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Seattle Now & Then: Two Marches (on 4th Avenue)

jrsherrard

(click to enlarge photos)

THEN: Lawton Gowey looks north through the tail of the 1957 Independence Day Parade on Fourth Avenue as it proceeds south through the intersection with Pike Street. (Courtesy, Lawton Gowey)
NOW: For his repeat Jean Sherrard, of course, chose Seattle’s contribution to the nation-wide “Women’s March” on January 21st last. Jean explains, “I trotted along a few yards in front of the main body of the marchers, who were greeted by a crowd of thousands lining the streets. The event had an air of celebration and togetherness. The police escort, both on motorcycles (shown in the now photo) and on bicycles, were greeted with warm applause and cheers as they cleared a path for the protesters.”

Lawton Gowey, once the Director of Finance for the Seattle Water Department, recorded this week’s “then” subject.  This old friend, now three decades deceased (1921-1983), was a public worker who studied and extensively photographed the built city.  He carried a 35mm camera loaded with Kodachrome transparency (slide) film. Gowey’s subject is a relatively recent one, dated July 4, 1957.  It is still easy to place.  For this Independence Day Parade portrait, Lawton took his photographer’s crouch on the east side of Fourth Avenue, standing just off the curb and a little less than a half-block south of Pike Street.

The Mayflower Hotel at the southeast corner of Olive Way and Fourth Avenue.

Most of the structures, but not the businesses, in Gowey’s photo survive, including the Seaboard Building (1906-9) at the northeast corner of Fourth and Pike, to the right of the light standard.  Behind the same standard, but two blocks north on Fourth, the Mayflower Hotel stands at its southeast corner with Olive way. Nearby, the Great Northern Railroad’s long popular symbol of a mountain goat looks from its monumental neon circle up the center of Fourth Avenue.  Its rooftop perch was at the northeast corner with Stewart Street. Surely, many PacificNW readers remember it.  

Horace Sykes December 1956 record of the enlarged Bon Marche’s corner Christmas Tree
The Colonial Theatre and the Bon Marche, on the right, at its old height, ca. 1947.

The block-sized Bon Marche, opened in 1929 and remodeled in 1955 as the “largest department store west of Chicago,” holds the center of the subject. To this side of The Bon, the two three-story-tall gaudy signs for Gasco (1932) and the Colonial Theatre (1913) rise side-by-side above the busy sidewalk where street photographers vended to pedestrians their candid portraits.  Many

Clay Eal’s mom caught on Fourth with the Mannings sign behind her and Jerry Johnson, I believe, beside her, ca. 1945.
The Gasco Building’s invitation to a housewarming for April 29, 1932.

of these unwitting but generally willing subjects were on their way either to or from Manning’s Coffee at 1533 Fourth Avenue.  Manning’s, a small chain, were the “Acknowledged Quality Coffee Stores of the Pacific Coast,” and so perhaps, the too-often forgotten fountainhead of Seattle’s rich coffee reputation.    

A Manning’s ad pulled from The Times for April 1, 1925.
Click This To Read It. The Bigelow business building that held the northwest corner of Pike and Fourth Ave., until replaced in 1923. 
Elizabeth Leonard’s beauty and charm school was a long-time tenant of the Bigelow Building. This adver. was clipped from The Times for May 14, 1957.
A Times clip from Jan 2, 1955, promoting the many services of Elizabeth Leonard at her School of Charm in the Bigelow Building.

Left of center at the northwest corner of Fourth and Pike stands the seven-story Bigelow Building.  It was named for the pioneer couple Harry and Emma Bigelow, who after purchasing the water-logged corner from Arthur and Mary Denny in the 1870s left it to its croaking.  It was soon named “Harry’s Frog Pond.”  They replaced the wetland with their big home in 1883.  The Bigelow Building in the “then” was built in 1923 and replaced in the 1980s by the grander Century Square retail and office complex.

A Lunquist-Lilly ad inviting you to save money by climbing their steps to the second floor of the Empress Theatre Building, an earlier location for them..

