Updated Saturday, Jan. 28, 11:40 p.m.

By Patrick Robinson & Steve Shay

The Riverside Memorial Plaza in the heart of the historical West Seattle Croatian immigrant fishing community took place Saturday, Jan. 28. The plaza is located at 17th Ave. SW and West Marginal Pl., at the mouth of the Duwamish River, just south of the West Seattle Bridge

It is the product of a partnership between the “The Friends of Riverside” – the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the Riverside fishing families of the early 1900s – and the Southwest Seattle Historical Society.

CLICK ON PHOTO TO SEE MORE

"A lot of hard work went into this," said Historical Society President, Marcy Johnson. "It's a wonderful thing." (Another slice of West Seattle history, Johnson's parents purchased what is now the Log House Museum on Alki in 1959 where she grew up. She recalls strangers entering their front door at dinner assuming it was the Homestead Inn restaurant, another log house down the street.)

The Riverside Memorial Plaza came about as a result of an idea from Frank Zuvela, Joe Popich, and Mike Budinich, all sons of first generation Riverside residents. The property was donated by Budinich.The design and labor was contributed by brothers Jerry and Ron Vandenberg who grew up in Riverside in the 1940s.

The Southwest Historical Society provided biographical information on those behind the development of the plaza. The West Seattle Herald interviewed some of these key people, and others, at the event.

Frank Zuvela was born in Riverside in 1923. At 14 he began fishing on the purse seiner, St. Nicholas. He served in the US Navy in the South Pacific in WW 11. After the war, he worked as a boat builder in Riverside and other locations. Along with his other vocations, Frank fished for salmon from his gill netter until 1980. He lives in Bellevue.

Frank Zuvela: "I grew up here in Riverside on 17th Avenue. Our existing home is still there. This was first settled by a bunch of Croatian fisherman from the old country. They had their fishing boats right here on the Duwamish River, walking distance to our houses. They came from the Adriatic Coast of Yugoslavia which is now known as Croatia. My parents came here in 1904. They were fishermen here, and in the off-season they worked in the local lumber yards. I fished, all three of us brothers did. We fished on other boats, then built our own. Mine was called the 'Karen-L' named for my daughter. The 'L' was for her middle name, 'Lucille'. The boat was only so long, and the rest of the name didn't fit."

Frank's daughter, Karen Lucille Santa: "I grew up fishing with Pop. We worked on the boat and watched Dad catch fish over the years. It was an exciting part of our lives. He's an awesome father and my best friend today."

Nick Santa, Karen's son & Frank's grandson: "I don't know which house my grandfather grew up in but I'm here to find out."

Mike Budinich was born in Riverside in 1934. His family owned one of two grocery stores in Riverside. The store extended credit, which was a necessity for fisherman who did not make money all year long, and needed borrow in the lean times to feed their families. He attended Holy Rosary and Holy Family grade schools. He attended West Seattle High School, class of '51. Like most young males from the neighborhood, he crewed on fishing boats from age 14.

After high school he did a tour in the US Army and was discharged in 1956, then worked at the Red Feather Tavern at the south end of West Marginal Way. In 1959 he and his uncle purchased the "Feather", which soon became THE place to be on the west side of the Duwamish. They sold the successful business in 1971. He transitioned to property management, diamond brokerage, scrap metal, and real estate businesses after retiring from the tavern business. He currently is very actively retired in South Park, helping his son with a limo service.

Mike Budinich: “Seeing the dream of the Riverside Memorial come together is the best way I can imagine to honor the labor of my grand-parents and parents. They worked so hard to create a better life for their children.
I donated this land. I used to live right across the street in the grocery store. My grandparents (Joe and Jenny) had the Happy Home Grocery with eight apartments upstairs. They had 15 kids. My mother (Elizabeth) was their first. They came here from Croatia and first lived in tents in Fisher Flour Mills and worked in a cannery a few hundred yards away before they had the grocery."

Michelle Kelly Budinich, Mike's wife: "Mike's grandmother had a clothes line, 'the longest in West Seattle', that went up the hill. (Remember, she had 15 kids.) Everything was done with a wringer washer. Then of course the string would breake and she'd have to start all over. She was a very faithful Catholic but would not preach it. She'd show it, with a little Catholic love, and some extra umph from the Man upstairs."

