Tag Archives: Seattle Times
…Prepared for the Weather
Thursday Hidden Treasure
Plaster Figure of “Umbrella Man”, Local Figure
Note: From Catalog Card: Plaster Statue, “Umbrella Man”. 9 in. high, 3½ inches square base. Standing in front of a soap box, was a character in Seattle who invented an umbrella hat, which he always wore. Was a pensioner of the Civil War, lived on a houseboat on Lake Union, his name was Robert W. Patten, known as “the maker of Seattle’s weather.” “Dok” Hager conceived the idea of using his likeness in caricature as subject for his daily weather cartoon in the Seattle Times newspaper. Mr. Patten was born February 29, 1811 in New York. He mended crockery, umbrellas and glue and repaired other items to supplement his pension. After a stroke, he moved to Soldier’s home at Orting, in 1911 moved to soldier’s home in Los Angeles.
Thursday Hidden Treasure highlights artifacts in MOHAI’s collection that are not on everyday display.
…Fighting for Equal Rights
Rev. Samuel McKinney, Mayor Gordon Clinton, and Rev. Mance Jackson at Anti-Segregation March, Seattle, 1963
Sunday Quote:
The undercurrent of national unrest in racial relations has bubbled to the surface in Seattle. Continue reading »
…Silvered and Handsome and Oversized – In the Paul Bunyan Manner
Sunday Quote
Aerial of Alaskan Way Viaduct Under Construction From South Seattle, 1957
Eight million dollars’ worth of overhead highway construction suddenly came into its own.
Except for a little difficulty in cutting the symbolic ribbon, the shindig came off as smoothly as jet planes from a carrier deck.
V-Day in Double Measure
V-Day was Viaduct Day and Victory Day: a triumph in double measure!
Years of planning and watching and waiting suddenly bloomed like a ten-bloom Easter lily.
Seafair Queen Iris Adams arrived on a whileeled dogsled driven by Leonard Seppala, whose 50 years of dogsledding in Alaska seemed practice just for this occasion.
Queen Iris carried a four-foot set of shears – silvered and handsome and oversized – in the Paul Bunyan manner. This was only fitting since the two deck span is a whopping span with a whopping purpose:
Siphoning some of the city’s traffic tangle from around the Queen City’s throat and transferring it along the westward side of her waistline.
Taken from the article “Fanfare Sets Cars Rolling Along Span” in the April 5, 1953 edition of the Seattle Times. The article describes the opening ceremonies of the first span of the Alaskan Way Viaduct.
