Seattle History: the Denny Hill Regrades

No date or exact location given

February 23, 1907 3rd Ave. north from Columbia St.

Apr 28, 1911 N Along 5th Ave from Cherry St.

Jun 24, 1914 Ross Shire Hotel at 6th & Marion

Nov 6, 1929 South from Sixth and Battery

The other day my mom checked a book about historic Seattle homes out from the library. I was taking a look at it and I was blown away by a picture of a home teetering precariously at the top of a giant mound of dirt. The home in the photo was one of the victims of the Denny Hill regrade. I knew about the regrade vaguely, like one of those historic facts you know about, but have never really took the time to think about. The photo was, frankly, kind of shocking and I thought about what the people of Seattle had to deal with as this project was going on. Obviously they didn't have the kind of construction equipment available to them like we do today. like back hoes and giant cranes so they used water cannons to blast away at the dirt and (for the early part of the project) horse and buggies to haul the dirt away. I can't imagine what a huge muddy mess the city would have been while this was going on. I also can't imagine how those homeowners, who found themselves on top of a giant dirt island with the rest of the city slowly retreating below them, must have felt.

Here's some information about the huge engineering project from the Northwest Digital Archives:

Begun in 1898 and completed over thirty years later, the Denny Hill Regrade leveled one of Seattle's steepest hills, connecting neighborhoods and facilitating traffic flow. Before the regrade, Second Avenue rose 190 feet in the twelve blocks between Pioneer Square and Lenora Avenue, causing traffic and transportation problems in the area. The project began by flattening First Avenue between Pine Street and Denny Way. The sluiced-away dirt was dumped into Elliott Bay or used as filler on downtown streets. The leveling of the hill continued in 1906 and 1907; homeowners who refused to move had the hill sluiced away around them, leaving their houses on islands of dirt.

Images were found via the Seattle Municipal Archives Photograph Collection. They also have a great collection of images on Pinterest

Johnson Berry Farms

Johnson Berry Farms jam is the best jam ever. Put it on toast, pancakes, in your oatmeal, lick it off your fingers, find anyway you can to put it in your mouth, it's delicious. It's also local and organic, so the Portlandia character in you will be proud. I recommend the golden raspberry and the marion berry. I wouldn't make special trips to Pike Place for much but for this stuff I will.

Buy Handmade

A couple of weeks ago, I went to the Pratt Holiday art sale, an annual collections of talented artists and craftsmen selling their work. This year for holiday shopping I'm trying to avoid big box stores and support local businesses and artists. The sale at Pratt was only two days long, but you can still take a look at their websites and shops if you're still looking for the perfect something for someone. Here's a small collection of artists from the sale that caught my eye.

Catherine Grisez Jewelry

Gorgeous, feminine jewelry that has the tiniest bit of whimsy too.

Carrie Grula Glass

I really loved these retro inspired glass works

(SF)2: Design

The team of a glass blowing boy and a metals girl. I particularly liked the drop pendants.

Sarah Loertscher Jewelry

Lovely structured and minimalist jewelry

A hangar full of stories

Last weekend I went to the library's twice yearly gigantic book sale. An old naval hanger is set up with rows and rows of books that go for $2 for hardbacks and $1 for paperbacks. It's a bibliophile's giddy day dream. I picked up a couple of books I've been meaning to read and found a couple of vintage treasures, including a fictionalized account of the Bronte's childhood and a story of the attempted rescue of Marie Antoinette.

Always my favorite anyway

On the hottest day of the year, when simply standing in the sun directly causes vision to blur and knees to go wobbly and an unhappy stomach to threaten your dignity. The rides are sparkly and bright and inside a prepubescent voice is pushing you to go, but your adult ears hear the creaks and squawks the ride makes as it reaches its upside down apex and you shade your eyes with your hand and look up through the glare of the sun and your oh-so-grown-up mind wonders how many times these things have been put together and taken apart and wouldn't that cause some sort of stress on the parts over time, and who exactly puts them together, and what is the governing body that regulates safety around here? And you decide to go look at the cows because that was always your favorite anyway.

Mid-week Masters: Gabriel von Max at the Frye

The work of Gabriel von Max is currently on exhibition at the Frye Art Museum. I am shamed to admit my art degree let me down, because I didn't know of von Max's work until I went to see it at the Frye. I'm going to be a little punk and say that (pre-modernist) oil painting in general bores me. A whole lot of nude women appeasing the male gaze (Laura Mulvey what what!), sunlit vistas, biblical stuff, and rich people's horses/dogs. So, I went to the von Max show mostly because I wanted something to do that was somewhat enriching and the admission to the Frye is free. It was the best uneducated decision I've made in a while. I fell in love with his work. I've never seen skin tones on a canvas that glow like his do. The eyes of his subjects, oh the eyes!

take a look at some of his work after the jump

Molly Moon's

Last weekend (I know. I've got to post these things faster if I want to be a real life blogger) my mom, my sister, and I had a yard sale. We didn't make too much money, but we got rid of some stuff and got to sit outside all day while the Pacific Northwest summer tried it's hardest to assert itself. After it was done, we decided we deserved a treat for our efforts. So we went to get the best ice cream in Seattle at Molly Moon's in Wallingford. Even in the winter the line for this place is usually out the door. All their ice cream is handmade and so are the waffle cones (I imagine heaven smells like baking waffle cones). Scout mint is my favorite flavor. It's made with crushed up bits of actual Thin Mints. So good.