Paul Dorpat, Historian Without Portfolio
Since 1982, Paul has written his popular column for the Seattle Times Sunday magazine.
We will be archiving them here, starting with a handful of more recent contributions and continuing to add more as time and effort permit. Several elements ensure this will be an intriguing feature of our blog.
First, clicking on the photos will provide viewers with a much larger size than the Times can accommodate. Delight (and perhaps, the devil) can be found in the details. Second, we will post our ‘Now’ photos in color. Lastly, it allows us to swing the camera around and show wider and alternative shots from different perspectives.
Please see the beginnings of a dated list to the right and below.
1982-08-08 The Montlake Isthmus before the Ship Canal
1984-03-11 Broadening Broadway
1993-01-31 Wallingford’s Guild 45 Theater
1993-04-23 The King Street Gas Yard
1994-06-05 Seattle’s Great Northern Depot
2007-01-14 Holy Names on Capital Hill
2007-12-30 St. Vinnie’s at Lake Union
2008
2008-02-24 The West Point Lighthouse
2008-08-17 The Coliseum Theatre reborn
2008-09-14 Seattle’s Front Street
2008-09-21 Warshall’s on 2nd Ave
2008-09-28 Freeway Park Dances
2008-10-05 First Hill Landmarks
2008-10-12 The Cascade Neighborhood Skyline
2008-10-26 The Potlatch Parade on First Avenue
2008-11-16 A Pioneer Square Victorian
2008-11-30 A View from Central School tower
2008-12-07 Seattle’s Hippodrome
2008-12-14 Seattle’s Olympic Block
2008-12-21 Lake Union from Ford plant
2009
2009-01-04 The Tin Man at Yesler’s Corner
2009-01-11 Lake Sammamish: Monohon with Three Os
2009-01-25 Seattle’s Arctic Club
2009-02-15 Militia at Main Street
2009-02-22 Occidental’s Tourist Hotel
2009-03-01 Capitol Hill from the Water Tower
2009-03-08 Paramount Theatre Opening Night
2009-03-22 Broadening Broadway
2009-03-29 Major Millis’ Capitol Hill Treasures
2009-04-05 Auburn Sweet Auburn
2009-04-12 Great Northern & Mea Culpa
2009-04-25 Forty-five Years of Freeway
2009-05-03 Look Down Into Belltown
2009-05-10 Musical Baptists of Fremont
2009-05-31 The Perry Apartments
2009-06-07 The S.S. Suveric visits Pier 56
2009-06-28 The Mount Vernon Ferry
2009-07-12 Military Discipline at the AYP
2009-07-19 HOO-HOO and the HBC
2009-07-26 Pier 70 from the Bay
2009-08-09 The Swings of Cowen Park
2009-08-16 First Hill Exceptions
2009-08-23 The Roosevelt Theatre
2009-08-30 The Pantages-Palomar
2009-09-06 “All Roads Lead to the Dog House”
2009-09-13 Aurora Speedway, 1932
2009-09-27 Peter Ivanoff’s Perpetual Motion Machine
2009-10-04 Armistice Day Parade, 1918
2009-10-18 Westlake Night Lights
2009-10-25 Portland Now & Then
2009-11-22 Friends of the Market
2009-11-29 The Sprague Hotel on Yesler
2009-12-06 The Naramore Fountain
2009-12-13 English Gardens at Chittenden Locks
2010
2010-01-03 “Testing Cedar River Water”
2010-01-10 A Wallingford Restoration
2010-01-17 The Swedish Baptists
2010-01-24 Built Around the Organ
2010-01-31 A Footprint of Love
2010-02-07 Surgeon Taylor’s Blockhouse
2010-03-13 The Orpheum Theatre
2010-03-20 City Archive Anniversary
2010-03-27 The Freedman Building
2010-04-03 Retail at Second & Pine
2010-04-10 The Float and the Tenement
2010-04-17 Weights and Measures
2010-05-15 Lewis Whittelsey’s Survey
2010-05-22 Green Lake Theatre, 1947
2010-06-05 Lost Landmarks at Pier 51
2010-06-12 The View from Belvedere Viewpoint
2010-06-20 Seattle City Light Steam Plant
2010-06-27 “This Place Matters”
2010-07-03 A View Across First Hill
2010-07-10 The Pike Street Hill Climb
2010-07-25 The Evelyn May in the Belltown Ravine
2010-08-01 The Bell Street Overpass
2010-08-08 The Eaton Apartments
2010-08-22 The Seattle Speed Bowl
2010-08-28 A Farm near Lake Union
2010-09-11 The Central Bus Terminal
2010-09-18 Dexter Horton’s Ruin
2010-09-26 Union Bay Houseboat
2010-10-09 The Top of Queen Anne
