PAUL DORPAT

But when it was jumping, there was more than swimming here. For instance, the neon sign with the diving swimmer also advertises dining and dancing at the Shore Café. And at least during the late 1930s when the Premier Amusement Co. was running it, the "Nat" was also a skating rink.

This natatorium was the last of three built along the beach. The first opened near Alki Point in 1905, but quietly closed while planning an "Oriental-styled" enlargement, complete with "real Geisha Girls." The second opened in 1907 with Luna Park at Duwamish Head. And although the amusement park was soon closed for introducing "lewd and disorderly behavior," the big indoor natatorium stayed open until 1931, when it was one of many targets torched by an arsonist that year.

Three years later, this Nat opened a short distance up the beach from the Municipal Bath House. The Nat managed to survive the Great Depression but not a lawsuit by an injured swimmer in 1939. In 1942 the Seattle Parks Department renovated and reopened it in time for the preoccupations of the war, and the place again closed. Especially when dark, its great expanse of roof glass was pelted by naughty children with rocks borrowed from the beach. Several moves by the Parks Department and City Council to restore it after the war languished, and in 1953 the Alki Natatorium was razed.

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