THEN1: On Sept. 5, 1938, at the northeast corner of Second Avenue and Lenora Street, 67 Filipinos surround a Labor Day float promoting the first Filipino-led union in the United States and urging defeat of a statewide “strike control” initiative. The photo was given to the Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS) by 1930s “Alaskero” cannery worker and union leader Antonio Rodrigo, whose oral history the organization recorded in 1983 and whose signature crosses the bottom of the image. (Courtesy Filipino American National Historical Society)NOW1: At the behest of Dorothy Cordova, FANHS director, 15 former Alaskan cannery workers and friends assemble at the site of the 1938 parade float: (from left) Efren Edwards, Devin Israel Cabanilla, David Della (former Seattle City Council member), Reynaldo Pascua, John Ragudos, Benjamin Presas, Gino Navarro, Richard Gurtiza, Dan Sarusal Jr., Timothy Corpus, Jose Floresca, Adrian Laigo, Gerald René Laigo, Robert Flor and Ric Farińas. Said one, “When Dorothy asks …” (Clay Eals)
Published in The Seattle Times online on Sept. 21, 2023
and in PacificNW Magazine of the printed Times on Sept. 24, 2023
With salmon leaping eagerly into a giant can (“From the sea to you!”), this week’s “Then” portrait depicts a festive float. Surrounding it are local Filipinos, 59 men and 8 women, heartily gathering downtown to take part in Seattle’s Labor Day procession of Sept. 5, 1938.
No less hearty, the present-day repeat of our “Now” photo speaks to a national organization documenting a community’s legacy and guided by a local Filipina dynamo, Dorothy Laigo Cordova.
In the 1938 shot, many don formal dress, and some hoist cans of salmon, celebratory symbols of the 1933 formation of the Cannery Workers and Farm Laborers Union, Local 7.
The first Filipino-led union in the United States, it spoke for thousands of often unrecognized immigrants who traveled summertimes to the then-Alaska Territory for arduous fish-cannery work. They called themselves “Alaskeros” (ala-SKERR-ohs).
The float also reflected political tensions. Although many CWFLU members were categorized as “nationals,” not U.S. citizens, and could not vote, they joined other unions in urging defeat of “strike control” Initiative 130, on the statewide ballot that fall.
The initiative was led by business interests who sought to “stamp out racketeering and violence in Washington” and promised “peace, pay checks [and] prosperity.” But union sympathizers held sway. The measure failed, 295,431 to 268,848.
Revealing just one swath of local Filipino history, the float image holds prominence among countless photos, posters, oral histories and documents stored and displayed at the headquarters of the Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS, pronounced “fonz”). The combination library and organizing center spans several rooms on the first floor of Immaculate Conception Church in the Central District.
NOW2: To locate a 1983 oral-history transcript of 1930s Alaskan cannery worker and union leader Antonio Rodrigo, Dorothy Cordova digs into a file cabinet. (Clay Eals)
Dorothy Cordova launched it in 1982 with her husband, the journalist, college spokesman and renowned civil-rights leader Fred Cordova, as an outgrowth of their late-1950s Filipino Youth Activities organization and early-1970s Demonstration Project for Asian Americans. Today, FANHS boasts chapters in 41 cities.
NOW3: Dorothy Cordova (red shirt), director of the Filipino American National Historical Society, leads a pizza-fueled memory session among former Alaskan cannery workers in the FANHS office. Of the repetitive cannery work, Robert Flor (second from right, front) recalled, “It looks easy, until you do it!” (Clay Eals)
Fred died in 2014. Remarkably, Dorothy, 90, a Seattle native and longtime sociologist, teacher, researcher and activist (not to mention mother of eight), still runs FANHS. Unpaid, she commutes from Montlake to the office five days a week.
NOW4: Dorothy Cordova receives a legacy award May 10, 2023, from the Association of King County Historical Organizations. (Clay Eals)
Dorothy’s decades of accomplishments and awards are formidable. This year alone, she received a legacy award in May from the Association of King County Historical Organizations, and at a banquet Thursday, Sept. 28, Historic Seattle will honor her as a “preservation champion.”
Why keep at it? “Curiosity!” she spouts. “Actually, it’s a mission: ‘Did you know anything about us? We were nobody.’ We try to set the record straight.”
And there’s always more: “You just have to keep plugging away.”
WEB EXTRAS
Thanks to Ben Laigo and especially Dorothy Cordova 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.
Below, besides an additional video of Dorothy receiving a legacy award from the Association of King County Historical Organizations, are 4 additional photos, and, in chronological order, 70 historical clips from The Seattle Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer online archive (available via Seattle Public Library) and Washington Digital Newspapers, that were helpful in the preparation of this column.
THEN1: Four golfers (plus two caddies at right) putt at the hole No. 3 green in 1931 at Paradise Golf Course south of Mount Rainier. Paradise Inn can be seen in the woods at right. The Seattle Times said the course was “designed to make profane golfers contemplative and contemplative golfers better men.” (Courtesy Northwest Hickory Players)NOW1: Northwest Hickory Players (from left) Martin Pool, Gary Smyres, John Quickstad and Rob Ahlschwede replicate the positions of the 1931 golfers putting at the site of hole No. 3 green in Mount Rainier National Park. Note the light-colored rock at center right in each photo. To learn more about Paradise Golf Course, visit NWHickoryPlayers.org. (Clay Eals)
Published in The Seattle Times online on Sept. 14, 2023
and in PacificNW Magazine of the printed Times on Sept. 17, 2023
Where to find ‘golf utopia’ in 1931? No lie: at Mount Rainier!