2010-10-24 The 45th Street Viaduct
2010-10-30 The Fireboat Duwamish
2010-11-06 The Startup Baptists
2010-11-14 Associated Poultry on Fried Chicken Way
2010-11-20 The Medical Dental Building
2010-12-04 Gothic Row on Western
2010-12-11 Fort Lawton Barracks
2010-12-18 ‘Threading the Bead’ between Magnolia and Ballard
2011
2011-01-15 The Central Business District from Harborview
2011-01-22 Harborview from Smith Tower
2011-01-29 Lake Union from Smith Tower
2011-02-05 A New Fourth Avenue
2011-02-12 Piner’s Point and Plummer’s Bay
2011-02-19 Waterfront Park Fountain
2011-02-26 Romans’ St. James from the Great Northern Tower
2011-03-05 Wallingford Fisticuffs
2011-03-12 Madrona Park – End of the Line
2011-03-26 Floating Bridge Inauguration
2011-04-16 Gather Ye Rose Buds…
2011-04-23 The Abiding Smith Tower
2011-05-01 The Public Safety Building
2011-05-08 Looking North on 3rd
2011-05-14 Front Street Show Strip
2011-05-21 Madison Trolley Accident
2011-05-28 A Saved Victorian: The Brewer House
2011-06-18 Green Lake Swimmers
2011-07-02 Colman Dock and the H.B. Kennedy
2011-07-09 War Bonds on the Ave
2011-07-16 Antique Alki Swimwear
2011-07-30 Third and Pine 1917
2011-08-06 Denny Knoll’s Death Knell
2011-08-14 The Granite Falls Station
2011-08-20 Within Woodland Park
2011-08-27 Fifth Avenue Parades
2011-09-03 The Heroic John McGraw
2011-09-17 Third and Spring Regrade
2011-09-24 The Pike Pier Fishing Fleet
2011-10-01 The First Presbyterians
2011-10-08 Section Lines on Wallingford Hill
2011-11-12 The Tacoma Public Library
2011-11-19 “New Land, North of the Columbia”
2011-12-10 “Before Seattle Rocked”
2011-12-17 ‘Cyrene’ not ‘Latona’
2011-12-24 The Jackson Street Regrade
2012
2012-01-14 Thirty Years of Dorpat
2012-01-21 Coming Home to Riverside
2012-01-28 Central Business District, 1876
2012-02-11 Christian Scientists
2012-02-18 Governor Martin’s Starvation Camp
2012-02-25 The Jolly Roger on Lake City Way
2012-03-03 Snowbound on Second
2012-03-17 The Tacoma Interurban at Occidental
2012-03-24 Row Houses on Fifth
2012-04-01 A Golden Rule for April Fools
2012-04-07 The Nine Millionth Visitor
2012-04-21 The Beaumont Apartments
2012-04-28 The Smith Cove Glass Works
2012-05-19 Mrs. Anderson’s Eccentric Ride
2012-06-02 Westlake and Thomas
2012-06-09 Suburbia Near Dearborn
2012-06-17 Issaquah Coal Strike
2012-07-01 Buzby’s Waterfront Mill
2012-07-07 KRAB: Listener-supported Free-form Radio
2012-07-14 Seattle Center Corral
2012-07-21 MOHAI’s Seattle Fire Mural
2012-07-28 The Phinney Ridge Ferris Wheel
2012-08-04 The Wilhelmina/Winona Apartments
2012-08-11 The Dominion Monarch
I am hoping you can help me. I am looking for a picture of the Seattle City Hospital which opened March 11, 1909 on the fourth floor of the new municipal building at Fifth Avenue and Yesler Way -the Public Safety Building. It supposedly was a six story triangular building. Thank you in advance! Mary in The Dalles, Oregon
Mary,
Paul may have already emailed you, and I’m sure he has wonderful historical shots of the building you’re looking for. If not, or in the meantime, try this link to a recent photo I took of it (http://bythedarkofthemoon.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/yesler_bldg_big_o.jpg) I believe this is your building. I never heard that it was a hospital. It would be interesting to read what Paul knows about it.
We have 3 art works of Seattle and Alaska dating fron 1906 Also some postcards from early 1900s. If interested call 360 908 0699 Bob
I am hoping to answer your question about the car in the lower left corner of the Then photograph. It may be a Queen. I have a picture of a 1909 Queen which I took last summer. It resembles the car in the photo. I could email it to you if you are interested. Your feature in Pacific Northwest is a highlight of my week. Thank you.
