Site Report 2
Site report 2
Although it was difficult to obtain U-district maps before 1850, I could gain a map in 1893 and 1998 from internet and UW library. From both of these maps, I was not able to find much specific information about this block for environment and surroundings, but these maps describe entire area of U-district and are suitable reference to compare current site with the one 20, 120 years before.
What I can gain from map in 1893 is that the section of U-district and roads has not changed for 100 years. In addition to that, current site where the territory of UW are expanded were originally parts of district and UW campus was made by cutting sites of district.
A second map is one in 1998 when the ownership of UW tower was still on Safeco. As you can see, buildings did not exist so much densely compared to current U-district. In terms of this block between Brooklyn Ave. and 12th Ave, there were several family housings along 12th Ave, though these houses were taken out and new apartments such as Ellipse Apartments and University House Resident Council were constructed instead. As I mentioned in Site Report 1, Cross& Crown Church is one of the attractive spots in this block and I cast in Site Report 1 how religious residents around this block are. I found that this church has existed over 20 years because there was on the map in 1998. That means this church was built before university students began to settle around this block. Furthermore, I realized there was “Carson Cleaners Inc” on the corner of 47th St and Brooklyn Ave on this map. This dry cleaning and laundry is currently closed and building is still empty. That is why I can see several crowns and homeless around this vacant building when I explored this block.
The most significant change in this block about environment would be construction of Ellipse Apartments. Before this building, this area was no building and was like park having a little nature as you can see. There are still plants along 12th Ave and pathway between Brooklyn Ave and 12th Ave, but these are planted by human, so I suppose that genuine nature was destroyed by Ellipse Apartments.