Old US

Historical Photos Capture The Street Scenes of Seattle from between the 1930s and 1940s – Rare Historical Photos.H

Seattle vintage photos from 1930s 1940sThe Seattle area was inhabited by Native Americans for at least 4,000 years before the first permanent European settlers.

Arthur A. Denny and his group of travelers, subsequently known as the Denny Party, arrived from Illinois via Portland, Oregon, on the schooner Exact at Alki Point on November 13, 1851.

The settlement was moved to the eastern shore of Elliott Bay in 1852 and named “Seattle” in honor of Native American Chief Si’ahl of the local Duwamish and Suquamish tribes.

The gold rush of the 1900s led to massive immigration, with major arrivals of Japanese, Filipinos, immigrant Europeans, and European-Americans from back east. The arrival of Greeks and Sephardic Jews broadened the city’s ethnic mix.

Many of Seattle’s neighborhoods got their start around this time. At first, the city grew mainly along the water to the north and south of downtown to avoid steep grades.

However, the new rich soon developed the land on First Hill that overlooks downtown “because it was close to downtown without being a part of it, and because it occupied a commanding position.”

Seattle vintage photos from 1930s 1940s

3rd and Pike, 1936.

Downtown Seattle was bustling with activity; as quickly as previous inhabitants moved out to newly created neighborhoods, new immigrants came in to take their place in the city core.

There was an enormous apartment boom in the years after 1905. A 1905 city directory lists only 19 apartment buildings. The 1911 directory has twelve columns of such listings.

Construction on the Smith Tower was completed in 1914. It was the tallest building west of the Mississippi River from its completion in 1914 until the Space Needle overtook it in 1962. It remained the tallest office building west of the Mississippi River until the Humble Building (now Exxon Building) was built in 1963.

Following the vision of city engineer R.H. Thomson, who had already played a key role in the development of municipal utilities, a massive effort was made to level the extreme hills that rose south and north of the bustling city.

From 1900 to 1914 the Denny Regrade to the north and the Jackson Regrade to the south leveled more than 120 feet (37 m) of Denny Hill and parts of First and Beacon Hills.

The Denny Regrade continued in spurts until 1930. Dirt from the Jackson Regrade filled in the swampy tidelands that are now occupied by the SoDo neighborhood as well as Safeco Field and Qwest Field.

A seawall containing dirt from the Denny Regrade created the current waterfront. More dirt from the Denny Regrade went to build the industrial Harbor Island at the mouth of the Duwamish River, south of Downtown.

Seattle vintage photos from 1930s 1940s

Cable car at Third and Yesler, 1940.

When the First World War ended, so did Seattle’s prosperity. Economic output crashed as the government stopped buying boats, and there were no new industries to pick up the slack.

Seattle stopped being a place of explosive growth and opportunity. Western Washington was a center of radical labor agitation.

Most dramatically, a general strike occurred in 1919. The Industrial Workers of the World played a prominent role in the strike.

After surviving the general strike, Seattle mayor Ole Hanson became a prominent figure in the First Red Scare, and made an unsuccessful attempt to ride that backlash to the White House in an unsuccessful bid for the Republican nomination for the presidential election of 1920.

Things picked up in the late 1920s, but then came the Great Depression. Times were rough all over the country, but Seattle was hit particularly hard because the manufacturing industries had been crowded out by the war. For example, Seattle issued 2,538 permits for housing construction in 1930, but only 361 in 1932.

Seattle vintage photos from 1930s 1940s

8th and Olive, 1932.

Seattle saw some of the country’s harshest labor strife of the Depression. During the Maritime Strike of 1934, striking longshoremen faced off with police and strikebreakers in a series of daily skirmishes that became known as “The Battle of Smith Cove”.

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As a result of the violence of the strike, Seattle lost much of its maritime traffic to the Port of Los Angeles. This was followed by the temporary ascendancy of the New Order of Cincinnatus, a “conservative and moralistic reform group” that challenged both the Democratic and Republican parties, and was widely accused of “fascist” or “proto-fascist” tendencies.

