November 23rd, 2009 @ 12:31 am by Cliffe | Sorted Photo Exposure
A friend at work lent me his
Deadwood series DVD and I’ve really been enjoying it. I recommend it to anyone with an interest in early America and who doesn’t have a weak stomach. One thing in particular that I like about the show is studying the set and watching the town evolve. Check out this early Seattle scene where things were just getting off the ground. The date is unknown. Anyone know which church this is? Click for the meg and a half super hi res.
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| Seattle, Washington, date unknown. Photo shows a church, several wooden houses, and land not built on. Image courtesy Washington State Digital Archives. |
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November 23rd, 2009 @ 1:31 am
I’m pretty sure that is Holy Names Academy, which must make the street in the foreground Jackson. I think this is the approximate location of where I-5 exists now.
Holy Names moved to Capitol Hill in the early 1900s when the Jackson St. regrade took out their original building.
November 23rd, 2009 @ 1:41 am
Scott’s correct. And notice the huge tree stumps in the middle of the street in front of it!
Holy Names was built in 1884. It was planned to be moved in thirds for the 1908 regrade but the plans were dropped and it was toast.
November 23rd, 2009 @ 9:21 am
What a fantastic photo and good job on placing it so quickly. The amount of mud this little town was mired in in the autumn and spring boggles the mind!
November 23rd, 2009 @ 9:35 am
http://www.holynames-sea.org/AboutHNA/about_history.htm
November 23rd, 2009 @ 11:37 am
The stairs on the north (shaded) side of Holy Names descend to Jackson, and the four swank new two-story houses in the center are fronting Main. I believe that the triangle formed by the nearest boardwalk and the bottom and left edges of the photo consitute Washington Street. The Academy (and the four new houses) are all between Ninth and Tenth.
I put the date well before 1891, when maps show a very large church or other structure that would be visible across the street from the four houses (facing them across Main), and also by that time there was a large school building up on the hill behind this scene.
November 23rd, 2009 @ 1:26 pm
Awesome photo! Good call on the school; I don’t know Seattle structures too well, but that looked to me more like a school than a church. Too many windows.
Any idea what those long planks leaning on the fence will be used for? Sidewalks, or construction?
November 23rd, 2009 @ 1:43 pm
Given how often Seattleites just upped and moved stuff (McNaught mansion moved from south to north side of Spring; Stacy mansion rotated 90 degrees, etc.), it’s too bad the plans to save this structure fell through. It sure would have been a nice thing to have in our cityscape today.
November 23rd, 2009 @ 3:40 pm
Here’s an interesting view. It’s taken basically from the intersection between the four two-story houses and the three houses on the right. It shows 7th dropping steeply away from the viewer. The church would be directly ahead and Pac Med up on Beacon Hill.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=seattle,+wa&sll=45.522912,-122.688213&sspn=0.042155,0.067635&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Seattle,+King,+Washington&ll=47.600029,-122.32403&spn=0.004427,0.025084&t=h&z=16&layer=c&cbll=47.600026,-122.323907&panoid=KmhVMoJNksOSX12sVWKgog&cbp=12,145.92,,0,8.39
November 23rd, 2009 @ 4:06 pm
Dan, I think the view you linked to is two streets bayward from the intersection in the photo above. The street between the four two-story houses and the three older houses on the right is Ninth, not Seventh.
November 23rd, 2009 @ 4:22 pm
I believe this Google view is within four yards feet of the original vantage point. It’s at Eighth and Washington. If you spin it to face southeast you’d be looking toward Ninth and Main/Jackson. The sidewalk in this view (south side of Washington) would be where the nearest boardwalk is in today’s photo. You can’t see much, but I believe this is the spot.
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=47.601671,-122.321488&spn=0,359.994861&t=h&z=18&layer=c&cbll=47.600892,-122.322147&panoid=53nvsGxkBjkwNRmGRd0H9Q&cbp=12,155.51,,0,-0.64
November 23rd, 2009 @ 5:22 pm
BTW. Deadwood is the F-ing best damn C-scking show I’ve ever watched! (inside joke)
November 23rd, 2009 @ 5:48 pm
Great photo! The Academy was at Seventh and Jackson, according to “Sister Superior”…
http://content.lib.washington.edu/u?/advert,185
November 23rd, 2009 @ 8:29 pm
Why are there cut down trees all over the hillside? Were they preparing the hill for massive construction, or was this part of the regrade?
November 24th, 2009 @ 9:37 am
ChrisA, really? That doesn’t jibe with the map I was looking at (maybe the map is incorrect?). Here’s an online version of the Koch 1891 map.
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/h?ammem/gmd:@field(NUMBER+@band(g4284s+pm009750))
November 24th, 2009 @ 1:30 pm
Yeah, isn’t that strange? The other photos on the UW’s site make it look like 9th instead of 7th as well, but it’s odd that the Academy’s website and Sister Superior herself say otherwise. Maybe there are other photos of the area, before they razed the school that could confirm…
November 24th, 2009 @ 6:35 pm
Right, that was the assumption I was going on with my Google Maps view; 7th and Jackson. That would have put the intersection between the two sets of houses at 7th and Main.
November 24th, 2009 @ 10:44 pm
Great photo! I can’t help but wonder where are all the people?