Tag Archives: Columbia Street

Seattle Now & Then: A Protest in 1937

February 7, 2015 jrsherrard Leave a comment

(click to enlarge photos)

THEN: Depression-era protestors climb Columbia Street sidewalk along-aside Seattle architect Harlan Thomas’s elegant Seattle landmark that opened in 1925 as home to the by then already forty-three year old Seattle Chamber of Commerce. (Courtesy, Museum of History and Industry)

NOW: The Chamber moved from its landmark at 215 Columbia Street nearly a quarter-century ago. Among it residents presently is SEIU Healthcare NW Training Partnership.

The Seattle Chamber of Commerce building, its name signed with the luster of gold leaf lettering on each of the heftily-glassed dark doors on the left, is both physically and politically to the right of this cadre of about a dozen demonstrators marching east on Columbia Street up to Third Avenue. Seven of the patrol are wrapped in professionally produced signs that resonate with depression-era concerns and commands.

As it turned out the Seattle Chamber of Commerce's full-page advertisement for July 25, 1937 was premature. The rise of the economy that was the trend in the beginning of July a month later began its moved in the other direction: down. — As it turned out the Seattle Chamber of Commerce’s full-page advertisement for July 25, 1937 was premature. The rise of the economy that was the trend in the beginning of July a month later began its moved in the other direction: down, which carried on for the year of what is called the “Recession of 1937-1938” in the Great Depression of 1929-1940. **BLOW THIS ONE UP** with some clicks to read the Boomer’s optimism that rings in-with-and-under it a a Real Presence of Commerce.

The original negative is one of the great hoard of Post-Intelligencer photos that are protected by the white-gloved hands of Museum of History and Industry archivists. It is numbered “PI22387” and, quoting MOHAI photographer Howard Giske, “It has a file date of July 15, 1937, on the old PI negative sleeve . . . good enough for me!” Alas, with the help of skilled librarians in the Seattle Room of our central public library, we did not find it in the paper itself.

While it is not unusual for a busy daily to neglect a negative, we will hope that a Pacific reader might visit the central library, and after a more dogged microfilm search than ours, find that this subject of a silent and yet telling moment of protest on Columbia Street was also published and captioned on the pulp pages of the P-I during the summer of 1937.

Meanwhile, for a better understanding of the subject, we recommend retired UW Archivist Richard Berner’s Seattle 1921-1940: From Boom to Bust, which covers local history during the bubbling 1920s up through the Great Depression of the 1930s. Berner notes (on page 409) that a recession, in the midst of the Great Depression, began in August 1937 when “Cutbacks in federal work relief funds coincided with unemployment levels that approached those of 1932-1933.” The timing is such that the event pictured in the ‘then’ photo, snapped in July by the P-I photographer, is prelude to the August recession.

The back cover with notable blurbs worth reading.

The “red-baiting” that we usually associate with the Cold War was also commonplace during the Great Depression, when communists were thought to be behind every placard. And here, far right, it seems they are. We may have a “commie” in the picture! Held like an umpire’s chest protector, a “newsboy” blandishes a copy of The Daily Worker, the Communist Party’s long-lived publication. Unfortunately, the focus is too soft to read the front page, which by 1937 could have included the latest baseball scores. Might it be that this confrontation of the two dailies, the P-I and the Daily Worker, was reason enough for the former not to print this negative? It is more likely that the bigger daily was distracted by the great mass of its own daily news. Or that we have simply missed it.

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Anything to add, Paul? Well, yes Jean, and we struggled over selections from past features of protest or those, again, of the neighborhood. We get both in Ron Edge’s first link below. The others keep to both for the most part, although we have included some of Berangere’s recent reports from Paris. Following the eleven links attached below (and some of them will be very familiar to regular readers – like the Friends of the Market 1971 march in front of City Hall, which was the “top feature” here only two weeks past) we will continue with a few more neighborhood features. Our ending this week will show Jean’s photos of the public art fixed to the front facade of the Chamber’s building on Columbia (although they have long since moved away).