By Clay Eals
It was outlandish 92 years ago. It’s outlandish today. But out on the land immediately south of Mount Rainier, there once arose, in golfing vernacular, an alluring ace.
For two Depression-era months in the summer and fall of 1931 at aptly named Paradise, the gem was a nine-hole golf course.
Don’t believe it? Photos, news stories, a logbook and even a blueprint prove that Paradise Golf Course was no high lie.
THEN3: Three golfers tee off at hole No. 6 in 1931 at the short-lived Paradise Golf Course at Mount Rainier. (Courtesy Northwest Hickory Players)
On opening day, Aug. 8, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer called it “golf utopia,” and not just for the up-close views of the 14,411-foot peak. Paul Sceva, then Rainier National Park manager, claimed that every drive had 30 yards more carry than on any other course in America. The reason? The 5,000-foot altitude sliced air resistance to a minimum.
NOW3: Northwest Hickory Players (from left) Rob Ahlschwede, John Quickstad and Martin Pool replicate the positions of the 1931 golfers teeing off at the site of hole No. 6 green at Paradise Golf Course in Mount Rainier National Park. (Clay Eals)
“There is no question about it,” said its architect, Roy Herbert Dobell, of Aberdeen. “The ball travels 25% farther up here in the skies. I’ve proved it many times.”
The course also provided “a most interesting feature to the tired business man,” the P-I reported. “Every fairway is downhill.” A car regularly waited at hole No. 9 to carry golfers back to the first tee, which teetered over a bluff, a breathtaking 300 feet above hole No. 1’s fairway.
NOW2: In this south-facing view, Northwest Hickory Players (from left) Martin Pool, John Quickstad, Gary Smyres and Rob Ahlschwede stand at the former tee-off site for hole No. 1 for Paradise Golf Course in Mount Rainier National Park. The hole’s fairway green lay 300 feet below. (Clay Eals)
The Northwest Hickory Players, a 10-year-old, no-dues club of 125 golfers who play with vintage clubs and duds, recently drove to Paradise to revel in the place of their period predecessors. The club’s Martin Pool, of Kenmore, labels the setting a “spectacular novelty.”
THEN2: Four-and-a-half years before Paradise Golf Course operated briefly at Mount Rainier, this staged cover photo for The Youth’s Companion magazine shows a golfer teeing off from a cliff, backed by the 14,411-foot peak. The caption says the photo “proves that the golf habit is incurable!” (Courtesy Northwest Hickory Players)
By the 1920s, golf’s national popularity had soared. Pool’s research indicates that the park’s concessionaire proposed the course to boost sagging business at the mountain’s lodge, especially overnight stays.
“Golf is a country game, not a city one,” responded Horace Albright, then National Park Service director. “It can be justified in parks easier than tennis. Anyway, I want to try out the thing, and as the Rainier Company needs revenue more than any other company, I am disposed to let them try the experiment.”
Some 200 men and women, mostly from Puget Sound but also from Los Angeles, Philadelphia, New York, Boston, St. Louis, Niagara Falls and Tokyo, Japan, gave the course a try. Fees at the time were $1.50 for 9-hole play and $3 for all day.
Of course, the remote locale invited unique challenges, including a pair of bears who ambled the greens at dusk, snapping off bamboo flag sticks and pulling out cups. Then there was the weather. When snow blanketed the area in early October, the course closed, never to reopen.
Today, it’s one of history’s sweet spots.
WEB EXTRAS
Thanks to Martin Pool, Gary Smyres, John Quickstad, Rob Ahlschwede of the Northwest Hickory Players, along with Ben Nechanicky and Mount Rainier National Park curator Brooke Childrey 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.
Click the image above to see a pdf of a history of Paradise Golf Course as written by Martin Pool of Northwest Hickory Players.Click the above images to see a pdf of an official 1931 Mount Rainier National Park brochure.
In this north-facing view, Northwest Hickory Players (from left) Martin Pool, John Quickstad, Rob Ahlschwede and Gary Smyres stand at the former tee-off site for hole No. 1 for Paradise Golf Course in Mount Rainier National Park. (Clay Eals)The 1931 Paradise Golf Course log book, cover. (Courtesy Brooke Childrey)The 1931 Paradise Golf Course log book, p1. (Courtesy Brooke Childrey)The 1931 Paradise Golf Course log book, p2. (Courtesy Brooke Childrey)The 1931 Paradise Golf Course log book, p3. (Courtesy Brooke Childrey)The 1931 Paradise Golf Course log book, p4. (Courtesy Brooke Childrey)The 1931 Paradise Golf Course log book, p5. (Courtesy Brooke Childrey)1930 Paradise Golf Course blueprint. (Courtesy Brooke Childrey)Oct. 28, 1928, Seattle Times, p27.Aug. 8, 1931, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, p11.Aug. 9, 1931, Seattle Times, p24.Aug. 30, 1931, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, p19.
