…the Dorpat (genus: Tartus Lutheranus), its habitat and behaviors. Often to be found wandering the streets and byways of Wallingford, carrying its palm-sized digital camera. Also identified by its unique cry: a deep-throated chortle.
(you may contact Paul here)
For the purposes of information dispersal and techspertise, some intercession and occasional comment will be provided by Jean Sherrard, a keen observer of the Dorpat in all its nests, dens, and foxholes.
(and here’s Jean’s email)
And finally, Bérangère Lomont, our Paris-based roving correspondent, who will provide luminous photos and insightful commentary from her side of the pond.
Dear Paul, Jean, & Co.:
My mother Bea, who’s heading towards 99 in June, has a northeast-facing print of Portage Bay –taken shortly after the War (II)–which includes the houseboat row on which she lived in the middle of the Bay.
It appears to have been taken from about the same elevation and location (above Boyer Avenue?) as your 110 year old photo of the Montlake Isthmus, but aimed slightly more to the north. I suspect from your photographs of 520 (2009-04-25) that the freeway nearly follows the line of the earlier houseboats across the water.
The accompanying glossy is of an oiled duck in her bathtub. One in this series, following the great oil spill in the Bay in the mid-Forties, appeared as the end photo in Life.
Let me know if either of these interests you; my email address is jeffaether@gmail.com.
(Note: I tried to send this as a response to your Portage Bay column, but the CAPTCHA code didn’t like me.)
Thanks so much for posting the digitized map, Paul!
Paul,
Your display of the 1912 maps of Seattle is wonderful. I grew up in Seattle and my father grew up in Seattle, went to the Old South School. The maps brought back many memories. Thank you very much for putting them on the net.
Pat Roe
Paul, Jean,
Great story about the old municipal building. I remember it also. Friends and I, as teenagers, explored it around 1970-1971. It was fun checking out the medical rooms and labs (I could swear there was a morgue also), my brother collected a few old medicine bottles because they had “bubbles” in the glass.
The padded cells were scary; small rooms with padded leather walls and door. The padding was a sort of cellulose type material.
I remember a huge vault on the west end (forget which floor) of the building and noticed something behind it, a sheet of plywood with a laminated Seattle street map on it. The map did not include Boeing field (It looked similar to the 1928 maps from Seattle Municipal Archives). We took it a friend’s garage. A few years later, after serving in the military, I inquired about the old map. My buddy said his Dad through it out as junk while he was away too. So much for that.
This is just one of many adventures, growing up in Seattle.
BTW, thank you for the 1912 real estate map. It is wonderfully produced. I have spent hours looking at it.
Allan
Dear Paul, Jean, & Co.
I was looking for some recordings by theater organist Oliver Wallace (still looking) and came across your wonderful account of James Q. Clemmer and the Dream Theater with the first theater organ installation in a movie house and played by Oliver G. Wallace. I had coffee with one of his daughters just yesterday and will certainly forward to her.
I am still hoping to find recordings of Wallace in Seattle or Portland if they exist. Your story surely helps mute my lack of success.
thank you!
David
Paul – being the stickler I am, regarding the May 29 article about the Victorian that Mr and Mrs Hachiya restored, you mentioned something about “lathe and plaster” walls – I know you mean “lath.” How did such a glaring error get past the proofreaders?
Web-searches (I’m old enough to know the difference between WWW and internet) don’t work for me to simply identify myself and family (dating back to grandmother and possibly before (we’re talking 1860′s). I’d like to know how to connect with Mr. Dorpat, (probably ‘Paul’ is cool). I may have a bit to contribute and would enjoy the exchange. If you can provide info with Paul’s permission so shepard.sm@gmail.com in West Seattle, I’d much appreciate it. That’s where some of us folks still say Alk_EE instead of alk_I.
Thanks Much,
Steve,
Son of a PTSS WWII War Veteran (who I’m proud of – 2 purple hearts but) who got enough volts through his brain by V.A. doctors being ‘in vogue’ in the 1950′s to run a train from Seattle to Vancouver.
I watched the Space Needle being built from Bellevue and Olive Way and have fond memories of the ‘Century 21 Exposition’ as well as the hydro races with “My Boyfriend’s Back” blaring in the background.
Thanks if you can help,
I live in West Seattle with my East Indian wife in Arbor Heights at 206-244-9349 or shepard.sm@gmail.com.
I finally found your blog! We were acquainted years ago when I believe you were editor at ye ol’ Helix. you also knew my sister Anne at Whitworth College. Our grandfather was Louis B. May and was a pioneer of Seattle and went on the Yukon
Gold Rush. He wrote a diary which was published I believe in the P.I. Sunday papers in 1972. Unfortunately at the time we had no Gold Rush Museum and my uncle gave it to a museum in Juneau. I have always thought it belonged here in Seattle. I have a copy of it but the original is a true jewel and should be returned to its home. What do you think? Could this be done? Bye the way from what I’ve read this calling is a perfect fit for you! Thanks for doing such a great service to our history.
Thank you so much for your encyclopedic/photographic minds layering Seattle’s today on its past. As a native of Seattle you supply me many hours of fulfilling memories.
