still, like, super hilly here. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So to think about what it was like before they did the regrade- Yeah … is really interesting.

Speaker 2: [8:55] Mm-hmm. Yep. Um, what I find really fascinating is how they went about doing this because obviously the public opinion part is really fascinating. You would think, oh, the City of Seattle forced this on the residents, but they actually not only wanted it, they paid for it themselves. Um, which, you know, you think about that today- Mm-hmm … uh, it's just,

Speaker 1: [9:13] yeah. There's

Speaker 2: [9:14] no way that would pass- Shocking difference … environmental review these days. Shockingly different. Um, but how they did it. So, uh, the f- at the beginning they would use what is called a water cannon. They would just u- uh, put- crea- and it, this cannon was created in the Gold Rush, so this actually, like, coincided really well with the- Yeah development of Seattle obviously. But it was this huge cannon of water that shot water onto the hillslo- side and just let it erode away, kinda like a hose to sand. Mm-hmm. Um, so then you're probably wondering, "Well, how do you do that in the city? Where does that water go?" And initially what they did, they just let that water drain naturally on the streets. I'm sure, I haven't found this, but I'm sure there was some flooding and stuff that some- Oh, yeah … people's houses got ruined. Yeah. Um, towards the end of the regrades, they would use excavators. Obviously the city just within those 30 years from 1900 to 1930 was much more developed in those 30 years. They started using excavators. They built a conveyor belt that grabbed the sediment, took it to a barge on Elliott Bay, and it was a self, uh, flipping barge. It was a self-dumping barge. So basically it would, they'd fill this barge out, take it out a few hundred feet, open a ca- re- release a cap on the side of the barge, let water seep in- Out of it to half of it. Yeah. It would flip over- Whoa … and then the cap was then above the water, so they could drain it just by, you know- Yeah … it automatically drained. It's fascinating. Smart. Yeah. And they would just repeat that. If you look at a, a, a bathroom, uh, like a map of the, the land of the, of Elliott Bay, you'll see little spots where there's little, like, hills, and that's- Mm. That is Denny Hill. They did not use this land to fill in the tide flats south of Seattle, like all that land, the p- Like- Harbor Island and- Oh, yeah … SoDo, all of that is artificial, and they did not use really the hills that we

Speaker 4: [11:12] removed.

Speaker 1: [11:12] We'd rather use garbage so that it can liquefy and- … if we have an earthquake, we can all die. Yeah. All right, cool.

Speaker 2: [11:17] Nope. So- That's a whole

Speaker 4: [11:19] other conversation on the

Speaker 5: [11:21] area. Yeah, that's, I mean-

Speaker 4: [11:22] Super smart … Speaker 5: the hill, the, the regrade of those hills, it makes me think about what, what the Seattle real estate market could have been. Obviously in Seattle with a place, uh, in a place with such, um, natural beauty, hills equal- Mm-hmm

Speaker 5: [11:38] more desirable areas. Mm-hmm. So to think about, like, you know, what that could po- potentially could've been is kinda interesting.

Speaker 2: [11:46] Yeah, it's, uh, it's really fascinating to me. Um- There is one thing I wanna mention though. Sp- Spokane Street Interchange, which is really like where West Seattle connects to, uh, I-5- Mm-hmm the West Seattle Bridge. The- that little s- interchange going up to Beacon Hill, that was… That's artificial too. That was excavated out because there was a guy named Eugene Simple, and he wanted to, in 1901, build a canal from Duwamish River straight to Lake Washington. And obviously, looking at a map, it's pretty obvious we had a better idea, which was the Ship Canal to Lake Washington, and that's what won out. But he started buil- uh, drudging this, and that's actually a remnant of it.

Speaker 1: [12:29] So why Seattle versus, like, Port Townsend or Tacoma? Why did Seattle blow up and become the city when there were some, honestly, better geographical areas potentially?

Speaker 2: [12:45] Yeah, I mean, that's the million-dollar question, isn't it? Uh, y- obviously, it's not timber because every area-

Speaker 3: [12:52] Yeah

Speaker 2: [12:52] that you mentioned had timber. In fact, Seattle might have less because we're surrounded by water more, so we have Lake Washington. Uh, timber is part of it. Rail access was another one. Uh, we… Initially, the railroad ended in Tacoma because that's actually where the rail line company was based, so. But the City of Seattle fought tooth and nail, and we were able to get more residents and build up more, uh, uh, more population quicker. And so very quickly, the railroad made it up to Seattle as opposed to ending in Tacoma, which probably would've changed- Mm … quite dramatically the growth in Seattle if it had never moved. Um, the other thing people don't realize, though, Seattle actually has access to coal. So Newcastle, Coal Creek, that is named after this. Newcastle, uh, produced a ton of coal. In fact, for several years, Newcastle accounted for 20% of all the coal produced in the West Coast. Jeez. Um, and that really separated Seattle apart from, uh, those other cities you mentioned. And lastly, we are in a good geographic location with a deepwater bay that was very easy to- Yeah kind of build and allow shipping and that sort of thing. So we kind of had a lot of things, but i- I think what it really comes down to, though, is the, the population and the politics. They really were driven to make Seattle great, and they l- didn't even let a hill stop them.

