delivered newspapers there. He followed his mother into laundry work, which brought him into labor organizing. Among the notable residents of Cascade were cubist artist Nicolai Kuvshinoff and his wife Bertha Horne Kuvshinoff, who dubbed her ghostly style of painting "phantasism". Both are represented in the permanent collection of the Seattle Art Museum. Kuvshinoff arrived in Cascade from Russia in 1915. His father, the Rev. Vasily Kuvshinoff, brought with him icons and relics given to him by the Romanovs, which he bequeathed to St. Spiridon Orthodox Cathedral, where he officiated. Nicolai Kuvshinoff appears to have painted religious murals in the Cathedral. From 1955 to 1960 Kuvshinoff and his wife lived and worked in Paris, but they returned to Cascade, where they remained until Nicolai's death in 1997 (Bertha lived two years longer). During most of their time in Cascade, they lived in the former Rodgers Tile Company building at 117-121 Yale Ave. N, later the 911 Contemporary Arts Center and now the Feathered Friends outdoor equipment shop. Cascade Playground The Cascade Playground (now also known as Cascade Park), originally the playground of the now-demolished Cascade School, has two play areas, a wide field, a picnic table, and restrooms. The park is adjacent to an active community P-Patch (allotment garden). Improvements to the Cascade Playground play areas, field, and entrance were unveiled in spring 2005, financed by the Pro Parks Levy. Sharing a city block with the playground and P-Patch is the Cascade People's Center, a volunteer organization that partners with over 100 businesses, churches, organizations, and community groups to address advocacy for social and economic justice. By 1931, although most of this block had come to be owned by the City of Seattle or the School Board, a number of houses remained owned by individuals. By the end of 1931, however, the owners of these houses had sold out and the buildings were removed (although some basements may still be intact under the park surface). There was debate in the neighborhood over building the playground; in 1934, the pro-playground group eventually prevailed. Still, as late as 1937, the Fairview-Stewart Improvement Club was protested that the Cascade School was old and out of date, itself not worth preserving, and that the increasingly industrial and commercial neighborhood did not need a playfield. Between 1934 and 1939, WPA workers built a retaining wall (only part of which survive), the rest rooms at the