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Published in The Seattle Times online on Sept. 26, 2025
and in Pacific NW Magazine of the printed Times on Sept. 28, 2025

For 36 wayward metal-art panels, let there be (city) light!

By Clay Eals

An exquisite set of 36 long-unseen city art treasures has come to light, at least most of it. A few panels are still missing. Was the set misplaced, lost, stolen? As with previous mysteries, we at “Now & Then” ask you, dear readers, to be detectives.

Ninety years ago, their owner, Seattle City Light, named the set “The Evolution of Lighting.” The silver-sheened panels trace an inspiring story, from ancient (“Primitive man’s first source of light, a forest fire caused by lightning”) to modern-day (“Edison’s First Incandescent Lamp, Perfected 1879”).

The wafer-thin panels are made of Britannia metal, a pewter alloy. Each 3-by-2-foot panel exemplifies a French relief art crafted by hammering the metal’s reverse side, a technique called repoussé (reh-poo-SAY), meaning “pushed back.”

The first 34 panels were designed by Albert E. Booth and hammered out by John W. Elliott, both Seattleites, in 1935 for the just-opened City Light building at 1015 Third Ave., encircling the lobby from above. Elliott — whose elaborate art adorns three-dozen prominent Northwest edifices — added two panels to update the exhibition for the expanded and remodeled City Light building in 1958. The aggregation was rearranged into a 27-by-8-foot wall, nine panels wide by four panels high.

The mystery? When City Light moved to the Seattle Municipal Tower at Sixth & Cherry in 1996, the panels were to follow.

“That never happened,” says Tom Parks, a 1979-2015 City Light employee who heads the Retired City Light Employees Association. “I think it was a task that fell through the cracks.” He says it’s possible they were filched, that someone thought, “They’re pretty cool, they’re old, and we can get some money for them.”

The evidence? In May, West Seattle antique dealer Mike Shaughnessy purchased four of the panels, each in a wooden frame, from a fellow “picker.” In August, after seeing a 1960 City Light booklet depicting all 36 panels, he doubled down, discovered 28 more and snapped them up. He is four shy of the whole set.

He envisions selling the set back to the city for the $12,000 he’s invested. But first he contemplates a downtown gallery display, including mockups of the missing panels, hoping to scare up the real ones.

Parks applauds the quest. “They were unique,” he says. “It was a key feature in the old lobby. It was the first thing that people noticed when they came in.”

How did the panels get into private hands? Where are the outliers? Shaughnessy’s trail has run dry. Our own inquiries and dives into local archives turn up nothing.

Clues, dear readers?

WEB EXTRAS

Big thanks to Gary Zarker, Tom Parks, Mike Wong, Jeanie Fisher of Seattle Municipal Archives, Laura Spess of University of Washington Special Collections and especially Mike Shaughnessy and Bradi Jones for their invaluable help with this installment!

To see Clay Eals‘ 360-degree video of the “Now” prospect and compare it with the “Then” photos, and to hear this column read aloud by Clay, check out our Seattle Now & Then 360 version of the column.

Here is other local coverage of this “history mystery”:

• West Seattle Blog, Sept. 27, 2025
• SPACE 101.5 FM, Sept. 28, 2025

Below, you will find Seattle City Light’s two booklets that display “The Evolution of Light” panels. The 1935 booklet shows 34 panels, and the 1960 booklet shows 36. Also there is the Jan. 30, 1996, program for the ceremony noting closure of the City Light building at 1015 Third Ave.

You also will find 3 additional photos and  8  historical clips from The Seattle Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer online archive (available via Seattle Public Library), Newspapers.com, Washington Digital Newspapers and other sources that were helpful in the preparation of this column.