Despite this, and despite enormous police corruption, Roger Sale argues that the Seattle between the wars was a pretty nice place to live, especially to grow up in.

The city was still full of single-family wood houses and parks from the Olmstead development, but because of the crash they were affordable—at least to those who still had jobs.

Seattle between the wars, writes Sale “is what suburbs try to be, but never achieve because they cannot stand things so jammed together, all for a family whose income could be well under two thousand dollars a year.”

Seattle settled down into a kind of stasis between the wars, as growth subsided while those who lived in the city stayed.

Seattle vintage photos from 1930s 1940s

Chief Seattle statue at Fifth and Denny, 1936.

Although no longer the economic powerhouse it had been around the start of the 20th century, it was in the 1920s that Seattle first began seriously to be an arts center.

The Frye and Henry families put on public display the collections that would become the core of the Frye Art Museum and Henry Art Gallery, respectively.

Nellie Cornish had established the Cornish School (now Cornish College of the Arts) in 1914. Australian painter Ambrose Patterson arrived in 1919; over the next few decades Mark Tobey, Morris Graves, Kenneth Callahan, Guy Irving Anderson, and Paul Horiuchi would establish themselves as nationally and internationally known artists.

Bandleader Vic Meyers and others kept the speakeasies jumping through the Prohibition era, and by mid-century the thriving jazz scene in the city’s Skid Road district would launch the careers of musicians including Ray Charles and Quincy Jones.

Seattle vintage photos from 1930s 1940s

Lenora Street viaduct, Seattle, 1931.

Seattle vintage photos from 1930s 1940s

Alaskan Way, 1939.

Seattle vintage photos from 1930s 1940s

Lifeguard class at Green Lake, Seattle, 1936.

Seattle vintage photos from 1930s 1940s

Alaskan Way, 1939.

Seattle vintage photos from 1930s 1940s

Looking up Pike Street from First Avenue, 1930.

Seattle vintage photos from 1930s 1940s

Ballard Bridge, 1941.

Seattle vintage photos from 1930s 1940s

Newsstand at 12th & Union, Seattle, 1946.

Seattle vintage photos from 1930s 1940s

Bell Street viaduct under construction, 1931.

Seattle vintage photos from 1930s 1940s

Removal of streetcar tracks on Third Avenue, 1943.

Seattle vintage photos from 1930s 1940s

Broadway and John St., Seattle, 1934.

Seattle vintage photos from 1930s 1940s

Third Avenue looking north from Cherry Street, 1930.

Seattle vintage photos from 1930s 1940s

Broadway line at Second & Columbia, June, 1941.

Seattle vintage photos from 1930s 1940s

Broadway Market, Harrison and Broadway, 1937.

Seattle vintage photos from 1930s 1940s

Broadway Safeway, Broadway at Mercer, 1937.

Seattle vintage photos from 1930s 1940s

Denny Way, 1949.

Seattle vintage photos from 1930s 1940s

Diamond District, Seattle, 1944.

Seattle vintage photos from 1930s 1940s

Dooley’s Restaurant, 1940.

Seattle vintage photos from 1930s 1940s

Fourth Avenue, 1937.

Seattle vintage photos from 1930s 1940s

In front of the Frye Hotel on 3rd and Yesler, 1945.

Seattle vintage photos from 1930s 1940s

International District, Seattle, 1945.

Seattle vintage photos from 1930s 1940s

Lake Union and Capitol Hill, 1945.

Seattle vintage photos from 1930s 1940s

Nickerson Street, Dexter Avenue and Westlake Avenue, 1949.

Seattle vintage photos from 1930s 1940s

Pioneer Square, Seattle, 1945.

Seattle vintage photos from 1930s 1940s

Queen Anne Hill and aircraft carriers, 1946.

