On a cold and rainy day in early March 1940, a photographer from the King County Assessor’s office snapped this photo of Frank’s Market, where meats, poultry, fish, fruits, and vegetables were sold. Frank was part of the storied Zumek family, whose parents arrived in Black Diamond in 1924, having immigrated from Slovenia 12 years earlier. For over 50 years, the Zumeks were one of the town’s most consequential families – in sports, business, and civic life. The story of Frank’s parents, Frances (Minar) and Louie Zumek Sr., was told in last week’s column.
A butcher’s shop had occupied this same lot on Railroad Street since Black Diamond’s founding days. This version was constructed in 1913, in one account, or 1918 per Assessor records. It was situated between the bakery and the company store. Though this building was eventually torn down, another meat market still occupies the same Railroad Avenue lot. Today, the Smoke House & More, owned and operated by Gina Vaughan and Daniel Ellis, sells a wide variety of fresh and smoked meats from a smaller structure built in 1975 on the same historic lot. Black Diamond local Curt Konoske started the business in 2003 and still owns the building.
The earliest known butcher was Thomas G. Spaight. He sold his business to Pete Fredrickson, who built this structure and operated it as the People’s Meat Market. Fredrickson employed many future meat cutters, including Ed Banchero, who began working in Pete’s shop at age 10, delivering meat to local homes and businesses. Ed “Catfish” Banchero claimed it was Joe “Hoss” Minaglia who taught him how to cut meat and make sausage. In 1931, Banchero opened his own butcher shop in Seattle’s Rainier Valley with his wife, Edith. It was called E & E Meats. By the time of Ed’s death in 1991, E & E was a specialty-meat business employing 40 people and supplying the white-tablecloth restaurants of Western Washington from the company’s plant on Sixth Avenue South.
Frank Zumek was born in Somerset, Colorado, in 1918, and moved to Black Diamond with his parents at age six. After graduating from high school, Zumek trained to be a butcher and married a local Welsh girl, Lois Thomas, at the Presbyterian church on June 9, 1939. Their wedding was covered in the Seattle Times. By age 21, Frank was cutting meat and operating his own market on the same lot where meat cutters had plied their trade since soon after Black Diamond’s founding. Frank and Lois began renting the building from Pacific Coast Coal Company, which had disbanded the company town in 1938. On Jan. 15, 1943, Frank and Lois Zumek purchased the lot and building from Pacific Coast for $300.
About the same time Frank Zumek acquired the market, Harry McDowell, a longtime employee at Pacific Coast’s company store, began operating the general store, located two lots north. McDowell purchased the store and inventory from Pacific Coast in 1942. When Harry died in 1947, his widow, Margaret, sold it to Frank, Tom, and Joe Zumek. Frank quickly moved his meat and market business into his and his brothers’ store.
While his brothers ran the grocery business, Frank and Lois worked side by side in the meat department. Frank’s specialty was his home-made garlic sausage, from a secret recipe handed down to him from Louie Zumek Sr., his Slovenian father. Frank’s kielbasa had a unique flavor and texture, all its own. His kielbasa was sold to people throughout the state. One Easter weekend, over 800 pounds were purchased.
One of his frequent customers, Jackie Hope, took a dimmer view of Frank’s business acumen, claiming, “When Frank died, I should have got a piece of his thumb because he weighed it enough times – whenever I bought meat from him,” alluding to the practice of old-school butchers who rested their thumbs on the scale when weighing.
In addition to being the Black Diamond’s butcher, Frank Zumek was active around town. He was a talented athlete who played basketball, soccer, and baseball during both high school and into his thirties. Frank served as a volunteer firefighter, assistant Fire Chief, on the city planning commission, a top fundraiser for United Good Neighbors, and a charter member of the Black Diamond Lions Club.
Frank and Lois raised two boys, David Zumek (1941-2009) and Frank Jr., better known as Butch Zumek (1943-1998). Frank Sr. died in December 1984, at age 66. Lois survived her husband by 30 years, passing in 2014 at age 97. Next week’s column tells the story of how the three Zumek brothers, Frank, Tom, and Joe, plus their three wives, Lois, Georgia, and Eileen, became Black Diamond’s favorite merchants.
This 1940 photo of tax parcel 084400-0635, located at 32721 Railroad Avenue in Black Diamond, comes courtesy of the Puget Sound Regional Archives in Eastgate. Donna Brathovde, a Ravensdale historian, provided news clippings and genealogical information about the Zumeks. Photo enhancements were performed by Boomer Burnham, a Tahoma school teacher and owner of Boomers Photography: http://www.boomersphotography.com/
