Picardo Farm
Encyclopedia
Wedgwood, Seattle, Washington
Wedgwood is a middle class residential neighborhood of northeast Seattle, Washington, with a modest commercial strip. Wedgwood is located about two miles north, and slightly east, of the University of Washington; it is about six miles northeast of Downtown...
, Seattle, Washington, consisting largely of 281 plots used for gardening allotments
Allotment (gardening)
An allotment garden, often called simply an allotment, is a plot of land made available for individual, non-professional gardening. Such plots are formed by subdividing a piece of land into a few or up to several hundreds of land parcels that are assigned to individuals or families...
. It is the original P-Patch
P-Patch
A P-Patch is a parcel of property used for gardening allotments; the term is specific to Seattle, Washington. The "P" originally stood for "Picardo", after the family who owned Picardo Farm in Seattle's Wedgwood neighborhood, part of which became the original P-Patch. -List of P-Patches:#Jackson...
(the local term for such community gardens): the "P" originally stood for "Picardo", after the family who owned it. The Picardos' land went beyond the present P-Patch; it also encompassed the property of the adjacent Reform Jewish
Reform Judaism
Reform Judaism refers to various beliefs, practices and organizations associated with the Reform Jewish movement in North America, the United Kingdom and elsewhere. In general, it maintains that Judaism and Jewish traditions should be modernized and should be compatible with participation in the...
Temple Beth Am and of University Prep, an independent private co-educational, non-sectarian day school for grades six through twelve. The land was part of what had once been known as the Ravenna
Ravenna, Seattle, Washington
Ravenna is a neighborhood in northeastern Seattle, Washington named after Ravenna, Italy. Though Ravenna is considered a residential neighborhood, it also is home to several businesses such as the University Village Shopping Center...
Swamp.
The Picardo family arrived in Seattle in the 1890s from Salza Irpina
Salza Irpina
Salza Irpina is a town and comune in the province of Avellino, Campania, Italy....
in the southern Italian province of Avellino
Avellino
Avellino is a town and comune, capital of the province of Avellino in the Campania region of southern Italy. It is situated in a plain surrounded by mountains 42 km north-east of Naples and is an important hub on the road from Salerno to Benevento.-History:Before the Roman conquest, the...
. The three brothers—Ernesto (who became the family patriarch), Orazio, and Sabino—resisted the gold rush fever of the Klondike
Klondike Gold Rush
The Klondike Gold Rush, also called the Yukon Gold Rush, the Alaska Gold Rush and the Last Great Gold Rush, was an attempt by an estimated 100,000 people to travel to the Klondike region the Yukon in north-western Canada between 1897 and 1899 in the hope of successfully prospecting for gold...
and set up farming in South Park
South Park, Seattle, Washington
South Park is a neighborhood in the city of Seattle, in the U.S. state of Washington. It is located just south of Georgetown across the Duwamish River, and just north of the city of Tukwila. Its main thoroughfares are West Marginal Way S. , S. Cloverdale Street and 14th Ave. S...
along the Duwamish River
Duwamish River
The Duwamish River is the name of the lower of Washington state's Green River. Its industrialized estuary is known as the Duwamish Waterway.- History :...
.
In 1922 they swapped a house in South Park for a piece of land that had been part of what was known as the "Ravenna Swamp". The family farmed the 20 acres (80,937.2 m²) at 25th Avenue Northeast and Northeast 80th Street from the 1920s to about 1962 or '63. Architect Victor Steinbrueck
Victor Steinbrueck
Victor Steinbrueck was a Seattle architect, and University of Washington faculty member, and best known for his efforts to preserve the city's Pioneer Square and Pike Place Market.-Biography:...
, writing in 1962, called it "an unusual reminder of the past" and praised its old barn (now demolished) as "a simple example of the anonymous architecture that has always been part of the local scene." Rainie Picardo leased out plots for a few more years, and then the city bought the land.
It is one of two historical farms preserved within Seattle city limits, the other being Marra Farm
Marra Farm
Marra Farm, a plot of land in Marra-Desimone Park, South Park, Seattle, Washington is one of only two historic agricultural parcels inside Seattle city limits that retains an agricultural use today; the other is Picardo Farm....
in South Park
South Park, Seattle, Washington
South Park is a neighborhood in the city of Seattle, in the U.S. state of Washington. It is located just south of Georgetown across the Duwamish River, and just north of the city of Tukwila. Its main thoroughfares are West Marginal Way S. , S. Cloverdale Street and 14th Ave. S...
.
The city's official web site describes Picardo Farm as having "Seattle's best soil… Rich, black, peat
Peat
Peat is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation matter or histosol. Peat forms in wetland bogs, moors, muskegs, pocosins, mires, and peat swamp forests. Peat is harvested as an important source of fuel in certain parts of the world...
y, sucking with moisture in the spring, powdery dry for digging potatoes…
The soil isn't the only thing that has put Picardo Farm on the map: it's also known for Steve Anderson's 2 1/4-foot-high bronze
Bronze
Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...
statue known as the Picardo Venus: "Pregnant, naked, hair in dreadlocks
Dreadlocks
Dreadlocks, also called locks, a ras, dreads, "rasta" or Jata , are matted coils of hair. Dreadlocks are usually intentionally formed; because of the variety of different hair textures, various methods are used to encourage the formation of locks such as backcombing...
and sporting a sparkling nose stud". Sitting next to a children's play area, the statue was originally quite controversial. One P-Patch gardener remarked of it, "She’s glorifying fertility a little too much for kids, isn’t she?" Nonetheless, a January 2000 poll of the Picardo gardeners resulted in a decision to keep the statue.
Ravenna Swamp
While the peaty soil was a blessing for a farm, it was not so for buildings. Some small houses were built along 25th Avenue just south of Picardo Farm. They were effectively floating on the peat bog. When the city put in sewer lines along 25th Avenue, the situation worsened: the water table sank, and houses began to slide off of their foundations. The city eventually purchased these lots to build the Dahl Playfield. At least one of the houses was moved to a new site.Amenities
From late 2009 to early 2010 a Clivus Multrum composting toilet system was installed on the NE portion of the farm. The unit is scheduled to open in April 2010.External links
- Official site, as part of the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods
- Sculptor Steve Anderson's web site