Morningside Dairy was a small family business operating in Seattle from around 1922 until 1948. The dairy was owned by Franz Hardow (1886-1965), the son of Swedish immigrants, and Anna Gerrels Hardow (1894-1990), the daughter of German immigrants. The couple married in 1921, then left Minnesota for Seattle, where they leased land from Washington State for their home and farm business in northeast Seattle. At Morningside Dairy, the Hardows raised cows and chickens, and made a living selling milk and eggs to their customers for over 20 years. Their daughter Frances, born in 1925, grew up on the farm and attended Bryant School in the nearby Ravenna neighborhood.

In 1943, the Hardows lost the land at the north end of their property when the Seattle Housing Authority built the Cedar Vale Housing Project as emergency housing for war workers. In 1945, their land came into the city limits of Seattle, and consequently they could no longer keep cows due to city restrictions on land use. The Hardows closed Morningside Dairy in the late 1940s and moved to a new house within the neighborhood, and later to unincorporated Shoreline. The land where Morningside Dairy had operated is the present-day site of the View Ridge Playfield on Northeast 70th Street.

This three-page letter was written by Anna Hardow to her sister and brother-in-law Lena & Wilbur Cole in February 1943. It describes life and work on the farm, making ends meet, collecting taxes on their sales, and the beginning of rationing.

Caption information source: “From Pasture to Playfield: View Ridge” at the Wedgwood in Seattle History blog, retrieved at https://wedgwoodinseattlehistory.com/2023/08/01/from-pasture-to-playfield-view-ridge/