Hot Sunday, Jackson Street, International District
Parts I and II covered portions
of this past Sunday's exploration from the Rainier Valley up and across Beacon
Hill over the 12th Avenue Bridge to Jackson Street. This last installment
covers the remaining distance of that trek. In all, I walked a little over five
miles and, for all practical purposes, followed a major portion of Sound
Transit's Central Link light rail line through Beacon Hill and the Rainier
Valley.
Before starting Part III, I also need to add an
addendum to the comments about the Art Deco Pacific Medical Center. In 1979 the
structure was named a Historic Building and added to the National Park Service's
National Register of Historic Places. The building was transfered from the
Health and Human Services Department of the US Government to Pacific Medical, a
public medical authority in Seattle, in 1981. That transfer stipulated that the
structure remain a medical use facility. During the following decade, Pacific
Medical Center was evolving from a medical care provider reliant on single,
central, structures such as the Art Deco Pacific Medical Center hospital, to
localized clinics spread through the coverage region. The medical authority was
also financially stressed.
In 1998, Amazon, working through a Seattle office development firm, contracted with Pacific Medical for a 99-year lease of the historic hospital structure for their corporate offices. The arrangement provides 71 percent of the facility space to Amazon, which has renovated that portion for use as offices, for which Amazon pays Pacific Medical about $1.5 million a year which goes toward patient care. Pacific Medical leases back for a dollar the remaining space which continues to be used for medical and dental clinic facilities for its Beacon and International District patrons. An added bonus of the lease arrangement is that Amazon refurbished the 14-foot high lobby of the hospital structure and completed the architect's unexecuted original design for the lobby. Amazon also refurbished the exterior trim and lighting.
The landmark structure on the bluff of Beacon Hill, named by the original area developer after the same-named hill in Boston, remains a prominent feature, remains a local medical facility, and now stands as the corporate offices of one of the Seattle's global firms - Amazon.com.
Part III
From the First HIll side of the 12th Avenue Bridge, Beacon Hill looms as a huge prominent bluff, floating almost island-like above the sea-level valley surrounding it on the west, east and north. First Hill appears more like a mainland and descends on the west towards downtown and the waterfront and continues on the east as a set of slopes toward Lake Washington. I discovered there's a reason for this steepness and the seemingly sudden and abrupt end to First Hill and the rapid rise of Beacon Hill. In the early part of the 20th Century, Seattle City Engineer Reginald Thomson set about to improve the conditions for commerce and development in area around the the waterfront, which was getting quite crowded for space.
Thomson began two separate projects to level imposing hillsides to the north and south which impeded both development and transportation. The first area he tackled was Denny Hill, now called Denny Regrade, an area immediately north of downtown which had an imposing and steep hill. Thomson and city engineers leveled the area using an innovative technique of water-blasting the hill and collecting the subsequent mud runoff in a series of sluices and tunnels and directing it toward the flatlands near the mouth of the Duwamish River to create an artificial island. Thirty blocks of land were reclaimed during that exercise - the area now occupied by Belltown and the Seattle Center. In its earlier incarnation immediately following the regrade, that area was a rail distribution and warehousing district as well as harbor area for Lake Union. It's now the site of businesses, residences, and Seattle Center.
This is what Beacon Hill and the 12th Avenue Bridge looked like shortly after the
U.S. Public Health Service opened the U.S. Marine Hospital in Seattle in 1933. The
bridge itself is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The other area Thomson and his civil engineers tackled was the middle portions of what was a continuous ridge - First Hill and Beacon Hill were connected by another lower ridge much like First Hill and Capitol Hill are continuous. Thomson and the city were trying to create an easier way to get over that ridge from the waterfront to Lake Washington and the Rainier Valley area of town. Approximately 50 blocks were leveled producing five-million cubic yards of earth. An additional one million cubic yards was removed around Dearborn Street. That leveling created the steep bluffs on the south side of First Hill and the north side of Beacon Hill. Realize that all this was going on in the first couple of decades after the Industrial Revolution - back East it was the time of the Roaring Twenties. The National Park Service has a great website devoted to the Klondike Gold Rush, all the outfitting of which happened in Seattle <http://www.nps.gov/klse/ >. There's a particularly interesting chapter on Seattle's regrading efforts <http://www.nps.gov/klse/hrs/hrs4b.htm > worth reading.
