So I was talking to fellow
Seattle blogger Laura Gjovaag the other day and she was asking if that’s Denny Hill off to the right in
this postcard. And it is, although this area looks quite different today due to the Denny Regrade — the hill was literally flattened. The building circled in red below was the Denny Hotel (later renamed the Washington Hotel) built in 1889 but demolished in 1907 during the regrade.
One notable Denny Hotel guest was none other than President Teddy Roosevelt, who stayed there in 1903. Here are a couple photographs:
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Denny regrade before and after from 1906 and 1908. Note that roughly where the original Washington Hotel stood, a new one sprang up and the building still stands today.
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Photographs of Denny Hill from 1928, 1936, and 1964. New features from ’64 include a Space Needle and enhanced photo stitching technology sans seams. Photograph courtesy Seattle Municipal Archives.
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I love the triptych of photos! Apparently there were lots of car commuters looking for parking already in 1931.
And you have to wonder: was the regrade worth it? Look at what filled in the area: motels, car dealerships, parking lots… very utilitarian, not much civic impact.
True. And not to mention the views of the sound that were demolished along with the hill. Although, if it had as many dead ends as Queen Anne Hill does…
Cliffe
VintageSeattle.org
Hi This is Dean Syltebo. I have over 760 old photos of the Space Needle when it was orange paint in 1962 Seattle World’s Fair. See at my website http://www.flickr.com/photos/orangespaceneedle/
A large percentage of of what you assert is supprisingly precise and that makes me ponder the reason why I had not looked at this in this light before. This particular article really did turn the light on for me as far as this issue goes.