Seattle 1978 and 2008

I always looked forward to Paul Dorpat's column in the weekend Sunday newspaper magazine "Seattle Now and Then" when we subscribed to the Seattle Times. I have a "thing' for the nostalgic and love to visualize how things used to look. I recall being very pleased that Mr. Dorpat even e-mailed a reply to me once - about getting familiar with Adobe Photoshop to restore old photos.


For my birthday this year my mom gave me his book
Washington Then and Now I love to compare the differences.

I recently found this site Seattle Waterfront 1907-2002 "Handslider 3" is my favorite


My eleven year old had never been to the top of the Space Needle - we decided that we were slacking in our parental duties by never affording her this local treat. Since we took our twenty year old when he was about four he didn't recall it very well. All four of us ascended the icon in late July of this year on a bright and glorious day. Of course I took lots of photos.


Last week I started looking through old photos to scan in preparation for my parents Golden Wedding anniversary next year. I came across photos I took from the top of the Space Needle in 1978 when my cousins from the Midwest were here for our Grandparents Golden Anniversary. I've been trying to match up buildings in the south facing view. I numbered buildings I could match in both photos.

1-Fourth and Battery Building completed 1977
2-Grosvenor House now known as Archstone Belltown completed 1949
3-Smith Tower completed 1914
4-Seattle Westin
5-Security House
6-Castle Apartments completed 1918
7-Monorail Track built for the 1962 World’s Fair as was the Space Needle. Connects the Seattle Center to Westlake Mall.
8-SeaFirst Building
9-Union Bank of California Building completed 1973
10-Rainier Tower completed 1977
11-Times Square Building completed 1916
12- Henry M Jackson Federal Building completed 1974
13-Fourth and Blanchard Building completed 1979
14-Plaza 600 building completed 1969
15-Red Lion Fifth Avenue completed 1973
16-Securities Building completed 1918
*new 17-Seattle Tower/Northern Life Tower completed 1928 (Thank you Mundo!)

Kingdome (Top photo right – by the bend in the visible road) was built in 1976 – two years old in the top photo. It was imploded in 2000 to make way for Qwest Field

UPDATE! Thank you to my brother-in-law, Bryan and his colleagues at Clise Properties, the buildings have been identified! I've since added more numbers . . .
I found these links along the way:
Belltown neighborhood and Commercial Core historic buildings. Emporis building list for Seattle



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Peanut-Controlled-Zone at Safeco Field

From Peanut Controlled Zone - 2008

The first ever peanut-free section at Safeco Field was August 5th. This has been something I would have loved even more a decade and a half ago starting at the Kingdome but I was thrilled the Mariner's became the fifth MLB team to offer this. We have been to games but it's very stressful wading ankle deep in something so prevalent at a ballpark that can cause a severe reaction to your loved one. And then there's the decontamination process before you get in the car so as not to bring it in to your home. At previous games, kind ushers moved us to remote sections of the Kingdome and Safeco so we weren't completely surrounded by flying peanut dust.
But this game we could relax and enjoy! I actually giggled several times after dropping my sweater on the ground and picking it up finding it not infested with peanut skins! (Yes, it was waaay too warm to wear it but the Girl Scout in me wanted to "be prepared" in case it cooled after sun down).

From Peanut Controlled Zone - 2008

The media was there which always makes me wary since they can (and have) turn allergy parents into a very nasty story. But the media and the Mariners all seemed very enthusiastic about this section! Our section ushers were awesome! They acted like bouncers - there had been many threats posted about intentionally bringing massive quantities of peanuts to cause harm to peanut allergic children since this was a ridiculous issue to them.

From Peanut Controlled Zone - 2008

It was also my Dad's birthday - we showed up at four (three hours before game time and an hour before the gates opened) to preview the section with the event organizer since the Mariners really wanted to know if they did everything right. Since we had loads of time before the game, we had a leisurely dinner at Hit It Here Cafe and watched batting practice . It was a BEAUTIFUL night for baseball and the Mariners even won their third straight beating the Twins 8-7!

From Peanut Controlled Zone - 2008