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Bellevue Tidbits
It has been reported that early in 1926, one night a woman named Mrs. Charles Bovee had a dream about a festival in Bellevue, which would bring a considerable amount of recognition and hundreds of visitors to her much loved, but small hometown. Along with Mr. William Cruse, a couple named Mr. and Mrs. Bovee intended to make this dream a reality. Their idea was a festival that honored the bountiful strawberry crops in Bellevue. In 1925, the Strawberry Festival Committee that consisted of five women and five men from the community, raised $40.00 to finance the first ever Strawberry festival in Bellevue. This festival was a four-day event that drew over 3,000 visitors. Following the event, the front page of newspaper known as The Lake Washington Reflector proclaimed that the Strawberry Festival should certainly be regarded as an unqualified success. It literally sent numerous visitors away with the impression that Bellevue was a beautiful community and a fruitful district settled by a hospitable and courteous people.
The festival became known as the Lake Washington Strawberry Festival and from that moment on it was a yearly event that was spread out over two or three days. Up until 1931, this festival was held behind the Old Main Street School, located at the southeast intersection of 100th and Main Street. After 1931, the festival was relocated to the Bellevue Clubhouse, which is the location of the current Bellevue Boys and Girls Club. The Strawberry Festival not only encouraged the participation of other eastside communities such as Kirkland and Renton, who often provided a day's worth of entertainment for the event, but also drew visitors from all around King County. Some of these other communities frequently provided a day's worth of entertainment for the event.
The regular Annual Lake Washington Strawberry Festival was not held for reasons that were still uncertain by 1930. The Committee for Businessmen chartered a ferry and organized a Dance, Moonlight Excursion, and Strawberry Festival for some 500 people instead. The Sacred Heart Church played host to a small strawberry celebration, and entertained many different present and past local residents. However, in 1931, the Annual Strawberry Festival returned to the relief and joy of all. For the first year there was a Strawberry Queen named Miss May Carter Stewart. After that, the tradition of Royalty continued.
The Strawberry Festival continued to dazzle visitors and grow as the years passed. In 1927, approximately 7,000 people attended, and more than 9,000 shortcakes, 100 pounds of butter, 3/4 ton of flour and 2,000 boxes of strawberries were consumed. The shortcakes were baked by the girls of Fisher Flouring Mills. An estimated 15,000 people attended the festival in 1938, and consumed a total of 8,750 shortcakes, 100 gallons of ice cream, 69 gallons of whipping cream, and 4,172 pounds of strawberries. A woman named Patricia Groves wrote of the renowned event in her hometown that the Strawberry Festival has all of the sparkle and glamour of a trip to a foreign land. Although it endures, it has completely changed the community. All of her friends, both old and young were laughing. They felt that it was their delightful duty to don their festive manners and welcome visitors to their fair community. They can feast their eyes upon the visions of snowy biscuits that oozed with red, juicy strawberries and topped with a ton of luscious whipped cream.
In 1942, when the Strawberry Festival was canceled, the delight and jubilation within their entire community abruptly ended. The Festival Association provided many different reasons for the cancellation, that included the fact that the war effort was keeping many workers too busy, the conversation of tires, a shortage of sugar, and the rationing of gasoline. However, the real explanation was the internment of Japanese-Americans during that same year. The primary strawberry growers in Bellevue were of Japanese descent. At the beginning of WW II, there were 55 Japanese families that had farms in Bellevue, with a combined total of some 472 acres of land. The event could simply not take place without the strawberry harvesters and growers who were valuable contributors to the yearly Lake Washington Strawberry Festival.
In 1987, some 45 years later, the Bellevue Historical Society, currently known as the Eastside Heritage Center, revived the Strawberry Festival as a single evening celebration in June. Every year since then, this tradition has continued. The revivals have featured speakers that include the Bellevue Historian named Lucile McDonald, who provides musical entertainment including a Barbershop quartet that is welcomed by the Strawberry Festival Royalty of the past years, and honored the Japanese heirtage of the past in Bellevue, and obviously, the delicious strawberry shortcakes made the old fashioned way.
The EHC (Eastside Heritage center) brought the Strawberry Festival back to its roots as a large-scale community-wide festival in Old Bellevue in 2003. The Strawberry Festival has been located in the crossroads International Park in Bellevue since 2007. The two day festival attracts more than 40,000 visitors from all over King County. Festival participants enjoy foods of the world, a Classic Automobile show, arts and crafts, strawberry shortcake eating contests, histrorical and agricultural exhibits, entertainment, and of course, fresh strawberry shortcake.
The signature event for the Eastside heirtage Center is the Strawberry Festival. This festival celebrates the agricultural heirtage of the area as well as its diverse cultural past, present and future. Through this historic event, the Eastside Hiertage Center brings the community together in an effort to promote community involvemnent, appreciate the history of Bellevue, and create public awareness for the organization.
