A section of metropolitan Seattle at night. One of the best lighted cities in the United States. Ektachrome by Max R. Jensen.
Jensen’s Nightlife
October 14th, 2010 @ 1:39 am by Cliffe | Sorted Photo Exposure |
What would a week be without some Max R. Jensen photography? Let’s get to it with this Jensen night shot which looks like it was probably taken in the late 1950′s. One of the “best lighted cities in the United States” — I did not know that. Click for the high res goodness.
A section of metropolitan Seattle at night. One of the best lighted cities in the United States. Ektachrome by Max R. Jensen.
A section of metropolitan Seattle at night. One of the best lighted cities in the United States. Ektachrome by Max R. Jensen.
Neat picture. The center of focus is Pine Street between Second and Third Avenues. My mother worked for Northwestern Mutual, and I had forgotten that neat beacon on top of the building. I had also forgotten that the top of the Northern Life Tower down on Third and Seneca was lit up. The neon signs are blurry, but you can make out H. L. Green (Seattle’s best dime store) and Lerner’s on Third Avenue and Rhodes department store down on Second Avenue.
I remember that beacon, too. How cool!
Thanks, Jim, for identifying some of the buildings in this picture. Mentioning the Northern Life Tower reminded me that my parents, Max and Frances Jensen, were in the Civil Air Patrol in the ’40s, when they were newlyweds. When my dad wasn’t serving in the Seabees, they would walk from their apartment on the lower west side of Capitol Hill down to the Northern Life Tower to go up onto the “catwalk” (I can’t remember what it was called) near the top of the building, around the outside, to watch for incoming planes. Coincidentally, I worked in the now-called Seattle Tower for about 20 years (until a couple of years ago) and was fortunate enough to be taken on a personal tour around that outdoor walk where my parents had spent many, many hours watching for enemy aircraft over 50 years prior. Awesome experience.
I am still wondering exactly what the store is right on the southeast corner of Third and Pine (between the entrances to H. L. Green’s). It was a jewelry store, and I always remembered it as being Zale’s. But the blurry neon sign doesn’t look like it says “Zales’s”. Or does it?
The Seattle Tower is my favorite building in all of Seattle. Thanks for sharing that story, Diane!
Jim, I believe the store on the corner of Third and Pine was called “Ben Tipp Diamonds”.
Thanks, Chris. Ben Tipp it is. The company is now called E. E. Robbins (son of Ben Tipp). There’s a picture of the store in the 1950s at this link: http://www.eerobbins.com/UniquelyEE/OurHistory.aspx
What about the red neon sign next to green’s (in the Century Building)? It almost looks like “Lucky Days”
What an amazing blog!! I’m having fun browsing. Thank you!
To Colin–Is the “red neon” sign “Lerner Shops”? And to Louis, regarding the Seattle Tower–Yes, it’s a beautiful Art Deco building. Anyone who hasn’t seen the lobby (on Third, between Seneca and University) should stop in sometime. Absolutely gorgeous! Nothing like the “sterile” newer building lobbies. After working in several newer buildings in Seattle before working in the Seattle Tower, it was so nice to be able to open our windows to get a breeze through our office, or to put little potted plants out on the balcony, or to feed the pigeons who would stop by, or even to turn our steam-heat radiators on or off, as desired. Definitely a “user friendly” building.
Does anyone happen to know approximately when this pic was taken? It looks like 2nd Ave is a two-way street. I’ve lived here all my life (almost 60 years) and I don’t ever remember 2nd being two-way.
Most, if not all, of the north-south avenues downtown were two-way until sometime in the 60s, as I recall, when all of the one-way streets were created to improve traffic flow. The picture was taken while Rhodes department store was still around, so I would think it would be no later than the first year or two of the 1960s.
I believe Rhodes closed in approximately July of 1968.
You’re right, Colin. I always think it was earlier because most people gave up on Rhodes well before that. I’ve been trying to find out when they took down the beacon mast atop the Northwestern Mutual building, or when the H. L. Green dime store closed up. But so far I haven’t been able to get definitive dates for either of those events.
The beacon is intrigueing to me. I recall seeing some early pics from the Space Needle with the beacon still in place. Wasn’t this a changing color depending on the current temperature?