As Seen From the Smith Tower

Seattle's Smith Tower's Observation Deck and Chinese Room have not been open to the public since  December 4, 2014 according to their calendar here. They are presently closed for renovation. There is no date posted for when they expect to reopen. If you have any "intell" when that will happen,  please comment!
From Wikipedia:

Completed in 1914, the 38-story, 484 ft (148 m) tower is the oldest skyscraper in the city and was the tallest office building west of the Mississippi River until the Kansas City Power & Light Building was built in 1931. It remained the tallest building on the West Coast until the Space Needle overtook it in 1962.

For decades, the Smith Tower's observation deck was a favorite vantage point. Check out these old post cards.


"Second Avenue in the business District, as seen from the top of the 42 Story L. C. Smith Building, Seattle, U. S. A." 
#3,000 Published by C. P. Johnston Co., Seattle, U. S. A. Copyrighted 1913 by Frank H. Nowell. R-40703 C. T. American Art


"Looking up Second Ave. from Smith Tower, Seattle." 
16126 Pub. by The Puget Sound News Co., Seattle, Wash


"Harbor and Second Ave. from Smith Building, Seattle, Washington" 
#1756 Edward H. Mitchell, Publisher San Francisco


"Portion of Seattle and Elliott Bay. Queen Anne Hill and Olympic Mountains in Distance." 
107872 C. T. American Art Colored. 3014 Published by C. P. Johnston Co., Seattle, U. S. A. mailed 1927


2070:-"A Partial View of Seattle, Wash" 
Photo by Asahel Curtis 1930s?



"Seattle Skyline. Viewed from the 42 story Smith Tower. Seattle's Financial district forms the foreground with the waterfront and uptown districts forming a background" 
C-59 Ektachrome by Larrie Seifert. General Natural Color. Made by Dexter Press, Inc., West Nyack. N. Y. Pub. By J. Boyd Ellis, Arlington, Wash." It appears the Alaskan Way viaduct is under construction so I'd date this about 1953.


"Seattle, Washington. From Smith Tower's observation platform 35 stories high, is seen this view of busy Seattle, Washington's major city. On the left is a portion of Puget Sound and waterfront." Natural Color from Kodachrome. Mike Roberts Color Production Berkeley 2, California. Published by C. P. Johnston Co., Seattle C971. Postcard mailed June 1954


"Seattle, Washington. Looking North from Smith Observation Tower." 
P3789. Plastichrome by Colourpicture Publishers, Inc., Boston 15, Mass., USA, Color by Roger Dudley. Pub. by Smith's Scenic Views, Tacoma, Washington


"HARBOR FREEWAY, SEATTLE, WASHINGTON" 
NEW PROCESS COLORCARD  - SEATTLE, WASHINGTON. NATURAL COLOR REPRODUCTION - CURTEICHCOLOR ART-CREATION REG. U.S. PAT. OFF. 7C-K306 (I'd love to find a better photo of that Rainier Beer billboard in the foreground!)


"Seattle, Washington - From Smith Tower's observation platform, 35 stories high, is seen this view of busy Seattle, Washington's major city. On the left is a portion of Puget Sound and waterfront. In center is new Norton Bldg."
Color photo by Max R. Jensen


"Seattle Skyline as viewed from atop the 42 story Smith Tower. The financial district is in the foreground while on the left may be seen the Alaskan Way viaduct which carries through traffic along the waterfront. Lake Union is on the far right."
Ektachrome by Clifford B. Ellis. Published by Ellis Post Card Co., Arlington, Washington 33275-B. C-59 Made by Dexter West Nyack, NY.  I believe that black building that appears in this view is the Norton Building which was completed 1959 so I believe this postcard is between 1959-1962

Mid Century Christmas Trees and Gifts

These 1950s Christmas color slides are fun. I still have not identified the family/ies but their Christmases are suburban baby-boomer style and I love it!!

Shiny aluminum Christmas Tree!


I think if you did not have a shiny aluminum Christmas tree, you loaded it down with tinsel!





















"Patty" "Bill"


"Nancy" "Bill"




I really love the vintage ornaments on this tree!



I can imagine how excited these girls were to get brand new roller skates! Their names are possibly Nancy and Patty.


Close ups of gifts under the trees:

Pink poodle toy, bear (wind up?)


Record player (it appears to be sized for 45s), Santa boot with candy cane, salt and pepper set


Airplane, and at least two fire trucks, Cowboy Jr. Cap Pistol

Ballerina doll, Skunk, Cowboy Jr. Cap Pistol, Fire trucks


Record player?, Dolls, teddy bears, mixer?


Lincoln Logs, teapot?, football, toy gun? something with Mickey Mouse on it, Betty Crocker Junior Baking Kit, doctor kit?


