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Building History

In 1890, Brothers William H. and Alexander F. McEwan founded the Seattle Cedar Lumber Manufacturing Company Mill on marshy land in the then-independent town of Ballard. (Ballard became incorporated into Seattle in 1907.) In 1904, A.F. McEwan was the president and W.H. McEwan treasurer of the company. Its Ballard lumber mill operated on Shilshole Avenue at the foot of 1st Avenue West, while the company also had a downtown office in Room #507 of the Lumber Exchange Building. (See Seattle, Washington, City Directory, 1904, p. 1235.)

A number of mills operated in Ballard by 1905, including the Campbell Mill, Canal Lumber Company, and the Stimson Mill, but the McEwan's Seattle Cedar Lumber Manufacturing Company became the largest producer of cedar shingles in the world.

The construction of the Lake Washington Ship Canal and Hiram Chittenden Locks in 1916-1917 caused serious flooding to the area around the mill, necessitating that the US Army Corps of Engineers excavate a 20-foot dike around the factory to protect it.

The McEwans managed their mill at a time when old-growth cedar--cut mostly on the Olympic Peninsula--was abundant. They could acquire logs cheaply and not have to invest in forest lands to maintain their supplies. As time went on, however, this model of the independent mill buying logs from other sources became less feasible, as forests were denuded. In the Oil Crisis year of 1973, this scarcity became intolerable for Black.

Alteration

The plant was electrified in 1923.

Demolition

The Seattle Cedar Lumber Manufacturing Company's Ballard Mill was destroyed by spectacular fire on 05/20/1958. This fire, one of the most intense and destructive in Seattle's history, destroyed about one-third of the buildings and equipment and 7-million board-feet of lumber, totaling $1 million in losses. (The fire destroyed a huge lumber yard, machine shop, 7 drying kilns and a finishing mill.) According to Seattle Times reports, flames rose 1,500 feet in the air and singed paint off the nearby Ballard Bridge; fist-sized chunks (and larger) of burnt cedar fell back to earth throughout the neighborhood, some falling as far as two miles from the mill. The Seattle Fire Department fireboat, the Duwamish, participated in extinguishing the blaze; this craft was capable of pumping 10,000 gallons per minute from its forward monitor, but because of the incredible heat generated by this fire, the crew found that its water stream vaporized before it could smother flames. (See John M. Rose, "Historic Ships on a Lee Shore: The Fireboat Duwamish," Sea History, 109: Winter 2004-2005, p. 31.) By mid-1961, William McEwan Black, the founders' grandson (and grand-nephew) retooled the antiquated mill with new equipment: 16 kilns with automatic controls, a 19-tray electronic log sorter, and mechanical stacking equipment. Equipment modernization eliminated 40 manual labor jobs by 05/04/1961. (See Boyd Burchard, "Tough Job Greets Rebuilt Lumber Firm," Seattle Times, 05/04/1961, p. 42.) William Black operated the plant in its final years winding its production down from 100,000 board feet to about 20,000 in the Fall 1972. At this time, 200 workers lost their jobs. With supplies of cedar logs from the Olympic Peninsula becoming increasingly scarce and expensive, economic prospects diminished by 05/1973, that Black made the decision to close the plant entirely. (See Charles Aweeka, "Cedar firm to silence its saws," Seattle Times, 03/12/1973, p. A2.)

PCAD id: 15855