From the cover sleeve of the First Bank radio spot. (Courtesy Gavin MacDougall)Click the red promotional record above to hear a one-minute radio commercial, “Another Nice Thing,” prepared by First Bank, which is how Seattle-First National Bank branded itself in 1975-1977. (Gavin MacDougall)Lyrics to “Another Nice Thing,” from the cover sleeve of the First Bank radio spot. (Courtesy Gavin MacDougall)From the cover sleeve of the First Bank radio spot. (Courtesy Gavin MacDougall)
A BONUS!
This column installment begins below, But first a delightful bonus above. Here we present a one-minute radio commercial for First Bank, which is how Seattle-First National Bank branded itself from 1975 to 1977. Click the red promotional record below to hear the commercial, titled “Another Nice Thing.” Next to the record are images from its sleeve. Enjoy!
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THEN1: This view looks northwest from Sixth Avenue across Denny Way at the new Seattle-First National Bank branch on Oct. 10, 1950. At right, the top of its identifying pillar is barely visible. (Courtesy Puget Sound Regional Branch, Washington State Archives)NOW1: The Space Needle peeks above cars and walkers breezing by the former bank building at 566 Denny Way, converted in 2009 to a Walgreens. In its windows, the pharmacy chain displays a history-based slogan: “Happy and healthy since 1901.” Heritage advocates note that the building is one of about 450 official Seattle landmarks, representing just 0.5% of all city parcels. (Clay Eals)
Published in The Seattle Times online on Aug. 24, 2023
and in PacificNW Magazine of the printed Times on Aug. 27, 2023
A former bank on Denny Way, but not its site,
retains its status as a Seattle landmark
By Clay Eals
Can a Seattle landmark lose its protection? If can if the Seattle City Council overrules its Landmarks Preservation Board.
In the 50-year history of the city’s landmark program, the council rarely has approved such a reversal. But it almost did so last January, before a compromise saved a building but not most of its surrounding site.
The site, at 566 Denny Way, is known mostly for its notable neighbors: the Space Needle, the Monorail, the KOMO-TV complex, the Chief Seattle statue, Denny Park (the city’s first), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the gaggle of South Lake Union mid- and high-rises informally known as Amazonia.
THEN1B: This 1950 image looks northwest from Sixth Avenue across Denny Way at the new Seattle-First National Bank branch. (Construction News Bulletin, 1950)
Since 2009, the site has operated as a Walgreens, but it took shape in 1950 as a Seattle-First National Bank branch, among the firm’s “customer-friendly” banks built after World War II.
THEN2: A promotional postcard from 1950 touts the modern aspects of the then-new Denny branch of Seattle-First National Bank. The firm later became subsumed within Bank of America. (Washington Department of Archaeology & Historic preservation)
The building — with its gently concave roof, stone logo plaques and brick-faced and limestone entries, augmented by a curved drive-through lane, parking lot and prominent identifying brick pillar — embodied design known today as Mid-Century Modern. It also brought stature north of downtown to a district of wood-frame houses leveled in 1928-30 during the final phase of the hill-sluicing Denny Regrade project.
Today, it bears unfortunate earmarks of decline: persistent graffiti and a closed front entrance to deter theft. But in 2006, the Landmarks Preservation Board designated the building exterior and site a landmark for its design, architects (Lister Holmes, John Maloney) and contribution to neighborhood identity.
Last year, the building and site faced the final step in the landmark process. Specific controls agreed to by Walgreens and the landmarks board and staff headed to the City Council, which routinely OKs such negotiated agreements. Not this time, however.
Backed by urbanist housing advocates, a council committee voted 4-0 on Dec. 9 against landmark controls for the building and site. Led by chair Tammy Morales, committee members said preserving a one-floor, auto-centric building and parking lot in a dense neighborhood “doesn’t make sense” amid a citywide housing crisis.
NOW2: The site’s identifying pillar dominates this south-facing view of the former bank’s backside, which provides the only customer entrance to this Walgreens, given closure of its front doors. The pillar, drive-through and parking lot are now unprotected by recently enacted landmark controls. (Clay Eals)
Heritage advocates disagreed. They also said the committee vote threatened the landmark board’s autonomy and expertise.
Their lobbying produced a compromise: On Jan. 10, the full council voted 9-0 to protect the ex-bank building but open most of the rest of the site to development. No plan to develop the site has surfaced.
The debate spotlighted the council’s desire to foster affordable housing despite its inability to compel property owners to build it. In addition, it addressed transfers of development rights, and it refocused attention on which landmarks are worth saving, especially those that express the city’s more recent history of change.
Discussion surely will continue.
A wider view of the site, with the Space Needle and other buildings looming nearby. (Clay Eals)The back of the 1950 promotional postcard illustrates the then-new Denny branch of Seattle-First National Bank. The firm later became subsumed within Bank of America. (Washington Department of Archaeology & Historic Preservation)
WEB EXTRAS
Thanks to Michael Houser, Michael Herschensohn, Leanne Olson, Tom Rasmussen, Nick Licata, Deb Barker, Kathy Blackwell, Karen Gordon, Erin Doherty, Midori Okazaki and especially Eugenia Woo 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.