To the north, First Hill dips slightly and then rises again, becoming Capitol Hill. Twelfth Avenue continues through First Hill, where it forms the boundary for one side of the Seattle University campus. It's one of the main north-south arterials for this part of town. It crosses all the east-west downtown streets as it makes its way north through Capitol Hill, and dead-ends at the water tower in Volunteer Park. The first major intersection on the north side of the bridge that Twelfth crosses is Jackson Street.
Jackson Street, and its near neighbor three blocks north, Yesler Way, are among the most interesting of the Pioneer Square arteries because they both go up and over the southern, steep, end of First Hill and remain nearly perfectly straight as they do so. They are among the few streets which go from the Elliott Bay waterfront to the other side by Lake Washington. Both Jackson and Yesler stop short of the waterfront at Lake Washington, but both go to within 1,000 feet of the lake and end in the steep cliffs which face east in that part of town.
Because of this, Jackson, and Yesler which I'd previously walked up and down, provide tremendous views looking west toward the Seattle waterfront. I'm nearly at the crest of this section of First Hill, so looking west down Jackson Street I can see all of Pioneer Square, all of downtown, all of the Stadium district and SODO, the harbor, West Seattle, most of the islands in the Sound and the Olympic Peninsula. I can also see the hills of Magnolia and portions of the Interbay lowlands between Magnolia and Queen Anne Hill. This would be a fantastic street to ride a bike down - and I will do that. It would be a fantastic street for skateboarders or bladers. Most of the cross streets running north-south to Jackson, though, are relatively busy streets, so riding down or skateboarding down would be an exercise in either timing or frustration as the downhill momentum would have to be braked at every corner where the lights turned red. Cross traffic is such that one would not want to freely run red lights - there'd be too much of a risk of being hit by a car. Having had that happen to me by a Mercedes near the Washington Cathedral on Cathedral Avenue in the District, I can assure everyone that it's not a real pleasant experience - plus it cost me my bike as it was structurally damaged beyond repair. I healed, the bike didn't.
Even on foot, Jackson is an adventure since the grade is so steep. This is the beginning of the International District and at the upper reaches near 12th the influence is mostly Thai, Cambodian and Vietnamese. In the late 1800's, Seattle became a settlement for a large number of Chinese who staked out the area immediately east and north of Jackson and First Avenue. The Chinese population in Seattle endured a number of unpleasant disruptions including racially-motivated riots from locals in the late 1800's and a series of relocations of their neighborhood due to development of their area by the railroads near the end of the 19th Century. However, the Chinese, Japanese and Filipino populations of Seattle continued to invest and plant roots in the general locale and by the time of the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition of 1909 had established a new foothold in an area just east of the new railroad stations. That area - just east of 4th Avenue - has evolved and today is the heart of the International District. Jackson Street is its northern boundary and from along Jackson one can see the entire area looking west and south.
The International District, particularly along Jackson Street moving downhill from east to west, is somewhat like walking a geographic map of Asia and the Southwest Pacific. At the top of the hill are the Vietnamese, Thai, and Cambodian shops and residences. Some of the shops are in new, arcade-style, buildings and some are in the older turn-of-the-century buildings which were originally built on Jackson. Jackson passes beneath the immense set of elevated concrete pathways which are the multiple, segregated, lanes of Interstate 5 as it moves north-south through the city between First Hill and downtown. At roughly 9th Avenue, near the freeway underpasses, there begins a strong Chinese influence for the shops, both those along Jackson and those that intersect from the south side. As one moves closer to 6th there begins a Japanese influence which continues, again on the streets leading off to the south.
