(Click to enlarge photos) Perhaps the lens was too small but the Works Progress Administration (WPA) photographer who included the Sprague Hotel in the inventory of likely First Hill structures that would be razed for the building of Yesler Terrace, the Northwest’s first public housing, has cut off the street, Yesler Way, and its sidewalks. … Continue reading Seattle Now & Then: The Sprague Hotel on Yesler
(click to enlarge photos) WE INTERRUPT THIS FEATURE WITH A LOOK AROUND THE CORNER & NORTHEAST TO THE INTERSECTION OF JEFFERSON STREET & THIRD AVENUE. THE CITY HALL – AKA KATTZENJAMMBER CASTLE – IS ON THE RIGHT, AND THE YESLER HOME – (a domestic castle with 27 rooms) – ON THE LEFT. The reader will … Continue reading Seattle Now & Then: Independence Day at 3rd and Yesler
(click to enlarge photos) At its core, this two-story box shows off some of the architectural style covered with the term Italianate, and surely this humble Italian could look quite spiffy with some fresh paint, perhaps of several colors in the ‘painted lady’ way. The low-pitch hip roof extends with wide eaves supported by large … Continue reading Seattle Now & Then: Yesler (No sir!)
(click to enlarge photos) We will concentrate first on Jean Sherrard’s ‘repeat’ that looks into the face of Songbird, by sculptor John Henry. The Chattanooga artist visited Seattle twice to study this northeast corner of Fifth Avenue and Yesler Way. He determined what we, perhaps, have not considered. “The work would have to interact with … Continue reading Seattle Now & Then: The Frances Hotel (aka 5th Avenue regrade)
(click to enlarge photos) When the Marine Hospital opened in 1933 to eighty-four veteran patients, many moved from the Fed’s old hospital in Port Townsend, the new Art Deco high rise on the head of Beacon Hill looked much higher than its sixteen stories. And from its roof it also “felt” taller, as evidenced by … Continue reading Seattle Now & Then: First Hill and Yesler Terrace
(click to enlarge photos) These Amelia Apartments – 16 of them – were, it seems, first noted in a Seattle Times classified ad on Sept. 4, 1910. The agent, John Davis and Co., was one of the super real estate dealers of the time with 61 apartment buildings, “in all parts of the city. Davis … Continue reading Seattle Now & Then: The Amelia Apartments at 17th and Yesler
(click to enlarge photos) I confess an attraction to “row houses,” and these at the southeast corner of 5th Avenue and Madison Street were one – or six – of Seattle’s best examples. While they depart from that domestic ideal (often put to rhyme) of a “stand alone home of one’s own,” together they … Continue reading Seattle Now & Then: Row Houses on 5th
Since 1982, Paul has written his popular column for the Seattle Times Sunday magazine. We will be archiving them here, starting with a handful of more recent contributions and continuing to add more as time and effort permit. Several elements ensure this will be an intriguing feature of our blog. First, clicking on the photos … Continue reading Seattle Now & Then
(click to enlarge photos) This winter week we share another snap from The Big Snow of February 1916. Except for Puget Sound’s prolonged pioneer blizzard in 1880, the 1916 snow bounding was the deepest in our city’s history. For any media, including the thousands of box Kodak’s in the hands of Seattle citizens, the four-day … Continue reading Seattle Now & Then: The Fallen Dome
(click to enlarge photos) Through Seattle’s so far brief history (when compared to Jerusalem), one of the most flamboyant invasions of this well-defended city of about seventy-seven hills came in late July 1925 when 30,000 “members and families” of – and the name is long – “The United Religious, Military and Masonic Orders of the Temple … Continue reading Seattle Now & Then: The Knights Templar take Seattle, 1925