Speaker 1: [14:19] That's insane. The history of Seattle is just so cool. Like, it's so, I don't know if it's super different, but it sure seems like it's really different than most cities.

Speaker 2: [14:29] A- what I find out, uh, y- there's a picture for all of it.

Speaker 1: [14:32] I know.

Speaker 2: [14:32] That's what crazy. So any of the things I mention, you can find pictures. Mm. Go to MOHAI, go online, there's stuff. You know- Yeah it's fascinating.

Speaker 1: [14:39] Yeah, that's crazy. All right, so you guys are probably wondering who the hell we are. Um, I'd like to intro who we are. So my name's Christian Nossum. Uh, I have Jason Saldarriaga, Anthony Chimenti, and Charlotte Reynolds here as well, and we all are Seattle real estate agents. We work for the Nossum & Nossum group. Um, and we just love Seattle. We love to teach people about, uh, about the area, the different neighborhoods. Um, so why don't we just do a quick little intro. So Jason, um, tell us about yourself and why, why you love Seattle.

Speaker 2: [15:15] So Seattle was founded in … No, I'm kidding.

Speaker 1: [15:18] Kinda recap.

Speaker 2: [15:20] I love Seattle because of the photographs. No, uh, yeah, it was, uh, I'm Jason Saldarriaga. I was born in Austin, Texas, and kinda grew up in the South. Moved up here after college because I had come to Seattle, um, on a vacation, and I told myself if I ever got the chance to choose where I could live, which you rarely get the opportunity to do that in your life. N- normally you're dictated based on what job you get. Mm-hmm. Um, but if I did get that chance, I would move up here because of the natural beauty and the people. I just loved everything about it. My degree is in geography, so I love so much about the water and all that stuff in this area. Yeah. So.

Speaker 1: [15:58] I could see that with the geology degree.

Speaker 2: [16:00] Yeah. And quite frankly, I wake up every morning and I just look out my window. I'm looking out the window right now, looking at the amazing mountains and- Mm-hmm … puts a smile on my face, so. And the lake. Yep.

Speaker 1: [16:11] Anthony, what about you? What do you love about Seattle?

Speaker 5: [16:14] Um, so similar to Jason, I mean, I, I've, well, unlike Jason, I, I did, um, I did grow up here. I've lived here my whole life, and, um, the one thing that I really enjoy about not only Seattle, but just this part of the country in general, is, uh, there's a real connection, um, to nature. And I mean, obviously everywhere you go there's another angle of a beautiful view or- Mm-hmm … you know, whatever it is that, that you'll see. Um, and so that's one thing. Having traveled other places, um, in the US, it's, it's, uh, it's something that's unique to this area.

Speaker 4: [16:54] Definitely true.

Speaker 5: [16:55] Yeah.

Speaker 4: [16:56] Charlotte

Speaker 3: [16:57] So the connection to nature is a pretty hot topic it sounds like Because I too have to agree. It's just really cool to be able to, to live in a city environment and then drive, like, 45 minutes to an hour and just be in the mountains and- Mm-hmm be able to go hiking and out to the lakes and all that stuff. Um, and I grew up here as well, so just kind of being brought up around that is just, hits very close to home. Um, and I also, uh, have a really soft spot in my heart for the grunge movement, so- … being able to live where that kind of came from, I know it was a little bit before my time, um, but that kinda makes me feel a little bit closer to that, so that's pretty cool.

Speaker 2: [17:34] Very

Speaker 1: [17:34] cool. Yeah. Yeah. That is cool. And I'm Christian Nossum, and yeah, I was also born and raised here. Uh, my dad was born and raised in Norway. Uh, met my mom, they moved to the Midwest. They had my older brother in Minnesota, and then they decided that they did not enjoy the winters or summers there, and decided to move out here, and, uh, and then I was born. So, um, yeah, born and raised here. It's, uh, uh, again, it is just gorgeous. I mean, you really can't beat Seattle. The, the proximity, the, the green, the blue, the snow, the, the sky, the clean air. I mean- The desert The desert. Yeah. And I mean- Mm-hmm … uh, we have great food. We have great access to seafood. Um, we have great wine, great beer. Um- Great music Great music, great coffee. Uh, I mean, there's just so much to love about Seattle. Absolutely. And that's why there's so many- It's sold Yeah. That's why there's so many companies that are headquartered here too. It's easier, yeah. Yeah. So, um, so Jason, thanks for telling us a little history of Seattle. Uh, I didn't know a lot of those things. That initial first picture that was ever taken from 1860 or whenever that photo was, uh, you guys really gotta look that up. Just Google it. You'll find it. It's crazy. And to think that that was, what, Cherry and James Street, and you're looking at Third Ave. I mean, and Third Ave is a forest. Yeah. Like, that's just insane.

