When this picture was snapped in early January 1954, Tom, Joe, and Frank Zumek were in their early thirties, and seven years into the company store business they’d purchased from Margaret McDowell. Black Diamond, where they lived and grew to adulthood, was, for its first five decades after its 1885 founding, a company town owned by Pacific Coast Coal Co. (Pacific Coast). The company town was disbanded in 1938, when most of the homes and buildings were sold to the inhabitants.
This photo was staged to show how the three volunteer firefighters rushed from their store and ran one block up to the fire station. At the time, almost half of the volunteer firemen were brothers from four Black Diamond families: Zumek, Dal Santo, Maks, and Rossi. When the siren caused Tom, Joe, and Frank to leave the store, their wives, Georgia, Eileen, and Lois, would man the business. Sometimes the brothers used their delivery truck to transport fire crews to the blaze. The old fire siren was restored and is now on display at the nearby Black Diamond Museum.
The old company store seen behind the Zumek boys was originally located in nearby Lawson, whose mines were an early competitor to the Black Diamond Coal Mining Company. Eugene Lawson sold his mines to Pacific Coast in 1898, and six years later, he brokered a deal for the sale of all the Black Diamond Coal Mining Co.’s land, mines, and assets to Pacific Coast.
Around 1911, the large building was moved down Lawson Street to the commercial district on Railroad Ave. and henceforth referred to as the company store. The store had three floors selling general merchandise, dry goods, clothing, shoes, nails, hardware, on the main floor, while hay, oats, and chicken feed were located in the basement. Upstairs were furniture and the payroll guard’s living quarters. After the store and building were sold to the Zumek Brothers Grocery & Market, dry goods were eliminated and replaced with a new meat counter and freezer.
In 1963, after 16 years of operating in the old company store, the entrepreneurial Zumeks and their wives built a modern store on State Highway 169 on land they purchased from Palmer Coking Coal Co. Their new 5,000-square-foot concrete block store was initially called Zumek’s ShopRite with a grand opening in April 1963. Five years later, in April 1968, the Zumeks sold the store business to Hi-Low Inc. of Issaquah but retained the building and property. Family members continued to work in the store. They later expanded the footprint and leased space for a liquor store and drug store as the building tripled in size.
In their new store, the old system of charge accounts and delivery service was eliminated in 1963. The historic company store was torn down in the mid-1960s by Jack Hope Sr. and Al Rossi. Jack Hope used some of the wood to construct his “Jack o’ Diamond” hall on Lawson Street. The old company store safe was salvaged and is now displayed in the Museum.
All the Zumeks, including a fourth brother and eldest son, Louie Jr., were involved in civic affairs. Louie Zumek played an important role in the Black Diamond’s incorporation, then served for decades on the city council and planning commission. Louie was also the city’s second mayor. For decades, Frank and Louis Jr. played on both Black Diamond and Ravensdale baseball and soccer teams, where Frank typically played goalie. Tom Zumek was Black Diamond’s first fire chief, serving for over 20 years. Tom was also a school district director. Joe Zumek was a volunteer fireman and involved with the Black Diamond Historical Society. And their wives, Ruth (Schoning) married to Louie; Lois (Thomas), married to Frank; Georgia (Duncan), married to Tom; and Eileen (Kelly), married to Joe, were equally engaged in both the business and civic sides of life.
The Highway 169 grocery store that the Zumeks built, owned, operated, and worked in changed hands several times. It was last operated by Ron Pannell as the Black Diamond Neighborhood Market. Its doors closed in late July 2002 because it couldn’t compete with the Four Corners Safeway store three miles north. Tom and Georgia Zumek, who ran and worked at the store for 25 years, died earlier that same year. A new Safeway supermarket was recently announced to be built in Black Diamond’s booming master planned community, Ten Trails.
This photo originally appeared in the Jan. 3, 1954, Seattle Times in a story about Black Diamond and comes courtesy of JoAnne Matsumura, an Issaquah historian. Genealogical information was provided by Donna Brathovde, a Ravensdale researcher. Photo enhancements came courtesy of Doug “Boomer” Burnham, a Tahoma High School photography instructor doing business as Boomers Photography at http://www.boomersphotography.com/
