Wonder Bread sign rises to rooftop again

[Erik Sine]

Wonder Bread sign rises to rooftop again

By KERY MURAKAMI

P-I REPORTER

Legacy Partners development manager Chris Meyer, right,

with Western Neon President Jay Blazek, takes a look at the "W" in the Wonder Bread

sign that will rise above the apartment Legacy is building at the site of the former

Wonder Bread factory.

When the developer of a new apartment building at the former Wonder Bread factory site announced Monday that he planned to return the 16-foot neon Wonder Bread sign to the top of the building, Adrienne Bailey thought of the warm smell of baking bread.

Bailey has lived in the Central Area her entire life -- more than 50 years, she said -- and has watched the neighborhood change and the reminders of childhood disappear.

Two months ago, the factory was demolished to make way for the development and with it the two rows of 6-foot-tall, neon red letters reading "Wonder Bread" that lit up the neighborhood for 55 years.

"At nighttime, you'd drive around and you'd see that building. And the sign was a beacon for where we lived. There used to be a window where you used to be able to see bread and cookies going by," said Bailey, a longtime neighborhood activist.

"You used to be able to get 10 fruit pies for a dollar. When I moved away for a time and had to pay the regular price, I was just appalled."

But the announcement by Legacy meant more than mere nostalgia.

As the neighborhood changes -- more white families were drawn to the historically African-American area by relatively affordable housing in the 1990s -- longtime residents such as Bailey worry that the old neighborhood and its identity are disappearing.

Sometimes quite literally.

On East Madison Street and 21st Avenue, directly across the street from the Central Area Chamber of Commerce, is another new apartment building.

The Wonder Bread sign, shown here in 2005,

will again light up the Central Area, but this time without the smell of

baking bread.

It is called the Summit on Madison Park, referring to the tony neighborhood on the other side of Madison Valley. The building's manager didn't return calls seeking an explanation for the name, but the Summit is not unique.

Apartment and housing listings commonly refer to buildings in the Central Area as being in lower Capitol Hill or Arboretum Bluffs.

"They just totally disassociate with the Central Area. ... It's all ridiculous. People assume that because African-Americans historically have lived here, it's bad," Bailey said.

Vivian Phillips, former Mayor Paul Schell's media spokeswoman, and another longtime resident, agreed.

"It was heartbreaking to see (the Summit on Madison Park) go up," she said.

Phillips grew up in the neighborhood, then moved back 12 years ago. She has her own memories of the Wonder Bread factory.

"There were three bakeries in the neighborhood," she said. "I remember it always smelled like bread."

The sign has been there since 1952, said Chris Meyer, the project development manager for the Legacy Partners, which expects to complete the 255- unit apartment building, with stores on the ground floor, by spring 2009.

In addition to the sign, there was a water tower on the site as early as 1918 with Wonder Bread painted on it, Meyer said.

"Our intent was to do the right thing by the community. Clearly, there's consternation about the rapid pace of change in the Central Area."

Putting up the sign meant clearing a few hurdles, he said. Meyer had to get permission from the Kansas City, Mo.-based Interstate Bakeries Corp., which now makes Wonder Bread; the company agreed, as long as the developer is responsible for maintaining the sign.

A Seattle ordinance bars new signs unless they advertise something sold at the establishment where it's placed, but Meyer said city officials indicated the sign would be OK, under the naming-rights exception of the law.

The new complex will be named Legacy at Pratt Park, after the park next door and Edwin Pratt, the former director of what was then called the Seattle Urban League , and a moderate leader during the racial strife in the 1960s.

Kerry Nicholson, senior vice president at Legacy Partners, said the company also will work with the nearby Pratt Fine Arts Center, possibly allowing its students to design pieces for the building's courtyard or showcase their art there.

"There's an understanding that there is a heart connection," Bailey said of the sign. "We're connected to the sign by our hearts because it's one of the few remnants of the community that we had."