Looking kitty-corner across Thomas Street and Second Ave. North to the Eaton Apartments, ca. 1940. It is a rare recording of Seattle Center acres before their make-over for the 1962 Century 21. (Please Click to Enlarge All the Illustrations)Jean Sherrard visited the intersection during the recent playing of the Folklife Festival, and caught folk-jazz artist Eric Apoe, with his guitar, leaving the festival after his performance. (Photo by Jean Sherrard)
I know nothing about the provenance of this photograph, except that it showed up on my front porch among a small bundle of negatives. Still with the help of a tax card, a few city directories, and a scattering of other sources we can make some notes.
With his or her back to Sacred Heart Catholic Church, an unknown photographer looked northeast through the intersection of Second Avenue North and Thomas Street. The Eaton Apartment House across the way was built in 1909 – in time perhaps for the city’s first world’s fair. (It is at least an irony that is was torn down for the second.) It held 19 of everything: tubs, sinks, basins, through its 52 plastered rooms. In the 1938 tax assessment it is described as in “fair condition” with a “future life” of about 13 years. In fact, it held the corner for a full half century until it and much else in the neighborhood was cleared for construction of Century 21.
The Eaton and its nearby neighbor, the Warren Avenue School, were two of the larger structures razed for Century 21. However, the neighborhood’s biggest – the Civic Auditorium, Ice Arena, and the 146th Field Artillery Armory – were given makeovers and saved for the fair. Built in 1939, the old Armory shows on the far right. (Another view of it is included below.) Although not so easy to find it is also in the “now” having served in its 71 years first as the Armory, then the ’62 fair’s Food Circus, and long since the Center House.
This is part of David and Louisa Denny’s pioneer land claim, which Salish history explains served for centuries as a favorite place to snag low-flying ducks and hold potlatches. The oldest user of the Eaton Apt. site was even more ancient. The Seattle Art Museum (SAM) brought King Tut, or at least parts of his tomb, to the Flag Pavilion in 1978. It was about then that Andy Warhol also showed up to party with SAM in the old pavilion, which in 2002 was replaced and greatly improved with the Fisher Pavilion.
Readers who have old photographs of this neighborhood from before the 1962 fair (they are rare) or of the fair itself might like to share them with historylink. That non-profit encyclopedia of regional history is preparing a book on the fair, one that will resemble, we expect, its impressive publication on the recent Alaska Yukon Pacific Centennial. As with the AYP book, the now hard-at-work authors are Paula Becker and Alan Stein. You can reach them by phone at 206-447-8140 or on line at Admin@historylink.org.
North and west facades of the Eaton Apartments, right of center, seen looking south from the intersection of Second Ave. and Harrison Street, ca. 1959. The photographer, Frank Shaw, snapped this from a prospect that is now under the roof of the Coliseum - near its east entrance.Like the photograph directly above it, this too is by Frank Shaw. It looks through some of the same Seattle Center acreage as the one above, although in the opposite direction. Here construction work has started on Century 21, and the prospect is from somewhere near the center of what would become the Pacific Science Center. Sacred Heart Catholic Parish sits at the center of this scene and the long and leaning yellow roof supports for the Coliseum are easily picked out. The primary now-then photos printed at the top were taken within feet of the church's northeast corner, the one here furthest to the right. Evidently there was no prohibitions against burning the wreckage and rubbish of the these blocks in preparation for the 21st Century. Photo by Frank ShawPage 356 from King County Plat Book No. 1 dated July 13th (or possibly 18th) 1869, featuring a plat map for David Denny's addition called North Seattle. Gardiner Kellogg, the country auditor, has attempted to give the map some gravitas by rendering depth to some of the letters in "Plat." Kellog's hand writing is difficult for me, at least, to read. We can make out that the streets are 66 ft wide, the alleys 16 feet wide and the lots to be sold are 60 by 120 feet - a typical lot size for that time. This is scanned from a hand-held slide I took from this book with available "bunker" light a quarter-century ago or so at the county archive. The copy is consequently soft in its focus. (Still click the image TWICE to enlarge it TWICE.) The page on the right does not, I think, relate to the North Seattle plat, but it too is hard to read - for me. Is Kellogg's writing "explained" when we understand that he was also a druggist for most of his many years in Seattle, and the first Fire Chief, and the City's Postmaster from 1864 to 1872? It was this year, 1869, that Seattle was at last incorporated, although the north city limit was set at Howell Street. In 1883 it was pushed north to the top of Queen Anne Hill at McGraw Street and so then also included Denny's North Seattle additions. Note the street names on the map - they are legible. Some are familiar, like Mercer, Republican, Harrison, Thomas, and John. Some are not. Temperance, a favorite Denny preoccupation, was later changed to Queen Anne Ave., and Depot Street, which expressed Denny's hope that a railroad depot would be built as its waterfront end, never got its depot. The name was changed to Denny to honor the plat's namesake.Armory, later named the Food Circus for Century 21. Following the fair's development into Seattle Center, it was renamed again: the Center House. The view looks west on Thomas St. from near 4th Avenue.WE COME IN PEACE (Victor Lydgman)
