506 results for: Government and Public Services
Photograph
U.S. Assay Office, Seattle, 1905
The United States monetary system used to be on the gold standard. People used gold coins, as well as paper currency which was backed by gold. When gold started arriving in Seattle from the Klondike in 1898, the government opened an assay office to buy gold and to certify its purity. The building was located at 617-19 9th Avenue. Handwritten…
ID Number:1983.10.7465
Date:1905
Photograph
Seattle Public Library reading room, Seattle, circa 1906
The city of Seattle established a public library in 1890 after several earlier attempts by private citizens. The library was housed in various places and finally ended up in the Yesler Mansion, just uphill from its current site. After the mansion burned in 1901, industrialist Andrew Carnegie donated $200,000 for a new building which opened in 1906. The Carnegie Library…
ID Number:1983.10.7734
Date:Circa 1906
Photograph
King County Poor Farm, circa 1907
In 1854, Washington's legislature made counties responsible for caring for all poor, sick, and homeless people whose relatives could not support them. Counties could build workhouses or poor farms and contract out the care of sick and indigent adults. Starting in 1877, King County operated a County Poor Farm on the Duwamish River, where destitute people lived and worked.This photo,…
ID Number:1983.10.7773
Date:Circa 1907
Photograph
Seattle City Light's first plant at Cedar Falls, 1912
In 1905, the first hydroelectric power from Seattle City Light's Cedar Falls power plant was sent by wire to the city-owned company's distribution station on Yesler Way. From there, it lit Seattle's street lights. Before 1911, the plant generated more electricity than was needed. Seattle City Light earned money for the city by selling the excess power to local privately-owned…
ID Number:1983.10.7818
Date:1912
Photograph
Groundbreaking ceremony for Cedar Falls dam, 1912
In 1905, the turbines began to turn at Seattle City Light's first hydroelectric plant on the Cedar River. In 1912, work began on a large masonry dam to replace the original wooden one. This photo was taken at the groundbreaking ceremony for the new dam facility. According to Seattle Public Utilities personnel, the ceremony took place at Camp II, the…
ID Number:1983.10.7819
Date:1912
Photograph
City Engineer R.H. Thomson and sign for new dam, circa 1912
Reginald H. Thomson was appointed Seattle's City Engineer in 1892 and served off and on in that capacity until 1931. Thomson was particularly interested in providing a reliable source of inexpensive electric power for Seattle. He was convinced that city utilities should be municipally owned and that private ownership of vital public services was unwise.This photo, taken around 1912, shows…
ID Number:1983.10.7826
Date:Circa 1912
Photograph
Seattle City Hall, circa 1911
In 1890, Seattle's City Hall moved into King County's old courthouse at Third Avenue and Jefferson Street. Seattle's population grew very fast during the next eighteen years. As the city boomed, the city government kept adding on to the old building. The building looked so strange that people nicknamed it the "Katzenjammer Castle" after a popular comic strip of the…
ID Number:1983.10.7972
Date:Circa 1911
Photograph
Steam fire engine, circa 1909
Seattle's fire department bought a number of new engines after the Great Fire of 1889.This photo shows one of the department's horse-drawn pumpers racing to a fire in about 1909. The steam in the photo comes from the fire engine's boiler. The boiler makes steam to power the engine's water pump. When the engine gets to the fire, firemen will…
ID Number:1983.10.8172
Date:Circa 1909
Photograph
City Hall, Georgetown, circa 1909
Georgetown, located north of Boeing Field, was once a separate city connected to Seattle by streetcar. After Georgetown became part of Seattle in 1910, its old city hall remained a hub of community activity. The police department had a branch in the front of the building, and the Seattle Fire Department had a fire station in the rear. Handwritten on…
ID Number:1983.10.8344
Date:Circa 1909
Photograph
Story hour at Collins Playground, Seattle, circa 1912
Collins Playground, on South Main Street and Fourteenth Avenue South was the site of the Seattle Public Library's first extension programs for children. Librarians traveled to the playground for story hours and other activities. By 1911, the library was presenting programs at five city playgrounds.In this photo, taken about 1912, children are listening to a library story program at Seattle's…
ID Number:1983.10.8410
Date:Circa 1912