Below are 4 landmark-related documents and, in chronological order, 33 historical clips (including 11 clips that detail how Seattle’s landmark ordinance came to be in 1972-1974) from The Seattle Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer online archive (available via Seattle Public Library) and Washington Digital Newspapers, that were helpful in the preparation of this column.
Click the above image to download a pdf of the full Sept. 12, 2006, landmark nomination for the bank building, including many photos.Click the above image to download a pdf of the full Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board landmark designation for the former bank building and site.Click the above image to download the Dec. 7, 2022, letter by Historic Seattle addressing the former bank building and site.Click the above image to see the Jan. 3, 2023, testimony of Seattle architectural historian Susan Boyle on the former bank building and site.Oct. 24, 1903, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, p24.June 7, 1904, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, p6.Oct. 24, 1904, Seattle Times, p3.Oct. 28, 1904, Seattle Times, p4.May 7, 1915, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, p9.May 7, 1915, Seattle Times, p16.Jan. 29, 1916, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, p14.Feb. 27, 1916, Seattle Times, p61.Feb. 4, 1917, Seattle Times, p60.July 13, 1917, Seattle Times, p28.March 21, 1918, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, p8.
THEN1: Backed by a “wall of sound,” singer-guitarists Jerry Garcia (left) and Bob Weir with the rest of the Grateful Dead perform May 25, 1974, at Campus Stadium of the University of California, Santa Barbara. (Steve Schneider)NOW1: Bathed in colors and a “gorge-ous” backdrop, The Dead & Company performs July 7 at The Gorge Amphitheatre. At center is longtime band member Bob Weir. (Steve Schneider)
Published in The Seattle Times online on Aug. 10, 2023
and in PacificNW Magazine of the printed Times on Aug. 13, 2023
Photographer grateful his images can ‘hit the moment in time’
By Clay Eals
You grow up an ordinary guy on the outskirts of Los Angeles. You’re not great at academics, but in the late 1960s you pick up a camera and shoot for the high-school newspaper and yearbook. Later, you work at McDonalds and a Ford plant. You deliver sailboats around the country. In 1979, you move north, bouncing from Granite Falls to Green Lake to the Alaska town of Valdez and, finally, to Shoreline.
NOW2: Photographer Steve Schneider at West Seattle’s Husky Deli. (Clay Eals)
All the while, you immerse yourself in enormous concerts by the biggest names in rock, blues, country and folk, your camera a constant companion. Over more than 50 years, you amass a rare archive.
You’re Steve Schneider, whose musically panoramic imagery fills “The First Three Songs: Rock & Roll at 125th of a Second,” a 220-page coffee-table compendium whose title alludes to the brief time at the opening of shows when promoters typically let photojournalists work up close. The tome bolsters Schneider’s uncomplicated mantra: “It’s always been about excitement, about fun. I just want to get the shot.”
NOW3: The cover of Steve Schneider’s book “The First Three Songs.” He held a book-signing Aug. 17, 2023, at Easy Street Records in West Seattle. More info: SteveSchneiderPhoto.net. (Courtesy Steve Schneider)
The 71-year-old has earned day-job pay from documenting conventions of professional associations and occasional journalistic assignments (UPI had him shoot a 1984 Seattle campaign visit by Democratic VP candidate Geraldine Ferraro, see below). But nights and weekends are a different story.
A happy book-buyer chats with Steve Schneider and Cathy Floit at Steve’s signing event Aug. 17, 2023, at Easy Street Records in West Seattle. (Clay Eals)
His “Who’s Who” concert subjects range from CSNY to Pearl Jam, Dylan to Cobain, Bonnie Raitt to Carlos Santana, Willie Nelson to Paul Simon, to McCartney, Clapton, Jagger, Springsteen, Bowie and, yes, the Who. Whew!
Schneider’s most enduring focus, however, has been the trippy Grateful Dead, known for its freeform shows and faithful “Deadheads.” He has seen at least 100 Dead concerts. More than 20 appear in the book.
THEN2: Jerry Garcia plays at the Dead’s last Seattle concert on May 25, 1995, at Memorial Stadium. After Garcia died at 53 on Aug. 9, 1995, this portrait appeared full-page one week later in a Time magazine tribute. (Steve Schneider)
His Dead shots began with a May 25, 1974, gig at UC Santa Barbara featuring then-beardless leader Jerry Garcia. Exactly 21 years later, Schneider captured a greying Garcia at his last Seattle concert, at Memorial Stadium. Garcia died 76 days later at age 53, and Schneider’s portrait filled a page in Time magazine’s tribute.
The band persisted in various forms, most recently as The Dead & Company, which disbanded in July. Its fourth- and fifth-to-last shows were at The Gorge Amphitheatre. Schneider was there, part of “the family.”
For the Dead, and all of Schneider’s star subjects, the most compelling factor has been the music itself. “It once was all new,” he says. “The songs hit the moment in time. Today you enjoy the song, and it brings back good memories. I just preserve a bit of history, that moment in time that I saw.”
You might say it’s what keeps his Dead soul alive.
