Tag Archives: Wallingford

Seattle Now & Then: The Wallingford Wall at the Latona Knoll

September 12, 2015 jrsherrard 1 Comment

(click to enlarge photos)

THEN: From 1909 to the mid-late 1920s, the precipitous grade separation between the upper and lower parts of NE 40th Street west of 7th Ave. NE was faced with a timber wall. When the wall was removed, the higher part of NE 40th was shunted north, cutting into the lawns of the homes beside it. (Courtesy, Lawton Gowey)

NOW: The chain fence seen on the far side of the intersection, at the scene’s center, was used recently to corral the 110 goats of the “Rent-a-Ruminant” shrub-eating service. Between jobs the goats make their home on Vashon Island. The Interstate-5 Lake Washington Ship Canal Bridge was added to this scene in 1962. On the far left stands the rear red brick wall of the UW’s Benjamin Hall Interdisciplinary Research Building.

Rented goat relaxing from their clearing labor in the grade separation on N.E. 40th Avenue. This nutritious labor took about eleven days, after which the goats returned to Vashon Island. Their fence, however, is still up at this writing. — Rented goats relaxing from their nutritious chewing along the grade separation on N.E. 40th Street. This labor took about eleven days, after which the goats returned to Vashon Island. Their fence, however, is still up at this writing. Neither during the goat-work nor the fence-work has it been possible for anyone to easily sleep in those bushes. And that, apparently, was part of the motivation by those who ordered the clearing and for the most part, we imagine, sleep comfortably at home in their own beds on sheets, some of them with floral designs.

This look west on NE 40^th Street is not as sharp as desired, especially to reveal what the 1912 Baist Real Estate Map marks simply as the “wall” that separates the upper and lower grades of 40th in its atypical four block run between Latona and 7^th Avenues NE. I’ll add great – the ‘Great Wall’ – the Great Wall of Latona. (Still this is sharper than two others of the “Wallingford Wall” lifted directly from the municipal archive, and attached below this first paragraph.) Except that “The Great Wall of Wallingford” is both appropriate and euphonic. About a century separates the historical photograph from Jean Sherrard’s repeat. Most likely the featured view, like the two immediately below, was also recorded on May 12, 1921.

Like the view printed above it, this was pulled directly from the Seattle Municipal Archives' on-line photo archive. Exploring it can be very rewarding. (Courtesy, Seattle Municipal Archive.) — Like the view printed above it, this was pulled directly from the Seattle Municipal Archives’ on-line photo collection. Exploring it can be very rewarding. (Courtesy, Seattle Municipal Archive.)

Another distant glimpse of the "Wallingford Wall" on N.E. 40th Street, this time looking through Eastlake from the south end of both the Latona Bridge with the lifted spans, and the new University District Bridge, a work-in-progress out of frame to the right. (Courtesy, Seattle Municipal Archive.) — Another distant glimpse of the “Wallingford Wall” on N.E. 40th Street, this time looking through Eastlake from the south end of both the Latona Bridge with the lifted spans, and the new University District Bridge, a work-in-progress out of frame to the right, ca. 1919.. (Courtesy, Seattle Municipal Archive.)

The earliest photo evidence I’ve seen of this ‘great wall’ is included in a 180-degree panorama that was recorded from a tethered balloon high above the 1909 Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition (AYP), Seattle’s first world’s fair. The pan extends from Lake Washington’s Union Bay through all of Portage Bay and into the Latona and Wallingford neighborhoods. In the pan, the dark stained retaining wall on 40^th that we use in our ‘then,’ appears to be whitewashed. It gleamed when new. The wall’s construction was part of the city’s both ambitious and anxious effort to prepare the “north end” of town for the upcoming Exposition.

Thanks to Ron Edge for merging these several shots looking over Portage Bay from a tethered balloon held above the AYPE's Pay Streak carnival avenue in 1909. The balloon can be found on the right of the pan attached below. It looks northeast across Portage Bay to the AYP fair grounds. — Thanks to Ron Edge for merging these several shots looking over Portage Bay from a tethered balloon held above the AYPE’s Pay Streak carnival avenue in 1909. Far left is Lake Washington’s Union Bay. The north end of Capitol Hill reaches the Latona Bridge on the far right. The brilliance of the Wallingford Wall dividing 40th Street into upper and lower parts is far far right. The balloon can be found on the right of the pan attached below. The pan looks northeast across Portage Bay to the AYP fair grounds. CLICK CLICK TO ENLARGE.

