Originally published Saturday, January 21, 2012 at 7:00 PM
Reunion for Seattle's Riverside neighborhood Jan. 28
Riverside is one of Seattle's neighborhoods uniquely shaped by its hills and waterways. Nestled between the Duwamish River on the east and Pigeon Point on the west, Riverside comes to a point at the north end, where since 1983 it is hidden below the high bridge to West Seattle.
COURTESY OF HAZEL VINCENT
THEN: Propping the deer's head on the barrel of his rifle, Riverside resident John Edgar Vincent poses with his fall quarry, circa 1946.
JEAN SHERRARD
NOW: Reared in the Riverside neighborhood, Jerry Vandenberg returns to the Vincent driveway to repeat the Vincent family snapshot about 65 years later. The top of the closed railroad bascule bridge on the Duwamish Waterway is evident on the left of both scenes.
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AS BARBARA Vincent Johnson remembers it, her older sister, Hazel Vincent Munro, excitedly snapped this askew picture of their father, John Edgar Vincent, soon after he returned from a hunting trip to the Okanogan around 1946. Her machinist dad and younger brother "drove at night to keep the meat cool. The catch was butchered on the oak table in the family dining room, wrapped and then sped to cold storage on the waterfront below the Pike Place Market."
For the Vincent family, deer was the "meat of necessity," along with backyard chickens that were no longer laying eggs. Okanogan venison was especially sweet, their dad explained, because the deer there dined on apples and grain.
The Vincent family lived in Riverside, one of Seattle's neighborhoods uniquely shaped by its hills and waterways. Nestled between the Duwamish River on the east and Pigeon Point on the west, Riverside comes to a point at the north end, where since 1983 it is hidden below the high bridge to West Seattle.
At noon on Saturday, Jan. 28, representatives of the Vincent family and about 60 other families with deep roots here will be "Coming Home to Riverside." It is a celebration about five years in the making, thanks in large measure to Frank Zuvela and brothers Jerry and Ron Vandenberg, who built the Riverside Plaza on a triangular lot donated by the Budinich family. The plaza, to be dedicated Saturday, is a monument to the neighborhood and its families.
Zuvela, now 89, leads yearly walking tours of this tight-knit neighborhood. Like the majority of Riverside's fishing families, his forebears came from Croatia, arriving in 1904.
Come see the plaza for yourself on dedication day at Marginal Place Southwest and West Marginal Way Southwest.
Check out Paul Dorpat and Jean Sherrard's blog at www.pauldorpat.com.
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