Another blasted Denny Regrade photo, you ask?
That’s not change. Well, I have to admit that I’ve been up since the debate watching the talking heads and checking out the blog reaction.
Lost track of the hour and now we’ re left with — another turn of the century photo of the leveling of Seattle hills.
But Vintage Seattle reader Shannon did
say in the comments recently that she’s into the Regrade too. This 1910 Asahel Curtis shot gives a nice sense of scale with the homes scattered among the hills.
Once again it’s hard to imagine an engineering project of this scale getting done.
I promise, I’ll leave the Regrade alone… for now. Click on the photo for higher res,
my friends.
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| The leveling of the hills to make Seattle [Denny Hill]. Circa 1910. Photo by Asahel Curtis. Image courtesy Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. |
i agree with shannon, the regrade project is very interesting. though i really wish denny hill hadn’t been washed away. i’d love to know what the city would have looked like today had the hill been left alone.
Can anyone place the vantage point of this photo?
I’m totally into the regrade as well… I find the whole thing fascinating.
And I too was up hours after the debate watching the talking heads.
Wow, that’s one of the most impressive regrade photos I’ve seen. I don’t mind more regrade photos!
Based on the buildings in the background, it looks like this photo is looking south towards downtown. It looks like there are faintly two towers to the left of the right mound of dirt–anyone know what building that is? It looks sort of like the catholic church on first hill, but the angle doesn’t seem right from Belltown.
Man, every photo of the Regrade takes my breath away. They just went in there and did it, with carts and horses no less!
I’m with you, Jason, I always try to imagine what the city would look like now with Denny Hill intact. What current downtown building’s top floor would be the same height as the hill?
I think you’re right, Alex: that is St. James’ Cathedral. Angle’s fine when you remember that the street grid takes a jog at Stewart. If you let 5th Avenue extend south of Stewart on its same trajectory instead of turning it more southerly, you’d run right into the cathedral.
I wonder when we got to the point where we’d no longer consider such crazy feats of engineering as this? Sometime between the mid ’30s, when we finished off Denny Hill for good, and the early ’70s, when we said no to any more new freeways in the city, I suppose.
I’ll throw out a vote for more really cool regrade photos. This one is quite amazing. They should’ve just left it like that and called it Arizonaville.
Add my vote in as another Regrade Project Photo Fan – it’s astounding to see what they did with the technology of a century ago.
Cliffe, you could blog about nothing but Regrade and partially finished Space Needle, and I would still read every post.