History
Festivals on the West Side over the past 100 years have ridden a roller coaster ride themselves, from euphoric highs to to sleepy lows and back again, all while boosting the virtues of the Duwamish peninsula.
Starting with band concerts in 1890 and evolving over the next 30-odd years, the gatherings that eventually inspired such now-familiar events as as West Seattle’s Hi-Yu and White Center’s July Jubilee Days burst on the scene in 1923.
​West Seattle started with the Great Marine Mardi Gras, from July 9-17, 1923, which included re-enactment of Northwest pioneers landing at Alki Point, settlers arriving by ox cart, and the arrival of current tourists by airplane. Also included were boat races, a carnival, a concert, and an auto tour of the "new paved marine drive around the Sound to Lincoln Park".
Perhaps envious of Mardi Gras, White Center staged its own Great Fair August 1-4 the same summer. "Big Time, All the Time, One Dime" was its slogan. Events were to include a carnival, a side show, "a wonderful sermon against capital punishment", and Big Baby and Popular Lady contests, reported the Southwest Herald.
The latter competition offered a "handsome diamond ring" as top prize and was open to females 15 to 25 from Highland Park, Dumar (now Riverview), White Center, Burien City, Oak Park, Seahurst, "and any other sections on the (Lake Burien streetcar) line".
Fair organizers sought a turnout of 10.000. "Remember, the committee assures everybody this fair will be Graftless." the Southwest Seattle Herald said. "No fakes of any kind allowed." By July 27, 1923, eight had entered the Popular Lady contest, and 15 Big Babies were in the fray as well. There is no newspaper account of the fair, however, and no Mardi Gras or Great Fair was held in 1924 or 1925, and focus throughout the 1920s and into the 1930s remained on the West Seattle Mardi Gras and annual picnic events.
Big community festivals were not the rule in White Center during the late 1930s and early 1940s. The one exception came August 20, 1938, when residents put on a Progress Celebration to honor "the finishing of the county sidewalk that means so much to the people of this district." The sidewalk, along 16th Avenue and Roxbury Street, "does away with a terrific hazard to Mount View and the Holy Family school children who were forced to walk on the crowded highways of the district," said the News.
The bash had many typical events, including a street dance, speakers, and two free movie shows for the kids at Coy’s Theatre, but the highlight was the what may have been the first big parade through the streets of White Center. Filled with floats, the parade drew thousands of local residents, the News reported.
