What Year Was I Taken? Take 3
July 21st, 2008 @ 12:13 am by Cliffe | Sorted Photo Exposure
Our first and second What Year Was I Taken posts brought the VS readers out of the woodwork. It’s now time for the third installment so don’t be shy. This one is pretty easy — you get four angles. The question is: what year was this downtown Seattle bird’s-eye photo taken? Use your detective skills, pool your knowledge, show us what you’ve got. Lets see how quickly we can figure this one out. Winner(s) get their name(s) in lights. And… here are the four views.
Update: Congrats to Scott, Bryan, Shipley, Litlnemo, Julie Anne, RyanB! In the comment section, they correctly id’ed the photo was being from 1928. It was taken by Asahel Curtis from the Northern Life Building. We’ll play again soon. Full captions to follow.
Update: Congrats to Scott, Bryan, Shipley, Litlnemo, Julie Anne, RyanB! In the comment section, they correctly id’ed the photo was being from 1928. It was taken by Asahel Curtis from the Northern Life Building. We’ll play again soon. Full captions to follow.
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| Looking south from the Northern Life Tower. Above the Dexter Horton Building is shown the tower of the L.C. Smith Building, the tallest structure west of the Mississippi, and to the right of this the tower of the Great Northern and Northern Pacific depot, railroad tracks extending through the valley to the south. The bare spot on the edge of Beacon Hill is soon to be occupied by a $2,500,000 Veterans Hospital. Photo by Asahel Curtis. The Argus, December 15, 1928. Price 35 cents. Vol. 35, No. 48. |
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| Looking east from the Northern Life Tower. Another section of Seattle’s business and apartment house district. The twin tower building is the Catholic Cathedral. In the distance, on a clear day, the Cascade Mountains, snow capped most of the year, are clearly visible. Photo by Asahel Curtis. The Argus, December 15, 1928. Price 35 cents. Vol. 35, No. 48. |
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| Looking east from the Northern Life Tower. Overlooking a portion of hte business and apartment house district. The tower on the skyline is hte standpipe in Volunteer Park, named in honor of the soldiers in the Spanish-American war. Photo by Asahel Curtis. The Argus, December 15, 1928. Price 35 cents. Vol. 35, No. 48. |
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| Looking north from the Northern Life Tower. In the right foreground, corner of White-Henry-Stuart Building, on ten acre tract owned by the University of Washington and under lease to the Metropolitan Building Co. In distance Lake Union, connected by ship canal with Puget Sound and Lake Washington. Beyond Lake Union is beautiful Green Lake, surrounded by a boulevard and entirely within the city limits. In the left foreground the new 1411 Fourth Avenue Building, under construction by the Metropolitan Building Co. Photo by Asahel Curtis. The Argus, December 15, 1928. Price 35 cents. Vol. 35, No. 48. |
July 21st, 2008 @ 2:32 am
ah, Cliffe I’m in Honolulu and traveling for the next few days! I appoint lilnemo (I’m not sure she signed comments here that way, but she was in the other threads) to sleuth in my stead.
This looks like a great set.
Utterly off topic, I had great results looking for both old architecture and old aloha shirts in Honolulu. Genuine vintage shirts are unbelievably expensive, literally thousands of dollars. Happily, the good stuff gets re-run. I did get a sweet early-sixties number for cheap, though. Speak softly and wear a loud shirt.
July 21st, 2008 @ 8:30 am
early 1928?
Some clues:
The Skinner building (5th Ave Theater) is shown - completed in 1926
The new country courthouse is still two stories - construction started on the additional floors in 1929
I don’t see any sign of the Exchange Building, which started taking tenants in 1929, so must have been under construction by late 1928
The first Providence Hospital is conspicuously absent at 5th & Madison, but I can’t find when it was demolished.
July 21st, 2008 @ 9:33 am
Have to agree with Scott that it looks like 1928. The pictures appear to be taken from the 1928 Northern Life Tower at 3rd and University (I believe you can see the shadow in second looking east picture).
The 1929 Rainier Club addition has not yet been made and the 1929 Roosevelt Hotel at 7th and Pine is not yet built. It looks like the Bon Marche at 4th and Pine is under construction, which was opened in 1929. There is another building under construction still (nearly complete) in the foreground of the north looking picture, but I don’t know that building’s name. I believe it is the one with the flagship Tullys at the corner of 4th and Union.
July 21st, 2008 @ 9:53 am
Apparently the building at 4th and Union is called the “1411 Fourth Avenue” building and it completed construction in 1929, so I am thinking the picture could be late 1928 or early 1929 (before Bon Marche completion and before Rainier Club addition) since the 1411 Fourth Ave building looks to be nearing completion (at least on the outside).
July 21st, 2008 @ 11:43 am
May 28, 1928, or 1,200 B.C. (maybe a Tuesday?)
July 21st, 2008 @ 3:05 pm
I’d love to ride a streetcar to listen to Nonnie Presson play a zither at “Toby’s Comedians” (1st picture).
July 21st, 2008 @ 5:17 pm
Mike, looks like I didn’t see this post soon enough to sleuth in your stead after all.
I think the others got it. Good thing, too, because I should be doing real work instead of researching photos today, fun as it is.
July 21st, 2008 @ 7:26 pm
I’m late to the party this time, but I’m going with a 1928 date, as well. Too many of the 1929 vintage landmarks are completely non–existent (the lack of the courthouse addition, and the presence of the old Profanity Hill courthouse was the clincher for me), and enough 1928 structures do exist that I don’t think it could be any other year.
I’m a little grumpy that Bryan postulated the 1928 Northern Life building as the camera location before me. But big kudos to him. The 1411 was another good call.
I’m betting they were taken as some sort of commemorative of completion of the Northern Life as another one of Seattle’s skyscrpers (for the era), which also supports 1928 as their date.
July 21st, 2008 @ 8:07 pm
Not to sound like a broken record, but comparing only the North facing photo with http://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?searchID=38528746&offset=75, I have to agree with the 1928/29 date, but I’m leaning toward 1929 because of the shadow in the East facing picture. I don’t see the Roosevelt Hotel, but I see what I believe is the Melbourne Tower and the Fourth and Pike Building. However, I also used the shadow as a cue, but I concluded that this was from the Seattle Tower at 1222 3rd Avenue finished in 1929, is that the same as the Northern Life building? I figure this picuture was probably taken from the tower shortly after it was completed or as it neared completion.
I currently work for Zillow.com in the Wells Fargo Center, so it was nice seeing a photo that wasn’t too dissimilar to what I see as I look out my window (the pciture is off by a couple blocks and not as high up).
July 22nd, 2008 @ 12:26 am
Congrats Scott, Bryan, Shipley, Litlnemo, Julie Anne, RyanB!
1928 it is. The photo was published on Dec 15, 1928. Taken by Asahel from the Northern Life Building.
Next time we’ll try something harder. Not this four-view easy stuff!
Mike: What are you doing reading all of this?? Get back to the beach!
Cliffe
July 22nd, 2008 @ 3:11 pm
Well, Dec 15, 1928 is a whole lot closer to 1929 than it is to Jan 1, 1928. We’re not even talking a month difference here.
July 22nd, 2008 @ 3:18 pm
Very true. Added you to the “list of awesomeness.”
Cliffe