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The Road Not Taken

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COURTESY OF BILL GREER THEN: Leon and Margaret Brown play in the rubble of Dexter Avenue, circa 1904. Leon grew up to be a Seattle detective. COURTESY OF BILL GREER THEN: The sketch shows the envisioned Central Avenue from engineer Virgil Bogue's 1911-12 municipal plan for Seattle. COURTESY OF BILL GREER NOW: Looking north on Dexter Avenue from its intersection with John Street.

THE THREE IMAGES grouped here all look north along the center line of Dexter Avenue through its intersection with John Street, beside the west boundary of Denny Park. This may be considered a "now, then and might have been" triptych because the sketch is Seattle architect David John Myer's Beaux Arts vision of what Dexter might have been had Seattle voters approved the 1911 Bogue Municipal Plan in 1912. The illustration appears in a published version of the plan. Its caption reads "Central Avenue, looking north to Central Station."

Dexter Avenue (named for banker Dexter Horton) between Denny Way and the north end of Lake Union would have become Central Avenue, which, the plan trumpeted, was "destined to be the principal artery through the city." These blocks between the plan's Civic Center, in the then freshly lowered Denny Regrade, and the exalted transportation center with its majestic tower rendered in the sketch would have been the city's most exalted boulevard.

The "then" photograph shows the same stretch of Dexter in about 1904 with Leon and Margaret Brown playing near the center of the street. (Here I want to thank Michael Cirelli, my now-passed friend, who was a devoted student of Seattle history. It was Cirelli who first identified the Browns.)

The father, William LeRoy Brown, took the photograph. He and Abba lived with their two children nearby at 225 Dexter.

William was both a professional plumber and a charter member of the local musicians union. He played the clarinet in "Dad" Wagner's popular concert and marching band. And he was good with a camera, leaving a small but unique collection of glass negatives that includes this family scene.

Paul Dorpat specializes in historical photography and has published several books on early Seattle.