By Chris Jacobsen & Heidi Madden
If you were to stand facing north at the intersection of 8th Ave. NW and NW 105th today, you would see rows of ramblers built in the early 1950s during the post-war building boom. You would hear traffic from Holman Road and Greenwood Ave. N. But years ago, my parents, Art and Betty Jacobsen, lived in a quiet farmhouse on a dairy farm at this very location.
In the early 1940s, Art and his older brother, Chris, owned and operated the Pedersen Dairy, formerly called Puritan Dairy Farm. Its southeast boundary was roughly NW 105th and 8th Ave. NW. It stretched for about 20 acres – up the hill to the west, and north to the current border of Carkeek Park.
Art had moved to the Seattle area from Minnesota in 1934 at the age of 19. He joined Chris, who had already been in the area for two years.
In the late 1930s, the two brothers worked for their uncle, Harold Vikelyst, who owned the Puritan Dairy Farm. They met every morning at their uncle’s house, which was located at 10028 12th Ave. NW. The house, which was built in 1928, still stands today.
The Life of a Dairy Farmer
Continue reading A Charmed Land: Dairy Farming on Crown Hill