Predating the settlement that became the city of Seattle, the Duwamish had an encampment with two longhouses situated along the north central waterfront, roughly at the intersection of present-day Bell Street and Alaskan Way. By around the 1860s, the longhouses were gone, leaving only modest beach structures. In the 1890s the waterfront from Pike Street north to Broad Street had developed into a community of small homes made from found materials, including those deposited by the tides. Chief Si'ahl's ("Chief Seattle") daughter Kikisoblu ("Princess Angeline") continued to live in the area until her death in 1896. The area was cleared around 1903 in conjunction with the regrading of Denny Hill and construction of the northern approach to the Great Northern Railway tunnel beneath the city.
This image taken from the beach near Broad Street and facing southeast, shows several of the beach homes with various bits of flotsam and jetsam lining the beach.
Handwritten on negative: Water Front, Seattle- W, Feb. 2- 1903 Photographer's number: 30
Caption information source: https://pauldorpat.com/2010/10/page/6 Caption information source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Waterfront,_Seattle
ID Number: 1980.6923.108
Date: 1903
Physical Description: 1 photographic print : b&w ; 4 x 6.25 in.
Additional Information: Digital copy of this item available thanks to funding from a 2016 Institute for Museum and Library Services grant. Metadata updated as part of a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services administered by the Library Services and Technology Act, through the Washington State Library, a division of the Office of the Secretary of State.
Credit: MOHAI, Benjamin Pettit Photograph Collection, 1980.6923.108
