Alden J. Blethen Wiki Commons |
In 1903, the
publisher of the Seattle Daily Times, Alden J. Blethen, was looking out the
window of his new office at 2nd and Union and clearly knew, for the
first time in many years, that things were finally going to be alright.
His outlook
had improved nearly every year since he bought an ailing Seattle paper in 1896
and settled into its hole-in-the-wall office just off Second Avenue on
Yesler Street. In 1896 he was 50, more than broke,
a victim of the 1893 recession where he lost his bank, where fire destroyed his
newspaper, The Minneapolis Tribune, and when he started another paper, The
Penny Press, it led him to bankruptcy. Also,
Minneapolis had twice rejected him as a candidate for mayor. He must have said something like "I get it!" and headed for Denver. When things didn’t work out there, he left for Seattle,
the creditors and lawyers close behind.
Though we're 120 years from it, we
would understand the 1893 recession. The United
States was enmeshed in a global economy that was melting down. As the recession spread throughout Europe,
investors sold their US stocks in railroads and other infrastructure here and stock prices
dropped like a stone. Gold and silver,
the only trustworthy currencies at the time, fled the country, making loans
harder to obtain. The investment
structure was poorly regulated and there were many who manipulated it for short
term gain at the expense of real investors. It was a global mess.
A loan from
his brother-in-law’s mortgaged home was the last stake Blethen had. It was his last chance and he got it
right. As the circulation of the paper
improved, he moved further north on Second Avenue, out of the Yesler hole-in-the-wall
and into the respectable Boston Block on Columbia Street and then an entire building
at the corner of Second and Union. The
paper Blethen purchased in 1896 had a circulation of maybe 4,000. In 1915, he sold 70,000 papers everyday and lived in a
Queen Anne mansion.
Looking North on Second Avenue about 1908. Daily Times building at front right, Bon Marche down the street middle left, today's Josephinum near the center. UW Collections |
Moving northward
in his adopted city was always a good thing, always a signal of growth, prosperity
and stability. And in the October 11,
1903 Sunday edition of his newspaper, he imagined what further movement to the north would bring to his city and what Seattle would look like in 1919. He called it a “truthful description of the
city in 1919” given through the voices of travelers from Tacoma who discover many futuristic products and fanciful outcomes. He
also called it a prophecy and printed a drawing of what he saw. The view begins, natch, at the Seattle Daily
Times Building on Second and Union, looking north. It shows electric trolleys, horse drawn carts
and automobiles competing for space on the busy street. The picture shows Second Avenue as the very
center of commerce, surrounded by very tall buildings. An airplane is flying by at the top center of
the drawing.
Blethen was able to describe this release of commercial energy because property owners and the
city were about ready to start using gold mining techniques to sluice the 100
foot high Denny Hill into Elliott Bay and to fill in the low tidal lands that
were a dominant feature of the city’s southern shore. Denny Hill, in conventional Sesattle wisdom at the time, was the
cork in the bottle of progress.
Blethen
returned to the prophecy in 1907 and said that the 1919 vision had been
realized in just four years, a terrific Christmas present for his readers, he said. In four years, the Seattle’s population had
doubled to over 200,000 people. While
part of the growth came from a burst of annexations, much of the growth was attributable
to the 5,000 people a month Blethen said were pouring into the city.
He published another drawing in that December 22, 1907 issue, made from a photograph taken
from the same point of view as the earlier prophecy. There are no horses in this photo and the
tall buildings lining the street are real.
People are crowding the sidewalks.
Kitty corner, across the street from the Daily Times Building, is the
Bon Marche, crowded with shoppers.
Further north is the nine story Signal Furniture Building and, across the street, where Second Avenue turns
slightly to the north and west, is the shell of the 14 story New Washington Hotel, sitting
100 feet below and a bit south of where the Washington Hotel used to sit before
the ground got pulled out from under it.
The trolleys run another ten blocks or so, all the way to Denny Avenue. Just to the east, Westlake Avenue, liberated from its original geology,
flows gently downhill to Lake Union.
Denny/Washington Hotel About Second and Virginia |
The Washington Hotel began rising from its top of the hill location in
1890 and was originally known as the Denny Hotel, after one of the Seattle
founders, Arthur Denny. Squabbling among
the partners kept the hotel closed for its first three years and
the Panic of 1893 did the rest, closing it for another decade. Finally, it was sold to James A. Moore, about the same time as Blethen published
his first vision. Moore’s first guest,
Teddy Roosevelt, gave the hotel all the cache it needed to be successful and it was a success for
the three summers of life ahead of it, before the hoses washed its footings away.
Moore sold
the land at the corner of Second and Stewart to two powerhouse developers who
were just finishing the Alaska Building, the first true Seattle
skyscraper. J. E. Chilberg and J. Crawford
Marmaduke paid $200,000 for the land and had in mind a turnkey hotel project,
something that could be built but not fully furnished and sold to a competent hotelier who'd finish the job.
