User talk:Publichall

Welcome to Wikimedia Commons, Publichall!

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Edit summaries

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Edmonds_WA_-_542_Main_St_01.jpg&curid=4067813&diff=524113785&oldid=494289868 is of course a good edit, but an edit summary that said what category you were adding would have been good; it would spare anyone who trusts you the need to click through to see the edit. - Jmabel ! talk 21:08, 4 January 2021 (UTC)

Sorry about that. Been making a large amount of category edits and some details are missed from time to time. Publichall (talk) 19:06, 5 January 2021 (UTC)

These have been much better the last few days, thanks, saves me a lot of checking (you've been hitting a lot of my photos). - Jmabel ! talk 21:58, 8 January 2021 (UTC)

Most photos relative to Washington's architecture tend to be yours, quite a wide scope! I'm sitting on several thousand photos of buildings I've taken across the PNW and elsewhere over the last 20 years, but haven't had the time to sit down and do the Quality control and categorizing. Hopefully someday. Publichall (talk) 17:21, 11 January 2021 (UTC)

Seattle

So I take it you are here in Seattle. Once the pandemic is over, any interest in becoming involved in Cascadia Wikimedians? Or are you already involved & I just don't know your username? - Jmabel ! talk 06:11, 15 January 2021 (UTC)

Close, I'm on the Eastside of the lake. I've never really participated in the social side of Wikipedia. When we can return to something called normal, I just might consider it. Publichall (talk) 17:31, 15 January 2021 (UTC)

Great! If nothing else, the local "Wicnic" should be possible late this summer, come by & just meet some of us face-to-face. Or at least let's stay connected enough that you know if a group of us are doing a photo expedition, as we've done with a few parks, or one time when the Ballard Locks were pumped out for cleaning. - Jmabel ! talk 19:12, 15 January 2021 (UTC)

[1]: very cool. Where are you getting this stuff? - Jmabel ! talk 15:08, 19 February 2021 (UTC)

I've been getting it all from scouring the Seattle Times & P-I archives that you can access through the Seattle Public Library databases, and the library of congress for earlier papers https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/. It's been a real blast browsing through the chronological history of the buildings I've been writing wiki articles for and I've been learning a lot of info that you can't find anywhere else. i.e that the w:Lyon Building was bombed by the same guy who would later commit the w:Los Angeles Times bombing. I'd love to submit a DYK for the home page but I can not find a single secondary source that discusses it, not even historylink! Publichall (talk) 23:34, 19 February 2021 (UTC)

• Impressively diligent on your part!
• Times & P-I are acceptable sources, duly "secondary" for this purpose. I can go into that more some time if you like, no time right now. The issue is to avoid (e.g.) things people write about themselves & self-publish, or un-peer-reviewed stuff by someone who is not expert. - Jmabel ! talk 01:39, 20 February 2021 (UTC)

I just need a source that the DYK reviewers can view without an account- knowing Wikipedians they probably won't take my word for it. No luck so far after searching through Mohai, UW special collections and Dorpat's site. It'll just have to remain an obscure piece of trivia for the time being. Publichall (talk) 05:06, 23 February 2021 (UTC)

Dates

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Category:Metropole_Building&diff=567195289&oldid=566799571

Does 9-3-1890 mean 1890-03-09 or 1890-09-03?

Also, probably "P-I" should be spelled out as "Post-Intelligencer", non-Seattle people won't know "P-I". - Jmabel ! talk 18:01, 4 June 2021 (UTC)

Bailey Gatzert residence

[2]: I don't see any sign of the "warren of small brick storefronts". - Jmabel ! talk 21:08, 18 August 2021 (UTC)

I guess it's not too obvious in this photo but to the right of the trolley you can see some of the light colored bricks around the dark storefronts blocking the house. They wrapped around it much like the stores across the street that were built under the old Normandy House during the regrade. I've seen better photographs from other angles but I don't believe they are on Wikimedia. Publichall (talk) 19:20, 26 August 2021 (UTC)

You may be able to help on a date

File:Spectators watching a circus parade on Second Avenue, Seattle, 1889 or 1890 (MOHAI 9683).jpg

