The Circumnambulation of Queen Anne: A Walk Around My Neighborhood

Lovely photo essay. Looks like a lot of fun, but I'm wondering where you found the glowy dayball for some of the shots. I'd heard it's a myth.

(FWIW, sedation dentistry is a Good Thing™ for those poor souls for whom local anesthetic no longer works. Like my husband. After the first side of his mouth was done, he mentioned, "I forgot what it's like when your teeth don't hurt.")

Posted by B. Durbin at April 20, 2010 2:22 PM

Fun pictures, tho it's a good thing for me and my caffeine addiction that there aren't so many great sources of it in my neighborhood. I always admire the way you can get candid shots of people (your NYC ones were great). Around here, if you aim a camera at somebody (especially a cute kid), you are glared at (even if one is somebody's mom).

I agree about seeing something different each time you walk a familiar route, if you are looking for it. Why it was a good thing in the old days when cops walked a beat...

Posted by retriever at April 20, 2010 4:12 PM

My grandparents, all four of them, rode that streetcar up and down Queen Anne Hill. We have variations of that photo in our family album, taken originally to send to those uppity second cousins in San Francisco who thought Seattle didn't have any real hills. Henry Yesler may have flattened our town a bit, but we still can be proud of our inclines - and the shapely legs we get from climbing them!

Posted by raincityjazz at April 20, 2010 5:25 PM

After all those coffee's, I'm surprised you were able to take any pictures that were in focus.

I enjoyed the essay

Posted by pdwalker at April 20, 2010 5:27 PM

thanks.

looks like a great place to well er um... live.

Posted by reliapundit at April 20, 2010 6:22 PM

What a great essay! I'd love to do something like that in some of the neighborhoods around here, but I don't live in the interesting ones. I live in the part of town where it's not unusual to see police tape.

Posted by Gordon at April 20, 2010 6:56 PM

Nice photo essay, but I'm not too sure about the Galer Apartments photo. I'm no expert on cars, but that one looks newer than 1910. It looks more like 20s or 30s to me.

Posted by rickl at April 20, 2010 7:00 PM

You might well be right. I'll check the source again.

Posted by vanderleun at April 20, 2010 7:13 PM

You are correct. It is 1934. I conflated the information with another image from the same source at.

http://qahistory.org/members/GrandTour/index.html

Posted by vanderleun at April 20, 2010 7:23 PM

Great neighborhood. I know because my son lives there. And the best part is he lets us visit.

Posted by f/zero at April 20, 2010 9:24 PM

Couldn't help but think of Chase Jarvis' "create, share, sustain" paradigm and the great video he posted in January of a couple of guys who spent a day recording life At the End of Yonge Street in Toronto.

Infinity's grain of sand doesn't have to be on a beach. It could just as easily be urban grit.

Posted by shoreacres at April 20, 2010 9:44 PM

Man...that brings back memories of living in a studio on the fifth floor of the Narada on Highland in my twenties. There were three gas stations on the hill when I was there if you count 7-11 which had a couple pumps out front. The Top Pot was the old S&M Market before they moved down the street. Nice to see Olympia Pizza is still there. Great green salad if you like canned black olives and a mountain of Mozzarella. The modern pad looks familiar. Pretty sure I know the architect. Targy's was my second home back when it was a real neighborhood dive. Can't recall the owners name but he would violently 86 us weekly for some minor breach of etiquette such as throwing cue balls across the bar and either didn't remember or didn't care when we showed back up the following Monday.

Thanks for the trip down memory lane Gerard.

Posted by westsoundmodern at April 21, 2010 12:24 AM

A counterbalance streetcar is known as a Funicular ('rope') railway, and is commemorated in the song "Funiculi, Funicula". FYI.

Posted by Brett_McS at April 21, 2010 1:21 AM

As a child I listened to my grandfather, a rapscallion of the first order, sing that song in horribly mispronounced Italian. With a heavy Danish (German) accent. Fun times, growing up Scandinavian in Seattle in the 50's. Now I'm really homesick. Thanks, Gerard.

Posted by raincityjazz at April 21, 2010 6:10 AM

Lovely essay, and wishing every day in Seattle was as sunny.

Posted by Fausta at April 21, 2010 3:26 PM

dear Mr. Vanderleun: "See you around the hood." No, dam it, not unless you have a time machine. In 1995-96 I worked at the Queen Anne branch of the Seattle Public Library. Since it was one of two jobs, the other being down by Harborview Hospital, I never had time for anything but running for the bus. A dam shame, as your photo essay proves. I missed a lot. What I remember most vividly was the weekend I worked at QA, and as part of Seafair, the Navy's Blue Angels roared overhead. You'd swear they were going to be landing on the library roof. Got rid of the dust on the old fashioned light fixtures at QA.

Sincerely yours,
Gregory Koster

Posted by Gregory Koster at April 21, 2010 5:03 PM

Very cool read. Enjoyed it alot! I'll def remember to check out the area next time I'm in Seattle.

Posted by ty at April 21, 2010 11:37 PM

I lived there for about a year. I remember walking my dog down that big ol' hill to walk through the park at the bottom. I remember the breathtaking view of Mount Rainier from the kitchen window too!

Posted by patricius at April 30, 2010 8:55 PM

Thanks !

Posted by Grace at April 20, 2013 11:00 PM

Loving one's little platoon -- the mark of a fine spirit.

Posted by HappyAcres at April 21, 2013 4:38 PM