As they closed
in on the groundbreaking date, the architects, the esteemed Eames and Young from Chicago, said that another $200,000 had been added to the original
$600,000 cost of the structure “because the great growth and the magnificent
prospects of the city merit it,” said Mr. Eames. There were to be 350 rooms in the hotel and,
the Seattle Daily Times noted, “every room will have a private bath.” The doors to the closets were to be constructed
so that “when opened, the closet will be flooded with electricity.”
The Alaska Building underway August 22, 1904 UW Collections |
The
construction of these new, taller buildings should be understood in the context of
the San Francisco Earthquake that occurred in April, 1906. Clearly, the great city was damaged goods and
the events in the Bay Area gave Seattle a strategic advantage that would ensure
something more than backwater status.
Also, Chilberg and Marmaduke had just finished the Alaska Building and wanted it to be seen as safe. Its all steel construction helped that point
along as did the choice of Eames and Young from Chicago. Also helping was the fact that people then knew
absolutely nothing about how earthquake prone their region was.
The hotel
was on a schedule that would have it comfortably ready for the great world’s
fair, the Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition that Seattle planned first for 1908 and
then delayed for a year to June of 1909.
St. Louis and Portland had just
completed expos celebrating the start and the end of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Now it was Seattle’s
time with a fresh topic, the gold rush plus the emergence of an American Century in the Pacific. Blethen assigned plenty of coverage to the new hotel especially coverage that played to the rivalry of Seattle and San Francisco. Soon, the inevitable delays came Materials didn't arrive on time and, also, the realization that the basic business scheme devised by Chilberg and Marmaduke needed to be revisited. The destruction of San Francisco sent a
strong economic shock, that reverberated across the entire western economy. Then, manipulators tried to corner the copper
market which led to a collapse of copper stocks and a slowing of mining that hit the national economy in 1907. The slowing economy made the idea of finding
a turnkey buyer unlikely, so Chilberg and Marmaduke turned to a public stock
offering to raise the $250,000 necessary to furnish the project and install the interior
spaces that would complete the hotel. The coverage at the time seemed sober and straight forward, a small wrinkle in the plan, but clearly the back story demonstrated a significant fear
that Seattle could be left with another empty hotel, just like the one Arthur
Denny tried to build.
The Great White Fleet on its way. Seven of the ships would go into drydock in Bremerton. Navy Times |
Events also
crowded in. A great fleet was moving from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean and would visit Seattle in
the Spring of 1908. The purpose was to demonstrate President Roosevelt’s famous saying, "Speak softly and carry a big stick." The Great White Fleet was the big stick part and sent a clear signal to Japan that
the Pacific was an American lake as well.
When it became clear that sometime in May, 1908 the big ships would visit, there was a possibility that the city’s new showcase hotel might not be ready. It had
the potential for a world class embarrassment to a city with world class
presumptions.
Chilberg
and company were cutting it very close.
They announced on April 19, that the New Washington would be the site of
the great reception for the officers of the fleet when they arrived on May
23. The Times felt the necessity to underscore
the community’s expectations by saying that “the reception will take place in
the big hostelry which will be finished by that date.”
Lobby, New Washington in 1908 Eames and Young Collection |
One step
ahead of the sheriff, with workers racing to complete so many details, the officers’
reception began with the admirals being led to the ornate mezzanine so they could take
in the lovely lobby. They then left the mezzanine and proceeded down stairs to the dining room/ballroom where the
officers formed a reception line. They would greet 3,000 people inside the
hotel while an estimated 30,000 milled around outside, where
music was available and the police department scanned the crowd for pickpockets. They got some, like E. Larson, known as the “Frisco
Kid” who had $125 on his person. Ike
Borenstein had filched $193 and, over at the post office, Joe Medford, who
tried to outrun the cops, knocking over a group of ladies and a stroller. He had $130 on him. Big money in those days.
New Washington and Moore Theater across from grandstand on Second Avenue. Note people standing on utility poles. UW Collections |
Organizers had roped off the sidewalks from the parade route, using 33,000 feet of half inch rope.
Original Poster |
The hotel that Chilberg and Marmaduke made spanned the two World’s Fairs in Seattle, the Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition – the youthful Chilberg was its president -- opened June 1, 1909 and Century 21, April 21, 1962. Performers in both events stayed at the Washington. Most notable, of course, was Elvis Presley, here to film “Take Me To The Fair,” later released as “It Happened at the World’s Fair.”
Pretty cool for a crop duster Metro Goldwyn Mayer |
If you
haven’t watched this movie recently, here’s the basic plot line. Mike (Elvis) and Danny fly a crop duster in
the Wenatchee apple orchards, but Danny gambles and a Chelan County Sheriff
seizes the plane when he lost the money gambling and couldn't make the payments. So, the two hitchhike to Seattle to prosper
at the World’s Fair. A young Asian girl
is in the car that gives them a ride to Seattle and Mike takes care of her because her father somehow disappears. Danny tries to earn
money playing poker and Elvis courts a young nurse, Diane. I don’t want to give anything away, but
basically, it all works out.