CLICK TO OPEN

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The photograph above and the text below first appeared in Pacific May 15th, 1983 when the Times was sometimes still giving two page to this feature. (Courtesy, UW Libraries)

Again, from the 5/15/1983 printing of Pacific. Imagine, now more than 30 years ago. The recommendation that the reader “(See feature 80)” refers to another now-and-then printed in the first of three Seattle Now and Then books. You can find it in the book folder on the front page of this blog.

Fire Hill and Columbia Street seen from the Hoge Building at Second and Cherry. When it was completed in 1911, the Hoge was the tallest in Seattle, until it was soon surpassed by the Smith Tower. Although the Rainier Hotel is gone, leaving a block of scarred dirt, many other structures survive here from the featured Warner photo at the top of the text above.

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If some smart readers still want a copy of "Washington Then and Now," the address has changed. The new box is closer to home at the Wallingford Post Office. It is number 31636, Seattle, WA 98103) — If some smart readers still want a copy of “Washington Then and Now,” the address has changed. The new box is closer to home at the Wallingford Post Office. It is number 31636, Seattle, WA 98103)

Looking back at Seattle from Elliot Bay early in 1887-88. The Yesler Wharf that elbows thru the scene will be turned to a stubble of pilings by the Great Fire of June 6, 1889. A year and a few week earlier Central School, the white box with tower on the left horizon at 6th and Madison, would by consumed by fire. Columbia Street runs up to First Hill near the center of the panorama. — Looking back at Seattle from Elliot Bay in 1887-88. Yesler Wharf that elbows thru the scene will be turned to a stubble of pilings by the Great Fire of June 6, 1889. A year and a few weeks earlier Central School, the white box with tower on the left horizon at 6th and Madison, would be consumed by fire. Columbia Street runs up First Hill near the center of the panorama. CLICK TO ENLARGE!

About ten years earlier, Peterson and Bros recorded this as part of a wide panorama of the city taken from the elbowed end of Yesler's Wharf. That's Yesler's log pond in the foreground. First Hill has been recently logged off. Columbia Street climbs it, right-of-center. The log retaining wall holding Front Street (First Ave) above the tides was installed in 1876, — About ten years earlier, Peterson and Bros recorded this as part of a wide panorama of the city taken from the elbowed end of Yesler’s Wharf. That’s Yesler’s log pond in the foreground. First Hill has been recently logged off. Columbia Street climbs it, right-of-center. The log retaining wall holding Front Street (First Ave) above the tides was installed in 1876,

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If you hide-and-seek for this duplex in one of the Columbia Street revealing photos above it, you will find it.

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$8b. POST-OFFICE-on-Columbia-tex-WEB$

This subject appears as an extra with an essay in one of the eleven links offered near the top. We show it here to also show the little Post Office, at the alley on the right.

Columbia Street, looking west thru Third Avenue during the latter's 1907 regrade. The post office has moved on to First and University, and will soon be moving further into its headquarters at Third and Union. The next photo is earlier and shows the P.O.. — Columbia Street, looking west thru Third Avenue during the latter’s 1907 regrade. The post office has moved on to First and University, and will soon be moving further into its headquarters at Third and Union. The next photo is earlier and shows the P.O..

The Post Office is back, on the right beyond the alley. The retail brick on the left was predecessor to the Chamber building. The Boston Block just beyond it at the southeast corner of Columbia and Second Ave. , was built before the Great Fire of 1889 and after it packed with a great array of lawyers, salesmen, and the great array of desk duties involved in running a booming city.

I took this repeat about a dozen years ago, which was two years or three before Jean took over the repeats. Bless him. Now we'll take a closer looks at those two sculptured panels that adorn the Columbia Street facade of architect Harlan Thomas' (with Thomas and Schack) Chamber of Commerce Building. — I took this repeat about a dozen years ago, which was two years or three before Jean took over the repeats. Bless him. Now we’ll take a closer looks at those two sculptured panels that adorn the Columbia Street facade of architect Harlan Thomas’ (with Thomas and Schack) Chamber of Commerce Building.

