St. James Cathedral lost its dome in a colossal Seattle snowfall (but now the acoustics are better)
The four-day blizzard of 1916 was Seattle’s deepest snowstorm in history — and the First Hill church’s doomed dome could not withstand it.
Now & Then
Paul Dorpat digs into our rich local history, sharing images and stories from Seattle’s past.
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Seattle’s pioneer mansions were a popular 1940s feature of The Seattle Times
A Seattle woman’s focus on ‘Early-Day Mansions’ featured one downtown that was owned by one of the city’s most powerful and popular couples.
This Seattle neighborhood, a mix of Chinatown and Skid Road, was wiped out by 1889’s Great Fire
From the top of the Occidental Hotel, pioneer photographer Theodore Peiser captured buildings — some not quite aligned — later lost to Seattle’s 1889 Great...
In 1959, a missile on University Plaza stood out like a Thor thumb
Visitors could walk through a replica of the Air Force’s intermediate range ballistic missile — once the sergeant with the keys got to work.
A rare rooftop view of First Hill in 1917
A circus billboard helps mark the timing of this photo, taken from the top of the then-five-story King County Courthouse.
80,000 UW fans played along with ‘The Times Automatic Football Player’ in the 1920s
Husky fever was ‘automatic,’ but we’re not as sure about that ‘Player.’
It’s a mall world, after all: In 1950, Northgate became the country’s first mall
The Bon Marché anchored the $3 million shopping center, back when it had an uncovered ‘Miracle Mile.’
It’s a slippery slope of activity on Seattle’s Skid Road
The Seattle-Tacoma Interurban Railway stopped at this intersection, where salmon oil once greased the streets for log delivery.
The Metropolitan Theatre set the stage for an Olympic expansion
Built on the site of the University of Washington’s first school building, the Met closed after a Dec. 4, 1954, performance, and was torn down...
Few could conceive of a more glorious hotel than Seattle’s grand Olympic
Begun in 1923, the Olympic (now the Fairmont Olympic) was described as ‘the hotel of Seattle’s dreams.’
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