West Seattle author and educator Judy Bentley recently led a two-hour walking tour through the Northern Delridge neighborhood, once known as Youngstown. Most were area residents wanting to know more about the lower dell and the surrounding ridges that gave Delridge its name. The tour was sponsored by the Southwest Seattle Historical Society, and the Log House Museum.

The tour began, and concluded, at the Youngstown Cultural Arts Center, which first served as the Youngstown School.

"The steel mill offered a one-room space on its grounds as a classroom in 1906," said Bentley. "They hired one teacher, and 70 attended." One year later the five-room Youngstown School was built. It stood where the Cultural Center parking lot now is, she said.

She said it all started a few months before the 1851 Denny Party, when explorers camped at the west point of the mouth of the Duwamish River.

"They just spent the night and moved on," she said."The saw mills came in the late 1850s, and John Longfellow's Logging Company, in 1886. Then developers plotted this land, which was called Humphrey's Settlement." William Pigott and Judge Wilson's Pacific Coast Steel Company came in 1905, and defined the neighborhood.

The Duwamish Indians clung to the river, Bentley said, but they couldn't hold on. The last Duwamish couple is said to have starved to death. They couldn't catch enough fish to live the way they were accustomed.

"When annexation of Youngstown was first discussed, an early resident, Mrs. Hill, filed a complaint, stating that the area was too rough, uneven, and wild, unfit for municipal advantages," said Bentley with a smile. The neighborhood on the ridge, along Southwest Andover St. from Delridge Way east, was called "Pigeon Hill," because, some say, they fed on excess grain from nearby flour mills.

The neighborhood of homes in the dell, down along Longfellow Creek, was nicknamed "garlic gulch" due to Italian immigrants, says Bentley. "Certain blocks were divided by gangs," she said. "They were tamer than gangs we think of today. Around Genesee and 25th Avenue, the 'Gulch Rats" and 'River Rats' would have slingshot wars and use garbage pail lids as shields."

Bentley led the tour to a nondescript, green apartment building on the corner of Southwest Yancy St., and 28th Ave. Southwest. "This was Skalabrin Grocery, which opened in 1916. They were from Croatia, and catered to Swedes, Italians, and Germans by hanging salamis, dried cheese, bakalar, and pickled herring, from their ceiling. It served as the post office, public library, and polling place. Voters lined up five blocks to vote for Franklin Roosevelt. The store was also the end of the streetcar line, a roller coaster ride over the river. A Safeway arrived nearby on Delridge, and the Skalabrins could not compete, and closed," she said.

While the history of the steel town neighborhood is, in many ways, gritty, Bentley points out one pleasant, romantic aspect of life under the smoke stacks. Referring to a book she read about historic Seattle, she said, "It describes a nice, white sandy beach near Spokane Street in the 1950's crowded with residents on Sundays. Try to imagine that!"

Steve Shay may be reached at steves@robinsonnews.com