Seattle vintage photos from 1930s 1940s

Safety island at Westlake and Olive, 1938.

Seattle vintage photos from 1930s 1940s

Seattle transit system line truck at Third & Pike, June 1946.

Seattle vintage photos from 1930s 1940s

Seattle transit system twin trolley coach at Third & Marion, April 9, 1947.

Seattle vintage photos from 1930s 1940s

Seattle transit twin trolley coach at Third & Union, March 1946.

Seattle vintage photos from 1930s 1940s

Seattle’s waterfront, 1945.

Seattle vintage photos from 1930s 1940s

Second and Pike, 1934.

Seattle vintage photos from 1930s 1940s

Second Ave. south from Union St., Seattle, 1930.

Seattle vintage photos from 1930s 1940s

Second Avenue decorated for Potlatch celebration, 1934.

Seattle vintage photos from 1930s 1940s

Second Avenue, Seattle, 1944.

Seattle vintage photos from 1930s 1940s

Ship loading at Pier 39, Seattle, 1946.

Seattle vintage photos from 1930s 1940s

Snow on Capitol Hill, 1943.

Seattle vintage photos from 1930s 1940s

SoDo, Seattle, 1945.

Seattle vintage photos from 1930s 1940s

The Diamond District, Seattle, 1946.

Seattle vintage photos from 1930s 1940s

The Diamond District, Seattle, 1946.

Seattle vintage photos from 1930s 1940s

Up Yesler, Seattle, 1945.

Seattle vintage photos from 1930s 1940s

Westlake and Olive, 1949.

los angeles street scenes 1930s

Hanging laundry at Olympic Trailer Court on the border of Santa Monica and West Los Angeles, circa 1940.

Historian Carey McWilliams wrote that Los Angeles’s growth is “one continuous boom punctuated at intervals by major explosions.”

By 1920 southern California’s population had surpassed that of northern California, and in the next several years Los Angeles experienced “the largest internal migration in the history of the American people.”

Hundreds of thousands of people arrived by automobile. It was a frenzied period of wildcat oil drilling, intense business speculation, religious excitement, extensive suburban development, the birth of the aircraft and film industries, and civic corruption.

The charismatic Pentecostal minister Aimee Semple McPherson captivated audiences with her dramatic preaching. Droves of starry-eyed young people arrived hoping to follow in the footsteps of such movie actors as Mary Pickford, “America’s Sweetheart,” and her daredevil husband, Douglas Fairbanks.

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los angeles street scenes 1930s

Workers at Lockheed’s Burbank plant gathered on their lunch break.

Los Angeles was very much a white-dominated town in the 1930s. Housing and public facilities were segregated, and job discrimination was widespread.

The Great Depression caused high unemployment in the region and exhausted the resources of private and public assistance.

To slash welfare lists, public officials repatriated thousands of Mexicans—and their U.S.-born children. Amid this dire situation, Los Angeles built facilities for and hosted the 1932 Olympic Summer Games as planned.

The city’s remoteness from Europe and from much of the rest of the world contributed to reduced international participation.

Nevertheless, the Games were a great success and showcased Los Angeles to the world. Meanwhile, the corruption in City Hall led to a recall movement against Mayor Frank L. Shaw and his close associates.

Police misconduct and the mayor’s mishandling of public funds forced Shaw from office and led to the election of reform mayor Fletcher Bowron in 1938.