The Washington Hotel was the leading hotel in Seattle until the construction of the Olympic in the early 1920s, but it still remained a very fine property.
The Washington Hotel was the leading hotel in Seattle until the construction of the Olympic in the early 1920s, but it still remained a very fine property.
The Totem Bar in the New Washington Eames and Young Collection |
The
Catholic Archdiocese purchased the Washington from Doric in 1963 and turned it
into senior housing run by the Sisters of St. Joseph who changed the name to
the Josephinum. I got to know the
building during this part of its life. My
mother lived there in 1982 and 1983 until she moved, in her last few weeks, into a
nursing home. She liked the place for a
number of reasons, but I know that one of them was that it was just up the street from the Mayflower Park Hotel and its lovely bar and even lovelier martinis. The Firelight, (now the
Nitelite) was just steps away from the Josephinum front door, but it was no place for
Mom. It was a pasties and
boom-chica-boom property owned by mobster Frank Colacurcio and was the place where
topless dancing started in Seattle back in 1958. It
was also the location of many felonies and briberies hatched and carried out
during the Seattle police scandals of the 1960s, only a handful of which were brought to justice.
My nephew
Jordan loved going to see his grandmother at the Josephinum. He remembers that he loved the food. He never got Jell-O at home.
Walking
through the lobby with my mother, it still looked great despite its
years of wear and tear and I thought its history and Italianate design added a
bit to Mom’s step as we walked out onto Second Avenue, turned left, away from
the Firelite and toward the Mayflower, where we ordered Mom’s weekly
see-through.
After 1963,
the building took on many different personalities, first as the retirement home,
then as low income housing. In 1992, it was home to the remarkable organization Fare Start, which trains people who are recovering from a variety of demons to work in the food service industry. Eighty percent of its graduates find full
time work in the industry with more than 150 graduates a year. It has grown into a fine restaurant open to the public. In 2007 it left the Josephinum for a new home
on Virginia Street, a place we frequent because the food is good.
The same
year Fare Start moved in, Catholic Charities and Catholic Housing Services took
over management of the Josephinum and steered the programming further toward a low income mission. Catholic
Charities and Catholic Housing Services are the largest private charity in the
state, spending some $130 million a year on a collection of housing and
support services. It became the
location for the downtown Women’s Wellness Center, where homeless women can
find a place to relax, wash their clothing, have a good meal and see
professionals who might help them break their cycle.
In 2009, it
became a new parish, Christ Our Hope, and began a serious remodeling, first of
the downstairs part and now other parts of the building. It is a lovely job, balanced between its
mission of supporting low income people and its obligation of protecting the treasures
of a great building that reflects to our time the great events of another.
We don’t
know if Antonio Magnano was actually among the crowd milling around the hotel
the night of its first reception or whether he lined up along First or Second
to watch the parade or climbed up one of a light poles to get a better view,
but I like to think he was there. We know
very likely what he was thinking about at the time – Mary Cooper, daughter of English
immigrants whom he had met on a business trip. The day of the great parade was just three
weeks from his marriage to Mary in Salt Lake City.
Magnano had
come to the US as a 24 year old young man from Pra, a small port town just west
of Genoa. His father had died and his mother, brothers and sisters needed him to work and be a success. He was a stocky, good looking
guy, serious and ultimately, highly successful.
He imported products from Italy such as olive oil, fancy olives,
artichokes. The huge Italian migration
was underway and Antonio would serve it well from his businesses along First, Post
Street and Western Avenue, the centers of the food world then until the
center moved a bit north, to the Pike Place Market.
603 32nd |
He and his
sons created a great local brand, Napoleon, that today brings over 150 different
foods to us, some Italian brands, but also brands from across the Pacific. From where I am sitting right now, a bottle
of their olive oil sits next to the chicken breasts I will soon marinate with
garlic and crushed roasted lemon. Food mostly
leads to a feeling a kinship and the food that I will make soon leads me to a kinship with Antonio at this moment.
Father Magnano Christ Our Hope |
I don't think that Alden Blethen would be too pleased with his Second and Union address today. His vision of Second Avenue heading north doesn't have the strong street level commercial activity he once enjoyed observing in 1907 at the Bon Marche and other shops along the way to the north. All that commercial activity moved to the west and First Avenue or to the east on Third Avenue leaving a good piece of Second Avenue supporting the other two streets with parking.
Second and Union Today |
What is a constant in the Blethen view is our friend the Josephinum, jutting out into the center of the view where a great hill once stood with a hotel nobody wanted on top of it.
The Depression of 1893
The Great White Fleet and its Purposes
Very intelligent discussion of the 2001 earthquake in Seattle
The Elvis History Blog -- in Seattle
About Christ Our Hope Church
Napoleon Company Profile