Cities born during the Boeing boom

By DEBERA CARLTON HARRELL
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

To fully appreciate how the once-rural and timbered foothills of the Issaquah Alps unfolded into a quilt-like pattern of pretty homes, looping streets and cul-de-sacs, it helps to remember The Boeing Co. in the 1950s. The rapidly growing aerospace company needed workers who, in turn, needed homes. Where better to locate, developers figured, than the lovely hills just north of Renton and south of Bellevue?

Longtime residents of Newport Hills recall these family-friendly, "Pleasantville" days where schools couldn't be built fast enough and entire neighborhoods were born seemingly overnight.

George Weiss, pharmacist at Newport Hills Drugs, remembers attending "12 different schools in 12 years without ever moving" during the boom and school redistricting.

"This area was a real draw because of the schools, the closeness to Boeing and a strong, cohesive sense of community," recalls Weiss. "I don't think that's changed. It's like we're on an island, close to everything, only geographically isolated because there are only a couple ways up the hill."

Joan Abel, manager of St. Margaret's Thrift Shop south of Factoria, recalls her 87-family Newport Woods neighborhood, with group cleanups, bowling parties, wine tastings and other social events. They even chartered a bus to visit Leavenworth.

"There wasn't anything our neighbors couldn't ask of each other; everyone looked out for one another," Abel says. "My neighbors helped raise my kids."

Schools are still a major focus of life here, particularly in Newport Hills. Somerset Elementary, at the top of an adjoining hill but still part of what Bellevue planners call the Newport Hills or Tyee "sub-area," in 1997 was the top-scoring school in the state on the new fourth grade Washington Essential Learnings test.

Forest Ridge and Eastside Catholic are regionally renowned private schools. Newport High School, one of Bellevue's oldest high schools, is consistently strong academically as well as in athletics.