NEYSA LONGMIRE

Mayors of big cities occasionally attend the grand openings of businesses, but rarely their closures.

However, Mayor Greg Nickels and his wife Sharon knew it was important to pay their respects to the Admiral Benbow Inn and its owner, Neysa Longmire, during its last night in business Friday.

"The Benbow," as it was lovingly called, closed its doors Friday, just two days after Longmire died on May 29.

For a half century, the Benbow offered food, drink and an indispensable place for people to meet. Besides providing sustenance for the body, it also nourished West Seattle's, and especially the Admiral District's, sense of community.

The Benbow got its name at the suggestion of Longmire's daughter, Sharon. She was 9 years old when her stepfather, Lloyd Longmire, and his business partner, Jack Berridge, opened the Benbow in 1950. "I was reading 'Treasure Island,'" Sharon said. "I told my parents, 'Here's the Admiral Benbow Inn in 'Treasure Island,' and we're on Admiral Way.'"

They bought her a new dress and gave her $10 for coming up with the idea. The Benbow had two, small dining rooms. One was designed like the stockade in the book. The tables were covered with starched, white linen tablecloths and lighted by tiny lamps on square, marble bases. The Benbow was famous for its clam chowder and tomato-bacon-cheddar cheese soup. For decades, prime rib was the special on Friday and Saturday nights.

The Chart Room Lounge was designed to look like the stateroom of the Spanish galleon Hispaniola. The Chart Room even had its own special effects, such as flashes of lightning and the sounds of wind and rain. A small floor fountain gurgled near the entrance.

THE BENBOW also had a backroom, which Longmire provided free of charge to community organizations, business groups and politicians. A considerable amount of West Seattle history transpired there. "There would be no West Seattle Bridge if there hadn't been a backroom at the Benbow," said Virg Sheppard, who owned Sheppard's West Seattle Drug for three decades. "That's where all the politics was done."

Sometimes the backroom at the Benbow was thick with talk of secession from the city of Seattle. It's also where Charlie Chong launched his campaigns for mayor and City Council. Neighborhood Rights, the citizen group opposed to Mayor Norm Rice's urban-village growth plan, started in the backroom.

West Seattle organizations like the Chamber of Commerce, Jaycees, Exchange Club and Anti-Crime Council met there for many years. The backroom also was a regular meeting place for the Seafair Pirates. And it once served as the setting for a music video by the grunge band Mudhoney.

NEYSA LONGMIRE, the esteemed owner of the combination restaurant, cocktail lounge and meeting place, endured a lengthy battle with cancer while working every day at The Benbow, until just a few weeks ago. She took time to consider the future and had decided it was time to close the Benbow, said Longmire's son-in-law Jack Shubic. The business hadn't been doing well in recent years, mostly because there wasn't enough nearby parking for customers, he said.

For many years, Benbow customers took advantage of a free parking lot that used to span the middle of the block a short distance north.

First the Admiral Heights assisted-living building was built on half of the parking lot and now the Marc Gartin project is going up on the other half.

Ironically, an underground parking garage - with some parking spaces for public use - has been built as part of the Gartin development that's nearing completion.

The Benbow faced other problems besides a lack of parking though. The building is scheduled for demolition in a couple of years. Gartin owns the building that houses the Benbow as well as the three adjoining businesses: the tavern TNT's Place, Debonair Cleaners and Auto Buff, a car-detailing shop. Gartin plans to construct a four-story building on the site, similar to the development being

completed now, just north of the Benbow. Unlike the Benbow, TNT's Place, Debonair Cleaners and Auto Buff will stay put for at least another year.

Longmire knew the building would only be around a couple more years, Shubic said. She had no lease and was losing money, he added. "She kept the prices low because so many old people come in here," Shubic said. "Neysa said, 'It's time to close it.'" When the Longmire family considered it happened to be the end of the month, they decided the Benbow's last day would be Friday, May 31. JUST AS they have done for decades of previous Friday nights, employees prepared prime rib to serve in The Benbow's two dining rooms the last night of business.

The family also decided to hold a silent auction in the backroom and sell the venerable establishment's equipment and decorations. Word of The Benbow's imminent closure spread quickly and the place was jammed Friday evening. Diners occupied every chair.

Finding a seat in the boisterous Chart Room Lounge was out of the question. Even all of the standing room was occupied. Meanwhile a crew of Seafair Pirates, dressed in their swashbuckling finery, was hoisting cocktails and beers in the backroom.

"The Pirates loved The Benbow," said pirate Walter Taucher. The Admiral Benbow Inn was among their favorite places in Seattle, said Pirate President Bob Odman. They met there several times each year. In fact, the Pirates met at the Benbow on the night of Longmire's death and sang songs in her memory. "Anytime we needed something," Odman said, his voice trailing off. Taucher doesn't like losing vibrant pieces of Seattle's past like the Benbow. "We're getting gentrified to death," he said. WAITRESS LYDIA Goehring admired Longmire for her generosity. She told of a man down on his luck who'd come into the Benbow asking for food.

Longmire told the crew to feed him for free whenever he came in. "That went on for three months, up to now," Goehring said. "She was a mom to everybody, and the best boss in the world."

Sharon Longmire said her mother was "a nurturer." She was always doling out money to help people get through bad breaks, to pay their car payments or to make bail.

Sharon speculated that compassion was her mother's response to the suicide of her own mother, when Neysa was just 15 years old. Born and raised in Bellingham, Neysa was the daughter of a furniture

salesman and minister. She trained to become a registered nurse at St. Joseph Hospital in Bellingham.

She married Glenn Reynolds and later divorced. She moved to West Seattle and applied for a job at the restaurant. She was hired by Lloyd Longmire, who married her a year later in 1951.

The Benbow was Neysa Longmire's life and legacy. "She was the Benbow and the Benbow was her," said daughter Sharon Longmire. "They were synonymous."

Services for Neysa Longmire will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, June 8, in the chapel at Evergreen-Washelli Funeral Home, 11111 Aurora Ave. N.


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