JC Higgins Model 20 Pump Acton 12 Gauge Shotgun, clock (radio?) axe



Doll, Kodalite FlashHolder, Cat!, Target shooting game, Monopoly, purse



The Visible Man, red purse, Campus Sweater, sewing machine, wind up bear, typewriter, drill, leather case

Female names in this collection are Nancy and Patty, One of the males is Bill - I assume these are the children but could be the parent names as well? I think they lived in the Puyallup area.

Vintage Ski Jumping

Are you gearing up to watch some Olympic Ski Jumping? It has been included in the Winter Olympics since 1924. Here's what ski jumping looked like in 1932 in Prince George, British Columbia (786 km / 488 miles north of Vancouver).

1930s Seattle Business District

I've been in thrift stores and have been told they actually throw away used postcards!!!  Can you believe it?! Those are my favorites!  I've mentioned before I love peeking at the messages.  This one from e-Bay is a bonus as it labels some buildings (although not 100% correct) and has a bit of a curious message on the back.
"New Washington Hotel, Seattle P. O., M. D. Bldg, Northern Life Bldg, Telephone Bldg, Olympic Hotel, Elks Club"

P - 100 Section of Seattle Business District - Asahel Curtis
back

Postmarked June 10 1940.

"Dear Tom, This is the best I can do in Seattle. There hasn't been a new P. O. built here in 55 years therefore Seattle is ashamed to photo the old one Hear's(Here's?) where it is located. Greetings G. Switzer"

I'm imagining that these two fellas, G. Switzer and Thomas J. Ashe, travelled frequently for business. For whatever reason, they promised to mail each other postcards of the towns' post offices. But Mr. Switzer was unsuccessful finding one during his visit to Seattle.  He did pretty well labeling Seattle buildings in this one but it's quite a bit harder when you don't have the benefit of Google Maps.  The building labeled "M. (D?) bldg" between "Seattle P. O." and "Northern Life bldg" is actually 1411 Fourth Avenue Building.  Perhaps he thought it was the Medical Dental building which is three blocks further north.  The Post Office was completed in 1908 according to King County Snapshots so was 32 years old in 1940 - I'd love to know where he got "55 years" but he was probably just being snarky ;-).

I do have some images of some of the buildings he's labeled - from left to right
"New Washington Hotel"

"The New Washington Hotel, Seattle, Washington"

"The New Washington Hotel, Seattle, Wash."

The "New Washington Hotel" is now known as
The Josephinum
1902 Second Avenue (Stewart)
It was completed in 1908 and still stands. 
 

This was fun . . .  I was looking on-line for Seattle post office images the same day my "new" postcard arrived in the mail and not very successful finding good ones but lo-and-behold, I open my flickr contacts' Photostream and there is a beauty right at the top.  Thanks TrackWalker!
"Seattle P. O."  AKA  U.S. Court House, Custom House, and Post Office  AKA The Federal Building
Acccording to King County Snapshots, it was completed in 1908 and torn down in 1958.
Check out the Google street view for the current Post Office in the same location.  Really?  (shaking my head) I'm sure there was a really good reason to build it that way without much character. 

Less than a week later, I acquired my own postcard of the old Post Office

"U. S. Court House and Post office, Seattle." The Lowman & Hanford Co., Seattle.  If you return to the postcard at the top of this, you'll see "Lowman & Hanford" painted on the side of the Empire building on the lower right - the publisher of this and many other old Seattle postcards.

Further to the right in that current Google Street View you can see The Northern Life Building now known as the Seattle Tower with the three spires on top.
Here is another view of the Northern Life and Telephone Buildings - 1968 from Seattle Municipal Archives.  The Josephinium is appears left of the Space Needle.

They both still stand - this photo gives you an idea of how dwarfed they are now. (photo linked to Wikimedia Commons where it was found  - Joe Mabel)


1411 Fourth Ave. Building (the one labeled "M. D. Bldg") 
Completed in 1929 and still standing. (Photo linked to Wikimedia Commons where it was found  - Joe Mabel)



The Olympic Hotel
411 University Street.  Completed in 1924 and still standing.


The Elks Club (B. P. O. E. Building "Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks") was built in 1913 at the corner of 4th & Spring.  It was demolished about 1966 to make way for the Sea-First Building AKA The Box the Space Needle came in AKA Safeco Plaza.
From Jasperdo's photostream


The building in the lower right of my new old postcard: "The Empire Building" was also known as "The American Saving's Bank" was at 920 Second Avenue - it was built in 1906 and demolished in the 1970s.

The Wells Fargo Center (999 3rd AVE) was completed in that block in 1983.

I just thought it was fun to examine this postcard and learn more about the buildings in it.