Tag Archives: Seattle Housing Authority

Seattle Now & Then: Yesler (No sir!)

September 19, 2015 jrsherrard 2 Comments

(click to enlarge photos)

THEN: The address written on the photograph is incorrect. This is 717 E. Washington Street and not 723 Yesler Way. We, too, were surprised. (Courtesy Seattle Municipal Archive)

NOW: We have decided to treat Jean’s repeat as ‘representative.’ It looks south across Yesler Way, or one block north of the “then” on Washington. Much of the old Yesler Terrace, including our two sites, is in the upheaval of its grand remodel.

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 brackets. The windows are longish, and the bay that climbs nearly the entire front façade is, appropriate to the style, rectangular.

This photograph includes within its borders two captions. The short one, “43,” is either stapled to the side of the impressively thick power pole standing right-of-center, or it is supported by its own narrow pole temporarily stuck into the unkempt parking strip. The longer caption, written directly on the original negative, records some clerical necessities for this Seattle Housing Authority property. For our interests, most important are the date, the eighth of January, 1940, and the address, 723 Yesler. Except this is not

Compare this Google Earth detail to Jean's "repeat" of the claimed location, 723 Yesler Way. The Google record was photographed sometime before the block's razing. — Compare this Google Earth detail to Jean’s “repeat” of the claimed location, 723 Yesler Way, or near it. The Google record was photographed sometime before the block’s recent razing.

Another Google detail, this time looking northwest over 8th Avenue and through - or nearly - the location of the former 727 Washington Street "Italian." — Another Google detail, this time looking northwest over 8th Avenue and through – or nearly – the location of the former 717 Washington Street “Italian.”

Yesler Way. Rather, this is E. Washington Street, the part of it that is now either directly under the outer northbound lane of Interstate-5, or in the grass lawn that borders it, one block south of Yesler Way. Whichever, its surrounds will for the next few months look much like the flattened neighborhood that Jean Sherrard recorded south across Yesler Way.

The rear or south facade of 717 Washington can be found in this detail of a shot taken from the roof of the Marine Hospital on Beacon Hill. (First click this scene however many times it takes to enlarge it.) Our featured home on Washington is the gray box with a flatish (Italianate) roof just left of the center of the subject. There a lot of cleared lots around it - except to the west - left. The home with the tower - mentioned soon in the text - at or near t he northeast corner of 8th and Main appears brilliantly to the right of center. (Courtesy, Lawton Gowey) — The rear or south facade of 717 Washington can be found in this detail of a panorama taken from the roof of the Marine Hospital on Beacon Hill. (Best to click this scene however many times it takes to enlarge it.) Our featured home on Washington is the half-shadowed gray box with a flatish (Italianate) roof just left of the center of the subject. There are a lot of cleared lots around it – except to the west – left. The home with the tower – mentioned soon in the text – near the northeast corner of 8th and Main, appears brilliantly to the right of center. (Courtesy, Lawton Gowey)

Our featured home also appears in this detail pulled from Seattle's 1891 birdseye view. It is midblock near the bottom-left corner and so west and left of the marcked 8th Street (Later renamed 8th Avenue.) Again, the larger home with the tower near the northeast corner of 8th and Main is also there to be found. — Our featured home also appears in this detail pulled from Seattle’s 1891 birdseye view. It is mid-block near the bottom-left corner, west and left of the marked 8th Street (Later renamed 8th Avenue.) Again, the larger home with the tower near the northeast corner of 8th and Main is also there to be found.

A grocery at the southwest corner of Yesler Way and 8th Avenue. — A grocery at the southwest corner of Yesler Way and 8th Avenue also dates Jan. 8, 1940, and is addressed as 725 Yesler. Sensibly, our featured 723 would be snug to the right of this 725, but , as we know, it is not.

Jean’s and my eleventh hour one-block correction (at our desks) was first abetted by the photograph’s third “caption,” the house number attached to the top of the dark front door: 717. A clue also canters from the foreground of this 1940 snapshot. There are no trolley tracks in the street. Cable cars first started climbing Mill Street, as Yesler Way was then named, in 1888. They made their final ascent here (or rather there) on Friday, August 9, 1940, six months and one day after the photographer for or from the Seattle Housing Authority made this record of 717 Washington Street, as well as many other doomed residences in the neighborhood. All, including some on Yesler Way, were tagged for destruction. We know the name neither of the prolific photographer nor of the confused scribe. Possibly they were one and the same.

