Now here’s an inte rest
ing one. It’s a shot showing Northgate Mall by air in the 1950′s or 1960′s.
Here is the modern bird’s eye. The theatre and hospital building were still standing until being demolished just a few years ago. I remember seeing them while parking at Northgate.
Also note the “holdout” houses — wow. Anyone know when these finally went away? As you probably know, Northgate Mall opened in 1950 and was the first regional shopping center in the United States to be described as a mall (according to
Wikipedia). They ditched the open air concept in 1974.
Click for higher res.
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| Air View of the Northgate Shopping Center. To the extreme left is a 1500-seat theatre and next to that a very modern and well equipped hospital. The other buildings house the many specialty shops and department stores. Ektachrome by Max R. Jensen. Published by C. P. Johnston Co., Seattle. |
I’m betting the last of the holdout houses decided enough was enough when the freeway was built 50 feet away in 1962-64, and the closest I-5 exit was dumping traffic straight onto 1st Ave NE, directly in front of the house at the northwest corner of the holdouts.
Wow. That DOES explain the curious configuration of the old Northgate west side parking lots, before this last round of expansion and renovation.
According to the 1968 aerial view on Historicaerials.com, those houses were definitely gone by then. I bet Julie Anne nailed it with the freeway theory.
A few additions that this photo pre-dates:
1. There was a wing added to the hospital that was at 90 degrees to the main building in this photo, making the entire hospital form a T shape with the leg of the T jutting south into the parking lot.
2. The Nordstrom Best store has not been built yet in the photo. It will be opposite the largest store: Bon Marche (now Macy’s). I’m pretty sure the NB store predated the enclosing of the mall but I could be wrong. NB was where we went for all of our shoes when I was a kid (late 60′s/early 70′s). The kids shoe department handed out “Nordy” balloons – a bowling pin shaped white character with cardboard feet that made him stand up.
3. At some point after this photo they added a very tall pole with a white lighted cube sign with an “N” in blue. Like a child’s alphabet block. It was probably very close to where the white pole is sticking our of the hospital roof in the photo. I always tried to spot that landmark as early as possible when my family was driving south on I-5.
In the late 70′s the delivery tunnel under the mall was still open to the public. I used to drive through it for fun. It was closed off for security reasons in the late 90′s or after 9/11. It is still used for deliveries to stores. The entrance is near Toy R Us and the exit is near the totem pole (it’s a one-way tunnel).
“They paved paradise, and put up a parking lot”- Joni Mitchell
The basin where Northgate Shopping Center and North Seattle Community College are now located was once an extensive, 85 acre cranberry bog wetland. A band of the Duwamish people used a temporary village here as a base for seasonal harvesting of wild cranberries and other food from the bog. They named this place “Slo’q'qed†or “bald head” due to its lack of trees. The South Fork of Thornton Creek begins near the wetlands of North Seattle Community College, passes under Northgate Mall, now partially “daylighted” at Thorton Place, winds through three parks, and joins up with the North Fork at Meadowbrook Pond.
I love seeing the natural state of the earth at the bottom of the picture, before it, too, was destroyed by I-5. That theater was an enormous auditorium (1500:1), in comparison to the new Thorton Place’s (3000:14), 200+ seat, mini theaters. My greatest memory there was seeing Indiana Jones when it first came out. That rolling boulder was huge!
Before they tore it down, the movie theater was converted into a music venue. I think I only saw 2 shows there and the theater was essentially the same, but with all the seats torn out and a new stage/lighting setup (tearing out all the seats put it at about 2500 capacity, approximately double the Showbox, but slightly smaller than The Paramount). It must not have been very successful, because it closed after less than 2 years as a music venue, if memory serves. Both of the shows I remember seeing there were *far* from sold out.
I miss The Bon
Well, how far we have come…
The malls were originally thought to be Urban Villages… Northgate had it all, grocery, department store, notions, theatre, hospital, etc… and apartments across the street… I do remember the big N in the sky for many years. In the waining years, the Theatre was too valuable per sq. foot. The last of the big auditoriums(As I recall Northgate and the John Danz in Bellevue were among the largest capacity theatres in the SRO chain..)
The use as a concert venue was just a temp thing never meant to be anything but a last ditch effort to make some cash before hit was torn down.
The Northgate “Hospital” in its last years were also rather sad. I do recall a rather infamous incident of someone who showed up in bad shape at what they thought was a functional ER at a functional hospital. Can’t recall if they died, or damn near did, but lots of debate ignighted over that one, and it became a backwater of doctor offices that slowly became more vacant with time… as were the merchants at the seperate building that sits about where California Pizza Kitchen is.
I do remember when they finally covered the mall and enclosed it. My Seattle based grandparents made a special trip out just to see what was up. I miss the buddy Squarel Nut shop that had lots of different fresh roasted nuts. I also miss having an Ernst where the Toys R Us now is, and the Malmo Nursery that was in the lower lot. The QFC was handy for cold pop or snack to sustain hanging out at the mall.
And there was the weird entry at the old Red Robin (it was at the NORTH side of the Mall, where Azteca is today) always trapped folks if too many were trying to use it, and the even stranger long hallway entrance to Farrells Ice Cream parlor… like it was not supposed to be there…
Yes, the Nordy was there before the mall was enclosed. It has been remodeled a couple times since, and enlarged as well, I believe.
Great pic, great site, as always! I’m curious, with the before pic were there still deer in the city limits back then? I always thought it was so funny to see a family of racoons in the backyard of the apartment complex I lived at on Capital Hill. I never thought that we had critters like that in the urban jungle. Does anyone know about the deer?
Thanks for the picture. I was born at the Northgate hospital in 1958! I need to show this to my mom…
I dunno about deer, but we still have opossum and raccoon families in our neighborhood in abundance. I live a block northeast of Green Lake, so about 20 blocks south of the area shown in the photo.
@ John–oooh, that delivery tunnel. I worked at Waldenbooks in the early 90s and we still accepted our deliveries down there, and had to take out our trash and recycling to dumpsters that lined the tunnel as well. At night it was creepy as hell. The basements below many stores were also designated fallout shelters…though fat lot of good it’d do you what with the OPEN TUNNEL adjacent.
Nordstrom Best was put up in about ’67. Just across the driveway from the “hold out houses” are in this shot were some rides, little boats, & an enclosed Ferris wheel, as well as some log cabins, that housed my optometrist in 1959, so this is probably ’56 or so.
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