Demographic Shifts and the End of the Settlement House”

The Settlement House programs run by the Seattle Section of the Council of Jewish Women provided services for immigrant families in their own neighborhood. Started in 1906, Settlement House operated for 50 years out of their three story building at 18th & Washington in the central district.

In their documents, they never specifically state that they mean to serve Jewish immigrant families and did not discriminate, their client base initially appears to be Jews from the Eastern European immigration and later the Sephardic Jewish families coming from Turkey and Rhodes.

The first buildings for the two Sephardic synagogues, Sephardic Bikur Cholim and Ezra Besseroth were just blocks from the Settlement House.

The settlement patterns from three of the Sephardic pioneers that started in the central district reflect the move of the immigrant Jewish families and their children south into the Mount Baker and Seward Park areas.

The main map covers a large portion of the city of Seattle with the two inset maps marked.

Map of Seattle showing insets

Consider these three men in the center of this 1918 photograph of the earliest Sephardic immigrants:

Jacob Policar (1879-1961) from Turkey
Solomon Calvo (1879-1964) from Turkey
Nessim Alhadeff (1886-1950 )– from Rhodes

Sephardic pioneers circa 1918

These men all lived with their wives and families in the central area (the smallest subset of the main map).

Central district showing residences of pioneer Sephardic families

A1, A2, A3 – Alhadeff family residences
P1, P2 – Policar family residences
C – Calvo family residence
Red ‘x’ – Settlement House location
Red box – Sephardic Bikur Cholim locations
Red triangle – Ezra Besseroth location

These men had successful businesses and children that grew up in the community:

Alhadeff: Charles (1909-1997)
Jack J. (1912-1980)
Isaac (1917-2012)

Calvo
Fortuna (Calvo) (1909-2007)
Mark
Violet (1916-1987)
Esther (Muscatel) (1922-2012)
Jack (1915)

Policar
Betty (Alhadeff) (1912-2004)
Susan (Rousso) (1912-2009)
Sema (Calvo) (1909-2000)
Ralph (1921-2002)

From the map, the children moved south. Many of these homes are view and waterfront residences.

larg inset map

 

  1. Red ‘x’ – Settlement House location (look north)
  2. P – Policar adult children residences
  3. A – Alhadeff adult children residences
  4. C – Calvo adult children residences
  5. Red box – new home of Sephardic Bikur Cholim
  6. Red Triangle – new home of Ezra Besseroth

This map is not exhaustive.

The descendants of the original families did not need Settlement House services and had moved to the south to more affluent areas.

In 1956, the Seattle Section had different priorities rather than administering services in their original location.