Pacific NW

HERE, AN unnamed pioneer photographer has chosen a prospect on the slope of Denny Hill to look south through what was then Seattle's "north end." This may be the first look from an elevation that was, for years — until it was regraded away — a favorite platform for recording the city.

The photograph was taken between Pine and Stewart streets and First and Second avenues. Second Avenue angles through the center of the scene. Jean Sherrard's "now" is adjusted to feature the alleyway that runs through the center of the block. The historical photographer stood a few feet left, behind the concrete wall, and somewhat closer to Pine Street. He was also 30 or 40 feet above Jean because this part of Denny Hill was graded away between 1903 and 1905.

The date here is either late 1872 or early 1873, and the evidence is in two churches — one showing, the other not. On Aug. 24, 1873, Plymouth Congregational Church dedicated its first (of now four) downtown sanctuary on Second a little north of Spring Street. It would, but does not, appear above the roofline of Arthur and Mary Denny's barn, here right-of-center at the southwest corner of Second and Union Street.

Barely appearing above the Denny barn, to its right, is the Methodist Protestant Church near the northwest corner of Second and Madison Street. In 1871 its pastor, Daniel Bagley, gave it a second floor with mansard windows, shown here.

In "This City of Ours," J. Willis Sayre's 1936 school textbook of Seattle historical trivia, Sayre makes this apt point about the Second Avenue showing here: "In the '70s it had narrow wooden sidewalks which went up and down, over the ungraded surfaces, like a roller-coaster . . . The street was like a frog pond every winter."

Check out Paul Dorpat and Jean Sherrard's blog at www.pauldorpat.com.