Jean's full-frontal of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce's facade facing Columbia Street, with fragments of its neighbor, the Central Building, reflecting in its windows on a sunny autumnal afternoon in 2014. (Jean Sherrard) — Jean’s full-frontal of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce’s facade facing Columbia Street, with fragments of its neighbor, the Central Building, reflecting in its windows on a sunny autumnal afternoon in 2014. (Jean Sherrard)

The up-hill relief sculpture - to the east or left of the front door - by Moran Padelford, who designed and formed it for his masters degree in art at the UW. — The up-hill relief sculpture – to the east or left of the front door – by Moran Padelford, who designed and formed it for his masters degree in art at the UW. It depicts indigenous crafts and so commerce too.

Sculptor Mildred Stumer's depiction of modern work - and so commerce. (Jean Sherrard) — Sculptor Mildred Stumer’s depiction of modern work – and so commerce. (Jean Sherrard)

Seattle Now and Then

Seattle Now & Then: Third Avenue Regrade

October 11, 2014 jrsherrard Leave a comment

(click to enlarge photos)

THEN: Looking north from Columbia Street over the construction pit for the Central Building. On the left is a rough section of the Third Avenue Regrade in the spring of 1907. (Courtesy, MOHAI)

NOW: Jean Sherrard moved a few yards east up Columbia Street from the unnamed historical photographer’s prospect in order to look north down the typical sixteen-foot wide central business district alley.

Drivers and riders who continue to be confused and/or delayed by the city’s “Mercer Mess” south of Lake Union may find some consolation by reflecting on the Central Business District’s public works schedule a century ago. This look north from Columbia Street, mid-block between Third and Fourth Avenues, is dated April 15, 1907. At the far left, Third Avenue, at its intersection with Marion Street, has been cut (lowered) about fifteen feet. All traffic on Third, Columbia, and Marion has, of course, been cut off as well.

Third Ave. Regrade 1906, looking north over Marion Street. The Third Ave. Theatre, its tower half-decapitated, stands on the far side of the Madison Street Cable Railway trestle. The upper-right corner shows the west facade of the Lincoln Hotel at the northwest corner of 4th Ave. and Madison Street.

Still, pedestrians could transcend the upheaval on Third by crossing the temporary, if spindly, viaduct, left-of-center. It passes high above the mess to reach a pre-regrade sidewalk that survives below the south façade of the Second Empire-styled Stacy Mansion, with both tower and roof-top pergola. This grand residence was, however,

The Stacy Mansion at the northeast corner of 3rd Ave. and Marion Street, circa 1890.

The Third Ave. regrade with the Marion Street pedestrian trestle on the left, the Stacy mansion, left of center, and the Standler Hotel, right of center. Foundation work for the Central Building has yet to begin. Note the Third Ave. Theatre with its full top, far-left.

hardly a home. It was built in 1885 by Elizabeth and Martin Van Buren Stacy, an often-warring couple who did not move in until 1887. Following the migration up First Hill of Seattle’s most affluent families, the land-rich Stacys soon built another mansion at the northeast corner of Madison Street and Boren Avenue. Martin, however, hardly moved. Preferring the acquisitive culture of the business district to the high society on the Hill, he lived mostly in hotels and clubs.

The steam shovel on the left seems to be cutting into bluff for the Trust company's Central Building. This look south on Third Ave. was taken from the pedestrian overpass on Marion, seen twice above. — The steam shovel on the left seems to be cutting into bluff for the Trust company’s Central Building. This look south on Third Ave. was taken from the pedestrian overpass on Marion, seen three times above.

The Stacy mansion, sitting at the center of the featured photograph, at the top, might be considered the intended subject. It is not. Rather, it’s the private work of cutting and hauling for the Trustee Company’s Central Building excavation site. In the pit a steam shovel feeds a circle of horse teams waiting their turns and pulling high-centered dump-wagons. Far right, in the alley, the company’s sign stands above its construction office.

