(click to enlarge photos)


It may be fitting that a bluff on Gatewood Hill in West Seattle, close to Seattle’s highest point, gave birth to a mountainous retail giant that helped put our city on the map – the co-op we all know as REI. The firm took shape on the west face of that bluff inside a modest, wood-frame home erected at the beginning of the Depression, perhaps teaching us that good things (or successful businesses) can sprout from small packages.


The dwelling, at 4326 S.W. Southern St., just west of California Avenue, was the only “improvement” on its otherwise forested block when built by just-married transit worker Lloyd Anderson and teacher Mary Anderson in 1932.
That decade, as thousands fell into relief or took government jobs and others unionized and leaned left, the thrifty Lloyd, a “pocket socialist,” avid climber and leader of the 30-year organization called the Mountaineers, took a seemingly inconsequential step. Aided by Mary’s knowledge of German and frustrated by middleman-inflated stateside prices of up to $20, he ordered an ice axe directly from Austria. By mail from the other hemisphere, the storied tool cost a mere $3.50.

Frank Shaw, the photographer of this Sept. 21, 1969 recording of the southwest corner of 6th Avenue and Pine Street, was an avid member of the Mountaineers and an early customer for REI gear. Surely Shaw took this as much for the second floor headquarters for Recreational Equipment Cooperative as for the more famous, at the time, Green Apple Pie Cafe below it far-right..
“The news spread like wildfire through the rebel ranks,” according to Harvey Manning’s detailed 1988 history REI: 50 Years of Climbing Together. Purchases of crampons, pitons, carabiners and hiking foods snowballed. The Anderson cottage took on the persona of a warehouse, leading the couple to found the mail-order Recreational Equipment Cooperative in 1938, the same year as our “then” view.
While REI later anchored storefronts downtown and on Capitol Hill, many in Seattle’s climbing community passed through the Andersons’ unassuming doors, including Jim Whittaker, who grew up nearby and in 1955 signed on as REI’s first full-time employee and ascended to CEO. As the first American to summit Mount Everest, in 1963, he became – and remains – REI’s most famous face.

After Lloyd died in 2000 at age 98, Mary sold their home to a developer who intended to raze it but pulled out after 9/11. Neighbors purchased the parcel in 2002, colorfully restoring the residence’s front end, floorboards and basement while adding reverse shed dormers and a cupola, eventually adorning the property with three more houses and a shared garden. (Mary, who died last year at age 107, spent her sunset years in a Green Lake retirement home.)
The compound that is now dubbed Anderson Gardens will host the Southwest Seattle Historical Society’s annual fundraising “If These Walls Could Talk” tour this afternoon – at noon (for VIPs) and 2 p.m. The insights to be shared by Jim Whittaker’s son, Bobby, promise a peak experience.
FOR TOUR DETAILS AND TICKETS: visit loghousemuseum.org.
WEB EXTRAS
Anything to add, lads? Certainly Jean more features mostly from the West Seattle neighborhood, and Ron Edge and I welcome you home after your three weeks in Europe with students of Hillside.
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I always enjoy your column/blog! Thanks for documenting this Seattle history and especially for locating and do cumenting historic photos. The REI history may be unknown to many new to Seattle. My dad’s Paper REI Member card shows he was member #1006. He purchased his Head brand wooden skis from Jim Whittaker. That was a top brand at the time before the high-tech plastics revolutionized skiing. (Maybe REI is up to 7 or 8 digit Member numbers now? The original Mountaineers Club address (before its lower Queen Anne office) was on Pine Street. Was that close to the 2nd Floor 6th and Pine Street REI office in the 1969 photo? Many of the old guard Mountaineers who know such things have passed away. I imagine many of those left are reading this blog post about REI and other organizations with West Seattle roots.
Thanks all for your insights and replies!