The AYP expo grounds on the U.W. campus seen across Portage Bay. The captured balloon appears far right. [Courtesy Monica Wooton] CLICK CLICK

During the summer of 1909 an estimated four million people crossed the Latona Bridge: most of the visitors rode the trolleys, which reached the Exposition through this intersection. Moving the multitudes from the bridge to the AYP held on the grounds of the University of Washington, the trolleys followed a new route that began with a one block run on 6^th Avenue north from the bridge. The new tracks were aimed directly at the great timber wall and the Latona Knoll above it. Just before reaching the lower half of NE 40^th Street, the cars first passed under the then new Northern Pacific railroad trestle and then made a right-turn east for the fairgrounds.

This was recorded late in the life of the Latona Bridge, and looks south from the railroad overpass (Burke Gilman Trail now). The circa date is 1919. The photo is treated to its own feature above the Ron Edge links added below. — This was recorded late in the life of the Latona Bridge, and looks south from the railroad overpass (Burke Gilman Trail now). The circa date is 1919. The photo is treated to its own feature with the Ron Edge links added below.

Sometime in the 1980s I paused on the top part of the divided N.E. 40th Street to record this look south over the Burke Gilman Trail and along 6th Avenue, in line with the Lk Washington Ship Canal Bridge on 1-5. Note how barren or void of trees is the grade dividing the upper and lower 40ths. — Sometime in the 1980s I paused on the top part of the divided N.E. 40th Street to record this look south over the Burke Gilman Trail overpass and along 6th Avenue in line with the Lk Washington Ship Canal Bridge on 1-5. Note how barren or void of trees was the grade then dividing the upper and lower 40ths. There is little there for the goats.

Looking east on the lower part of the divided N.E. 40th Street from Latona Ave. N.E. on Oct. 7, 2006 while on one of my then daily Wallingford walks.

. . .and looking east on the upper part of N.E. 40th Street from Latona Ave. N.E., on Oct. 7, 2006. [I was a mere 68 at the time and so still nimble enough to walk for hours at a time.] — . . .and looking east on the upper part of N.E. 40th Street from Latona Ave. N.E., also on Oct. 7, 2006. [I was a mere 68 at the time and so still nimble enough to walk hours at a time.]

While the lower and upper halves of the NE 40^th Street grade separation are glimpsed, respectively, to the left and right of the couple walking in front Jean Sherrard’s camera, (in his repeat for the featured photo at the top) the trestle and the trail are hidden behind the landscape and signs on the left. (A later – and yet early – “repeat” or return to the corner by a public works photographer is printed directly below. A steep grade has replaced the Wallingford Wall and the upper or northern part of 40^th Street has been moved farther north with some new structures on it’s north side.)

Later the wall was removed and the top "half' of N.E. 40th Street was pushed or regraded further to the north. (Courtesy, Lawton Gowey) — Later the wall was removed and the top “half’ of N.E. 40th Street was pushed or regraded further to the north. The last time I looked – recently – the boxish apartment building at the northeast corner of Pasadena and 40th endured on the right. (Courtesy, Lawton Gowey)

The importance of this arterial to the Expo grounds was accompanied during its construction by a flood of anxious speculations about the likelihood of its not getting done in time for the Expo’s June 1, 1909 opening day. The local press maintained its critical eye with skeptical reports. For instance, less than two months before the AYP’S opening The Seattle Times for April 11, reported, “The exposition management was promised a year and a half ago that Sixth Ave. NE would be pushed under the Northern Pacific tracks and Fortieth would be graded and paved six months before the AYPE opened . . . Even now the tunnel under the railroad tracks is incomplete; grading teams are working both on Sixth Avenue and Fortieth Street and there is not a great prospect that the street will be opened for general traffic by June 1.”