The entire International District covers more blocks than San Francisco's Chinatown. But, in San Francisco, the Chinatown is contained in a neat manner between two north-south streets with about 10 blocks of east-west crossing streets creating an immersive environment. In Seattle, the International District has two spines - Jackson on the northern boundary running east-west, and 5th Avenue running north-south, on the western boundary. In between these two main concentrations are a series of streets leading off both which run on for a block, or two, or more in some cases, with shops, residences, restaurants, and all the associated activities of the local culture. The effect is one of spacious meandering. Rather than being inside a district, as in San Francisco, the International District in Seattle creates a space which lends itself to exploration because the boundaries are somewhat diffuse and nebulous and expanding over time.
This seems to have been an advantage for the area in that it allows a growth along either of the spine avenues as the area develops and because of the multi-national influence it's a more inviting environment to explore. One is never really sure where Chinatown has ended and Japantown has begun despite the obvious signs above the stores and restaurants. In the past few years there have been significant investments made by the business community in this area, but, it still has the look, feel, and smells of a true Oriental market place with open air markets and bizarre-like shops intermingled with the newer arcade-style structures.
Jackson Street is a great place to walk on a sunny day and I have a great time slowly walking down the 12 blocks to First Avenue. The views in front continue to change as the clouds and harbor traffic provide a moving backdrop. The color, both visual and aural, of the area is an enticing and harmonic blend and provides a background tapestry through which I'm moving. I have always liked hearing different tongues spoken. We humans have a fantastic set of capabilities with our language skills and hearing all the different languages being spoken aloud and not understanding nary a word of any of them is like listening to some kind of new music. I don't understand what it's supposed to mean but I enjoy hearing it anyway.
By the time I get down to the Pioneer Square portions of Jackson Street, near the King Street Station, the sun is about half-way down and is casting some really great shadows of the structures in this area. This is the oldest area of the city and still has most of the original edifaces which were built following the disastrous fire of 1889, which demolished much of the earlier wooden structures in the Pioneer Square district. Most of these new structures were built with either stone cut to shape or layers of bricks and nearly every single one have window, corner, cornice, overhang, and doorway treatments that are cut into the stone or carved from the brick. A great many of the structures in the area are also listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and rightly so. Seattle is truly fortunate to have such a remaining rich stock of these original, Industrial Revolution, structures. Many of them have been retrofitted inside with open-bay floor plans and some, like the Smith Tower, have been completely refurbished to their original turn-of-the-century splendor.
While walking about along Jackson in the few blocks between the train stations and First Avenue, I notice a series of manhole covers which have been done by a local foundry which are made in the fashion of cast-iron art. One manhole cover has the entire street grid of downtown and the waterfront in raised cast iron, another is done in a series of motifs much like the backs of a deck of cards, and, another is finished in a complicated geometric pattern. I take pictures of these and note that I've now got another project - finding all the street grates and manhole covers in town which have been done in this manner and producing some form of photographic album of them. A number of cities in Europe and also in Japan have developed a civic culture for these. New York City has a history of speciality manhole and facility covers. In the late '50s, the Seattle art commissioner had returned from a trip to Florence, and inspired by the hatchcovers in that Italian town, convinced the city government to commission several manhole covers for the Pioneer Square area. This tradition continues with the city's Art in Public Places program. For more background on the Seattle program see <http://www.cityofseattle.net/light/neighborhoods/nh4_art.htm >, for some snapshots of manhole cover art around the world see <http://www.danheller.com/manholes.html >.
I pass the Zeitgeist Coffee House, another noted local coffeehouse and hangout, notice that it's completely filled and, in fact, overflowing onto the sidewalk with patrons, and decide I'll pass. It's a great coffee shop - lots of spacious tables inside with lots of nooks and crannies and it faces Jackson Street and Second Avenue with huge plate glass windows. Inside it's finished in the open-brick style so prevalent in Pioneer Square art galleries. In fact, Zeitgeist maintains a rotating set of art on its walls, all from local artists and artisans. It's always a warm, receptive and friendly place to stop. I'll get another great coffee there another time when it's not so crowded. In fact, Pioneer Square seemed to be more busy than usual for a late Sunday which I attribute this to the many visitors in town for Easter.
