The historical view looks west from a turn in the topography between Seneca and University streets where First Hill became, for a short distance, a bluff. The ridge also turned there briefly to the northeast, a curve that is still drawn by I-5, hidden in the "now" scene beneath Freeway Park. The Van Siclen Apartments on the east side of Eighth Avenue block the historical photographer's prospect near Ninth Avenue. Therefore the contemporary photograph was recorded from the Eighth Avenue ramp that passes over the park and through the Convention Center from Seneca to Pike.

	PAUL DORPAT

By evidence of the Seattle City Directories alone, Woodaman arrived in Seattle sometime in the 1880s but did not stay long. His name vanishes from the directories in 1897. It may be significant that 1897 was the first full year of the Yukon gold rush.

In 1890 Woodaman is recorded as president of the Pacific Manufacturing Co. (also a planing mill) on the waterfront at Vine Street. In 1892 and '93, his Seattle Planing Mill is put at Seventh and University. Here again, it may be significant that a national depression began in 1893. But even without economic panics, short-lived milling locations were common during the city's great expansion between 1890 and 1910, although less so for finishing mills such as this one. Most likely a few of the modest homes that show here included Woodaman's product.

The fir trees that appear above the mill roofline are part of the Territorial University on Denny Knoll. Most of the campus buildings are out of the picture. The southern slope of Denny Hill is on the far right. A Methodist church rises at the southeast corner of Third Avenue and Pine Street. Neither the church nor the York Hotel, the boxish building at the northwest corner of First Avenue and Pike Street (just left of center) was around long. Digging for a railroad tunnel undermined the hotel in 1904, and it was removed as a hazard. Three years later the church was razed in creating the Denny Regrade.

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.