Photo shows the American Automobile Associ ation office at the corner of Pine and Boren in Se attle. Ca. 1950. Title continues “at the corner of Boren & Pike, in the path of the Seattle Freeway.” Image courtesy Washington State Digital Archives.
Well this one is hardly worth any tears. Still though, thanks for sharing! I check the site everyday just in case!
The small print on the parking marquee says “Automobile Club of Washington”, which struck me as odd (why wouldn’t it say American Automobile Association of Washington?) so I just learned that the “Association” was an association of state auto clubs. You learn something new every day if you’re not careful. By the way, I see from the AAA website that it does no longer identify itself with the words “American Automobile Association”. I wonder if this is a kind of acknowledgement that the car — despite our contintued reliance on and adoration of it — has somehow become symbolic of guilty pleasure, or guilty necessity. Maybe it just doesn’t feel the same as it once did to think of yourself as a member of a club for people who want to spend a vacant Sunday afternoon just burning up fossil fuels on America’s lovely highways.
Wow, look at all the negative energy coming off of me today. Sorry Jess. It’s a great photo actually. Crisp, too! Thanks for posting it.
At first glance I thought it was the building that is now home to Bauhaus a few blocks east.
Does anyone know what the process of all this interstate business was? I know it was a national project but was it left up to the individual states or counties as to where the actual roads would go. Also was there ever any debate in Seattle’s case as to what the best place for I-5 would be? Is there any good books you can recommend about this?
AAA used to sell Bail Bonds? It says so at the top of the row of windows on the left. Also, I was still a kid when the I-5 planning was going on, but I know there was consideration of alternate routes.
Actually, it appears the I-5 route was sort of predestined. Here’s an article from History Link:
http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=4166
That building looks like it was built for cars instead of people, so it’s not a great loss.
POC Photo, it looks like I-5′s alignment was selected locally based on an old proposed toll route through the city, the “Eastside Expressway”:
http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=4166
(Also see http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?keyword=seattle+freeway&DisplayPage=results.cfm&Submit=Go for other stories about the freeway.)
I’m not a big fan of what I-5 did to the city, even if I can acknowledge its positive effects. My dad’s childhood home on Boylston ended up facing a concrete wall across the street. In retrospect they should have terminated the freeway north and south of the downtown core, or at least tunneled. A lot of great buildings would have been saved, and downtown would not be divided from so many nearby neighborhoods.
Well I’m sad to see this building go along with most of the vibrant Pike-Pine corridor in that area. Even If there never was a freeway this building probably would’ve been leveled for condos anyway.
So this must be where the dog park is today down from the Baltic Room? It really is a very nice photo even if the architecture isn’t the most stunning. I think the area still is getting better. That Italian place, (Machievelli’s?) just up the street is always packed when I walk past in the evenings.
I must be holding a minority building that feels this building was beautiful. The freeway was a bad idea.
I agree, Ryan. I think that in general, the interstate system – probably the most inefficient way to move people and goods ever devised – has made the country more boorish and impatient, and it specifically did a hatchet job on Seattle. They should have just run I-5 on the Eastside and left Seattle out of it.