I am fortunate in that as I get to the First Avenue bus stop I see my bus only one block away and caught it and was home about twenty minutes later. What a great Easter Sunday it turned out to be. I'd had a great time exploring a really diverse and differently-evolved set of neighborhoods and the weather allowed for some fantastic distant views from all the high places I passed through. I also went wild with the camera and picked up a few new ideas for projects. As I've learned, this town is more interesting the more one digs into it.
More house tales later as construction continues with the tower being finished, the electrical work upstairs nearly finished, and the balcony beginning to take shape.
Chas
Jackson Street at Maynard Street - the middle section of the International District along Jackson. In the center
is one of the new, arcade-style, shopping plazas, and on either side older buildings now used as shops, and
restaurants. Housing is on many of the cross streets and consists of both single-family and apartment and
condominium buildings.
Looking through the I-5 underpass toward the western end of Jackson Street. All
the supporting concrete pillars were painted red or yellow and adorned with
opposite color art reflecting the international flavor of the area.
On the west side of the underpass Jackson Street flattens out a bit and the Chinatown
elements of the International District begin to come into play. In the distance are the
double decks of the Alaskan Way Viaduct and beyond that Elliott Bay and Puget
Sound and the eastern shore of the Kitsap Peninsula. The Olympics are faintly
visible past the peninsula.
It's possible in the International District and also in the Pioneer Square area to imagine
oneself transported back in time to the first few decades following the dawn of the 20th
Century. The buildings visible in this photo were all built around the turn of the century
and this view reflects what it might have looked like in Seattle around 1915.
Jackson at Fifth Avenue is the terminus for the George Benson Waterfront Streetcar line -
Metro line number 99. Eight stations later, on Alaska Way at Broad Street, is the other
end of line. The cars make each directional run in 15 minutes, wait a few minutes,
and then turn around. They do this from 6:30 am to 7:15 pm on weekdays and from
10:00 am to 7:00 pm on weekends. Fair is the same as Metro bus - $1.25 - and
transfers are valid from bus to trolley and vice versa. The only exception is the streetcar
line is not part of the downtown "free ride" zone. The line is named after a former Seattle
mayor who was instrumental in getting the streetcar line established and running.
A backlit King Street Station. First opened in 1906, this station has seen
many alterations to its original interior and lobby areas. Because it is at
the heart of a regional transportation system being developed by the
Washington State Department of Transportation, the station will be
restored to its original look and expanded significantly with respect to
rail and intermodal transportation capabilities. Both Central Link light
rail and Seattle Monorail will have stations which connect to the rail
station and both Sound Transit and Amtrak have plans to nearly double
the commuter and intercity rail frequency. A good review of the plans
is available at <http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/rail/transit/kss/default.cfm >.
View from Jackson Street looking north up Second Avenue toward the
Seattle Center.
A closer look from the same image of the Space Needle
just past the northern bend in Second Avenue.
Seattle-style manhole cover done as part of the city's Art in Public Places program. This
is in the Pioneer Square district along Jackson Street on the southern sidewalk.
Another city manhole cover, this one designed by local artist Garth Edwards. Nine of
these manhole covers were made and installed; each weighs 350 pounds.
Another of the Art in Public Places program manhole covers, this one designed by local
artist Anne Knight. Nineteen of these covers have been installed, each one weighing
230 pounds. The motif depicts 13 points of interest around downtown and waterfront Seattle
with embedded stainless steel dots representing the location of the manhole cover at that
point on the map. In this case, it's Pioneer Square just north of the now demolished King Dome.
