Site Report #3: The Audio Tour

Welcome to block 13! Today, I’m here to provide you with some interesting facts and information about this block. As you can already tell, block 13 is an alleyway and yes, there is a construction going right now. In my opinion, you should make sure that you are with someone because in an alleyway by yourself can be scary and anyone can catcall you, which happened to me by the construction workers.  Which was awkward. The lot that is currently being constructed, it took over two houses believe it or not! One of the house has a record dated back to 1982, but it was not until 1983 when the first owner Richard and Dixie Stilwell had ownership and bought the house.

There has not been extremely amount of changed in the alleyway because majority of the apartments and buildings are currently from the 1970’s or possibly 1960’s. The only building that will be more modern is the one currently under construction and will be the tallest building on block 13 yet. It was very difficult to find some maps to see what the block history and condition were compared today. But, I found a map from the Seattle Municipal (Mo-knee-see-poll) Archives Map Index dated in the 1970’s! This map showed what was on the block during the 1970’s and not much as changed, to be honest. On the map, it put labels on each buildings and keys to show what the label meant and most of the label for block 13 were RMV 200 meaning that there were multiple residence living there. Which still holds true today because all the apartments and housings contain multiple families/people living here.

I think the people who lived on the block were families because the map from 1973 that was taken from the Seattle Municipal Archives Map Index showed that the area was dedicated to majority of families. in the book, The Modern American Metropolis, the author wrote, "As suburban houses became more easily attainable and a powerful symbol of middle-class status following World War II, homeowners worked hard to protect this residential ideal" (Freund, 250). This showed that families who were middle-classed often lived in suburban houses since it gave them power at that certain time. However, over the years, I believed it has changed a little bit. As cost of attending college increases, more students try to find areas that are affordable to live during their remaining time at the University of Washington. Also, I believe the area became available who wanted an affordable living situation because renting anywhere in Seattle right now as increased a lot over the past decade! Before, the block was limited to families, but now, it is home to anyone who wants to live here. 

I believe that minor changes happened in block 13 because of the ownership and that all of the buildings seem to be in an average condition. So not much changed were necessary right now. If new ownership of building occurred, new buildings would be built and more people would live in this block. As you are walking up or down the alleyway, you can see that the road conditions are not in its best shape. The road has a lot of cracks in them and cracks that forming into several other cracks and this is from the amount of pressure from trucks to collect garbage and recycle, construction work, and multiple cars passing by each day from the residents. Although, there is not a lot of trees or grass in the alley, most of them are in the front of the buildings rather behind it. 

 Audio Link:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7HOZQANGKmvT0thVk5aMktLVWM

If the audio does not play or work when clicking the link, please download the file and the audio should play perfectly from there.