When the Joshua Green Building, far-left in the featured photo at the top, opened in 1913, the men’s clothier Lundquist – Lilly occupied the second floor, a higher level but with a lower rent. The partners promised to share the savings with their customers. (See their sign.)  Lundquist and Lilly hoped that their clientele would be impressed by “The big saving we make in side-stepping the tremendous operative expense which all street-level clothiers are up against . . . Our furniture and fixtures are very plain; you pay only for clothes.  That’s why we give you a $25.00 suit for $15.00.”   

Like the featured photo at the top this too is dated July 4th, 1957

The July 4, 1957 parade of mostly marching military units that celebrated the nation’s 181st anniversary of America’s assertion of independence from King George III was a modest display.  By police estimates the parade attracted a crowd of about 25,000.  This was pint-sized parading when compared, for instance, to the 150,000 who lined Fourth Avenue to greet President Harry Truman during his 1948 visit to Seattle.

Harry Truman waving from the open convertible Cadillac at the center of the photograph. PLEASE CLICK TO ENLARGE.   I remember the excitement attendant on Truman’s visit to Spokane during the same campaign. I felt charmed by being in the same city with the President of the United States. Now, I confess to finding the same imagined coincidence a confused mix of wonder and repulsion.
Pres. Warren Harding’s parade thru Belltown during his 1923 visit to Seattle. He was not feeling well, and died soon after in San Francisco – probably of a heart attack – while continuing what he called his Voyage of Understanding.   At the time Harding became the sixth of eight presidents to die in office.  His tour had included a visit to Alaska.  His widfe would not allow an autopsy.

WEB EXTRAS

Hi guys. Before inviting your contributions, I’ll post a few faces from the 2017 march as clickable thumbnails.  YOUR parade shots are embraceable Jean.  Give us more if you have them.  By those that find them they will be often returned to – I expect.

Anything to add, gentles?   We will search about for a few more parades, and similar sensations.  Ron has put up – I’m counting – 23 Edge links to former features, and the last of those is a return to the 1883 celebrations connected with the completion of the transcontinental Northern Pacific Railroad.   And the last part of the 23rd feature shows off the song writing and playing skills of the local band Pineola.   We often return to Pineola and listen too.   Enjoy.

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BELOW: A FEW OLDER FEATURES and then tomorrow after a few hours slumber some more Seattle parades.

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MORE ELEPHANTS on PARADE

Most likely near 5th and Thomas. Queen Anne Hill is seen on the horizon. The future Seattle Center campus was the favorite circus venue in the early 20th Century. The circus animals were often paraded from the circus grounds thru the business district to help promote the show.  Photo by Max Loudon.

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Memorial Day Parade, Seattle – 1936.

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Sept. 20, 1932: Like Conqueror – While thousands of persons lined the sidewalks of Second Avenue for the Roosevelt parade yesterday, other throngs his automobile up the street, crowding so closely about the car that watchers had difficulty in getting a glimpse of the governor. Here is how the procession looked.

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The Santa Parade in Times Square

SANTA CLAUS PARADES 

The SANTA CLAUS PARADE tradition began in 1949.  The first parade was held on November 12 and it brought out what The Seattle Times – one of its sponsors – reported that afternoon  “The biggest parade crowd in Seattle’s history turned out this afternoon despite rainy weather to view the gigantic Santa Clause parade.” Seattle Police Chief George D. Eastman estimates the crowd surpassed the Seattle record then of 150,000, which greeted President Truman in 1948.  (See the Truman Parade press photo above, the last illustration here before Jean’s question about “Web Extras.” )

The Santa parade heading south on Fifth Avenue towards the Pine Street intersection.

The Santa Claus parades ran at least through the 1940s.  We will include at the bottom of our Santa parade photos a colored record of the parade by Frank Shaw from Nov. 19, 1960.  The rest are press shots from The Seattle Times.   The Santa parades typically featured the region’s best high school marching bands and the parade’s stars, giants balloons representing classic cartoon characters and monsters – the shapes most likely to thrill the kids, many of whom were also dressed in costumes.  (We imagine, only, that the balloons were recycled from one of the east coast department store parades, like Macy’s in New York City.)

