As part of its mid-1970s makeover for the Seattle Parks Department's Waterfront Aquarium, the nostalgic funk of the weathered signs at the water end of Pier 59 was scraped and painted away.

Soon after Robinson left, the wharf was lengthened and signed with the name of its new principal tenant, the steamship agent Dodwell & Co. Ltd. Shipping and hay, however, were merely prelude to fishing.

Beginning in the teens with the new primary renter Pacific Net and Twine Co., the Pike Street Pier turned increasingly to the needs of fishermen. The slips to either side of it were commonly crowded with fishing vessels, while on the pier were sailmakers, fish brokers, suppliers and the offices of both the Purse Seiners Association and the Fishing Vessel Owners Association.

But by the time the city Parks Department bought the pier in 1973, the fishing fleet was long gone. Work on Waterfront Park to the south was well underway on Aug. 9, 1974, when itinerant photographer Frank O. Shaw aimed his Hasselblad at the outer end of Pier 59, where faded signs ironically promote the effectiveness of brand-name maritime paints.

The Aquarium started going up late that same year, and the pier's new tenant might have opened on schedule in the fall of 1976 except for a plumbers' strike.

Paul Dorpat's two-hour videotape on Seattle's early history, "Seattle Chronicle," is $29.95 from Tartu Publications, P.O. Box 85208, Seattle, WA 98145.