A half year earlier in The Seattle Sunday Times of October 7, 1906, the Trustee Company shared its intentions with a full-page advertisement. The Central Building promised to be “the most impressive and commodious office building in the Pacific Northwest. Including the offices in the tower section, this building is to be twenty stories in height.”

With its tower centered high above Third Avenue, hand-colored postcards of the completed Central Building are still common and can be readily acquired, often cheaply, in stores selling historical ephemera. Parts of the Central’s first four floors show to the left of the alley in Jean Sherrard’s repeat at the top. The completed Central continues with four stories more to its full height of eight floors, and not twenty. While not so grand as the Trustee Company had planned, the Central is still a cherished survivor of what through the first third of the twentieth century was Seattle’s affection for elegantly clad terra-cotta buildings.

A detail from the 1908 Baist real estate map compliments of Historic Seattle and Ron Edge. (Ron scanned the complete map.) Columbia Street runs along the bottom, while Third Avenue runs bottom-to-top left-of-center.

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Anything to add, Paul? Ron? Jean? Well . . . Ron Edge has put up five apts links directly below. There is lots more on the neighborhood, some of it seen from the waterfront. For instance, the first link below looks south on Third Avenue from near Spring Street and so through Madison Street and beyond to the Marion Street intersection, where right-of-center the Gothic Revival First Methodist Church stands with its spire at what would soon be the northwest corner of the Central Building at the southeast corner of Marion and Third. But now we confess that we are almost broken down. This computer or the program for running the blog is gummed. We will return tomorrow to find, we hope, that it has recovered some speed. Meanwhile please explore the links below.

Seattle Now and Then

Seattle Now & Then: Roll on, Columbia Street

October 4, 2014 jrsherrard Leave a comment

(click to enlarge photos)

THEN: In this 1887 look up Columbia Street from the waterfront is the bell tower of the fire station, tucked into the hill on the right. It would soon fail to halt the city’s Great Fire of June 6, 1889. The station and everything between it and Elliott Bay were reduced to ashes, smoldering bricks and offshore pilings shortened like cigars. (courtesy, Kurt Jackson)

NOW: After the Great Fire, the waterfront was extended farther into Elliott Bay, first above pilings and eventually on fill packed behind a seawall.

Charles Morford, who migrated with his parents from Iowa in the spring of 1887, was 20 years old when he recorded this unique Seattle cityscape a few months later. Morford’s subject looks east up Columbia Street from the Seattle waterfront as far as the Coppin water works at Ninth Avenue. The four-story tower’s open First Hill observatory stood 300 feet above Morford’s prospect. The well below it supplied most of the neighborhood, and its bored-log pipes reached down the hill at least as far as James Colman’s mansion. Its Italianate tower also breaks the horizon, here at the southeast corner of Columbia and Fourth Avenue.

We may be confident that the Seattle Lake Shore and Eastern Railway baggage/express car, at the bottom, is new. By historian Thomas Prosch’s reckoning in his “Chronological History of Seattle” (1901), the car was delivered in September 1887. This timing is in fine coincidence with the construction scaffolding attached to the Toklas and Singerman Department Store, on the right. The rough lumber is soon to come down. The store was completed on Sept. 28, although the formal opening waited until Nov. 9.

A few days after the opening of the department store, which was then the highest building in Seattle, the railway was also celebrating. On Thanksgiving Day it gave 108 locals a free round-trip ride to its then new end-of-the-line in Bothell.

Included among Morford’s surviving glass-plate negatives are several more of the Seattle Lake Shore and Eastern. At what point Morford also became an employee of this railway is unclear. But in the fall of 1887 he would not yet have known that most of his gainful employment here would be with the retail business behind the scaffolding. Morford became a clerk, first, with MacDougal Southwick, the partnership that bought out Toklas and Singerman in 1892. Morford soon became the store’s general manager and one of its stockholders.