Jerry Vandenberg moved to Riverside in 1946 at age six. He attended Holy Rosary, then West Seattle High School. He joined the US Navy and served on the Destroyer, home port, Pearl Harbor. He then attended UW and graduated in 1969 with a masters in history. He was employed at Barclay Dean Inc. from 1962-1990, starting as a carpenter and leaving as president. He founded Barclay Dean Construction in 1990 (now Jackson Dean Construction). He retired in 2005, and is the Chairman of Board of Trustees of MOHAI. He and wife, Marsha, live in Lake Tapps. Their kids, Nicole, lives in West Seattle, and is principle of Vandenberg Communications, and Jason, in Lake Tapps, a senior project manager at Jackson Dean Construction.
 
Jerry Vandenberg: “In addition to recognizing the families who grew up here, the Riverside Memorial reflects the oft-made journey by young immigrants seeking economic and political freedom who - in one generation - transform from strangers-in-a-strange-land to indispensible and integrated parts of it. Everything I needed to know to lead a successful life, I learned in Riverside. My brother Ron and I constructed this plaza. We were raised here and came here in 1946. When we moved into this neighborhood it was beginning to change. But it was still mostly Croatian fishermen. They embraced us. We're Dutch. These people have been my friends my whole life."

Ron Vandenberg came to Riverside at the age of four, in 1946. He attended Holy Rosary, then West Seattle High School, class of 61. He served in the US Army from 1967 to 1969, including a tour in Vietnam where he was wounded in 1968. He was a career employee at Peter Kiewit Construction from 1961 to 1997.  He volunteers in community service in Federal Way where he lives with his wife, Janet.

Pearl Plenkovich Storeno, a niece of Frank Zuvela: "The home there now where I grew up is the original house, 3855 17th Av. SW. I was the oldest of five. I have three brothers, Paul, Bobby and Tom. My sister, Jennie Jaramillo, died Sunday, January 22. We had the funeral yesterday. My sister wanted to make it here but she just couldn't do it. This plaza is the most beautiful thing. Jennie and I have been coming down here looking at the progress. We were so happy that it finally came into fruition. Jennie's eight children are all here. We had a lot of fun down here as kids where the grocery store was. It was the only place that had a little cement. The road was gravel. I'd come down and skate. My uncle Frank lived with us because my mother had to help take care of her brothers."

Text on the Riverside Memorial plaque:

"This marker and all the stones in this plaza are dedicated to those young immigrants who, in the late 1800s and early1900s, left their homelands with a vision to establish their families and fortunes in a distant land.

These early settlers of Riverside were mostly from Croatia, a region of the Austrian Empire, later known as Yugoslavia. They joined with other ethnic groups to form bonds of friendship that transcended the multicultural barriers of this Riverside community at the mouth of the Duwamish River.

Many of these immigrants were skilled fishermen, who for years had plied the Adriatic and Mediterranean Seas. Riverside’s location offered what they were seeking – the closeness of their own kind who spoke their native tongue, moorage and repair facilities for their beloved boats, storage for their nets and gear, and crew availability – all within walking distance from the homes they built on the high ground. Within a short time, they built a fishing dynasty in Western Washington.

Here, at Riverside, they raised their treasured families. Their wives produced dishes of salmon from their nets and fresh vegetables and herbs from their own gardens. Autumn wine making was carried on annually, with a friendly tasting competition to decide whose wine was best.

By the 1990s, the Croatians had all but disappeared from Riverside. Their prosperity had scattered them to the far corners of the larger community. Their needs had changed. The salmon runs had dwindled. English was the language of their children. They worked and married their ways into the fabric of American life.

The paving stones in the plaza replicate the streets and lots of the Riverside community. The names of the settlers are at the locations of their homes."

Southwest Seattle Historical Society
The Southwest Seattle Historical Society (SWSHS) was founded in 1984 by Elliott Couden. Founding members chose to dedicate this organization to historic preservation, heritage education and community service for the Southwest Seattle area. http://www.loghousemuseum.info/about/#hist

Family Names at Riverside Memorial Plaza

BUDINICH                                                       
URLEVICH
BAJOCICH
TARABOCHIA
ZUVELA
VITALICH
PLENKOVICH
COVICH
HUGEV
PICINICH
VUKOV
MORINE
KALOPER
BOROVINA
BRLJIC
POPICH
VLASICH
GRGICH
BUSSANICH
MOROVICH
VUKOV
CHESKOV
SARDAROV
FRANOLICH
ANDRICH 
HUBER
PITMAN
VANDENBERG
TAYLOR
VINCENT
PETERSON
PROTHERO
JOHNSON
WILLIAMS
SHAFFER
OKEFF
OLMSTEAD
BOSWELL
 CROUSE
SILVERNAILS
BODINE
SKALABRIN
HOVDEN