July 14th, 2009 @ 12:00 am by Cliffe | Sorted Photo Exposure
Interesting circa 1914 shot of First Hill/Central District to have a look at today. That’s Providence Hospital in the distance — a key landmark for orientation. So this is looking East. Next to Providence is Jefferson so the next street to the right would be Alder. It looks like you can see Broadway and Boren meeting next to the fire station tower. So that would make the street in the immediate foreground Terrace Street. Am I wrong?
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| Providence Hospital in the distance. Photo by Frank H. Nowell. Circa 1914. Image courtesy Washington State Digital Archives. |
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July 14th, 2009 @ 12:56 am
Nice! Possibly taken from the tower of the old county courthouse?
July 14th, 2009 @ 9:29 am
I think the street in the foreground (running just south of the fire station bell tower) is actually Alder after it bends southwest at the junction of Broadway & Boren. The picture is likely taken from the old county courthouse, now site of the main Harborview building, and appears to be looking slightly north of East. I think the two houses immediately to the right of the upper portion of the fire station bell tower are on the triangle of land between Alder, Terry, and Broadway.
July 14th, 2009 @ 10:43 am
Thanks for featuring a photo from our archives! (Actually that should be YOUR archives, as we are supported by the citizens of Washington State.)
The Washington State Digital Archives has many thousands of other additional historic photos, with more on the way. And a recent improvement to the website allows users to browse the photographic (and some additional) collections. Come and pay us a visit at http://www.digitalarchives.wa.gov/ . We work for you!
Dr. Larry Cebula
Assistant Digital Archivist
Washington State Digital Archives
July 14th, 2009 @ 11:46 am
I love the little dirt path through the empty lot at lower right. There aren’t many of those little goat-tracks left in town.
July 14th, 2009 @ 12:26 pm
I just can’t figure out if that is Terrace St. or not. Anyone else?
July 14th, 2009 @ 12:58 pm
I looked at some 1936 aerial data and not much matched after twenty years. No fire station, but the building in the lower left foreground might be the same. It really couldn’t be anything else though. I’m okay with Terrace.
July 14th, 2009 @ 1:56 pm
I see Bryan’s comment now (must have been hung up earlier). That was my first thought, too, (Alder is street in foreground), and that sorta jibes with the distant background if you squint just right, but then it seemed if this were Alder and still shot from the courthouse, it wouldn’t really work out, number-of-blocks-to-boren-wise. I dunno, I fold.
July 14th, 2009 @ 6:17 pm
I think Bryan has it right. The only building that I can see that remains is the Fire Station. It no longer has the tower, though. It’s “Engine House No. 3″ at the NW corner of Terry and Alder:
http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=47.604152,-122.321928&spn=0,359.995569&z=19&layer=c&cbll=47.604065,-122.321847&panoid=tI_SuIgHZcvtk9joiZ7cpA&cbp=12,237.21,,0,-3.72
July 14th, 2009 @ 8:59 pm
Yes, I see the firehouse now in the 1936 dataset, on Alder, and that little dirt trail is still there too. So the block in the immediate foreground got replaced by Harborview.
July 16th, 2009 @ 3:00 am
I think Scott and Bryan are right. Where else could you get a high shot like this except from Profanity Hill and the old Courthouse tower? Isn’t that Fire Station still there, minus the tower? I think Harborview Security works out of it.
July 16th, 2009 @ 1:24 pm
Is that Starbucks headquarters?
December 25th, 2009 @ 1:04 am
@Joe G.: I believe you are oriented backward. It’s Providence Hospital.