WEB EXTRAS

Anything to add, Paul? The solo feature that Ron Edge pulled and placed directly below includes several subjects that relate to this week’s feature. The “lead” feature, printed here below, shows the Toklas and Singerman department store completed, and so without the scaffolding that hides its north facade in the prime feature at the top. The reader may wish to search the several other features that can be found by clicking on the link. Please give special attention to one about the 1884 snow as seen looking east up the waterfront from close to the same prospect that Morford used for his shot at the top. Much has changed in these three short years that felt both the lingering effects of the 1883 recession and the general excitement of the completion of the Norther Pacific to the northwest, also in 1883. Seattle’s boom years were at the front door, which is to say, both on the waterfront and heading this way from Chicago, Portland and, resentfully from Tacoma too, across the tideflats south of King Street on rails.

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FOLLOWS NOW (soon) A FEW MORE PHOTOS OF THE WATERFRONT AT or NEAR COLUMBIA STREET

A Peterson and Bros. photograph taken from the end of a dog-legged Yesler Wharf and looking up Columbia Street on the right in 1878. Note the tower for the "White Church" on the right, the Methodist Episcopalian congregation that was the first in Seattle. It sits there at the second lot south of Columbia on the east side of Second Avenue. Also note that for the most part First Hill has been denuded of the virgin forest that still covered this skyline as late as 1872. — A Peterson and Bros. photograph taken from the end of a dog-legged Yesler Wharf and looking up Columbia Street on the right in 1878. Note the tower for the “White Church” on the right, the Methodist Episcopalian congregation that was the first in Seattle. It sits there at the second lot south of Columbia on the east side of Second Avenue. Also note that for the most part First Hill has been denuded of the virgin forest that still covered this horizon as late as 1872.

Seattle's first church the "White Church" and the Methodist Episcopalian parish home to this side of it on the southeast corner of Second Avenue and Columbia in the 1870s. — Seattle’s first church, the “White Church,” and the Methodist Episcopalian parsonage to this side of it on the southeast corner of Second Avenue and Columbia in the 1870s.

The waterfront ca. 1884 with an early Colman Dock on the left, Columbia Street on the right, and a short feature essay below the contemporary repeat photographed officially - only - in the anxious glow of 911 by Shawn Devine, and employee of the Washington State Ferries. — The waterfront ca. 1885 with an early Colman Dock on the left, Columbia Street on the right, and a short feature essay below (after I search and find it tomorrow), and the contemporary repeat photographed officially – only – in the anxious glow of 9/11 by Shawn Devine, an employee of the Washington State Ferries.

COLMAN DOCK AND THE WATERFRONT ca. 1886 (text to come)

Seattle's Great Fire of June 6, 1889 reaches the foot of Columbia and the depot for the Seattle Lake Shore and Eastern Railway, and will soon consume it and everything south of it to the tideflats. — Seattle’s Great Fire of June 6, 1889 reaches the foot of Columbia and the depot for the Seattle Lake Shore and Eastern Railway, and will soon consume it and everything south of it to the tideflats.

Columbia Street looking west from the waterfront in the first year following the 1889 fire. The new Seattle Lake Shore and Eastern depot is on the right, and the rear facade of the new Toklas and Singerman Department Sore rise five stories behind it. Photo taken by the Nothern Pacific Railroad's official photographer, F. J. Haynes. (Courtesy, Tacoma Public Library and Murray Morgan) — Columbia Street looking west from the waterfront in the first year following the 1889 fire. The new Seattle Lake Shore and Eastern depot is on the right, and the rear facade of the new Toklas and Singerman Department Sore rises five stories behind it. Photo taken by the Northern Pacific Railroad’s official photographer, F. J. Haynes. (Courtesy, Tacoma Public Library and Murray Morgan)

Horace Sykes' (or possibly Robert Bradley's) look east up Columbia Street from the top of the new - and as yet not used for traffic - Alaskan Way Viaduct aka Freeway. — Horace Sykes’ (or possibly Robert Bradley’s) look east up Columbia Street from the top of the new – and as yet not used for traffic – Alaskan Way Viaduct aka Freeway in 1953.

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