'The Village' is a throwback to an earlier time

By MARK HIGGINS
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Training for a marathon is lonely, gritty work, especially in the gloom of a Northwest winter.

But as Marilee McCorriston huffed and puffed down the narrow lanes of Beaux Arts, she drew a little inspiration from her neighbors who left their yard lights on to help her navigate the dark streets.

Some even sponsored her in December's Honolulu Marathon, which she successfully walked to raise money to fight leukemia, a disease that claimed her brother, Dan, 25 years ago.

"It's very heartwarming," she says of her neighbors. "Beaux Arts is a sanctuary. And there's not many out there."

"The Village," as residents call it, is a throwback to a simpler time when neighbors knew one another and watched each other's kids as if they were their own.

"We say every kid here has a hundred mothers," jokes Malcolm Hickey, a town councilman.

The tiny, 51-acre Eastside village, founded near the turn of the century, has held its own despite sweeping changes around it. The town never became the arts center dreamed of by its romantic founders, but it has evolved into a graceful enclave, hidden under a canopy of swaying evergreens.

Residents have worked to keep its village feel. The winding streets have official addresses as well as local names. Mailboxes are grouped in rows and decorated at holidays. They are also informal message centers where notices are tacked up. And they are a good spot to catch up on community news and gossip.

Beaux Arts homes are a jumble of old and new architecture, wrapped in lush landscaping. The town so far has escaped the harsh and often overpowering faux-chateau architecture that has invaded the Eastside.

"We value the variety of the homes and appreciate the nature that is here," sums up Melissa Clausen, who grew up in the village in the 1940s and 1950s. Her parents still live in the village in the original family home.

Continued:

• Little town by lake is a laid-back, 'do-it-yourself' community
• Privacy is a communal value here