The winter of 1909 was not always kind to the AYP'S preparations. — The winter of 1909 was not always kind to the AYP’S preparations. (From a Seattle Times January, 1909 clipping.)

A good sign that transportation from the Latona Bridge to the Expo is shaping up well is expressed in these congratulations from the Tenth Ward Club published in The Times for May 21, 1909, less than a week before the fair opened. — A good sign that transportation to the Expo is shaping up well is expressed in these congratulations from the Tenth Ward Club published in The Times for May 21, 1909, less than a week before the fair opened.

The joyful news of July 30, 1909 that the N.E. 40th Street "main" route to the AYP's main gate was, at last, decoratively lighted. — The joyful news of July 30, 1909 that the N.E. 40th Street “main” route to the AYP’s main gate was, at last, decoratively lighted. **CLICK CLICK**

In spite of the anxious doubts expressed by the press, the improved trolley service was ready for the June 1 opening of the AYP, although on this stretch it had required eleventh-hour-help of a chain gang from the city jail. The Times complimented the prisoners for their “able assistance.” By mid-July the Seattle City Council was sufficiently aglow with the fair’s success and the early evening light shows that outlined the many grand – if temporary – Beaux-Arts buildings, that they found an additional $300 to extent the string of carnival lights along NE 40^th Street and so through this intersection.

POSTSCRIPT: The post-expo grandeur of this promenade from the Latona Bridge to the U.W. campus and Brooklyn and 14^th Avenue (University Way) the “main streets” of Brooklyn (the University District), was short-lived. Neighborhood anxiety – especially among the businesses – came with the building of the Lake Washington Ship Canal in 1911. The bridge at Latona would clearly need to be enlarged for the canal, but if the pioneer bridge was moved as well, then the Latona community, the first addition developed near the northeast corner of Lake Union, would surely also lose its commercial influence, although not yet the sole abiding significance of its primary school. (That threat came much later with the school’s conversion to the John Sanford School, which it was carefully explained was renovated and enlarged on the “Latona Campus” in the 1990s.) On June 7, 1908, a year before the AYP, The Times noted that both the road on 24^th Ave. N.E. over “the portage,” and a proposed bridge via 10^th Ave. N.E., might replace the bridge at Latona. Both of the proposed bridges crossed the canal at higher elevations and so allowed for more vessels to pass below them without the bridges needing to open. And so it was. The bridge on 10^th took the place of the bridge at Latona in 1919, although as late the 1922 the new bridge was sometimes identified as the Latona Bridge. The Montlake bascule over the canal followed in 1925, largely on the hustle of Husky promotions to make it easier for citizens to reach sporting events on campus.

WEB EXTRAS

Anything to add, lads? Lots of Edge Links Jean, directly below.

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First appeared in Pacific, November 21, 1993.

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First appeared in Pacific, Oct. 6, 1996.

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First appeared in Pacific, 12 - 29 - 1991. — First appeared in Pacific, 12 – 29 – 1991.

Same corner but a different class. — Same corner, different class.

The original Latona school house sat near the center of the grounds. This view of the inset school house looks southeast from near the corner of N.E. 42nd Street. and 4th Avenue N.E.., as does the “repeat” below.

September 6, 2006, looking southeast thru the then newly adorned campus.

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Boomers news about both Latona and Brooklyn (future University District) from Dec. 1, 1890.

A detail from the 1894 "Real Roads Map of Seattle" centered on Latona at the north shore of Lake Union. Note the railroad spur onto the future University of Washington Campus, which opened in 1895. The spur leads to the Denny Building. There is as yet no Brooklyn noted on this map, and University District is a name still ten years from being used - sometimes. The transition from Brooklyn to University District was busy with University Station, using the trolley stop at University Way and 42nd Ave. as the oft-used synecdoche for the neighborhood of town and gown. — A detail from the 1894 “Real Roads Map of Seattle” centered on Latona at the north shore of Lake Union. Note the railroad spur onto the future University of Washington Campus, which opened in 1895. The spur leads to the Denny Building. There is as yet no Brooklyn noted on this map, and University District is a name still ten years from being used – sometimes. The transition from Brooklyn to University District was given to University Station, using the trolley stop at University Way and 42nd Ave. as the oft-used synecdoche for the neighborhood of town and gown.

