Classes teach people how to find out about neighborhoods

While gleaming condos alter Seattle's landscape at an alarming rate, Bob Woolworth watched a different type of change in his Columbia City neighborhood.

"The buildings are the same" as when he and his wife moved in 20 years ago, Woolworth, 49, said recently, standing in his 1908 wood-framed house. "But the people are different."

Mostly, younger families have moved into the neighborhood since the late '80s, when Columbia City was a hot spot and the houses were still affordable, he said. There wasn't much of a supermarket, or a hardware store; these days there are new bars and restaurants and more life on Rainier Avenue South, he said.

But Woolworth didn't think the people who'd lived there -- and their stories -- should be forgotten after they died or moved away.

So he took a class on historical research at the Museum of History & Industry and studied the man who lived in the house before him, Bill Olssen.

"When I first met Bill, I recall his overall appearance being neat and crisp," Woolworth wrote in his paper for class. "As I saw him more often, I could reliably state he preferred dark dress slacks and brown oxfords, with a waist-length sweater or jacket over a light-colored button shirt with a collar. Completing his outfit, Bill wore a linen or wool cap with a small brim at the top."

The classes, offered several times a year, attract about 15 people each; some students try to write books or magazine articles, but the classes also are relevant for people such as Woolworth, especially at a time when life and the city are changing so rapidly, said Lorraine McConaghy, the museum's historian.

To McConaghy, projects such as Woolworth's, or another that delved into the history of a haunted house in Georgetown, are the point of the classes she started 10 years ago.

Her father was a truck driver and her mother was a waitress, and when McConaghy got her master's in history, she found that most historians' dense academic research doesn't include people like her family.

Or like Olssen.

For a variety of other reasons, interest in doing historical research seems to be growing.

Steve Excel, Washington's assistant secretary of state, said more people are trying to find out about family history, in large part because the Internet can make finding the information easier.

Christine Palmer, preservation advocate for Historic Seattle, said interest in the classes she teaches twice a year on historic preservation is fueled by the rapid changes in the city.

"People are threatened by changes they cannot control. When a property they have loved for years in their neighborhood turns up with a proposed demolition sign, they become concerned and want to protect it," she said.

For Woolworth, tracking down Olssen -- and hearing his stories -- made him see his house differently.

Olssen, who is blind, told Woolworth that he'd worked as a "turner" in the '40s and '50s at a glove company that had been on Rainier Avenue South.

Apparently, Woolworth learned, glove companies stitched gloves inside out, then hired employees to turn them inside in again -- turners.

Woolworth wrote in the paper that former heavyweight boxing champion "Jack Dempsey once toured the factory and made a show of repeating each employee's name at the conclusion of his visit after having heard it only once.

" 'Not bad for a fellow who had been knocked around a bunch!' enthused Olssen," Woolworth wrote.

Now, Woolworth said, he imagines Olssen playing cribbage in his home's breakfast nook after coming home from turning gloves right side out -- or having met the heavyweight champion of the world.

LEARN MORE

The Museum of History & Industry offers several "Nearby History" classes each year for people interested in learning how to develop history projects. Research classes are in January and February; oral history classes are in April and November; and writing classes are in October, November and December.

The next class, "An Introduction to Oral History Interviewing," is 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday.

The fee is $30 for MOHAI members and $40 for others who preregister. Registering on the day of the class costs $5 more. To register, call 206-324-1126.

For information, call museum historian Lorraine McConaghy at 206-324-1685, Ext. 23, or e-mail her at lorraine.mcconaghy@seattlehistory.org.