Fortunately this was the price of new MLT homes in the 1950’s, not how far current prices have dropped.
Last week I showed a photo of a gas station in Mountlake Terrace from the 1950’s and some readers on Facebook thought it was the Shell station on Ballinger Way/244th. Though not technically in the city limits it seems to be the best guest. See the aerial photo at the end of this post to see the location.
Here is a great photo of a billboard advertising new Mountlake Terrace home prices starting at $5,999. Unless you know where Conner’s Sno-King Mink farm was located in 1951, there is nothing in this photo that would tell us where in the city the sign was located. The photo was taken in October of 1951, right when many of the small cinderblock homes in the Town Center neighborhood were being built. So the billboard was likely in the south part of town pointing people north along the 56th Ave W corridor.
Image courtesy Tacoma Public Library.
Holy cow… I see my childhood house. That is amazing.
I love, love love these historic photos. More, please?
Definitely planning on posting more on these old photos. I am going to try and make it a once a week thing.
These old pics are really cool!
I need to stop by the History Museum tomorrow, I bought my MLT home in 2005 and it’s from the 30’s. My neighbour across the street has lived here since the early 60’s and told me my home was an orchard and was one of the few homes around here at the time.
I guess it’s known as the orchard or farm house? I haven’t really looked into it yet but just recently began tearing into the floor of my mother in law house. I was told this house used to be a pump house for the orchard, I ended up finding a cover for the well and pulled it up and it’s huge and very old by the looks of it.
It’s about 70′ deep to the top of the water and about 36″ all the way down, it’s quite intimidating. I’m not sure if the well was made in the 30’s or if it’s older. So I now need to do some research.
Keep posting pictures, and here is some links to the photos of the well.
https://heezy.com/images/well00s.jpg
https://heezy.com/images/well01s.jpg
https://heezy.com/images/well02s.jpg
https://heezy.com/images/well03s.jpg
Wow, you must have one of the oldest houses in the city. I’m curious, where is it located? You can email me at dustindk@mltnews.com if you don’t want to disclose the address online.
There is a great book out there about the history of Alderwood Manor, which was what much of MLT was called before it was developed. you may even find photos that include your home. You can view the entire book online at Google Book Search here https://bit.ly/8lqLln.
Let me know if the people at the History Museum are able te give you any further information, would love to hear about it.
Would be great to do a story about your home once we can dig up some more info.
My husband and I looked at satellite pictures to try to understand the above picture. The Shell station is now on 205th and Ballinger Way (what used to be 244th). The sign is indeed on the 56th Avenue corridor. It used to stand across the street from the Arco (which the Arco wasn’t there in this picture) on 205th and 56th. Which means the mink farm was in between 205th (244th) and 228th on 56th Ave.
Thanks for pointing that out, Hollie. I knew that someone had to remember. How long have you lived in MLT?
🙂 I didn’t remember. My husband and I looked at satellite pictures. If you look at the picture you put on the site against google map, mapquest, etc., you can definitely pick out Ballinger Way and 244th, then all the other little details work themselve out. The historic picture was before I-5.
Hello! I am looking to possibly use one of the photos for a project. Please let us know if you can help with obtaining the image of the billboard that show the historical home pricing and the Mink farm in the background. We were hoping to use this image as artwork in the new Mountlake Terrace station apartment buildings we are working on.
Please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you so much!