Local hangout, art warren, coffee shop par excellence, pastry and sandwiches available, and,
it's right on the corner of Jackson and Second Avenue in the heart of Pioneer Square. This
is a great place to hang out, they've got lots of spacious inside chairs, tables and even a
lean-to bar with bar stools, plus an outside set of tables and chairs fronting Jackson Street.
They also serve a really good, strong, coffee and their espresso drinks are first rate. Highly
recommended if you're in the Pioneer Square neighborhood - it's one-and-a-half blocks
east of First Avenue on Jackson Street.
In 1998, Amazon, working through a Seattle office development firm, contracted with Pacific Medical for a 99-year lease of the historic hospital structure for their corporate offices. The arrangement provides 71 percent of the facility space to Amazon, which has renovated that portion for use as offices, for which Amazon pays Pacific Medical about $1.5 million a year which goes toward patient care. Pacific Medical leases back for a dollar the remaining space which continues to be used for medical and dental clinic facilities for its Beacon and International District patrons. An added bonus of the lease arrangement is that Amazon refurbished the 14-foot high lobby of the hospital structure and completed the architect's unexecuted original design for the lobby. Amazon also refurbished the exterior trim and lighting.
The landmark structure on the bluff of Beacon Hill, named by the original area developer after the same-named hill in Boston, remains a prominent feature, remains a local medical facility, and now stands as the corporate offices of one of the Seattle's global firms - Amazon.com.
Part III
From the First HIll side of the 12th Avenue Bridge, Beacon Hill looms as a huge prominent bluff, floating almost island-like above the sea-level valley surrounding it on the west, east and north. First Hill appears more like a mainland and descends on the west towards downtown and the waterfront and continues on the east as a set of slopes toward Lake Washington. I discovered there's a reason for this steepness and the seemingly sudden and abrupt end to First Hill and the rapid rise of Beacon Hill. In the early part of the 20th Century, Seattle City Engineer Reginald Thomson set about to improve the conditions for commerce and development in area around the the waterfront, which was getting quite crowded for space.
Thomson began two separate projects to level imposing hillsides to the north and south which impeded both development and transportation. The first area he tackled was Denny Hill, now called Denny Regrade, an area immediately north of downtown which had an imposing and steep hill. Thomson and city engineers leveled the area using an innovative technique of water-blasting the hill and collecting the subsequent mud runoff in a series of sluices and tunnels and directing it toward the flatlands near the mouth of the Duwamish River to create an artificial island. Thirty blocks of land were reclaimed during that exercise - the area now occupied by Belltown and the Seattle Center. In its earlier incarnation immediately following the regrade, that area was a rail distribution and warehousing district as well as harbor area for Lake Union. It's now the site of businesses, residences, and Seattle Center.
This is what Beacon Hill and the 12th Avenue Bridge looked like shortly after the
U.S. Public Health Service opened the U.S. Marine Hospital in Seattle in 1933. The
bridge itself is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The other area Thomson and his civil engineers tackled was the middle portions of what was a continuous ridge - First Hill and Beacon Hill were connected by another lower ridge much like First Hill and Capitol Hill are continuous. Thomson and the city were trying to create an easier way to get over that ridge from the waterfront to Lake Washington and the Rainier Valley area of town. Approximately 50 blocks were leveled producing five-million cubic yards of earth. An additional one million cubic yards was removed around Dearborn Street. That leveling created the steep bluffs on the south side of First Hill and the north side of Beacon Hill. Realize that all this was going on in the first couple of decades after the Industrial Revolution - back East it was the time of the Roaring Twenties. The National Park Service has a great website devoted to the Klondike Gold Rush, all the outfitting of which happened in Seattle <http://www.nps.gov/klse/ >. There's a particularly interesting chapter on Seattle's regrading efforts <http://www.nps.gov/klse/hrs/hrs4b.htm > worth reading.
