Cold Snaps
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 COURTESY OF JOHN COOPER THEN: Photographer M.L. Oakes' "real photo" postcard looks from Corliss Avenue North west on North 62nd Street toward Green Lake during the week-long "cold snap" of 1909.
COURTESY OF JEAN SHERRARD NOW: Jean Sherrard used a 10-foot pole -- and his 6-feet, 6-inch height -- to lift his camera to the point of view Oakes took more easily from a neighbor's second-floor window. Jean's "now" was photographed on Jan. 16. |
IF WE ACCEPT the date scribbled at the bottom of this print — Jan. 6, 1909 — then this is not only a rare glimpse into the Green Lake neighborhood but also a record from what The Seattle Times described three days later as the "longest cold spell on record."
This view looks west toward Green Lake and the Phinney Ridge horizon through the southwest corner of Corliss Avenue North and North 62nd Street. The stately home on the left takes advantage of its corner setting with a tower and a wrapping front porch. The home is listed in the 1905 assessment rolls but not in those from 1900, so it is here somewhat new and perhaps very new. In both 1905 and 1910, George A. Kelly was paying the taxes, and Kelly is also listed as the resident as late as 1911. So here in 1909 this is probably the Kelly home.
Early the next morning, a Thursday, the temperature dropped to 15 degrees, and by Saturday The Times notes "Green Lake is taking on a coating of ice sufficient to bear a man's weight in safety." But the kids of this neighborhood had already been skating on the still unlined floor of the unfinished Green Lake Reservoir at Northeast 75th Street and 15th Avenue Northeast, which was covered with 6 inches of trapped water frozen solid.
This snowscape includes a horse-drawn buggy descending 62nd. "Laundry" is written on the back flap. Here, at least, the freeze actually improved deliveries. As The Times explained, before the storm many of the still new neighborhood's unpaved streets had been "impassable owing to the deep mud."
The storm's greatest worry was the city's shrinking reservoirs. Residents were warned to stop running their water through the night or the mains would be shut down.
Paul Dorpat specializes in historical photography and has published several books on early Seattle.
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