During the Great Depression of the 1930s, many unemployed and homeless people throughout the United States built shantytowns on vacant lots. The settlements were called Hoovervilles, after President Herbert Hoover whom many blamed for the depression. In Seattle, shantytowns grew in the waterfront areas south of downtown Seattle and north near Smith Cove. When the United States entered World War II, Hooverville residents had to move to make way for war construction.

This photo, taken June 6, 1942 at the Smith Cove Hooverville, shows navy officers watching as a shack burns. The land was being cleared for the development of a United States Navy Supply Depot at Pier 41.

Written on negative: U.S. Navy burning shacks, Pier 41
Date photograph was filed at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (date of photograph and file date may differ by a month or more): June 9, 1942