Seattle history, and a mystery, sealed in walls of Ballard home

Old homes are sought after for their character. But sometimes, if you’re lucky, you can find more than mint hardwoods underneath the old shag carpet. That’s what Ballard’s Laurie Zettler found out.

The Zettler family bought their Ballard home in 2000. It was built in 1926 and as it turns out, it had an old soul.

“Since we first got there, we’ve discovered over and over, little treasures hidden here and there,” Zettler said. “It’s a pretty interesting house, I think, because it’s many decades old but I think only two families lived there before us.”

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The first family was the Anderson’s. Zettler didn’t know much about them when they moved in. The second family, however, the Mikkelsens, left quite an impression.

“Every wall in the basement was plastered with receipts and, kind of, funny mementos of their trips between 1940-ish and 1955,” Zettler said.

“The entire wall was covered with these crazy receipts, and notes, and old pictures,” she said. “And there was a letter, I think it was a TWA pilot who wrote to them, apologizing for turbulence in the ’50s when they were flying to Fiji.”

The wall was so special, they had to preserve it. The Zettlers built panels over it, instead of tearing it down.

The family made a few cosmetic fixes over the 19 years they spent in the house. Nothing major. But now the Zettlers’ kids have gotten older and were recently wanting their own space. So the family decided to tear out the baby room to build an addition.

“They were demoing this baby room … it’s kind of an attic space, a roof-lined room in the back of the house,” Zettler said. “They were demoing out the walls and … our contractor said that he was down in the backyard and saw among all the dirt and rocks and stuff they were shoveling around, a piece of paper. It looked like it fluttered down from the wall that is now gone.”

A closer look revealed an unexpected treasure from a 10-year-old — a book of prayers and a simple Mother’s Day letter from a boy. It was a remnant of the original homeowners, the Anderson family. It was a Mother’s Day message from 1936, discovered again one week before Mother’s Day 2019.

“It was on that school paper, that sort of prelined (paper), it’s in pen, it’s in cursive, it’s in some sort of cute cursive,” Zettler said. “It just says ‘May 11, 1936, Dean Anderson, language 4A, Mothers Day. Mothers day is on Sunday. It is the day when we give flowers to mother. My mother got a nice bouquet.”

“I loved the note, and I love history, and I love the history of the house, and I love my own family history,” she said. “And my first thought when I saw this note was I had to get it to his family. I felt very driven to find out who this was and figure out if there was anybody I could give this note to.”

After some research, Zettler found out that Dean Anderson’s parents were both from Sweden. She thinks he was an only child. Dean went to Ballard High School. He played trumpet in the school band. He entered the draft in 1944 when he was 18.

“He must of have served, because he is buried in Portland in a military grave site,” Zettler said. “The only other thing I could find is that he was married to someone named Norma. He worked as a sales clerk and maybe a driver at a company called HB Company, that’s actually right around the corner from our house. Now it’s a home — we found the address and it’s a house.”

Upon sharing her story on social media, Zettler discovered that many of her neighbors have found other interesting pieces of history in their Seattle homes.

“Somebody said they found a bottle of whiskey and a newspaper from the ’40s,” Zettler said. “And they decided to keep it in the wall. And they added to it — a bottle of their home brew and a newspaper from 2000-whatever. And they packed it in with the other stuff and resealed the wall.”

For Zettler, it is a reminder of Ballard’s history, during a time when Seattle is under going massive change, altering the very character of the area.

“Ballard is changing a lot,” Zettler said. “It kind of crushes me every time I see one of these old houses ripped down. I feel good that we’ve invested in ours, to make it hang around for another 100 years and maybe another family or two can live here.”

“I do think it’s really sweet when these old houses hang around and keep their treasures and their personality and you just add to that,” she said.