To the north, First Hill dips slightly and then rises again, becoming Capitol Hill. Twelfth Avenue continues through First Hill, where it forms the boundary for one side of the Seattle University campus. It's one of the main north-south arterials for this part of town. It crosses all the east-west downtown streets as it makes its way north through Capitol Hill, and dead-ends at the water tower in Volunteer Park. The first major intersection on the north side of the bridge that Twelfth crosses is Jackson Street.
Jackson Street, and its near neighbor three blocks north, Yesler Way, are among the most interesting of the Pioneer Square arteries because they both go up and over the southern, steep, end of First Hill and remain nearly perfectly straight as they do so. They are among the few streets which go from the Elliott Bay waterfront to the other side by Lake Washington. Both Jackson and Yesler stop short of the waterfront at Lake Washington, but both go to within 1,000 feet of the lake and end in the steep cliffs which face east in that part of town.
Because of this, Jackson, and Yesler which I'd previously walked up and down, provide tremendous views looking west toward the Seattle waterfront. I'm nearly at the crest of this section of First Hill, so looking west down Jackson Street I can see all of Pioneer Square, all of downtown, all of the Stadium district and SODO, the harbor, West Seattle, most of the islands in the Sound and the Olympic Peninsula. I can also see the hills of Magnolia and portions of the Interbay lowlands between Magnolia and Queen Anne Hill. This would be a fantastic street to ride a bike down - and I will do that. It would be a fantastic street for skateboarders or bladers. Most of the cross streets running north-south to Jackson, though, are relatively busy streets, so riding down or skateboarding down would be an exercise in either timing or frustration as the downhill momentum would have to be braked at every corner where the lights turned red. Cross traffic is such that one would not want to freely run red lights - there'd be too much of a risk of being hit by a car. Having had that happen to me by a Mercedes near the Washington Cathedral on Cathedral Avenue in the District, I can assure everyone that it's not a real pleasant experience - plus it cost me my bike as it was structurally damaged beyond repair. I healed, the bike didn't.
Even on foot, Jackson is an adventure since the grade is so steep. This is the beginning of the International District and at the upper reaches near 12th the influence is mostly Thai, Cambodian and Vietnamese. In the late 1800's, Seattle became a settlement for a large number of Chinese who staked out the area immediately east and north of Jackson and First Avenue. The Chinese population in Seattle endured a number of unpleasant disruptions including racially-motivated riots from locals in the late 1800's and a series of relocations of their neighborhood due to development of their area by the railroads near the end of the 19th Century. However, the Chinese, Japanese and Filipino populations of Seattle continued to invest and plant roots in the general locale and by the time of the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition of 1909 had established a new foothold in an area just east of the new railroad stations. That area - just east of 4th Avenue - has evolved and today is the heart of the International District. Jackson Street is its northern boundary and from along Jackson one can see the entire area looking west and south.
The International District, particularly along Jackson Street moving downhill from east to west, is somewhat like walking a geographic map of Asia and the Southwest Pacific. At the top of the hill are the Vietnamese, Thai, and Cambodian shops and residences. Some of the shops are in new, arcade-style, buildings and some are in the older turn-of-the-century buildings which were originally built on Jackson. Jackson passes beneath the immense set of elevated concrete pathways which are the multiple, segregated, lanes of Interstate 5 as it moves north-south through the city between First Hill and downtown. At roughly 9th Avenue, near the freeway underpasses, there begins a strong Chinese influence for the shops, both those along Jackson and those that intersect from the south side. As one moves closer to 6th there begins a Japanese influence which continues, again on the streets leading off to the south.
The entire International District covers more blocks than San Francisco's Chinatown. But, in San Francisco, the Chinatown is contained in a neat manner between two north-south streets with about 10 blocks of east-west crossing streets creating an immersive environment. In Seattle, the International District has two spines - Jackson on the northern boundary running east-west, and 5th Avenue running north-south, on the western boundary. In between these two main concentrations are a series of streets leading off both which run on for a block, or two, or more in some cases, with shops, residences, restaurants, and all the associated activities of the local culture. The effect is one of spacious meandering. Rather than being inside a district, as in San Francisco, the International District in Seattle creates a space which lends itself to exploration because the boundaries are somewhat diffuse and nebulous and expanding over time.
