GREEN LAKE’S SPUD FISH & CHIPS CLOSE AND RENEW
Christina Smith
If you have ever walked around Green Lake, you more than likely have come across Spud Fish and Chips. The first of four locations was opened by English-born brothers, Jack and Frank Alger in their converted garage off Alki Beach in 1935. The Algers rebuilt their original location and then opened the Green Lake location 24 years later, in 1959. Both buildings with their sweeping roofs, known as a butterfly, and mid-century designs were thought up by architect Edward L. Cushman, who had used the 1950s and 1960s popular space-age style, known as “googie” (Daily Journal of Commerce, 2017).
Minnesota-born Edward L. Cushman arrived in the Seattle area working for Boeing in 1944. He worked notable local architects likes, George W. Stoddard, Bassetti & Morse and Van Horne & Van Horne before starting his own independent practice in 1954 (Documentation and Conservation of the Modern Movement, 2018). A majority of Cushman’s buildings are gone, except for the Spud Fish and Chips locations, his home and the Van Horne & Van Horne home in Bellevue.
In 2001, the Alger family sold all of their Spud Fish and Chips restaurants to various buyers, but the 9,123 square foot Green Lake location had been sold to Craig Smith and Pam Cordova-Smith for $636,000 (Daily Journal of Commerce, 2017). After 16 years in business, the owners in July 2017 decided to sell the building and space for $3.1 million to Blueprint Capital Services LLC., a Seattle-based real estate developer.
Blueprint Capital Services, LLC. is collaborating with a local architecture agency, Cone Architecture, to design and develop a mixed-use four-story building with 54 small efficiency dwelling units (SEDUs), five large working spaces and a 1,600 square foot restaurant space that is already allocated to Spud Fish and Chips in order for them go on with their business and letting them stay within the Green Lake community (Daily Journal of Commerce, 2017).
According to Curbed Seattle, the Green Lake location went through the landmark nomination application process at the behest of Blueprint Capital Services LLC., which is not uncommon for developers to do. It did not receive landmark status and there is currently no word as to when the building will be demolished.
Title photo courtesy of Green Lake Spuds Fish and Chips Facebook