Paul,
Wow, 2331 Fairview Ave. E.#F. brings back many memories of fun times and great people. I lived there too, with Meryl the summer and autumn of ’66. Also aboard at that time was Stephen Klarer, the Chinese scholar, and Eric Anderson, the budding architect. My godfather’s architecture office housed the Helix, and Meryl worked with him. His name was Bob Eyre. He was a special guy, as was his wife, Kae. She’s my great aunt. Later on, She and Eric were an item. Before Mark bought the houseboat, Kae and Bob owned it. I stopped by and took a photo of the place back in 2002 on a trip through Seattle. It still looked as I’d remembered it all these years. I would like to get in touch with some of those wonderful people. Meryl, Paul and Donia Post, Bob Hoscoe, Rick Barrett, and Anne Dawson, just to name a few. They were all part of the moveable feast that took place every Friday night on that dock, and I sure do miss them. One of the
parties that took place started to sink the houseboat from so many people aboard…
Those were great times. Thanks for bringing it all back with your writing.
Peace,
John Carter
and I still have
Thank you for the Then and Now series, my familys has been in Seattle over a 100 yrs and in the 1st Then and Now book is a photo of my Grandfathers grocery store in the Roosevelt district, he sold the store and started his carpenter business, he built several homes and business’s around Greenlake, he started building the family home in 1904 and completed it in 1914 where seven children were raised, I love the history of Seattle and the Then and Now series gives a photo of City which I really enjoy.
Paul, Sunday March 27th, Sunday Times Pacific Northwest magazine:
THEN (1940): why do we not see the semi-circle turn-out that was part of the I90 floating bridge in the 60′s and 70′s??
I was fascinated by your documentation of the 1912 Baist’s Real Estate Atlas in this morning’s Seattle Times Pacific Northwest magazine, but when trying to access the web site given at the end of the article, my browser says, “You do not have the authority to access this site”. How can I see the maps online? Thanks.
Stan Stumbo
Bainbridge Island
I am looking for photos of Admiral Junction in the 40′s and 50′s. I am specifically interested in Tony’s Market (vegetable stand), the meat market next door to Storr’s grocery, and further north, Mr. Carroll’s drugstore (an antique store is now in that building) and the grocery store attached.
I was raised on Palm Avenue and our home is still there (1602).
I hope you can direct me to these photographs.
Paul: I have lost the website address for the 1912 Gazette real estate plat maps. Can you give it to me again. We looked at it and found my wifes fathers property near the Locks-’section’ 14. Thank you, BR
I’m a frequent reader of your Now & Then feature. I’m always curious about what appears to be a coal fired power plant a block or so inland from Coleman Dock. While it is not an architectual wonder, it certainly has stood the test of time. Have you ever given any history on this facility?
I second Greg’s query. I walk by there a lot and I experience a cat-like impulse to slink in there and look around. The place is still being used for something. What are they doing in there?
I’m wondering if there is any documentation of people who dove off the Fremont Bridge for fun back in 1921. My mother, then 16, and her diving instructor ‘Black Jack’ dove off of there in the summer of 1921. I have pictures of them both at the time but not in the dive. I remember mother saying her bathing caap split right in two! They had trained at the Coleman Pool.
What was the original purpose or use of the garage looking building @ the Southwest corner of 2nd & Washington? It’s all boarded up now but looks to have once been an impressive building.
Paul & Jean – I enjoy your “Now & Then” pictures and articles in the Pacific Northwest section of the Seattle Times. I have a photo taken in downtown Seattle in 1950. I am not sure of the location and would like to find out so I can do a current picture of the location. My grandparents, my uncle and I are in the picture. I am the only one who is still living. I was 5 years old in the picture. Can you tell me how I might identify the location of the picture. It was in front of a movie theatre. Thanks.
I always enjoy and appreciate photos and stories about Woodland Park – thank you. I’ve often wondered about the decision to put Aurora Ave through the middle of the park. Was there much civic debate about it? Did they consider tunneling underneath or choosing a different pathway (perhaps through Ballard?) instead of cutting through? I can’t help but wonder how they decided to slice up such a beautiful part of the city for the sake of traffic. Thanks for any insight you might be able to provide.
I found in my year old husbands, grandfathers desk who lived in Hanford, a tin box that looks like it could have been maybe a stamp pad? It is the size of a sheet of paper and when you open it, it has inside a sponge like material and is very wet and like ink. It is very old and rusty. The outside is rusty but you can read that it says Lowman and Hanford Seattle Wa and Lithograph. We were just curious if you could tell us what it is or was used for. Thank you in advance if you can give us some info.