Speaker 2: [19:08] Yep.

Speaker 1: [19:09] Um, so like we said, we are real estate agents. Um, if you're listening, everyone always asks us what's going on in the market. Um, so why don't we tell you a little bit real quick. Um- What is happening? So for the most part, the market, it, and we're, we're in, uh, what are we? End of March right now. So the market over really since the snow melted has picked up, and picked up dramatically pretty dang fast. So we went from really no inventory in the second week of February when the snow was sitting on the ground, and we were all hunkered down, all the way to now when, you know, we've had twice as much inventory as that time. Um, offers are becoming much more competitive again. Uh, and we were facing last, last year from May until the end of the year, the market really slowed. Um-

Speaker 2: [20:09] Yeah, the last April was the height of the market- Mm … 2018. The median sales price was 750, 750,000. And it o- since that time, kinda just kept suppressing, kinda dipping ever so slightly each month. Yeah. Hit a low of 640,000 in January, and shot way up in February. It was actually the largest month over month increase in median sales price in Seattle history. Um-

Speaker 1: [20:34] Yeah,

Speaker 2: [20:34] which is crazy … I, I assume part of that is the snow, but, um, also I think a lot of people are realizing, "Oh, I shouldn't necessarily wait." Because they were kinda waiting for the, what's going on with this price? Should I wait until it stabilizes or what? And I think a lot of people, there's more houses on the market, and even more so there's a ton more buyers. So, uh, things have gotten more competitive. Kind of what we were used to last year at the height of the market.

Speaker 1: [20:56] And interest rates are at 18-month lows too.

Speaker 2: [20:59] That's always

Speaker 1: [21:00] a good thing. That's, that's a big, big difference. I mean, just December rates were much, much higher, um, than they are right now. So that helps the economy as well, uh, at least the real estate economy. So that's kinda what's going on in the market. It's pretty, uh… it's picked up quite a bit. There's multiple offers on a lot of things. It's competitive again for the most part. Although, there is still the opportunity for you to get a deal surprisingly. There are some homes that have been sitting on the market that, um, maybe they had accepted an offer and then the buyers backed out during their inspection for some reason. Um, there could honestly be nothing wrong with the house, and they still backed out. Um, but it's back on the market, and once that happens, buyers think that something's wrong with the house, and that's not necessarily true. So there still were really still in this weird zone where there's some homes that have been on the market for 100 days, and they're great homes, but no one's looking at them because they've been on the market for 100 days. And next

Speaker 2: [22:02] door is a property going in-

Speaker 1: [22:03] Mm-hmm … five days with- Exactly … 10 offers. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. For 100 grand over or 50 grand over or whatever. So, um, Jason, what are we, what are we hoping to get out of this show? What are we hoping to get out of this Awesome in Seattle podcast? What can people expect?

Speaker 2: [22:18] Yeah, I mean, honestly, there's four of us here, and we are all passionate about Seattle. Yeah. So I think, uh, the first and foremost line item here is that, uh, you're gonna, you should expect just our passion to come through and us to speak to the various interesting aspects of Seattle that, um, speak to us. You know, I like history, I like data, so I'll probably speak a lot about that. Um, we'll probably speak about the grunge movement. Um- Also. You know, the, you know, we have ar- uh, people living in different areas of the city, Bothell. Um, you know, so you'll hear a lot of different things. There's so much change happening, um, with light rail, with different growth, um, aspects of the city. You know, I think we'll be speaking about a lot of that.

Speaker 1: [23:04] Yeah. I think so too. And we do, we do a lot of home buyer classes, so we, we are really… I mean, in order to teach those classes, we have to stay up with the market and know what's going on, and the fact that, uh, we're on a TV show called The American Dream TV, uh, we're all, I'm featured as one of the agents in Seattle. There's only 10 agents, I believe. Um, I mean, you gotta know your stuff, and you gotta be good at what you do. Um, and so, I mean, we're always paying attention to market. We're always paying attention to stats. We're always paying attention to, what does it take to get your offer accepted, and is the market insane or not or what? Um, so, uh, if anyone wants to follow us, uh, please subscribe. If you're into Instagram, that whole deal, uh, you can also find us there. Awesome_in_Seattle is our Instagram handle. Um, we also, that's for the show. We also have our, our own, which is Awesome Nossum. That's N-O-S-S-U-M. Uh, that's mine, and these guys have their own as well. But, uh-

Speaker 2: [24:11] Yeah, you'll see us featured on there constantly. We're always-

Speaker 1: [24:13] Exactly … Speaker 2: together- Yep … in each other's DMs. Can you tag me in that? Exactly. We always gotta tag each other. So, uh, that is all. That is it. Um, thank you everybody for, uh, for listening, and thanks guys for, for hosting this with me. This is fun. Yeah.

Speaker 3: [24:30] Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 5: [24:31] Awesome. Definitely.

Speaker 1: [24:32] We'll see you guys next time.