I wanted to make a quick Past Post thanking Carol Lo and Heather McLeland-Wieser of the Seattle Public Library
for contacting me recently offering to aid in blog research. They also run a Seattle Public Library
blog called
Shelf Talk, so give them a look.
I thought it w as
appropriate to check out an old postcard featuring the
last Seattle Public Library. The building, designed by architects Bindon and Wright, opened in 1960 on 4th
and Madison.
It lasted until 2001, when it was torn down to make way for the new library building. Give the card a look and keep in mind that the caption is from the early 1960′s. The material names sound like a paint color swatch card down at the Home Depot.
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Seattle Public Library, 4th and Madison. The new $4,500,000.00 Seattle Public Library is considered one of the finest in the country. The exterior of this building is a combination of precast “Mo-Sai”, manufactured in Seattle; “Sunset Red” granite from Cold Springs, Minnesota; “Tennesee Pink” marble, and heat-absorbing plate glass. It has a floor space of 200,000 square feet and shelving area for one million volumes, as well as reading rooms, conference rooms, and an auditorium. The artwork in this building is by some of the finest Northwest artists — George Tsutakawa, Glenn Alps, James Fitzgerald and Ray Jensen.
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What a great caption! I worked in that building for a few years (as well as having grown up with it as a patron, most memorably to the Lee Auditorium with my 6th grade class for a screening of ‘Night of the Living Dead’ – Mr. Lewis, you were the best!), and yet never knew I was working between walls of space age Mo-Sai cladding and blushing Tennesee Pink. Somehow I think it would’ve added something to the experience…
Reinforces the iron law of modern architechture: “No matter how bad a building is torn down to make way for a new one, the new one will be worse.”
What is the significance of the sign that says “10″ in the front of the building? It looks like a highway sign, but that’s not any highway that I am aware of. Could it be referring to what existed before I-5?
Prior to 1940 US 10 left town via Airport Way south to Empire Way (now Martin Luther King Jr. Way). Then it followed Empire Way to Renton. From there it followed Sunset Way to Issaquah. In 1940 the Mercer Island Floating Bridge opened, and US 10 now exited Seattle eastward via Dearborn Street. The old route through Renton became Alt. US 10 for a time. Both routes were part of Primary State Highway 2.
Awesome mid century modern building.
I like the feeling of a massive block of concrete, held up by 4 thin little columns.
Wow… from 1968-70, I spent many a weekend riding the Seattle Transit bus 42 into the city from Skyway just to read old newspapers (on microfilm) and old radio magazines from the 20′s & 30′s. This stuff fascinated me! I remember once walking out the 5th Avenue entrance into a sea of people carrying signs and a line of cops in riot gear in a line blocking the U.S. Courthouse across the street. I was 12 I think, but knew there would be trouble when the crowd of people started moving across the street and the cops matched the movement by taking steps of their own toward the street. I quickly went back inside.
EXCELLENT