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.
The collection materials document the Hardow family and their Morningside Farm dairy farm in Seattle. Collection materials includes six small snapshot photographs of the Hardows and the dairy property (circa 1926-1940); three reports from the City of Seattle Department of Health and Sanitation Dairy Division rating dairy samples from approximately 100 local dairies (1938-1939); two milk score cards from fair exhibitions (1934, 1939); a 1943 letter from Anna Hardow to her brother and sister-in-law; Frances Hardow's discharge card from her wartime service at the Seattle Naval Air Station; and other ephemera.
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Morningside Dairy Collection, Museum of History & Industry, Seattle
Gift of Lori Anna Hardow, received in February 2024.
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Handwritten on verso: L-R: Mary Bosch Hardow, Mary G. Rose, Franz W. Hardow, Marion Rose, William Rose, Anna Gerrels Hardow, Fred D. Hardow and Jippy, 1940. Photo taken by Frances Hardow.
Three reports from the City of Seattle Department of Health and Sanitation, Dairy Division, with ratings for samples of milk from local dairies judged by Dairy Division inspectors.
Milk quality scores given by the Western Washington Fair Association after testing at the Western Washington Experimental Station. The card gives scores for bacteria, flavor and odor, fat, non-fat solids, sediment, and battle and cap. The "Directions for Scoring" are printed on the back.
Milk quality scores given by the Washington State Department of Agriculture, Division of Dairy and Livestock, after testing at the Seattle Health Department. The card gives scores for bacteria, flavor and odor, fat, non-fat solids, sediment, and battle and cap. The "Directions for Scoring" are printed on the back.
Diploma from the Western Washington Fair Association certifying that Morningside Dairy exhibited Raw Milk at the Dairy Products Show in Puyallup and was awarded a prize.
Three-page letter written by Anna Hardow to Lena & Wilbur Cole (her sister and brother-in-law) in February 1943 describing life on the farm, making ends meet, collecting taxes on their sales, and the beginning of rationing.