Seattle’s main industrial area, which includes Harbor Island, was built on tidelands at the mouth of the Duwamish River using dirt from the 1907-1909 Jackson Street and other Beacon Hill regrades. In 1911, Fisher Flouring Mills built a large plant on Harbor Island. Shipbuilding and related industries followed.
This panoramic photograph, taken from Admiral Way in West Seattle, looks east over the partially-filled lands, across Harbor Island and over to Beacon Hill. Colman Creosoting Works (lower left) treated logs for pilings, for which there was great demand. At this point, both it and the large Fisher Flouring Mills (white, center right) are still connected to the mainland by trestles. The Sears & Roebuck distribution center (now the Starbucks main office) can be seen on the far distant mainland above the tree in the center foreground.
Handwritten in ink on photograph: View of Industrial Section from Admiral Way--West Seattle 1917--Pierson & Co. Photo Typed on card included with photo: Seattle Tide Lands outlined in red was bought through us by Frank Waterhouse & Company as the site for vast proposed terminals for its shipping business. --R. C. Erskine & CVo., REAL ESTATE 3rd Avenue at Madison
Physical Description: 1 photographic print : b&w ; 37.5 x 8 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.