MOHAI had this a decade off ("ca. 1900"). I've done what I can to explain why it has to be a decade earlier, and will eventually write to them, but from some of the edits I've seen you make I wouldn't be surprised if you could pin it down more exactly, or add other useful information. - Jmabel ! talk 00:14, 4 November 2021 (UTC)

@Jmabel: Hey Joe, after a little digging and cross referencing I can say with 99% certainty that this is a photo of the parade for the John Robinson circus, which visited Seattle on July 22, 1890. Here's an ad in the P-I from a few days before and Here's a P-I article from the day after that recaps the events and mentions the elephants. And as a bonus, a progress report on the Baily Building (referred to here as the Harrisburg Building) from 6 days after the circus parade, mentioning how a good share of the first story is up. Publichall (talk) 04:53, 4 November 2021 (UTC)

Beautiful! Mind if I paraphrase that on the file page (and credit you in the edit summary)? - Jmabel ! talk 19:31, 4 November 2021 (UTC)

Not at all! Go right ahead. Publichall (talk) 01:44, 5 November 2021 (UTC)

L.C. Smith Block

Asking for your help on another (and I'm so glad to have another user here with some serious knowledge of old Seattle!).

Despite MOHAI's comment, I don't think we need any "trip back in time" to assert that this can't be the northeast corner of Occidental and Jackson. If it were, then the State Building (built 1891) would have to be visible at left. Maybe there would be space for that little building at left between something this size and the State Building, but the south face of the State Building would still be looming up behind it.

But I'm not at all confident of "northwest corner of 1st Avenue South and Jackson Street" either. I suspect a Polk's Directory for the era (which I don't have access to at present) could sort this out by giving an address for Sunde & Erland Sailmakers or one of the other businesses whose name is shown here. Do you have that? (And, if so, is it on line somewhere I might also be able to access?) - Jmabel ! talk 21:10, 10 November 2021 (UTC)

Ah, I see the confusion, there are a lot of Smith buildings in Seattle and it looks like they transposed the location of two of them; the building at the Northeast corner of Occidental and Jackson currently known as the Burke Building (I think?) was originally, though briefly, known as the Smith Building as well (same architect and year of construction too), it was built by Lyman Cornelius Smith's younger brother Wilbert Lewis Smith for the Seattle Cracker Company, which is its second most common name. The one in the photo is definitely L.C. Smith's at 1st Avenue and Jackson.

The only Polk directory from this era that's available online for free is the 1901 edition, which is on Google Books https://www.google.com/books/edition/Seattle_City_Directory/yU7OAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA1&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false. They give the address of Sunde & Erland as 90 W Jackson which is about where the upstairs entrance to the building is.

The SPL has a page for all their digitized editions but is only complete up to 1890 here: https://cdm16118.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15015coll2 with only a few scattered years available after that. - Publichall (talk) 02:56, 11 November 2021 (UTC)

• Thanks! Again, I presume I may pass that on freely, with credit to you? And can I presume that in general, rather than ask each time? - Jmabel ! talk 16:04, 11 November 2021 (UTC)

Absolutely, no worries, feel free to edit or pass along any of my contributions if you have info or categories to add. That's what wiki is all about. - Publichall (talk) 16:20, 11 November 2021 (UTC)

File:Nile Temple Band in front of King Street Station, Seattle, June 3, 1919 (MOHAI 13050).jpg

Do you have any idea what the building immediately behind most of the band here was? - Jmabel ! talk 22:08, 13 May 2022 (UTC)

Hey Joe, that building was the Railway Post Office terminal. It was built in 1914, expanded westward in 1917 or 18 then a third floor was added along with a 4-story annex in 1923-4. All wiped out in 1956 for a parking lot for King Street Station, though the rail spur that accessed it (that crosses under the street north of the baggage area) could still be seen up until the restoration of the station. Publichall (talk) 23:02, 13 May 2022 (UTC)

Thank you! I'll add that. - Jmabel ! talk 23:18, 13 May 2022 (UTC)