Still no Wallingford in this map of North shore communities, ca. 1899, but Brooklyn has come up and Edgewater too. — Still no Wallingford in this map of North shore communities, ca. 1899, but Brooklyn has come up and both Edgewater and Ross as well, three neighborhood names now remembered by antiquarians only.

Traffic on the Latona Bridge as reported in The Times for Nov. 20, 1913, six years before being replaced by the nearby University Bridge.

The comparative use of north shore bridge excerpted with a clip from the Seattle Times for July 24,1932. — The comparative use of north shore bridges (and others) excerpted with a clip from **the Seattle Times** for July 24,1932.

A detail from the 1908 Baist Real Estate Map, Latona before the railroad overpass above 6th Ave. and the trolleys rerouted for the 1909 AYP. — A detail from the 1908 Baist Real Estate Map, Latona before the railroad overpass above 6th Ave. and the trolleys rerouting for the 1909 AYP.

Detail from the 1929 aerial, with the Wallingford Wall replaced by the steep grade separation on N.E. 40th Street, left-of-center.

A Latona detail from a recent Google Earth cityscape.

Seattle Now and Then

Seattle Now & Then: The Ship Canal Bridge

May 17, 2014 jrsherrard Leave a comment

(click to enlarge photos)

THEN: Long-time Wallingford resident Victor Lygdman looks south through the work-in-progress on the Lake Washington Ship Canal Bridge during the summer of 1959. Bottom-right are the remnants of the Latona business and industrial district, including the Wayland Mill and the Northlake Apartments, replaced now with Ivar’s Salmon House and its parking. (Photo by Victor Lygdman)

NOW: Standing near where the bridge’s “express lane” reaches Wallingford, Jean’s repeat includes what appears to be the color-coordinated sleeping gear and sneakers of a truly tired homeless citizen using the shelter and perhaps “white noise” of the Lake Washington Ship Canal Bridge for some slumber. ***[Below you will find that we are mistaken with this “now” caption. We are one block of and a few feet down. We will explain with the “anything to add” part of all this.]***

In The Seattle Times classifieds for February 7, 1958, the state highway department advertised: “…men wanted…to do design work in connection with the Seattle Freeway… First project is the Lake Washington Ship Canal Bridge.” Later that summer, local contractors Scheumann and Johnson’s low bid was awarded the contract to build the seven piers required to support the steel truss portion of the bridge, and the first concrete was poured on the 24th of September.

The Seattle Times caption for this reads in part . . . — From June 17, 1958, *The Seattle Times* caption for this reads in part . . . “Two State Highway Department engineers, Art Kaiser and Pat O’Reilly, examine a model of a bridge which will carry the Seattle Freeway over the Lake Washington Ship Canal. This view is looking toward Portage Bay, with the University Bridge in the center background. The bridge, 4,400 feet long with its lower deck 135 feet above the water, is estimate to cost $15,000,000.”

At least parts of six of the seven piers can be found in this construction photo by Victor Lygdman, admiringly described in his Times obituary dated March 23, 2010, as the “unofficial Mayor of Wallingford.” Born in 1927, Lygdman became an artist in several media, including watercolors, cartoons, fiction and sculpture. (When my left knee complains, I carry a Lygdman cane, skillfully carved as a snake spiraling the shaft to the handle.)

VICTOR as a teen - or nearly - ca. 1950. — VICTOR as a teen – or nearly – ca. 1950.

Jean and I figure that Lygdman recorded the historical view from where the bridge meets the hill near 42^nd Street and Pasadena Avenue. [Reminder! We are off by one block. See below, under “anything to add.”] Pasadena was a busy commercial street in the Latona neighborhood until 1919, when the Latona Bridge was replaced by the University Bridge. The freeway bridge, with its 2,294 feet of steel trusses crossing the canal, conforms to what was the north-south line of the Latona Bridge, about 125 feet above it.

