Building History

Origins

The original structures were built by Hiram Green in 1926 with several additions over the years. It began as a 20’x21’ gas station with a large awning and 2 10’x10’ brick structures with an awing connecting them.

White Center History

Just a little history nerd tangent for ya - Hiram Green is one of the founders of White Center. In fact, the only reason it’s called White Center and not Green Center is due to the fact that Hiram lost a coin toss with co-founder, George White.

Hiram Green’s contributions to this community were huge. Hiram built what is known today as the Southgate Roller Rink as the “White Center Boxing Arena” as he was a known fan of the sport. His daughter and her husband reopened it as the “Southgate Skate Center” in 1937. Hiram, along with other White Center founders, also helped fund the first municipally owned streetcar line in the Seattle area called the “Highland Park and Lake Burien Streetcar Line” which ran from present day SoDo to Burien. Hiram also built the first White Center Theater, drugstore, and bakery along with several homes for his 8 children. The Rozella Building, our neighbor, was built by Hiram at the same time as our building. It’s one of the earliest and most intact commercial buildings in the White Center neighborhood and hosts a Barber Shop and an awesome plant shop called Terraplanted currently.

We’re so humbled to be the caretakers for this historic building! Hiram Green originally settled in Fremont, investing in North Seattle and the Green River Valley, prior to buying 5 acres of land in what would become White Center’s commercial district. We can’t help but feel an alignment with the original owner of this building as we grow our business and invest in this community. Needless to say, we’ve got some pretty large shoes to fill!

Interested in learning more about the area? HistoryLink.Org has a great article about White Center!

Some History About the Building

The larger main building operated previously a gas station from 1926-1944 then upholstery repair shop from 1944-1966. It operated as Center Tool Rental since 1966, serving the community for over 50 years.

The smaller structure has hosted a number of businesses throughout the years. It’s been a car battery and tire shop and an auto repair shop. The front hosts a 10’x10’ office space which has been a lawyer’s office, a barber shop, and a rubber stamp shop. This building also hosts the bathroom. We plan to call the building "The Tool Crib" as an homage to the previous owners and their impact on the community.

Moving Forward…

Investing in this building is a life changing event for us. If you've been to our Fremont tasting room, you know that it's a very small space which limits the amount of patrons we can serve. With this new building, we're hoping to give better access for our patrons from South Seattle and to become a part of the growing and diverse neighborhood of White Center.

White Center is truly a unique part of Seattle that we love and live in. Mr. B actually grew up in this area and we could not be more excited to become a part of it!  We plan on making this building an inclusive safe-space community center where everyone feels at home.

We’re looking to host as many community events as we’re able to at NO COST to makers and artists. We’d love to become a place where artists and makers grow and thrive.