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| Seattle, Washington, showing a section of the Alaska Way viaduct and docks with Lake Washington in the background. Ektachrome by Max R. Jensen. Published by C. P. Johnston Co., Seattle. |
Aerial Jensen
February 18th, 2010 @ 12:01 am by Cliffe | Sorted Photo Exposure |
Just a simple bit of aerial Jensen today showing downtown and waterfront. It’s always fun to look at the city in the era before being sliced by I-5. At the time of this photo, Seattle only had its beautiful waterfront cleaved away. Click for the high res Max R. Jensen goodness.
Wow, looking at this really brings home what a bad idea I-5 was, and what a good idea it is to get rid of that Gorgon on the waterfront (YMMV). Makes me realize that I spend almost ALL of my life between those two highways, since I work downtown and live between the freeway and Aurora N. ‘Fact, I’m starting to feel kinda cramped and edgy over it, now that I look at this free expanse to the east of downtown.
I didn’t realize ol’ Max was shooting as early as this. Hey, some of my favorite buildings are here. The Burke building on Second and, wow, the old “Carnegie” public library on Fourth, which puts this back into late-’50s at least. I do wish this photo extended a few streets further to the north. But this is a fine view. Thanks Jess!
Hmmm… the old library is still standing, and the last “modern” city hall building has yet to be built… Colman Dock is still it its old Black Ball Art Deco version, but Harborview has added “the new wing”… mid 1950′s?
There’s a big squarish, white-stone building on the southeast corner of Second and Madison, in the place where the Key Bank building now stands (the one with the tube escalators), across Second from the Federal Building. It’s plainly visible here and I’ve seen one or two other photos of it but I’ve never been able to find out much about it. I think it may have been called the Empire Building, or maybe the Leary Building. Not sure at all. I think there was a bank in it when it was first built. Anybody know anything about it?
Matt, I believe the building with the tube escalators (the tubes have now been replaced by flat glass awnings) is the Wells Fargo Center, not the Key Bank building, which is north across Madison from it.
Tom, that sounds right. Wells Fargo, yeah. I can see the stage coach in my mind now as I remember walking through there. I never conciously noticed the tubes going away but I guess that happened ages ago, huh? Thanks for the brainjog. In any case, the building across the street on the corner doesn’t get much airplay, but I think it was an art-deco beauty in its day.
Photos of it being built as the American Savings Bank Building:
http://content.lib.washington.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/curtis&CISOPTR=1497&CISOBOX=1&REC=2
The big white building was known by several names… according to files, it was designed by A. Warren Gould, who also designed the King County Courthouse, the Arctic Club (now a hotel) Broadacres Building and a few others. It was 12 stories tall, and was known as the Olympic National Life Building in 1982 when it was imloded by the same company the blew up (down?) the Kingdome…
Greg, nice pull. That’s the one. And I see in the notes that was indeed called the Empire Building. It appears in the distance in a photo or two in the MOHAI collections, but I’ve yet to see a “here it is — ta da!” photo of this building. Wow, 1982, that’s pretty late, actually. It means I might have walked right past it. I’ve never noticed any saved elements in the building that’s there now, but maybe there’s a gargoyle or a pillar or something in the lobby. I might have to put on my official VS Inspector Badge and go snoop around inside.
It’s easy to forget that before the viaduct, the waterfront was train tracks and working piers.. What we see today as “cut off from downtown” once was “connected to the whole world of trade”. We locals never missed what we never had.
While it’s true the central waterfront needs to continue its shift toward use as urban play area, nonessential disposable-income oriented services, and shoreline restoration, it’s important to remember how grateful we used to be for the core jobs that waterfront once provided.
I just ran across this reference to the American Savings Bank Building, you’ll enjoy it:
http://books.google.com/books?id=nbupvBGRpwEC&lpg=PA637&ots=uLcvYBfcy5&dq=seattle%20%22leary%20building%22%20madison%20burke&pg=PA637#v=onepage&q=%22american%20savings%20bank%22&f=false
Empire Building and American Savings Bank building were two DIFFERENT buildings which were built at the same time as joint structures. Hence the confusion.
I actually like the template that you are using, is it custom developed?