THEN3: Carlos Santana performs Sept. 9, 1995, at The Gorge Amphitheatre. (Steve Schneider)THEN4:: Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (from left: Stephen Stills, David Crosby, Graham Nash and Neil Young) perform July 16, 1974, at Arizona’s Tempe Stadium. (Steve Schneider)THEN5:: Emmylou Harris performs April 23, 1977, at Irvine Bowl, Laguna Beach, California. (Steve Schneider)THEN6: Robert Cray performs Nov. 12, 2019, at the Edmonds Center for the Arts. (Steve Schneider)
WEB EXTRAS
Thanks to Steve Schneider for his invaluable help with this installment!
THEN1: The fireboat Duwamish anchors at the downtown waterfront in 1910. It could pump 9,000 gallons of water a minute at 200-pound pressure. Reflecting the era of wooden craft, it was built with a “ram” bow capable of sinking blazing vessels. Ships later were constructed of steel, so when the Duwamish was dieselized in 1949, its bow was refashioned. (F.H. Noell postcard, courtesy Bob Carney)NOW1: As volunteer Bob Carney and mom Devon Lawrence observe, fireboat Duwamish caretaker Steve Walker helps Owen Lawrence, 2, of Seattle, adjust a disabled water cannon aboard the fireboat on a June visit. The fireboat will display a diorama during the Aug. 19-24 Seattle Design Festival. (Clay Eals)
Published in The Seattle Times online on Aug. 3, 2023
and in PacificNW Magazine of the printed Times on Aug. 6, 2023
Water cannons evoke big blazes fought by fireboat Duwamish
By Clay Eals
Wildfires often command today’s attention. But how’s this for a different kind of wild?
THEN2: The fireboat Duwamish, lower right, fights futilely to save the Grand Trunk Pacific Dock, north of Colman Dock, on July 30, 1914. At upper left is the Smith Tower, from which many watched the blaze. The tower had opened earlier that month on Independence Day. Colman Dock, built in 1882 and rebuilt after 1889’s Great Seattle Fire, is above the Duwamish at right. (Courtesy Bob Carney)
Early on May 20, 1910, at the foot of Vine Street along Elliott Bay, a kettle of melted asphalt sprang a leak, mushrooming into a “blazing pile of more than 100 tons of inflammable asphalt” and producing “the thickest smoke that ever rolled up from a city,” reported The Seattle Times.
THEN3: The fireboat Duwamish, shown circa 1920, could pump 9,000 gallons of water a minute at 200-pound pressure. Reflecting the era of wooden craft, it was built with a “ram” bow capable of sinking blazing vessels. Ships later were constructed of steel, so when the Duwamish was dieselized in 1949, its bow was refashioned. (Courtesy Bob Carney)
The fire destroyed Independent Asphalt Co. and damaged Occidental Fish Company nearby but could have been catastrophic for the waterfront if not for gushers from “the highest powered fireboat in existence,” the Duwamish. Thousands of tons of water — shot from the vessel’s cannons for more than an hour, aided by two land-based engines along Railroad Avenue (now Alaskan Way) — doused the flames.
Eyewitnesses said the sight of “streams from the fireboat playing across her bow was the prettiest firefighting spectacle ever witnessed in this city.”
THEN4: In 1949, when the Duwamish (misspelled here) converted to diesel-electric from steam, its pump capacity jumped to 22,800 gallons per minute, making it the world’s most powerful fireboat at the time. (Ellis postcard, courtesy Bob Carney)
The inferno came 10 months after the launch of the steam-driven Duwamish, named for the city’s Native American tribe and only river. The fireboat fought decades of water-proximate fires, many with dramatic smoke plumes from both the conflagrations and the fireboat’s aging steam engine. Dieselized in 1949 and retired in 1984, the Duwamish endures as a city and national landmark at South Lake Union.
Seattle’s first fireboat — and the first one on North America’s west coast — was the Snoqualmie, launched in 1891. Sold in 1932, it became a freighter in Alaska, where it burned in 1974. The city’s third fireboat, the Alki, launched in 1927, lingered for decades at Lake Union and recently was scrapped. Thus, the in-between Duwamish is the sole old-time survivor.
NOW3: Steve Walker (left), Duwamish caretaker for the past 10 years, and volunteer Bob Carney chat aboard the fireboat. (Clay Eals)
West Seattle’s Bob Carney, a retired electrical-parts salesman who first toured the Duwamish at age 8 in 1968, could be its biggest historian and fan. He is rivaled only by Beacon Hill’s Steve Walker, who traces his maritime affection to “The Sand Pebbles” (1966) starring namesake Steve McQueen, “the king of cool,” as a military steamship engineer.
Walker, a state ferry retiree, helms the Duwamish, moored permanently at the Historic Ships Wharf next to the Museum of History & Industry. He and Carney lead Sunday tours, spouting gentle cannons of marine lore for visitors.
NOW2: James Lawrence, 5, of San Francisco, aims a disabled Duwamish water cannon on a June visit. (Clay Eals)
Today’s four operating Seattle fireboats are the Chief Seattle (launched in 1984), the Leschi (2007), Fire One (2006) and Fire Two (2014). During summer festivals, their pumps propel a sizeable spray. But the most inspired show emerges from the deck of the Duwamish where, for a few gripping moments at its disabled water cannons, anyone can imagine being a waterborne hero.
