Neighbors are talking about the upcoming 5K walk and fun run through Alameda, planned for Saturday, June 1st at 9:00 a.m., and since participants will be traversing many layers of history, we thought we’d offer up some insights about where to look for interesting clues to the past.

Looking southwest at the corner of NE 24th and Fremont, early 1920s. Note delivery bike visible behind power pole. This is the building that today houses Garden Fever and Lucca.

But first, the details (you still have time to register): It’s called the Alameda Monarch 5K and it begins at 9:00 a.m., Saturday, June 1st in the Garden Fever parking lot at NE 23rd and Fremont. Organizer Marcelle Furrow-Kiebler named this the “Alameda Monarch” to celebrate local butterfly habitat improvement done by neighbors, school children and volunteers. Marcelle and the Alameda Neighborhood Association hope the Monarch becomes an annual event that draws neighbors outside to do some neighboring and get some exercise. You can sign up for the free event via Eventbrite. Here’s the link for more information.

This year’s route takes participants out of the Garden Fever parking lot headed north on 23rd, around the corner on Ridgewood and up the 21st Avenue hill to the top. On this first leg, you traverse right through the middle of the Homedale Tract, so visualize the orchards and dairies that were right here until the early 1920s. One long-time resident of the neighborhood remembered it like this:

“Before 1921 and 1922 when city lots were staked out, much of this was an apple orchard, the remnants of which can still be seen in some back yards. The trees grew right down to the edge of the Fremont Street [side]walk and there were several old buildings on the place, residential and otherwise, including a large farmhouse painted light brown which was located close to Fremont in the vicinity of 21st Avenue. This house dated back to the 1890s or before and people lived there in apparent comfort in a rural setting, yet in the midst of modern houses that [were being built] in all directions.”

Once up on top, the route runs east on Skidmore, then south on NE 32nd Place to Alameda (which used to be know as “The Alameda”, where you’ll pass a couple of Alameda’s National Historic Register properties: the Edward and Bertha Keller House and the Thomas Prince House.

Back down the Alameda Ridge via Regents Drive to Edgehill Drive, which used to be called Laura Avenue…the name is still stamped into the curb, can you find it?

When you get down to the bottom of the hill at NE 30th and Fremont, look off to your right one block to the southwest corner of 29th and Fremont, and you’ll have a good view of the Pearson Pine, one of our areas most notable Heritage Trees, planted in 1895 when this was part of the Pearson dairy.

The route continues south on 30th and then turns west on Stanton, right through the heart of Gleneyrie, which was one of the early subdivisions in this part of the neighborhood, and also a place that had a pond and some pretty nice topography. Imagine rolling hills and a wetland.

When runners and walkers turn back north on NE 24th on their way back where they started, they’ll travel squarely in the footprint of the old Broadway Streetcar (1910-1948) that was once such a signature part of life here in the neighborhood. Visualize the overhead electric lines running up the block and listen for the echoes of the rattling, clanking streetcar.

Broadway Streetcar 568 at the end of the line, 29th and Mason. This photo was taken soon after the line was built in 1911, prior to construction of homes and infrastructure.

For perspective about change and the passage of time, remember these recent layers pale in comparison to the more than 500 generations and time immemorial existence of the indigenous people who knew this area long before we came onto the scene.