This seems to have been an advantage for the area in that it allows a growth along either of the spine avenues as the area develops and because of the multi-national influence it's a more inviting environment to explore. One is never really sure where Chinatown has ended and Japantown has begun despite the obvious signs above the stores and restaurants. In the past few years there have been significant investments made by the business community in this area, but, it still has the look, feel, and smells of a true Oriental market place with open air markets and bizarre-like shops intermingled with the newer arcade-style structures.
Jackson Street is a great place to walk on a sunny day and I have a great time slowly walking down the 12 blocks to First Avenue. The views in front continue to change as the clouds and harbor traffic provide a moving backdrop. The color, both visual and aural, of the area is an enticing and harmonic blend and provides a background tapestry through which I'm moving. I have always liked hearing different tongues spoken. We humans have a fantastic set of capabilities with our language skills and hearing all the different languages being spoken aloud and not understanding nary a word of any of them is like listening to some kind of new music. I don't understand what it's supposed to mean but I enjoy hearing it anyway.
By the time I get down to the Pioneer Square portions of Jackson Street, near the King Street Station, the sun is about half-way down and is casting some really great shadows of the structures in this area. This is the oldest area of the city and still has most of the original edifaces which were built following the disastrous fire of 1889, which demolished much of the earlier wooden structures in the Pioneer Square district. Most of these new structures were built with either stone cut to shape or layers of bricks and nearly every single one have window, corner, cornice, overhang, and doorway treatments that are cut into the stone or carved from the brick. A great many of the structures in the area are also listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and rightly so. Seattle is truly fortunate to have such a remaining rich stock of these original, Industrial Revolution, structures. Many of them have been retrofitted inside with open-bay floor plans and some, like the Smith Tower, have been completely refurbished to their original turn-of-the-century splendor.
While walking about along Jackson in the few blocks between the train stations and First Avenue, I notice a series of manhole covers which have been done by a local foundry which are made in the fashion of cast-iron art. One manhole cover has the entire street grid of downtown and the waterfront in raised cast iron, another is done in a series of motifs much like the backs of a deck of cards, and, another is finished in a complicated geometric pattern. I take pictures of these and note that I've now got another project - finding all the street grates and manhole covers in town which have been done in this manner and producing some form of photographic album of them. A number of cities in Europe and also in Japan have developed a civic culture for these. New York City has a history of speciality manhole and facility covers. In the late '50s, the Seattle art commissioner had returned from a trip to Florence, and inspired by the hatchcovers in that Italian town, convinced the city government to commission several manhole covers for the Pioneer Square area. This tradition continues with the city's Art in Public Places program. For more background on the Seattle program see <http://www.cityofseattle.net/light/neighborhoods/nh4_art.htm >, for some snapshots of manhole cover art around the world see <http://www.danheller.com/manholes.html >.
I pass the Zeitgeist Coffee House, another noted local coffeehouse and hangout, notice that it's completely filled and, in fact, overflowing onto the sidewalk with patrons, and decide I'll pass. It's a great coffee shop - lots of spacious tables inside with lots of nooks and crannies and it faces Jackson Street and Second Avenue with huge plate glass windows. Inside it's finished in the open-brick style so prevalent in Pioneer Square art galleries. In fact, Zeitgeist maintains a rotating set of art on its walls, all from local artists and artisans. It's always a warm, receptive and friendly place to stop. I'll get another great coffee there another time when it's not so crowded. In fact, Pioneer Square seemed to be more busy than usual for a late Sunday which I attribute this to the many visitors in town for Easter.
I am fortunate in that as I get to the First Avenue bus stop I see my bus only one block away and caught it and was home about twenty minutes later. What a great Easter Sunday it turned out to be. I'd had a great time exploring a really diverse and differently-evolved set of neighborhoods and the weather allowed for some fantastic distant views from all the high places I passed through. I also went wild with the camera and picked up a few new ideas for projects. As I've learned, this town is more interesting the more one digs into it.