Just found John Carter’s post (below). In early ’70′s I fell in love with a wonderful young woman, Barbara Johson, who had moved onto the adjacent dock at 2339 Fairview Ave. We shared my houseboat next to Meryl’s for several years until we moved to our current location in the Haller Lake neighborhood, the site of my late teens and early ’20s, and where we now live in the cottage my dad and I built in 1951. Our twins, now 25, are thriving in DC and Brooklyn and visit occasionally.
I’m still in intermittent touch with most of the others (Bob Hosko and Paul Post passed many years ago), I saw Donnia Post and Ann Dawson,last year; Mark a few years ago; Steven about 40 years ago just before he disappeared into monkdom, .
Contact me at RickBarrett@gmail.com, be happy to visit.
Rick
John Carter
February 22, 2011 at 1:03 am
Paul,
Wow, 2331 Fairview Ave. E.#F. brings back many memories of fun times and great people. I lived there too, with Meryl the summer and autumn of ’66. Also aboard at that time was Stephen Klarer, the Chinese scholar, and Eric Anderson, the budding architect. My godfather’s architecture office housed the Helix, and Meryl worked with him. His name was Bob Eyre. He was a special guy, as was his wife, Kae. She’s my great aunt. Later on, She and Eric were an item. Before Mark bought the houseboat, Kae and Bob owned it. I stopped by and took a photo of the place back in 2002 on a trip through Seattle. It still looked as I’d remembered it all these years. I would like to get in touch with some of those wonderful people. Meryl, Paul and Donia Post, Bob Hoscoe, Rick Barrett, and Anne Dawson, just to name a few. They were all part of the moveable feast that took place every Friday night on that dock, and I sure do miss them. One of the
parties that took place started to sink the houseboat from so many people aboard…
Those were great times. Thanks for bringing it all back with your writing.
Peace,
John Carter
and I still have
OMG! I typoed Barbara Johnson’s name.
Rick
Please note that Seattle’s old Pier 51 location is now the Seattle/Bremerton ferry dock, NOT the Seattle/Vashon ferry dock. Please go correct your error.
I don’t know whether you can give me the email address of Dianne Wheless Thorniley in one of your responses to Now and Then but she indicated that she grew up at 1602 Palm Ave in West Seattle. I just happened to grow up at 1610 Palm Ave and it would be very interesting to contact her.
Thanks for any help you might give to me.
Bob Windom
23900 SE 160th St.
Issaquah, WA 98027
bob-windom@comcast.net
I seem to remember an older, pre-Space Needle, Seattle City Logo consisting of an orobouros (serpent eating its own tail) … or was I just on a bad acid trip.
The Indian head logo is a recent appeasement to Native Americans just like King County’s logo change from a crown to MLK’s profile, and the renaming of Empire Way South to Martin Luther King, Jr. Way South was an appeasement to the denizens of the “Central District”.
I think appeasement is recism on steroids … what do you think Paul?
… racism on steroids
Our family’s bakery, Buchan Baking Company, was a part of Seattle’s history from the early 1900′s up until the sale to Oroweat in the mid 1960′s. We are trying to recover as many pieces of the ‘story’ as possible. A part of our collection can be found at http://www.buchansbread.com and any insight or artifacts that anyone can share, please contact us at info@buchansbread.com
And “Remember to Reach for the Tartan Wrapper”
I was recently found a faded copy of a “Now & Then” titled “Licton Park Home”. It was a great piece on the Licton home of David Denny that is still there. However, when I went through your archives, I could not find it? I have “Seattle Now & Then, Vol. 1,” but could not find it in there either. Where can I find this Now & Then about the former David Denny vacation home (and permanent home after the Panic of 1893)?
Paul: First, a thank you. I so enjoy reading your story every Sunday in the Times. It’s the first thing I look for.
Second, a question. What is the history behind the little stone house at the East entrance to the Arboretum? I have lived in Seattle since 1951, and can remember my parents driving us kids by that little stone house on Sunday drives.
As a small child, I was always somewhat scared and wondered if an old troll lived there. You know what I mean. Anyway, what’s inside and is it used for anything these days. I assume it was originally a caretaker’s house. Thanks.
Hi Paul, I am working on putting together a photo book about Seattle radio history. It will be published by Arcadia Publishing Co. early next year. I am currently on a hunt for photos of early radio broadcasting in the Puget Sound area. Can you help by providing some images from your vast collection? Maybe your readers can help. Thanks in advance.
John Schneider