(click to enlarge photos)


For occupying the attention of his two youngest sons, David and me, during long family road trips Dad devised and repeatedly replenished what we called “Pop’s Pop quizzes.” On one such trip from Spokane to Seattle, I was able to easily answer Pop’s query, “What is the name of the world’s first streamlined ferry.” That this then ten or eleven-year-old’s answer was correct is testimony to the widespread popularity of the feted Kalakala.
The Black Ball Line’s flagship ferry was the most popular man-made creation on Puget Sound until the raising of the Space Needle in 1962. We have, perhaps inevitably, featured this ferry for “Now and Then” more than once. For instance, on the Sunday of November 3, 1991, we showed her passing through the Chittenden Locks in 1947 for one of the ferry’s few visits into our fresh waterways. Ordinarily, busy carrying both tourists and Naval shipyard workers back and forth to Bremerton, the Kalakala did not need our lakes.

Of the many photographs or illustrations of this ferry that I have collected and/or copied, the over-the-shoulder portrait by Frank Shaw that we have chosen for our feature this week is one of my favorites for several reasons. We put it at the top. By contrast, the clouded sky brightens the ferry’s silver shine. The colored slide’s stern end view improves the ferry’s streamlined claim. Still, the Kalakala’s less kind nickname, “The Silver Slug,” may have been inspired as much by this tapered stern as by the ferry’s bowl-shaped bow where two doors opened wide enough to admit the big trucks of its years, 1935 to 1967.
Perhaps the photographer’s most effective assistant for embellishing the streamlined qualities of the ferry was the low tide. It drops some of the ferry’s vertical chunkiness, hiding it below Shaw’s prospect, the exposed deck of one of the two Northern Pacific piers are the foot of Yesler Way. The N.P. was Colman Dock’s neighbor to the south. (In the PacificNW’s printing I mistakenly – and foolishly – named this pier, which served as stand for the photographer, the Grand Trunk Pier. That, of course, was on the north side of Colman Dock. My dyslexia seems to be increasingly settling into an early dementia. Stay tuned. I’m trying to remember my cane. It has no name that I can share.)

With the sensational introduction of its modern service in the mid-1930s, the streamlined ferry was promoted with a modern makeover of its Colman Dock terminal with Art Deco touches. You will know, perhaps, that the Kalakala had been transformed from the burned shell of the Peralta, a fire-gutted San Francisco Bay ferry that was sold cheap to the Puget Sound Navigation Company. Rebuilt here as the PSNC’s flagship it is also a moving monument to Deco design.

At its center, Frank Shaw’s (or Robert Bradley’s ) waterfront glimpse also includes a second Art Deco landmark, the Securities Building. (sic. And here falls a second mistake of fact put forth in this trending-pitiful feature. Thanks to my friend Gavin MacDougall for catching that the Art Deco landmark on Marion St. is the Exchange Building and not the Securities, which is on the northwest corner of Fourth Avenue and Pike Street. I have confused the names for these before – and may again.) The Exchange Building still faces Marion Street from the full block between First and Second Avenues. In his contribution to the University Press’s book “Shaping Seattle Architecture,” Seattle architect-historian Grant Hilderbrand considers this 1929-31 landmark as “perhaps architect John Graham, Sr.’s finest work.” The reader will surely enjoy a visit to the building’s lobby. The Exchange Building still stands back-to-back and in contrast with the seventeen stories of International Style aluminum and glass curtain-wall construction of the Norton Building. Built in 1959 it is considered by some to be Seattle’s first modern skyscraper. The tops of both the Securities and Norton Buildings can be found in Jean’s repeat — just barely.





LAYING THE CORNERSTONE – SEPTEMBER 30, 1959


ONE MONTH LATER THE NORTON GARAGE OPENS
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Later, LAWTON GOWEY LOOKS NORTH OVER THE SHOULDERS OF BOTH THE NORTON & EXCHANGE Buildings from the SMITH TOWER.
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WEB EXTRAS
Our good friend Clay Eals contributes the following:
“I understand that the focus of tomorrow’s “Now and Then” is on the “Then” of the Kalakala, not its “Now,” because, of course, the Kalakala no longer exists with integrity. But its large wheelhouse and drive train exist in the south parking lot of Salty’s on Alki, courtesy of the restaurant’s owner, Gerry Kingen, who salvaged them in Tacoma on the day in February 2015 that they were to be wholly scrapped. I’m attaching a fun photo I took on Feb. 23, 2015, of the downtown skyline as seen through the portholes of the wheelhouse as it sits at Salty’s on Alki. On one hand, it’s quite sad that the Kalakala is no longer intact, but on the other hand, it’s nice to have a couple of (large) remnants.P.S. You can see many more photos of Kingen and the salvage operation on this page of the West Seattle Herald from Feb. 9, 2015: https://www.westsideseattle.com/west-seattle-herald/2015/02/09/slideshow-mv-kalakala-comes-saltys-alki. Scroll to the bottom for the slide show of photos by Kingen and the Herald’s Patrick Robinson and David Rosen to get the full view of the remnants.”
Anything to add, lads? For sure slim Jean, more old features and most of them from the Seattle waterfront. The first example will be the other Kalakala feature noted above. It is scanned out of the paper. After that the first seventeen of these are recent features pulled forth by Ron Edge from the blog, which has been around now for a decade or more. They need to be clicked to open. The rest are older features that were scanned as clippings. They also need to be clicked for enlargements – to read them.
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MORE MOORINGS

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Good to see the K’s radar antenna in a couple of these shots – the world’s first commercial radar installation. During her final year afloat, I was sorry to hear little of her landmark (watermark?) status in this regard, might have stirred hearts to a further degree. Let’s keep that part of the story as alive as all the little quirky ones. Very impressive as an artifact up close, curvy torso with outstretched arms, almost a totemic bearing and still carrying FCC plate 001. I dream of seeing the radar on Colman Dock some day in a permanent commemorative display, perhaps with her steam whistle? Not at the Smithsonian – HERE, a great piece of Seattle heritage. With your connections and unique position can you make it finally happen, Mr. Moseley*? (Let’s all write once you’re settled in!)
* David Moseley, Mayor Durkan’s Chief Operating Officer and former head of Wa. State Ferries.
P.S. check out the K’s radar newsreel on Youtube!