More house tales later as construction continues with the tower being finished, the electrical work upstairs nearly finished, and the balcony beginning to take shape.
Chas
Jackson Street at Maynard Street - the middle section of the International District along Jackson. In the center
is one of the new, arcade-style, shopping plazas, and on either side older buildings now used as shops, and
restaurants. Housing is on many of the cross streets and consists of both single-family and apartment and
condominium buildings.
Looking through the I-5 underpass toward the western end of Jackson Street. All
the supporting concrete pillars were painted red or yellow and adorned with
opposite color art reflecting the international flavor of the area.
On the west side of the underpass Jackson Street flattens out a bit and the Chinatown
elements of the International District begin to come into play. In the distance are the
double decks of the Alaskan Way Viaduct and beyond that Elliott Bay and Puget
Sound and the eastern shore of the Kitsap Peninsula. The Olympics are faintly
visible past the peninsula.
It's possible in the International District and also in the Pioneer Square area to imagine
oneself transported back in time to the first few decades following the dawn of the 20th
Century. The buildings visible in this photo were all built around the turn of the century
and this view reflects what it might have looked like in Seattle around 1915.
Jackson at Fifth Avenue is the terminus for the George Benson Waterfront Streetcar line -
Metro line number 99. Eight stations later, on Alaska Way at Broad Street, is the other
end of line. The cars make each directional run in 15 minutes, wait a few minutes,
and then turn around. They do this from 6:30 am to 7:15 pm on weekdays and from
10:00 am to 7:00 pm on weekends. Fair is the same as Metro bus - $1.25 - and
transfers are valid from bus to trolley and vice versa. The only exception is the streetcar
line is not part of the downtown "free ride" zone. The line is named after a former Seattle
mayor who was instrumental in getting the streetcar line established and running.
A backlit King Street Station. First opened in 1906, this station has seen
many alterations to its original interior and lobby areas. Because it is at
the heart of a regional transportation system being developed by the
Washington State Department of Transportation, the station will be
restored to its original look and expanded significantly with respect to
rail and intermodal transportation capabilities. Both Central Link light
rail and Seattle Monorail will have stations which connect to the rail
station and both Sound Transit and Amtrak have plans to nearly double
the commuter and intercity rail frequency. A good review of the plans
is available at <http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/rail/transit/kss/default.cfm >.
View from Jackson Street looking north up Second Avenue toward the
Seattle Center.
A closer look from the same image of the Space Needle
just past the northern bend in Second Avenue.
Seattle-style manhole cover done as part of the city's Art in Public Places program. This
is in the Pioneer Square district along Jackson Street on the southern sidewalk.
Another city manhole cover, this one designed by local artist Garth Edwards. Nine of
these manhole covers were made and installed; each weighs 350 pounds.
Another of the Art in Public Places program manhole covers, this one designed by local
artist Anne Knight. Nineteen of these covers have been installed, each one weighing
230 pounds. The motif depicts 13 points of interest around downtown and waterfront Seattle
with embedded stainless steel dots representing the location of the manhole cover at that
point on the map. In this case, it's Pioneer Square just north of the now demolished King Dome.
Local hangout, art warren, coffee shop par excellence, pastry and sandwiches available, and,
it's right on the corner of Jackson and Second Avenue in the heart of Pioneer Square. This
is a great place to hang out, they've got lots of spacious inside chairs, tables and even a
lean-to bar with bar stools, plus an outside set of tables and chairs fronting Jackson Street.
They also serve a really good, strong, coffee and their espresso drinks are first rate. Highly
recommended if you're in the Pioneer Square neighborhood - it's one-and-a-half blocks
east of First Avenue on Jackson Street.
Posted: Fri - April 16, 2004 at 03:26 PM
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Published On: Jul 04, 2005 05:41 PM
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Published On: Jul 04, 2005 05:41 PM