Friday
December 09, 2005
SGN.org
Volume 33
Issue 49
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Thursday, Nov 20, 2008
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GAY HISTORY: The late great Broadway, again... |
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| GAY HISTORY: The late great Broadway, again... | |
| By Don Paulson
- SGN Contributing Writer
Capitol Hill has been a Gay mecca for many years. Katherine Jensen who was born in 1895 and lived in the same house on Mercer for 85 years recalls a man in 1915: "We called him a 'fairy' because he walked like a girl. He was a nice man but definitely considered a character." But in the shadows of 1930 Broadway, a "Female Impersonator," labeled by the press, the "Beast Man," probably straight, terrorized women on the Hill by waiting in dark alley's and bushes to launch a "savage attack" for sex or money. It is not known if he was caught. Capitol Hill, a.k.a., Broadway Hill, "Fairy Hill," and "Queer Hill," was an ancient forest in 1851 and logged off in the 1880s. A few houses bordered an old dirt wagon road, [officially named Broadway in 1913] to Lakeview Cemetery and City Park, renamed Volunteer Park in 1901 to honor volunteers in the Spanish American War. In ca. 1900, land developer James Moore platted a section of Capitol Hill for modest home sites as well as others for fine mansions that still survive. Moore's lots sold well and ushered in the residential and economic birth of Capitol Hill. There are two versions of how the Hill got it's name: One because Moore's wife came from Denver that had it's own Capitol Hill. The second story has it that the name was picked in hopes of enticing the State of Washington to move the State Capitol from Olympia to Capitol Hill. Moore's philosophy was: "Make no small plans, they have no magic to stir man's blood. Make big plans, aim high and hope and work." [In 1956 I had the privilege of meeting Elinore Roosevelt in New York City and I asked if I could introduce her to my mother and grandmother. She was very gracious and asked my mother how she liked the United Nations Building. "It's a beautiful building," she replied, "But it would look better on Seattle's Capitol Hill." Mrs. Roosevelt smiled and said, "I'm sure you're right, but it needs to be in New York where it's more centralized."] Moore's addition came at a time when Seattle's population soared and Capitol Hill became a "melting pot of all kinds of people, especially after Streetcars #7 and #14 were put in. Capitol Hill soon became a vital place to live and do business and Broadway became one of the most promising shopping areas in Seattle. The safe streets and parks were full of kids and dogs and Broadway merchants provided everything one needed without having to go downtown. Being a long and level street, bicyclists loved it, but were eclipsed by the emerging, incorrigible Auto Industry. Broadway, Pike and Pine Streets housed their flashy Showrooms. In ca. 1915 Broadway became known as "Auto Row." In 1927, Del Teet Furniture moved onto Broadway, followed by Skewes and McBreen's. Broadway gained some class and became "Furniture Row." The Depression and the second world war slowed things down, but the biggest blow to Seattle's vitality was the mad exodus to the suburbs after the war. Capitol Hill lost a lot of it's trendy glamour. The variety of business's, old houses, and kids and dogs were a thing of the past. Capitol Hill had become an Apartment House Community. In 1910, when apartment houses were first being built on Capitol Hill, people opposed them because they had the reputation of being only for "poor people" and "you just don't want those kind of people around family neighborhoods!" In the 1950s, the big furniture showrooms on Broadway expanded into interior decorating services. They set the pattern and, soon, most of Seattle's top Interior Designers opened showrooms and offices, followed by all the related industries, such as accessories. Broadway was now called "Decorator's Row." The old money went to the suburbs, but a new crop was coming up. One could witness the cities wealthiest people in the decorator's showrooms and in Seattle's only two art galleries, the Hall-Coleman and Zoe Dusanne Galleries. One way or another, Gays ruled Broadway. Broadway experienced one of it's finest decades. But, that all changed when Pioneer Square was restored and all the decorators set up shop there, the shiek place of the 1960s. Historic Broadway slid deeper into the past, but it transformed itself using Makie's sidewalk dance steps to dance into what we know as Broadway today. Business's of all kinds, Gays and Lesbians, shoppers, students, latter day hippies, punk rockers, grungers, hip hoppers, counter culture, skateboarders, the homeless, fast food, chain stores, quick stops, live theater, clubs, cinema, art galleries, book stores, dance halls, parks, people watching, cruising, coffee house's, SGN..., and Mark "Mom" Finley - all the things that make life diverse, more interesting and give us the freedom to partake. Broadway is Seattle's most famous neighborhood, even without the [Gay Pride] Parade. Broadway is America; the street we love to love. |
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International Readers |
 
It's new!A blog created by the SGN staff so you can be heard |
"Putting on the Ritz |
The Beauty of Freedom artist's reception |
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copyright Seattle Gay News - DigitalTeamWorks 2005