The I-5 bridge opened to traffic in December 1962, with only 2.2 miles of approaches. On December 18th, Times reporter Marshall Wilson reported on his test drive. “For the time being commuters in both directions may find that it’s quicker traveling their old and accustomed routes.” Wilson added, “The view is better on the freeway route. From high atop the Lake Washington Ship Canal Bridge, the old Aurora Bridge looks almost like a miniature. Even the Space Needle appears to be at eye level.”

Courtesy, Museum of History and Industry, aka MOHAI. From their collection of Post-Intelligencer Negatives.

After the bridge was painted “Washington Green” with brushes, it sat idle for more than a year waiting for the freeway to catch up. Plans to use it for Century 21 Worlds Fair parking were first approved and then dropped. As historian Genevieve McCoy remarks in her book “Building Washington,” published in 2000, “Today, frustrated motorists crawling across the span could surely advise future fair planners that you don’t need a world’s fair to turn a bridge into a parking lot.”

With the Space Needle up and waiting, the Ship Canal Bridge is able and willing to serve as a parking lot for Century 21 motorists. — With the Space Needle up and waiting, the Ship Canal Bridge is able and willing although not called to serve as a parking lot for Century 21 motorists.

WEB EXTRAS

Anything to add, Paul? Surely Jean, but first we must gathered it up.

Directly below are three picture links to other blog features that relate to our primary subject. The second of these, about the Latona Bridge in its last days, we printed in Pacific only two weeks past. It is still relevant. The third link starts with a feature of the split in the path of Lake Washington Bike Trail and its repeat looks north on the Lake Washington Ship Canal Bridge from the Roanoke Street overpass. The first link we were surprised to discover with our own “key word” search. It’s the same Victor Lygdman snapshot of the bridge supports printed on top, and it appeared first with two other relevant photos by Lygdman as an installment of a series we were running in 2011 called “Seattle Confidential.” The title is apt, for now – if you open the top link – you will find our caption from then, and may compare it to the one near the top here. But this requires another confession – now. The “then” feature this week – on top – is not given good service with its “now.” I may in the call of “team work” claim that WE – Jean and I – made a mistake. But it was really I who was “most” responsible. The “now” should have been taken one block further south where the bridge makes a big change to its center cantilever section. And it should have been taken from the top of the bridge (dangerous), and not from the lower express lane, or beside it with a sleeping bag. ( When we first reflected on this feature, Jean remarked that the Lygdman photo seemed closer and higher to the canal than the prospects I was promoting. And so once more, mea culpa.) You will find some of the evidence for this change in one of the two other Lygdman bridge photos included in the link directly below. It is a snapshot looking due east from the top of the bridge at that same time – 1959/60. Here it is again.

Looking east on N.E. 40th Street to the U.W.Campus from the top of the bridge. By Victor Lygdman

Another revealing photograph – a panorama over Wallingford to the Cascades – by our old friend, Lawton Gowey, looks west from near the south end of the Aurora Bridge. It is dated Jan. 1, 1960 and shows the “stub” of the Ship Canal Bridge when the top lane is a work-in-progress and aside from the concrete piers the cantilever work for the center span has not begun. It is from there – high and open on that south end – that Victor took the photograph that we feature at the very top and directly below. But first here is Lawton’s distant look at one high bridge from another, or near another: the Aurora Bridge. [CLICK to ENLARGE]

A detail of Lawton Gowey's Jan. 17, 1960 look east from Queen Anne Hill over Grandmas Cookies in Wallingford and further to construction on the Lake Washington Ship Canal Bridge, the University and its district, and the Cascades on a clear winter day. (By Lawton Gowey) — A detail of Lawton Gowey’s Jan. 17, 1960 look east from Queen Anne Hill over Grandmas Cookies in Wallingford and further to construction on the Lake Washington Ship Canal Bridge, the University and its district, and the Cascades on a clear winter day. (By Lawton Gowey)

MORE TO COME

We have other extras from the neighborhood to insert tomorrow Sunday Morning after a late breakfast.

Latona School, "Class, Jan. 22, 1900." — Latona School, “Class, Jan. 22, 1900.”

The Latona campus on Sept. 6, 2006. — The Latona campus on Sept. 6, 2006 with a glimpse of the Lake Washington Canal Bridge.

