Site Report 3: The Audio Tour

Today, the block between 12th and 11th Avenue, and 43rd and 45th Street looks sedated, and perhaps a little decrepit. In the ‘40s and ‘50s, however, this small plot I’ll call Block 5 told a different story. Fast forward even further, to the beginning of the 20th century, and these streets don’t seem anything like the bustling U District thoroughfares they are now. Like much of Seattle, in the late 19th century, the block was largely yet to be developed, and the primary features were a hill sloping southwestward towards Lake Washington, and plenty of trees.

While data between 1900 and 1920 is scarce, sometime in that first decade Block 5 became an urban landscape. Were you to walk around the block  in the 1920s, you’d see single family homes on the south side. The southern half of the block has been residential since the beginning, and remains so. The occupants of these homes were European, with names like Odegard, Carr, and Shaw, evidenced by the City Directory of 1928. On the north side of the block, small businesses like “North Seattle Printing” were popping up as the growth of the area necessitated (Seattle Directory 942). The north half would remain the business area of the block from the time on.

In the 1940s and ‘50s, Block 5 looked different- it had become part of the college scene. The houses were replaced by apartments, including La Mirada Apartments, which is still around today (Seattle Directory 1963). The occupants were now college students. Businesses reflected the change in demographic. They included a bowling alley, beauty salon, and eatery called “Clark’s Top Notch restaurant” in the 1948 and ‘58 directories (Seattle Directory 114). Some offices were housed here as well. The shift is likely due to the rise in enrollment after the end of World War 2, as the U District became a primary place for college students to have fun and do errands.

In the later half of the 20th century, Block 5 became more subdued. Still boasting apartments full of college kids on the south side, it lost entertainments like the bowling alley and the salon. In 1981, the 6 story University District Building was built, and housed various offices- a psychologist’s, lawyers, a medical lab. On 12th, a two story building became occupied by a dentist’s office, a use which is continued today. To accommodate these professional users, parking garages went up. Walking on 45th looking for a bite to eat, you wouldn’t see Clark’s anymore either- the building was now occupied by a new restaurant, China First, as shown in the 1988 directory (Seattle Directory 287). This change reflected the increase in Chinese and other Asian immigrants, as well as the U District’s slow transition into a more high rise cityscape.

As Block 5 enters the new millennium and progresses towards the present day, few great changes occur. The apartments full of college students remain as such, and the University District Building houses similar professional offices- funny enough, the block has 4 different dentists! Parking continues to be a key feature, and a tall garage dominates the west side.

Big changes happened in that little restaurant lot on the corner on 45th and 12th. According to construction permit records, the lot that used to house China First changed hands and almost became a Blockbuster in 1999. For the remainder of the building’s life, it was a Thai restaurant called Pailin Tal. Possibly due to the cost of real estate, the last of the restaurants on Block 5 served its final meal in 2014, when the building became slated for demolition. The crumbling, fenced in lot you see now will soon be as yet unspecified retail and parking like the surrounding area.