5th & Westlake, When Was I Taken
April 14th, 2009 @ 12:34 am by Cliffe | Sorted Photo Exposure |
Today’s photo exposure shows 5th and Westlake. I don’t have a date on this one — who can piece it together based on clues from the photo? I’ll start with an easy one. There’s The Orpheum so it must be pre-1967. Modern day view
is here. Click for higher res.
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| Seattle Washington. Fifth at Westlake is one of the many busy spots in downtown Seattle. This city has won wide acclaim for its excellent streets and efficient traffic control. Located near this point are several nationally known department stores and shopping centers. Kodachrome by J. Boyd Ellis. |
From the cars, it would look to be late 40′s. early 50′s. There’s a 1949-50 Ford in the right lane headed north. So September 1949 is the low end. The stoplight has just red & green, when did the 3 light stoplights replace them?
The full skirts are post-Dior “New Look”, which was 1947, so late 40s-early 50s sounds about right. They don’t have the exaggeration I’d expect of later in the 50s.
I love the sisters? twins? in matching coats and hats on the far right.
The Frederick & Nelson building does not have its addition yet. When were those floors added?
Efficient traffic control?! Bwa ha ha!!!! Just wait, naive little young Seattle, just wait!
With the addition of Westlake Center, which would be right in the middle of the street in this view, it is difficult to orient the photographer’s position, especially with the 5th and Westlake description. The foreground intersection is Pine and Westlake, so the photographer is actually closer to 4th, between Pike and Pine, in what is now Westlake Park. The traffic signal is at the described location, but 5th is not visible.
The Orpheum was replaced by the Washington Plaza, now the Westin, in 1967.
Morfydd, good spotting of the twins, who are walking by the old Nordstrom’s location.
D.E. Frederick’s dreams for expansion of the original store at Pine Street and Fifth Avenue finally were realized when the grand re-opening was celebrated August 4, 1952. There were 10 floors above ground and two below.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_&_Nelson
A picture’s worth a thousand words, and the internet adds more. About the traffic signal lacking yellow:
In 1917, Detroit installed the first traffic tower in the United States at the intersection of Woodward Avenue and Michigan Avenue. In 1920, Detroit became the first city to use red, green, and yellow lights to control traffic. And a Detroit police officer named William L. Potts invented the 4-way, 3-color traffic signal.
Modern signals also still use the red, yellow, and green colors. These were standardized in 1935 in an early edition of the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices.
http://www.go-explore-trans.org/2007/may-jun/history_dept.cfm
It seems Seattle has always been behind the curve on traffic control, more evidenced today than ever.
According to this website (http://www.pstos.org/instruments/wa/seattle/orpheum.htm):
“In later years, the Orpheum sported a fancier entrance marquee and the building-top signage was leased to various vendors including Almond Roca!”
And they have a picture c. 1947 which also shows the Almond Roca ad. Don’t know how long Almond Roca had the sign, but according to this site (http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=4267) it was “many years”.
LOVE that both Almond Roca and Rainier Beer are represented so vividly. What a perfect local gem!