The towered manse holding to the east side of 8th Avenue, one lot north of the corner and the much smaller box with the 800 Main address written on the negative. Note Harborview Hospital up the way. Again, this big home appears clearly on the far left of the featured photo at the top. (Courtesy, Lawton Gowey)

A final clue for our correction is a gift from the turreted home on the far left (of the featured photo at the top), which I recognized from another photograph (the one just above). It stood one block north of Main Street near the northeast corner of 8^th Avenue. It too was razed for Yesler Terrace, the first public housing developed in Washington State, and the first federally funded low-income housing built in the U.S. that was racially integrated. The first 150 of the old houses started coming down in the fall of 1940. One year later the first 200 families were moving in, 58 of these families into the two-room flats that rented for $9.75 a month. The Seattle Times of November 7, 1941, noted that the rent would stay the same as long as “papa doesn’t get too big a raise.” The annual income limit for such affordable smaller quarters was $525.

A clip from the Times from July 32, 1940.

The caption for this Seattle Times snapshot from Oct. 7, 1940 reads, "Cr-r-r-a-a-ac-ck! Smash! And down went an old frame home at Seventh Avenue and Washington Street as wreckers razed the first of 143 old bildings to be demolished to make room for the Seattle Housing Authority project on Yesler Hill, where modern buildings will replace t he dwelling which have grown shoddy and bleak since the days many years ago, when they housed Seattle pioneer families." — The caption for this Seattle Times snapshot from Oct. 7, 1940 reads, “Cr-r-r-a-a-ac-ck! Smash! And down went an old frame home at Seventh Avenue and Washington Street as wreckers razed the first of 143 old buildings to be demolished to make room for the Seattle Housing Authority project on Yesler Hill, where modern buildings will replace the dwellings which have grown shoddy and bleak since the days many years ago, when they housed Seattle pioneer families.” This, in fact, is a shoddy and bleak exaggeration. Many of the 143 structures were quite comely and sturdy too, if a little blistered. CLICK to ENLARGE

YESLER TERRACE taking shape, Nov. 5, 1941. Note the Smith Tower far left.

As public housing the building of Yesler Terrace was controversial as was its management. The fact that it was also not segregated was both daring and progressive. — As public housing, the building of Yesler Terrace was controversial as was both its politics and management. The fact that it was also not segregated was both daring and progressive.

WEB EXTRAS

Before I ask my eternal question, I’m going to add some snaps I took last week of the bus station demolition. How many of us climbed aboard a greyhound bus at 9th and Stewart, headed for distant places?

Anything to add, boys? My oh my how my heart is skipping like a youngster boarding the bus. How many cheap adventures, beginning in my teens, started off from this corner. Here Jean and Ron is a not so old interior from the 1970s.

Seattle's Greyhound Depot at 8th and Stewart, ca. 1974. (dorpat) — Seattle’s Greyhound Depot at 8th and Stewart, ca. 1974. (dorpat) And, below, an earlier, and anonymous depot exhuberance..

Yup, and again with help from Ron Edge and all his links we’ll put up some relevant past features. Here’s also our bi-weekly reminder. There will be some repeats of these repeats. That is, a peculiarly or especially relevant feature may well appear linked to several features. Here we again appeal to mom – my mom, Ida Gerina Christiansen-Dorpat – and her homily. “Paul, remember that the mother of instruction is repeitition” (She may have said “all learning” rather an instruction.) I don’t remember, which is evidence that I did not follow her advice well enough to remember the wording, although I have often kept to the spirit.

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NEARBY

Japanese Buddhist temple on Main Street. — Japanese Buddhist temple on Main Street near 10th Avenue..

First appeared in Pacific, July 12, 1992.

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WE CLOSE WITH A QUIZ – WHERE IS THIS? I do not remember, Although I stopped my car to snap it, the negatives to either side of this one do not help place it – sometime in the 70’s, it seems. I think it nifty.