I’ve had an unanswered question for years. Can you answer this question with a photograph? Before First Church of Christ, Scientist on 16th & Denny (featured in 2/12/12 Seattle Times) was built, the congregation built their first church in downtown Seattle, somewhere near 6th and Marion. It seated about 500. I have never been able to find a picture of it. Apparently it was razed when they moved to to Capitol Hill.
Dorps,
After your Ft. Lawton pic made the Times today, I received this e-mail from my sister:
“Dad told me that he, mom and our grandparents had a small business at the time making picket fences. He saw this picture in the Times today in the article about the fort closing for good, and said he made those picket fences! Pretty cool, huh?!”
Inextricably tied to the history of this place, even without a guitar,
Eric C.
I’m trying to pull pictures of old Fremont together to background a documentary on the Fremont Troll. Would it be possible to share some images? I really like the one on the Interurban statue in particular (Roger Wheeler, depicted, was interviewed in the documentary and provides much historical context at the beginning of the film).
A link to the trailer for the documentary is below. (Password is Troll)
Thanks!
http://vimeo.com/29587103
-Michael Falcone
Living downtown, walking downtown, seeing the changes to the cityscape of a place where I have lived or known since the mid sixties; that demolition on Second Avenue near Stewart, that decades old parking garage coming down, that creepy like garage where the Addam’s Family might have kept a car. Wondering what might be discovered on the wall of the adjoining building when all that concrete is removed. There is ghost advertising of some sort, written in that script which was popular during those pre WWI years. Advertising something, but not legible to most eyes, probably a secret best revealed at the County Court House and those tax records.
A crest displayed over the entry and exit bays which upon very close examination (out of desparation as they are soon to go) seems to have that caduceus and apothecary scales featured on both. I would guess that the garage may have been built or partly financed by doctors or a group of doctors working out of the long derelict but historic Eitel Building at Second and Pike.
Either way, another small piece of old Seattle makes way for new housing. My interest with parking–back in the day I worked for several years for Josef Diamond when parking or being barreled at a Diamond lot could get very personal.
Paul,
This is more of an email than a comment…
I have been photographing Lower Queen Anne for a while now. Being all modern and such I have begun to post them at http://unavocesola.wordpress.com/category/lower-queen-anne/. In the near term these images will be the core of my posts.
Your work over the years gave me the insight to think more carefully about where I live. Thank you for that.
At any rate, I hope you find these of some interest.
Regards,
Katherine
Paul, I am an author living in Richland, WA and I am working on a biography about Sam Volpentest(a), the “Godfather of the Tri-Cities” so-named because of all the federal and state money he was able to attract here in the 1960s to 1990s. He died in 2005 at 101 and worked every day up until two weeks prior to his death.
Before he moved to the Tri-Cities, he worked as a salesman for Schwabacher wholesale grocery for 20 years (1920-1941) but then managed or worked as a commission salesman for Associated Poultry of Coon-Chichen Inn fame, from 1940-41 to 1945. I’m just wondering if you ever came across his name in your research on the company. I enjoyed your two blogs on the subject.
A question of a historical nature.
My father had “The Ferry Dock Tavern” in the old coleman dock, before the remodel. I have children that are asking about my father and his early life here in Seattle.
My question. What year was the coleman dock remodeled, which replaced the Old Curiosity shop, Pacific Fish and tavern?
I have been looking for a picture of the tavern in several archives on line, but have been unable to find any.
Thank You
Jack
Hello Pat,
I am writing in regard to a recent estate sale here in Moses Lake where I found an amazing collection of hundreds of 4×5 black & white negatives of Seattle from the 1950′s & some earlier I believe. Have not looked thru them all, only a few in fact, but they appear to be mostly street scenes.
To give you a little background about the man who’s estate was sold, here is a link to an article from our local newspaper. http://www.columbiabasinherald.com/entertainment/art/article_e8c893ee-d5a4-11e1-8e1a-001a4bcf887a.html
We so enjoy your Now & Then page in the Times each week, you are the first person I thought of to contact. If you are interested in taking a look at what I have, I will be in Seattle August 18th.
I am in no position to have each of these printed, so my other option would be to sell these negatives online – but as I said, wanted to contact you 1st – although I’m sure you already have a vast collection and access to much more.
Thanks for your time,
Paula
Moses Lake, WA.
(I TRIED TO SEND THIS I THE FORM OF AN EMAIL BUT YOUR ADDRESS WAS REJECTED?)
Having intense flashbacks of the 1960s, and even the 50s, of the mental recollection type. Surviving these, and the 70s departure from those times, appreciate the archiving and encapsulation for the Future, as it arrives, in reality colling with the Past. That must be what is that rumbling noise in downtown Seattle. And more to follow.
Thanks, Clark W.
flashmaster7_99723@yahoo.com
I’ve come across a picture in my families archives like nothing I’ve ever seen before!! It’s of a Balloon Barage in front of my great-grandmothers house in White center in August 1942. If your interested, please E-Mail me and we will get together. Greg Wothing
I volunteer at the Soos Creek Heritage Center in the Soos Creek Botanical Garden (near Green River Community College). We are cataloging tax photos and came across a wooden tower located near Lake Meridian. Have you seen one of these before? What was its use?
flickr.com/gp/43895815@N06/60e2kG/
The photographers letters indicate that it was:
Tax Photo taken 5/26/39 at Lot 10 on Lake Meridian
Township 22, Section 27, Range 5E, Tax Lot 32
Any help would be appreciated.