Republican, On The Brink
PREV
|
 COURTESY OF LAWTON GOWEY THEN: The two Seattle Gas tanks behind the pioneer Denny home were built in 1907 when some of the Dennys' fruit trees were still producing. The house was abandoned by the time of this photo in 1911 and soon to be razed. It faced Republican Street on its north side between Dexter and Eighth avenues.
PAUL DORPAT NOW: Business has taken over the spot looking northeast across to Republican Street, which was lowered considerably during the 1911 regrade. |
I FIRST STUMBLED upon the accompanying photograph of David and Louisa Denny's abandoned home in a Seattle Times clipping dated Sept. 7, 1911. The typical stack of headlines to the story is instructive but also melodramatic, and their bark is mildly silly. They read ". . . Pioneer Home Makes Way to Onward Rush of Busy Metropolis. Ruthless Steam Shovel Encroaches on Site of Old House Built by Late David T. Denny in 1871. Dwelling was Pride of Little Village. Landmark, Which Falls Latest Victim to Progress, Was Scene of Many Social Gatherings in Days Long Past."
Louisa and David Denny's home faced Republican Street at the north end of Denny Hill. The pioneer couple named it "Republican" for obvious reasons. Here the street is being lowered about 20 feet. This was their first big home and, with its extensive garden, was typically described as "overlooking Lake Union." The front door, however, looks south in the direction of the city, although in 1871 it was still far from town and nearly surrounded by a forest that this original pioneer family continued to harvest for many years. After 1882 the family could see the largest lumber mill in King County at the south end of Lake Union, and they owned it.
The Dennys lived here until 1890, when they moved a few blocks west to an ornate pattern-book mansion at Mercer Street and Temperance Street, another street the family named. The Republican Denny was also a teetotaler, and by the time of his death in 1903 his political preoccupations were better served, he explained, by the Prohibition Party. Certainly, the "many social gatherings" in all their homes — beginning with the log cabin near the waterfront foot of Denny Way — were consistently dry.
Paul Dorpat specializes in historical photography and has published several books on early Seattle.
|
|
|
|
Back to top