Taken on Sept. 6, 2006, during the first year of my Wallingford Walks.

Latona School - the 1917 brick addition looking east on 42nd Street through 4th Avenue Northeast. — Latona School – the 1917 brick addition looking east on 42nd Street through 4th Avenue Northeast. The south end of the 1906 addition is seen far-right.

Looking across 42nd Street at the razing of the 1917 brick addition and revealing behind it the 1906 frame school house, 1998. — Looking across 42nd Street at the 1998 razing of the 1917 brick addition and revealing behind it the 1906 frame school house.

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Above: May Day festivities, like these at Latona School, were once a regular feature on the calender of many Seattle schools. Below: Latona graduates Dorothy Lunde and her youngest sister, Marcella Fetterly, far right, stand beside a moving football formation of Latona students in 1993, with a glimpse of the ship canal bridge to the east.

THE DAHLS at HOME on EASTERN

The Dahl home under a snow of 1985. — The Dahl home, on the left, under a snow of 1985.

Peruvian Lilies in the front yard, four times. — Peruvian Lilies from the McCoy Garden in the front yard, four times.

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Another - that is, not the one directly below - group of Latona School kids pose with their school and their report cards. — Another – that is, not the one directly below – group of Latona School kids posing with their school and their report cards. Who is the child marked with an “x” we do not know. Perhaps he does not look forward to going home with his report.

Clipping from The Times Pacific Magazine for Dec. 29, 1991.

Frank DeBruyn with wagon in front of the family home at 4123 Eastern Ave. N..

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Jean's alternative to the sleeping bag scene (Here he stands above the sleeper.), taken on the same afternoon, but still a block too far north on my misguidance. — Jean’s alternative to the sleeping bag scene (Here he stands above the sleeper.), taken on the same afternoon, but still a block too far north on my misguidance.

Work-in-progress on the express land access off of 42nd Street and 7th Avenue. E.. The ramp on the left passes above Pasadena Avenue, once an important commercial street in Latona. (by Victor Lygdman)

Marking the I-5 freeway route. Note that both the Wayland Mill - future site of Ivar's Salmon House - and the Northlake Hotel - future site of the Salmon House parking - can be found above the "Lake Union" tag, bottom left. — Marking the I-5 freeway route. Note that both the Wayland Mill – future site of Ivar’s Salmon House – and the Northlake Apartments – future site of the Salmon House parking – can be found above the “Lake Union” tag, bottom left. (Courtesy, Ron Edge) [**CLICK TO ENLARGE]**

A tax photo of the Northlake Apartment at the northwest corner of Northlake and 5th Avenue N.E. [Courtesy Washington State Archive, Bellevue Branch]

The Salmon House parking, former site of the Northlake Apartments.

A detail pulled from the late 1950s aerial printed above shows close-up the Wayland Mill, future Salmon House, and the Northlake Apartments at the northwest corner of Northlake and 5th Ave. N.E.. [Courtesy Ron Edge]

With the help of the 1936 aerial mapping survey on the right, and a ca. 2012 satellite shot of the same acres, we can compae the changes to the Salmon House - and its parking - site and its neighbors. The freeway bridge is far-right in the ca.2012 view. — With the help of the 1936 aerial mapping survey on the right, and a ca. 2012 Goggle Earth (courtesy of) satellite shot of the same acres, we can compare the changes to the Salmon House – and its parking – site and its neighbors. The freeway bridge is far-right in the ca.2012 view. The red dot marks the spot of the Wayland mill’s burning silo on the right, and the same spot, appropriately new the fire place, in the Salmon House bar, on the left.

A Feb. 4, 1953 tax photo looking east thru the Wayland mill site from the foot of 4th Avenue n.e. on Northlake. The mill's burning tower is obvious center-right and beyond it to the east the open bascules of the University Bridge. — A Feb. 4, 1953 tax photo looking east thru the Wayland mill site from the foot of 4th Avenue n.e. on Northlake. The mill’s burning tower is obvious center-right and beyond it to the east the open bascules of the University Bridge.

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WEB EXTRAS

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Now & then here and now…