THEN5: In front of the Seattle skyline in 1959, the fireboat Duwamish struts its spray. The newly built, white-colored Washington Building stands at center right, while the Seattle Tower (1929) is at far right. (Courtesy Bob Carney)THEN6: On July 4, 1976, the fireboat Duwamish spouts red, white and blue spray for the nation’s Bicentennial. The Duwamish later was featured in an episode of the TV series “Emergency.” (Courtesy Last Resort Fire Department)An identifying sign adorns the red center stack of the fireboat Duwamish. (Clay Eals)During a June visit, 4-year-old Ryan Tong, maneuvers one of the disabled water cannons on the fireboat Duwamish. The Museum of History & Industry stands to the south. (Clay Eals)During a June visit, 4-year-old Ryan Tong and his dad Xin circle the wheelhouse of the fireboat Duwamish. The Museum of History & Industry stands to the south. (Clay Eals)NOW4: Visitor Tom Smith of Seattle examines an artist’s rendering of the inner workings of the Duwamish. (Clay Eals)NOW5: Taken from the neighboring vessel Tordenskjold, this is a panoramic, west-facing view of the 1909 fireboat Duwamish, moored permanently at Northwest Seaport’s Historic Ships Wharf at the south end of Lake Union. The Duwamish also partners with the Museum of History & Industry, the Duwamish Tribe and the Maritime Washington National Historic Area. More info: FireboatDuwamish.com. (Clay Eals)
WEB EXTRAS
Thanks to Molly Michel, Seattle Design Festival; David Cueropo, Seattle Fire Department; Xin Tong, Kristin Wong, Tom Liu, Devon Lawrence, Tom Smith and especially Bob Carney and Steve Walker 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.
Click the document above to view a pdf of a timeline of history and statistics about the fireboat Duwamish prepared by Bob Carney. (Courtesy Bob Carney)1968, fireboat Duwamish at Todd Shipyard dock fire. (Courtesy Bob Carney)Sept. 17, 1973, fireboat Duwamish demonstrates its water cannons. (Jerry Gay, Seattle Times, courtesy Bob Carney)May 22, 1970, Seattle Fire Chief Gordon Vickery (rear center) with 14 maritime contestants and their sponsors. (Courtesy Bob Carney)May 10, 1969, restrauteur Ivar Haglund and Seattle Fire Chief Gordon Vickery with fireboat Duwamish model, 10 feet long, built on scale of one inch to one foot. Taken at station #5, foot of Madison Street. (Courtesy Bob Carney)1968, fireboat Duwamish at Todd Shipyard dock fire. (Courtesy Bob Carney)Feb. 7, 1956, fireboat Duwamish. (Seattle Municipal Archives, courtesy Bob Carney)Pre-1949, fireboard Duwamish sepia postcard. (Courtesy Bob Carney)Post-1949, fireboat Duwamish wheelhouse. (Courtesy Bob Carney)Post-1949, fireboat Duwamish fights fire near Ballard Bridge. (Courtesy Bob Carney)Post-1949, fireboat Duwamish in Elliott Bay. (Courtesy Bob Carney)Post-1949, fireboat Duwamish, spray color postcard. (Noell & Rognon, courtesy Bob Carney)Post-1949, fireboat Duwamish at Pier 54. (Courtesy Bob Carney)1949, fireboat Duwamish being converted to diesel. (Duwamish collection, courtesy Bob Carney)1949, fireboat Duwamish being converted to diesel. (Duwamish collection, courtesy Bob Carney)1948, fireboat Duwamish at station #5, foot of Madison Street. (Courtesy Bob Carney)1947 or 1948, fireboat Duwamish at station #5 prior to diesel conversion. (Bob Carney collection)Between April 1, 1943, and Sept. 30, 1945, fireboat Duwamish, under Coast Guard command. (Wikipedia Commons, courtesy Bob Carney)1930s, fireboat Duwamish, view of stern. (Courtesy Bob Carney)1930s, fireboat Duwamish at station #40, foot of Charles St. (Bob Carney collection)1920, fireboat Duwamish near Pier 5. (Courtesy Bob Carney)Circa 1920, fireboat Duwamish at station #5, foot of Madison Street. (Courtesy Bob Carney)Circa 1920, fireboat Duwamish in Elliott Bay (Bob Carney collection)Circa 1920, fireboat Duwamish in Elliott Bay downtown. (Bob Carney collection)Circa 1920, fireboat Duwamish at fuel dock. (Bob Carney collection)Circa 1920, fireboat Duwamish at fuel dock. (Bob Carney collection)Pre-1917, fireboat Duwamish. (Bob Carney collection)Post-1917, fireboat Duwamish at station #5. The Reliance is at left (Bob Carney collection)Post-1917, fireboat Duwamish at station #5. (Bob Carney collection)July 30, 1914, fireboat Snoqualmie at Grand Trunk Pacific dock fire (Bob Carney collection)July 30, 1914, fireboat Duwamish at Grand Trunk Pacific dock fire. (Paul Dorpat collection, courtesy Bob Carney)March 17, 1912, fireboat Duwamish at station #5, Madison Street. (Courtesy Bob Carney)Between 1911 and July 30, 1914, fireboat Duwamish, station #5 at Madison Street. (Paul Dorpat collection, courtesy Bob Carney)1910, fireboat Duwamish at the downtown waterfront (Wikipedia Commons, courtesy Bob Carney)1910, fireboats Duwamish and Snoqualmie, station #5, Madison Street, Grand Trunk pier under Construction (University of Washington Special Collections, courtesy Bob Carney)1909, the fireboat Duwamish at Richmond Beach. (Windy City Photos, courtesy Bob Carney)July 3, 1909, the fireboat Duwamish hull is launched at Richmond Beach. (Courtesy Bob Carney)July 3, 1909, the fireboat Duwamish at Richmond Beach. (Courtesy Bob Carney)June 28, 2023, the 2007 Seattle fireboat Leschi displays spray from its water cannons in Elliott Bay with downtown in the background. (Clay Eals)May 18, 1909, Seattle Times, p9.May 20, 1909, Seattle Times, p2.July 2, 1909, Seattle Times, p11.Oct. 27, 1909, Seattle Times, p16.July 31, 1914, Seattle Times, p1.July 31, 1914, Seattle Times, p3.
