Marvin Mohl, 1919 - 2003: Developer of Gilman Village dies

Even for 1973, it seemed an unlikely idea: uproot a few obsolete, turn-of-the-century buildings from downtown Issaquah, haul them down Front Street and start an eclectic shopping center for small-business owners in what was then still considered out in the sticks.

But Marvin Mohl was eager to see it through. He nurtured and nudged the entrepreneurs who were willing to set up shop in his time capsule along Issaquah Creek. He stuck to his concept that "good neighbor development" would come out on top.

Thirty years later, Gilman Village has grown to more than 40 shops and eight restaurants and has become an icon of the Eastside, always adhering to Mr. Mohl's vision even as Issaquah itself grew into a home of strip malls and big-box shopping complexes.

Mr. Mohl, a lawyer, developer, nature lover, avid reader and enthusiastic family man, died Thursday at a Seattle assisted-living center after a 10-year illness. He was 84.

"He was a father figure for all the merchants in the Village," said Aubrey Aramaki, who has run Aubrey's Clock Gallery there since 1978. "He was really a mentor to everybody. I don't know if there are any shopping centers anywhere that will ever have the vision that his has."

Even so, Mr. Mohl's largest legacy happened virtually on a whim.

Born March 20, 1919, in Philadelphia, Mr. Mohl attended the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and then Harvard Law School before World War II broke out and he joined the Army.

During his stint, a buddy set him up on a date with Ruth Gerber, and they married as soon as the war was over.

After finishing law school, Mr. Mohl got the idea that Seattle's climate would be good for the constitution, his wife recalled. So they hopped a plane and landed in town, not knowing a soul, in 1946.

Mr. Mohl partnered in a law practice with Stimson Bullitt for a time, but he had long dreamed of being a country lawyer and a property developer, his wife said.

They bought a 160-acre former dairy farm in Issaquah, moved there and began to develop it into the Sycamore neighborhood. He also built Issaquah's first shopping complex, the Hi-Lo Center, which he long ago sold and is now called Gilman Square.

"He was a very bright lawyer, and soft-spoken, not aggressive at all, a very honorable, highly ethical man," said Bullitt, who says it was Mr. Mohl who floated the idea for Bullitt to build the Harbor Steps in downtown Seattle and donate it to the city as a park.

"It's easy to look back and say, 'Issaquah, of course, that's obvious,' " Bullitt said. "But it wasn't obvious then. It took a lot of vision."

In 1973, Safeway was planning to demolish three buildings in Issaquah to build a store. A woman who ran a shop in one of them suggested Mr. Mohl move them to property he owned.

Mr. Mohl bit.

Over the years, as Mr. Mohl and his wife expanded the project and it repeatedly won awards for design and architecture, he became a champion for women starting their own businesses at the village.

"He felt that women made great merchants," his wife said. "He was looking for a place that was of a human scale, that had character to it, and it would be a pleasant shopping area, which it is today."

Even though he was a daily fixture at the Village, walking the boardwalks to visit each merchant individually, he managed to be a doting father to his two daughters, encouraging one to go to Princeton University and helping the other open a popular Issaquah restaurant. He was a voracious reader with a bottomless memory and was a regular at the local library.

Even as his health began to decline and he had to turn Gilman Village over to his son-in-law, he kept hatching new visions for Issaquah. He pictured a new little village of bed-and-breakfast inns, linked by paths and gardens.

"You would adapt to the neighborhood, make it pleasant for people to walk along," he said in 1994. "Build them, and people will come."

In addition to his wife, Mr. Mohl is survived by his daughters, Lucy Mohl and Ellen Barouh of Seattle; son-in-law Aaron Barouh; a sister, Rita Stone, of Miami Beach, Fla.; and two grandchildren. There will be no memorial service. Donations may be made to the Issaquah Community Center or Jewish Family Service of Seattle.

Ian Ith: 206-464-2109 or iith@seattletimes.com