First, Ron Edge – of our Edge Clippings – comments that Frank Shaw’s unidentified shoreline Gazebo (somewhere on Puget Sound) is prefigured with the Madrona Park gazebo. Following that comparison, we include four panoramas of work-in-progress on the Jackson Street Regrade. One of the four is a completion of the half-pan shown here with the Dec. 24 feature on the regrade, which looked northwest into it from near the southeast corner of 7th and Weller. Taken as a cluster the four pans are very revealing and exquisite for study. (They are used courtesy of the Seattle Public Library.)
For comparison one of Frank Shaw's two recordings of the just off-shore Gazebo.The Madrona Park gazebo reached by a steep trail from the park's Lake Washington shoreline. The park was outfitted early in the 1890s to lure riders on the Union Trunk Line's service from Pioneer Square to the park and its attractions. This view by Otto Frasch was photographed ca. 1908. In the intervening years the rustic shelter has grown ragged at the roof. (Courtesy Ron Edge)The bandstands nearby at Madison Park were also examples of park gazebos built by commercial developers - in this case the Madison Street Cable Railway - to attract customers on to the trollies, to the park's attractions, and the surrounding real estate. Lake Washington excursions were also part of the lure, and Madison Park was for many years the easiest way to get by launch to Laurelhurst.
The JACKSON STREET REGRADE ADDENDUM (for Dec. 24, 2011)
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This printing completes with its left half the full panorama included in the Dec. 24 feature. The photo was taken on Oct. 30, 1908 from the roof of the then new New Central Hotel at the southeast corner of Weller Street and Maynard Avenue. It looks east up Weller from above the alley between Maynard and 7th Ave..Like the pan above it this one was photographed on Oct. 30, 1908. Both were commissioned by Lewis and Wiley Inc, the contractors for the regrade. This view looks south from near Jackson and 7th, and so through the site once held by Holy Names Academy on the east side of 7th between Jackson and King. Note the Beacon Hill horizon. The New Central Hotel shows on the far right. It was the prospect for the first pan, the one shown above this pan. Note also that tidewater still reaches a shoreline at the foot of Beacon Hill. South School is far left, but not for long. Weller street was used temporarily as a route for trolleys to the Rainier Valley, and a trolley or perhaps two can be found in this pan.In this, the earliest pan, Holy Names Academy is still intact, far left. The pipe line close to Weller street runs below the bluff, which will soon be reduced by means of the pipe's cannonade of water blasts. This may be compared to the primary photo used in the Dec. 24 now-then feature, which shows the Academy in ruins. The pans own caption (bottom-right) is in one part blurred, however, most likely it reads, "April 9, 1909 Looking west from 12th between King and Weller." If this is so then here the regreaders have reached the "summit" of the ridge and it has been subdued. Note the Great Northern Depot tower on the center horizon.
