Normandy Park
The year was 1853, just months after Seattle became a city, when a Swedish immigrant rowed a small boat up the coast north of the Puyallup River in search of land to farm.
Attracted by the lush maples and evergreens, salmon-filled streams, verdant hills and sandy beaches, William H. Brown laid claim to 163 acres. For more than a decade he farmed in virtual isolation.
Then other settlers -- James Howe, Hugh McAleer, W.H. Pitts, George F. Whitworth -- claimed nearby property.
By the time Brown died and deeded his land to his son in 1875, there were enough families with young children to fill the classroom at Sunnydale School, located in what is now Burien.
Many sold out in the late 1880s to a family of San Francisco speculators. The Schwabachers -- Abraham, Louis and Sigmund -- were in the wholesale business and operated a hardware and dry goods store in Seattle, with branches in Boise City and Walla Walla.
Along with their brother-in-law, Bailey Gatzert, the brothers bought land from early pioneers in the Normandy Park area to make a 1,700-acre parcel of beachfront and mountain view land.
It's uncertain why the Schwabachers bought the land, but the timing coincided with a bid by Des Moines boosters to make their city the new state capital. Within months of statehood in 1889, a Des Moines newspaper advertisement promoted the idea that the city could become a great industrial hub if the railroad were laid through coastal Washington.
Although the capital remained in Olympia and the railroad was later built several miles inland, the Schwabachers held onto the land for 40 more years.
When they finally negotiated to sell their parcel to the Seattle-Tacoma Land Co. in 1928, the asking price was more than $1 million.
The price didn't faze the Seattle entrepreneurs who ran the land company. They envisioned a south shore suburban community of brick homes built in the French Normandy style of architecture.
And they gambled that the region's elite would resettle in "Normandy Park" if the community provided three qualities: prestige, privacy and privilege.
A sales brochure from 1929 touts the new development's advantages: "Spacious lots for each home ... a view of the Sound and Olympic Mountains from practically every lot ... avenues that curve to natural contours ... an expansive community beach ... an attractive and commodious club house where community groups may meet socially."
Seventy years later, the ad copy reads like premonition.
But back then, the Great Depression interrupted. Despite the wrench in those plans, the area was rediscovered and the city was incorporated in 1953.
The small city, where police officers wear wide-brimmed hats and City Council members serve without pay, still feels very much like a private community.
Its citywide 25-mph speed limit is just one sign.
It is largely residential and not obviously accessible. State Route 509 will take you along its eastern edge. Des Moines Memorial Drive will land you right into Normandy Park's heart -- and past 17999 Normandy Terrace S.W., a home believed to be the first one built in the city, according to the plans of the original developers.