PAUL DORPAT

IT IS A PLEASURE to have stumbled upon another neighborhood eccentric. This one appears on page 99 of "Madison Park Remembered," the new and good-natured history of this neighborhood by one of it residents, Jane Powell Thomas.

Much of the author's narrative is built on the reminiscences of her neighbors. For instance, George Powell is quoted as recalling that the popular name for this dye works when it still showed its turrets was the "Katzenjammer Castle." Seattle's City Hall between 1890 and 1909 was also named for the fanciful structures in the popular comic strip "The Katzenjammer Kids," and George Wiseman, the Castle Dye Works proprietor in 1938 (when this tax photo of it was recorded), may have traded on this association, too.

The vitality of this business district was then still tied to the Kirkland Ferry. Wiseman's castle introduced the last full block before the ferry dock. Besides his castle there was a drug store, two bakeries, a thrift store, meat market, two restaurants, a tavern, gas station, a combined barber and beauty shop and a Safeway. And all of them were on Wiseman's side of the street because across Madison was, and still is, the park itself.

Studying local history is often charmed by surprises such as Dorothy Frick's photo album filled with her candid snapshots of district regulars and merchants standing beside their storefronts in the 1960s. Introduced to this visual catalog of characters by Lola McKee, the "mayor of Madison Park" and longtime manager of Madison Park Hardware, Thomas has made good use of Frick's photos.

"Madison Park Remembered" is in its second printing, and Jane Thomas was recently told that her book had set a record by outselling Harry Potter — at Madison Park Books.

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