Economic recovery was relatively swift in the late 1930s owing to the prosperity of the film industry, the tapping of electrical energy from Hoover Dam, and the production of airplanes for Britain and France at the outset of World War II.

los angeles street scenes 1930s

A young girl outside a market at Olympic Trailer Court.

los angeles street scenes 1930s

A man on an unidentified street in Burbank. In the distance is a Lockheed plant.

los angeles street scenes 1930s

Residents at Olympic Trailer Court. A booming defense industry fueled fierce demand for temporary housing.

los angeles street scenes 1930s

The Court Flight railway took passengers up and down a steep incline in downtown Los Angeles.

los angeles street scenes 1930s

Douglas Aircraft Company workers on their lunch break in Santa Monica.

los angeles street scenes 1930s

A woman wiped off the counter of a lunch stand near an aircraft plant in the Los Angeles area.

los angeles street scenes 1930s

Shoppers on Lindbrook Drive in Westwood Village, home to a Sears and Ralphs supermarket.

los angeles street scenes 1930s

An oil field covered with derricks in an unidentified area of Los Angeles.

los angeles street scenes 1930s

A father talks to his two young sons at Olympic Trailer Court. Homes in the area now go for no less than $1 million, according to Zillow.

los angeles street scenes 1930s

A Los Angeles Railway bus traveled through Los Angeles.

los angeles street scenes 1930s

Lockheed workers in Burbank lined up to buy lunch.

los angeles street scenes 1930s

An ice cream vendor looked for customers near the Douglas Aircraft Company plant in Santa Monica.

los angeles street scenes 1930s

The palm-lined South Kenmore Avenue in Los Angeles.

los angeles street scenes 1930s

Crowds at Broadway and 7th Street, Los Angeles, CA, 1930

los angeles street scenes 1930s

Traffic at Seventh and Spring, 1930

los angeles street scenes 1930s

Crowds at Broadway and 7th Street, Los Angeles, 1930

los angeles street scenes 1930s

Crowds at Broadway and 7th Street, Los Angeles, 1930

los angeles street scenes 1930s

Culver City boosterism, 1930

los angeles street scenes 1930s

Caliente Golf Park, 4th Street and Vermont Avenue, 1931

los angeles street scenes 1930s

Girl waiting for bus on Beverly Boulevard, interesection at Van Ness, July 17, 1931

los angeles street scenes 1930s

Looking north on Broadway at 7th Street, 1931

los angeles street scenes 1930s

Looking south on Broadway from 4th Street, 1931

los angeles street scenes 1930s

May Company Department Store golden jubilee, 8th Street and Broadway, 1931

los angeles street scenes 1930s

Traffic on Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, 1931

los angeles street scenes 1930s

Traffic on Wilshire Blvd., 1932

los angeles street scenes 1930s

Morgan Hotel shown at 629 W. 8th Street, 1932

los angeles street scenes 1930s

Looking south on Flower Street at 4th, 1933

los angeles street scenes 1930s

Looking west on Apablasa from Juan Street, 1933

los angeles street scenes 1930s

Looking west on Apablasa Street from Juan Street, 1933

los angeles street scenes 1930s

Looking west on east 7th at Mateo Street, 1933

los angeles street scenes 1930s

Looking east on 1st Street from Broadway, 1934

los angeles street scenes 1930s

Bankers Building on Hill Street, 1935

los angeles street scenes 1930s

Looking south on Broadway at 8th Street, 1935

los angeles street scenes 1930s

Looking west on 7th Street at Broadway, 1935

los angeles street scenes 1930s

Clifton’s Brookdale at 648 S. Broadway, 1936

los angeles street scenes 1930s

On the Boulevard, Los Angeles, 1936

los angeles street scenes 1930s

7th and Olive Streets, 1937

los angeles street scenes 1930s

Broadway south at Seventh, 1937

los angeles street scenes 1930s

Looking west on 7th Street at Hill, 1937

los angeles street scenes 1930s

Main at 9th Street, 1937

los angeles street scenes 1930s

The Hotel Latour, Hill Street, 1937

los angeles street scenes 1930s

Looking east on W 43rd Place at Garthwaite Avenue, 1938

los angeles street scenes 1930s

Looking north on Hill Street at 4th, 1938

los angeles street scenes 1930s

Looking north on Spring Street from 5th, 1938

los angeles street scenes 1930s

6th and Olive Streets, 1930

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