Today Ballard Avenue is known for its boutiques, trendy bars and popular restaurants. Decades ago the strip housed welders, mechanics and a bank.
SeattlePI.com has compiled a great 50-image slideshow of old town Ballard then and now, giving us a glimpse at what the area was like in the early to mid-1900’s.
A look back at Ballard Avenue
![](https://www.myballard.com/wp-content/uploads/2024-My-Ballard-Tile-Ad-Troop-100.png")
Great photos. Acme Electric and the Melody Tavern. Think when I visited Ballard in the late ’90s the Melody Tavern was called the New Melody Tavern.
Baaah, the early-1900s is when all the shuppies (shingle makers) moved in and ruined the place with their fancy ‘telegraph’ machines and ‘horseless’ carriages. I prefer Ballard the way it was before!
Why do all the photo’s have “Gilman Pk” written on them?
Why do all the photo’s have “Gilman Pk” written on them?
Those were photos from the assessor’s office, and “Gilman Park” was the “addition”. It is part of the legal description for the parcel. For instance 5215 Ballard Ave NW is listed as “GILMAN PARK ADD PCL A SEATTLE BLA ….”
Here’s a little link to a bit about Gilman Park (you’ll have to fix the space before the dot com: http://gilmanpark.wordpress .com/about/
Every time I changed to a new photo the ads popped up! Â
Its weird seeing Ballard Avenue with street lamps and no trees.
That’s the PI’s model for revenue. A new page for every photo in a slideshow means that they can count all those ads as new views. Why do you think what was once a genuine news source has devolved into a bunch of celebrity photos?
I didn’t get past the fourth photo before giving up.
That’s the way the Scandinavians liked it. Cut down all the trees.
Google chrome is the answer to your problems.
we are fortunate to have so many old buildings left in ballard. cool slideshow!