Seattle Now and Then

Seattle Now & Then: First Hill and Yesler Terrace

September 27, 2014 jrsherrard 1 Comment

(click to enlarge photos)

THEN: This Seattle Housing Authority photograph was recorded from the top of the Marine Hospital (now Pacific Tower) on the north head of Beacon Hill. It looks north to First Hill during the Authority’s clearing of its southern slope for the building of the Yesler Terrace Public Housing. (Courtesy, Lawton Gowey)

NOW: Jean’s “repeat” from the same prospect is revealing of changes on First Hill and to its sides over nearly three-quarters of a century.

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 this panorama that looks north over both the

T.T. Minor's Marine Hospital in Port Townsend — T.T. Minor’s Marine Hospital in Port Townsend

From the sky looking northwest over the Marine Hospital to neighborhood below it and Beacon Hill. The date is July 28, 1935. — From the sky looking northwest over the Marine Hospital to the International District neighborhood below it and Beacon Hill. The date is July 28, 1935. Much of the “low land” seen beyond the hospital and to either side of Dearborn Street and its billboards, is now covered and congested with the I-5 Freeway. The next illustration shows that work in progress.

Dearborn Cut (1909-1912) and the Jackson Street Regrade (1907-1909). This hospital observatory afforded this most revealing profile of First Hill. It made it actually look like a hill. Since the early 1960s the developing ditch of the Seattle Freeway, far left

Seattle Freeway construction looking northwest from Beacon Hill, August 20, 1965. (Courtesy, MOHAI) — Seattle Freeway construction looking northwest from Beacon Hill, August 20, 1965. **(Courtesy, MOHAI)**

in the “now,” made the western slopes of First Hill more apparent and gave the hill a western border. The slope of its eastern border, here far right, is occupied for the most part by the low-rise structures on the Seattle University campus, east of Broadway.

Another but narrower and earlier look into the I-5 Freeway construction from Beacon Hill. (Courtesy, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer) — Another but narrower look into the I-5 Freeway construction from Beacon Hill. (Courtesy, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer)

Dearborn looking east through 9th Avenue on Dec. 8, 1938. More billboards.

Although I do not remember snapping this through the windshield while heading east on Dearborn, I will date a date for it of 1980.

In 1940, the likely year for this “then,” the skyline of First Hill was scored with landmarks that are still standing, although by now most are hidden behind higher structures. These include more apartment buildings and the well-packed Swedish Medical Center campus, which is right-of-center in the “now.” The grandest exception is Harborview Hospital. In the circa 1940 photo its gleaming Art Deco tower stands out, left-of-center. In Jean’s colored “repeat,” Harborview, while half-hidden, still shows its true color, which is like a pale café-latte.

Harborview during freeway construction. The work required exceptional measures to hold First Hill - aka Yesler Hill, Profanity Hill, Pill Hill - in place because of its hydraulics or fluid dynamics: the springs that the first settlers found so appealing. — Harborview during freeway construction. The work required exceptional measures to hold First Hill – aka Yesler Hill, Profanity Hill, Pill Hill – in place because of its hydraulics or fluid dynamics: the springs that the first settlers found so appealing. The most northern part of Yesler Terrace appears far-right. Photo by LaVanaway.

We know the photographer’s primary subject here. It is neither the First Hill horizon nor the man-made valley between First and Beacon Hills. Before the regrading began in 1907, the hills were two parts of the same ridge. Rather, the intended subject is the swath of

F. Jay Haynes, the Northern Pacific Railroads official photographer (with his own car), visited Seattle in 1890. His records include this revealing look at the waterfront a year-or-so after the city's Great Fire of June 6, 1889. The Haynes pan also reveals the knoll, right-of-center, that interrupted the ridge between Beacon hill, on the right, and First Hill, on the left. Much of the landfill used for reclaiming the tides for the Northern Pacific's tracks were cut form this knoll or knob. This preceded the Jackson Street Regrade by several years. (Which is to say, I'll find the date later. It is described in my - and City Council's - Illustrated History of the Waterfront. You can find it all on this blog, with its own button.) — F. Jay Haynes, the Northern Pacific Railroad’s official photographer (with his own car), visited Seattle in 1890. His records include this revealing look at the waterfront from Elliott Bay a year-or-so after the city’s Great Fire of June 6, 1889. The Haynes pan also includes on its horizon the knoll, right-of-center, that interrupted the ridge between Beacon hill, on the right, and First Hill, on the left. Much of the landfill used for reclaiming the tides for the Northern Pacific’s first tracks was cut form this knoll or knob. This preceded the Jackson Street Regrade by several years. (Which is to say, I’ll find the date later. It is described in my – and City Council’s – Illustrated History of the Waterfront from 2005. You can find it all on this blog, with its own button.) – **CLICK TO ENLARGE**

