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12512 Marine View Drive, SW
We moved here in June of 1946. This house was approximately two years old. We bought it from a man who was a Boeing worker. It was so far from the schools and everything that they gave up and moved back to West Seattle. The grade school here at the time was Mount View. The roads were mud – that’s all it was. And by the way, the top of my driveway was level with the road at that time, and there was just a great big hole over there. (to the west). Then the contractor (Buckholtz) built that house and kept lowering the road, using the dirt to fill up that hole and bringing his house up to the level. He had the bulldozers. We had about a two-foot bank, when we moved here, all along the front. In fact, cars thinking this was the main road would drive clear up to our garage before they realized they were on a private road. There’s been a constant adjusting of our driveway.
I was born and raised in Riverton, now Tukwila. There’s a book out now about Tukwila and my parents are in it. Paul ‘s parents had a chicken ranch in Tukwila, and we met a t Foster High School. My husband worked at the telephone company (1930) when we were first married. But then he got laid off, so at that time during the Depression, the last one hired was the first one laid off. But he was lucky because they recommended him to a General Electric friend. So he joined GE and was with them for 31 years. He ended up as a Regional Manager, Small Products. He was one of the few non-Boeing people in the neighborhood.
During the War there were not many people here. There were the Tices and Powells and the Roberts. Roberts lived across the street from Grotles, next door to Butlers. I was working as a secretary for the FBI until I got pregnant. Supposedly I was going to go back to work for them, but because of the economy they combined the Portland and Seattle offices, and went to Portland. It was 1932. So then I never worked after that. Those were the days when you stayed home to raise the kids.
After we were married we moved to West Seattle and lived in two different places there. My husband wanted waterfront - that was his real goal. His aunt and uncle lived on Beach Drive so that was his dream. But we couldn’t afford it, so then we wanted a view. We got ahold of this place. We dealt directly with the gentleman who built the house. When we bought this we could have bought the adjoining lot for $1,500, but we just didn’t have the money. We borrowed on my husband’s insurance policy to get this place. We didn’t know the Standrings at all, I think Burke was in charge at the time. There was a little tiny sawmill down in the ravine, and I think Burke cut and sold the timber there. Yes, I saw the mill In fact we could see all the way up the ravine to Ambaum where the alcoholic treatment center is now. Burke had cleared it with that little sawmill there. They took almost all the virgin timber out of there. I suppose he planned to sell all the property down there. At the time we didn’t even think anyone would ever build up there. We used to pick blackberries up on “Goat Hill” and we couldn’t even walk up there. How could anyone ever build a house up there?