THEN1: At 15 feet, 4 inches tall, Great Northern steam locomotive #1246 was a draw at Woodland Park Zoo for 27 years starting in 1953. A companion miniature train, not shown, served as a kiddie ride during the same era. This postcard view, taken prior to a needed, periodic repainting, is circa 1969. (Seattle Municipal Archives)NOW1: Standing before Great Northern locomotive #1246 at Snoqualmie’s Northwest Railway Museum are (from left) Richard Anderson, executive director; Saxon Bisbee, collection care project manager; Emily Boersma, volunteer and program coordinator; Selena AllenShipman, visitor services assistant; Kiley Neil, visitor services and collections assistant; Kacy Hardin, retail and visitor services manager; Cole Van Gerpen, trustee; Cristy Lake, deputy director; and volunteers Steve Olson and Robert Stivers. The steamer arrived at the museum April 27. At rear is the museum’s restored Northern Pacific switcher locomotive #924. For more info, visit TrainMuseum.org. (Clay Eals)
Published in The Seattle Times online on July 27, 2023
and in PacificNW Magazine of the printed Times on July 30, 2023
An overdue return trip for railway workhorse and zoo touchstone
By Clay Eals
We at “Now & Then” usually take our “Now” photos at, or near, the same spot as the “Then” images, but this week, the spatial spread is greater. We’re talking 35 miles.
At least the locales are in King County, and you may abide the distant pairing because the fundamental function of our subject is to move people and things from one place to another.
THEN3 (online only): A Seattle Transfer Co. crew moves locomotive #1246 to Woodland Park Zoo prior to a July 18, 1953, dedication ceremony that drew 500 people and Koondi, a zoo chimp. (Walter Ainsworth Collection, Great Northern Railway Historical Society)
Those who lived here as children between 1953 and 1980 (or as adults with kid-like awe) likely recall with warmth and admiration, if not worship, the colorful locomotive #1246 that greeted visitors inside the south entrance of Woodland Park Zoo. The Great Northern Railway gifted the steamer to the city on the cusp of dieselizing its locomotive fleet.
THEN2: Locomotive #1246 rolls south across the Ballard railroad bridge circa 1940. (James Turner, Great Northern Railway Historical Society)
Built in 1907, it had what today would be called a “wow” factor. To fully appreciate the gleaming engine, more than 15 feet tall, you had to look way up. In person, it demanded honor and deference — more than could be conveyed by mere visual or verbal depiction.
Of course, #1246 possessed a mobile past that long predated its stationary role as a zoo touchstone. For decades, it toiled on rails from Portland to Vancouver, B.C., and over the Cascades to and from Wenatchee.
THEN4: Interpretive text on locomotive #1246 explains its historical significance. (Cordell Newby)
For a time during the locomotive’s zoo stint, a placard heralded #1246’s historic status as a consolidation-style engine, featuring two small pilot wheels followed by eight 55-inch-diameter drive wheels:
“They were slower and less spectacular than earlier, lighter types, but their initial (starting) tractive effort was superior, and they could start and pull longer trains. For more than 75 years, they were the workhorses of American railroads, and their performance in mountainous terrain played a significant part in the development of the west.”
The narrative fits “The Railroad Changed Everything” tagline of Snoqualmie’s Northwest Railway Museum, which brought #1246 back to King County in late April after nearly 30 years of negotiations with owners in desert-like southern Oregon. Though looking “like it was pulled up from the bottom of a lake,” says Richard Anderson, executive director, it is reassuringly intact, complete with “grime and grease” from when it last operated 70 years ago.
Restoration will take years, but Anderson says #1246 already stands as a “massive and powerful” asset among the organization’s 75 rail vehicles. “You can walk right up to it and touch it,” he says, and the steam legacy adds “a sense of life.”
Eventually it will bolster an anticipated 35,000 square-foot addition to the museum’s current 24,000 square feet — just in time to awe the senses of a new generation of children.
NOW2: Cole Van Gerpen, who grew up in the Snoqualmie Valley, was a Northwest Railway Museum volunteer from age 8 to 15, then became a ticket agent and administrative assistant before joining the board as a trustee. Locomotive #1246 represents, for him, “very much an industry and a history behind American culture — and the culture of the world as a whole — that’s very human-driven more so than I think any other industrial or mechanical thing that we have.” (Clay Eals)
WEB EXTRAS
Thanks to Kevin Weiderstrom, Bob Kelly, Richard Anderson and Dan Kerlee 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.