(pause)  Please compare the below photo from an AYP-related parade down Fifth Avenue in 1909, with the above photo.  They were recorded from nearly the same prospect.

Compare this 1909 parade looking south on Fifth towards Pine Street with the one above it – if you like.
The Santa Parade (one of them) passing thru Times Square. The terra-cotta clad Times Building is the flat-iron shaped beauty on the upper-right. The aerial looks south along and over Fifth Avenue.
The parade heading south on Third Ave., reaches Union Street and a line-up of the then popular Turf Club & Grill, the Embassy Theatre and Talls Cameras. The Evergreen High School band follows. The Times caption reads, “Mythical Monster: A crew of Boy Scouts struggled valiantly to control a 110-foot griffin balloon, which wound its way along Third Avenue near Union Street in yesterday’s parade. It took 50 Scouts, working in 25-member teams, to guide the griffin.”
Near the start, a Santa Parade heads south on Third Avenue approaching Virginia Street.

The mid-November PARADE was popular enough to sell out downtown lodgings for the night before.   The Times reported that “one hotel on the parade route reportedly turned down at least 300 requests for reservations.”  In 1949 the Santa Claus parade route went south of Second Avenue from Virginia Street to Yesler Way and returned north on Third Avenue with a reviewing stand at Third and Virginia.   In 1950 the route changed to Third (going south) and Fifth Avenues.   Two years more and the directions were switched, south on Fifth and north on Third.  The 1956 parade features a dozen bands and forty balloons or “Novelty Units.”  This year the route was again first heading south on Third Avenue from Virginia Street and then returning from Yesler Way by way of Fifth Avenue.

At least for one of its several years running, the Santa Claus parade came west on Union Street to turn south on Third Avenue. The Post Office is upper-right.
Frank Shaw’s record of the Santa Claus parade for November 19, 1960.

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POTLATCH PARADES – A Few Examples from the first Golden Potlatch Parade in 1911, followed by a Dad’s Day promotion from the 1913 Potlatch Parade.   

The Afro-American Float at the intersection of Second Avenue and Marion Street, with the Stetson Post Building (1883) behind it.
Above and below:  two glimpses of the review stand in the recently cleared Denny Regrade neighborhood, 1911.

A 1911 parade poser at the intersection of Marion Street and Third Avenue. The southeast corner with the nearly new Central Building rises behind it.
A line-up of electric cars passing the Central Building in the 1911 Potlatch parade. (Courtesy, Michael Maslan)

First appeared in Pacific, June 15, 1986.
Motorcars still made for a thrilling parade during the early years of the Golden Potlatch Days. The subject looks north on Second Avenue towards its intersection with Madison Street.

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MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL PREPAREDNESS PARADES

On First Avenue south of University Street.  Here the Diller Hotel is bedecked – not so in the photo that is two above it.
A Force marches south on Fourth Avenue in front of the Rainier Club.

Draft Parade on Second Avenue north from Stewart Street, 1917.

Playing Soldiers, a band marches south on Second Ave. though the welcoming arch at Marion Street for the Knights Templar conference here in 1925.

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FAT TUESDAY PARADE:  During the 1970s it seemed like every February includes a few unseasonably warm days.   Once of these natural lapses was used to stage a Fat Tuesday parade from the Pike Place Market to the drinking reservoirs of Pioneer Square.  The size of the downhill entourage was huge.  Here are two shots featuring the Friends of the Rag.   Both were snapped by Frank Shaw.

WALLINGFORD KIDDIE PARADE from the early 1950s and its DISTINGUISHED QUINTET of Hoary Parade Marshalls from 2008, I believe.

Wallingford Seafair kid’s parade from early 1950s.

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POSTSCRIPT

Another record of the 1883 Villard visit with his entourage. The territorial university is on the horizon of Denny’s Knoll, and the photo was taken from 3rd Avenue near Union Street.
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