open lots and mostly doomed residences that run west to east (left to right) through the center of the subject. Within two years of this recording, a photographer from the Seattle Housing Authority visited the Marine Hospital again and recorded another panorama

The "pretty much" completed Yesler Terrace photographed from the same Marine Hospital prospect. — The “pretty much” completed Yesler Terrace photographed from the same Marine Hospital prospect.

with the same frame, but of the completed Yesler Terrace Public Housing. Nearly 700 housing units with their own front yards, new General Electric ranges, free utilities and low rents averaging about $17 a month replaced the former neighborhood of mostly modest Victorian residences..

A SEATTLE TIMES clip from August 13, 1941 — ***A SEATTLE TIMES*** clip from August 13, 1941

There are two more panoramas photographed from the Marine Hospital by the Seattle Housing Authority. One shows the Yesler Terrace project completed (included here directly below), and the other, an early record of its construction (placed here directly below). Or dear reader come and see much of this on the big screen at Town Hall this coming Friday evening when Jean and I share illustrated stories on FIRST HILL & BEYOND. Again, this is next Friday evening, October 3. The Hall will also then “unveil” in its lobby our “now and then” exhibit of this and other First Hill subjects.

Again from the Marine Hospital and Seattle Housing Authority's unnamed photographer's look into the work-in-progress on the Yesler Terrace Housing project. — Again from the Marine Hospital, Seattle Housing Authority’s unnamed photographer’s look into the work-in-progress on the Yesler Terrace Housing project. The north approach to the 12th Avenue Bridge spanning the Dearborn cut is bottom-right.

WEB EXTRAS

Anything to add, Paul? Yes. We will start with seventeen links to past features from this blog. As is our way, some we will have shown earlier in support of some subject or other. Ordinarily these links, of course, hold links within. And so on and on. For the most part they are relevant to the neighborhoods of the north end of Beacon Hill and the south end of First Hill, and the ridge/regrade that shares them. The first linked feature looks familiar because it repeats, far left, the Rininger Home at the northwest corner of Columbia and Summit, although at the time we submitted this feature to Pacific Northwest Magazine, now thirteen years ago, we knew nothing about its medical motives. We concentrated then on the Otis Hotel on the right. The next link is packed with relevance, built about a rare photo of a pioneer home near the future Deaborn Street on the slop leading up to the ridge that included both First and Beacon Hill before much of it was lowered with the combined cuttings of the Jackson Street Regrade and the Dearbort Cut. The third link uses the Sprague Hotel on Yesler Way to lead into a small survey of buildings in the Yesler Terrace neighborhood that were removed because of it. Some of them were surely worth saving and/or moving. Links sixteen and seventeen, the last two, give Jean and I an opportunity to first wish you a too early Seasons Greetings and second to promote the First Hill lecture we are giving at Town Hall this coming Friday Evening – early. It is cheap – $5 – and the title is FIRST HILL & BEYOND. (The title suggests more hills.)

Thanks again and again – seventeen times – to Ron Edge for finding and putting these “associates” up.

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THE MARINE HOSPITAL

The Feature above was pulled from Pacific Magazine for Nov. 13, 1994. Perhaps the older of you dear readers will share some sympathy with me when I confess that those twenty years went by far too fast. “It doesn’t seem possible” that I took the “now” for this – printed directly below – so long ago. I can still smell the pine cones and feel the breeze off the Bay.

This "repeat" was moved from the historical prospect of the "then" in order to see around the trees. — This “repeat” was moved from the historical prospect of the “then” in order to see around the trees. There have, you know, been many changes here since 1994.

xxx

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Now & then here and now…