On the morning of October 7, 1940, workers from the Seattle Housing Authority began to clear a 40-block area on First Hill. Over the protests of many residents, cranes and bulldozers demolished substandard housing to make room for Yesler Terrace, Seattle's first public housing project. Some 1,000 people had to be relocated until Yesler Terrace was completed.

This photo, taken on the first day of the Yesler Terrace clearance project, shows a crane about to pull down the wall of a wood frame house. The large building in the background is Harborview Hospital.

Written on negative: Yesler Hill housing project.
Date photograph was filed at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (date of photograph and file date may differ by a month or more): October 8, 1940