Locomotive #1246, working in Everett prior to 1953. (Courtesy Kevin Weiderstrom)Locomotive #1246 in place at Woodland Park Zoo, 1953-1980. (Great Northern Railway Historical Society)Locomotive #1246 in place at Woodland Park Zoo, 1953-1980. (Great Northern Railway Historical Society)Locomotive #1246 in the process of being moved to Northwest Railway Museum in Snoqualmie. (Northwest Railway Museum)Locomotive #1246 in the process of being moved to Northwest Railway Museum in Snoqualmie. (Northwest Railway Museum)Locomotive #1246 in the process of being moved to Northwest Railway Museum in Snoqualmie. (Northwest Railway Museum)Locomotive #1246 in the process of being moved to Northwest Railway Museum in Snoqualmie. (Northwest Railway Museum)Locomotive #1246 in the process of being moved to Northwest Railway Museum in Snoqualmie. (Northwest Railway Museum)Locomotive #1246 in the process of being moved to Northwest Railway Museum in Snoqualmie. (Northwest Railway Museum)Locomotive #1246 in 1953, in Interbay prior to being moved to Woodland Park Zoo. (Great Northern Railway Historical Society)Locomotive #1246 in 1953, in Interbay prior to being moved to Woodland Park Zoo. (Great Northern Railway Historical Society)Locomotive #1246 in 1953, when it was moved to Woodland Park Zoo. (Great Northern Railway Historical Society)Locomotive #1246 in 1953, when it was moved to Woodland Park Zoo. (Great Northern Railway Historical Society)Locomotive #1246 in 1953, when it was moved to Woodland Park Zoo. (Great Northern Railway Historical Society)Locomotive #1246 in 1953, when it was moved to Woodland Park Zoo. (Great Northern Railway Historical Society)Locomotive #1246 in 1953, when it was moved to Woodland Park Zoo. (Great Northern Railway Historical Society)Wreck of locomotive #1246 in Wenatchee, 1943 or 1947. (Courtesy Kevin Weiderstrom)Wreck of locomotive #1246 in Wenatchee, 1943 or 1947. (Courtesy Kevin Weiderstrom)Wreck of locomotive #1246 in Wenatchee, 1943 or 1947. (Courtesy Kevin Weiderstrom)Wreck of locomotive #1246 in Wenatchee, 1943 or 1947. (Courtesy Kevin Weiderstrom)Wreck of locomotive #1246 in Wenatchee, 1943 or 1947. (Courtesy Kevin Weiderstrom)Wreck of locomotive #1246 in Wenatchee, 1943 or 1947. (Courtesy Kevin Weiderstrom)Wreck of locomotive #1246 in Wenatchee, 1943 or 1947. (Courtesy Kevin Weiderstrom)Wreck of locomotive #1246 in Wenatchee, 1943 or 1947. (Courtesy Kevin Weiderstrom)Wreck of locomotive #1246 in Wenatchee, 1943 or 1947. (Courtesy Kevin Weiderstrom)Wreck of locomotive #1246 in Wenatchee, 1943 or 1947. (Courtesy Kevin Weiderstrom)Wreck of locomotive #1246 in Wenatchee, 1943 or 1947. (Courtesy Kevin Weiderstrom)Wreck of locomotive #1246 in Wenatchee, 1943 or 1947. (Courtesy Kevin Weiderstrom)Wreck of locomotive #1246 in Wenatchee, 1943 or 1947. (Courtesy Kevin Weiderstrom)Wreck of locomotive #1246 in Wenatchee, 1943 or 1947. (Courtesy Kevin Weiderstrom)Wreck of locomotive #1246 in Wenatchee, 1943 or 1947. (Courtesy Kevin Weiderstrom)Wreck of locomotive #1246 in Wenatchee, 1943 or 1947. (Courtesy Kevin Weiderstrom)Wreck of locomotive #1246 in Wenatchee, 1943 or 1947. (Courtesy Kevin Weiderstrom)Wreck of locomotive #1246 in Wenatchee, 1943 or 1947. (Courtesy Kevin Weiderstrom)March 8, 1943, Seattle Times, p5.Oct. 21, 1947, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, p12.May 1, 1953, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, p1.May 1, 1953, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, p6.May 14, 1953, Seattle Times, p25.June 4, 1953, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, p6.June 4, 1953, Seattle Times, p16.June 17, 1953, Seattle Times, p31.June 18, 1953, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, p9.June 19, 1953, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, p26.June 19, 1953, Seattle Times, p1.June 20, 1953, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, p11.June 23, 1953, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, p1.June 24, 1953, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, p16.July 15, 1953, Seattle Times, p42.July 18, 1953, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, p4.July 19, 1953, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, p1.July 19, 1953, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, p29.July 24, 1953, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, p3.Sept. 19, 1955, Seattle Times, p6.Nov. 8, 1959, Seattle Times, p156.Nov. 8, 1959, Seattle Times, p157.Sept. 24, 1967, Seattle Times, p46.Oct. 1, 1967, Seattle Times, p3.