Customer Reviews

Vanishing Seattle (Images of America)

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I own several of these IMAGES OF AMERICA books and I'm never disappointed.

This particular (picture) book is about Seattle in the past, and shows photos of some past landmarks that helped to create Seattle.

As the book's title stated, this book is about the "Vanishing Seattle", because all the landmarks are no more.

If you grew-up in Seattle, as I did, you will love to look through this book and reflect on some of the famous landmarks that were so wonderful to visit, but that are now extinct.

This book not only explores landmarks that have defined Seattle and given it its unique character over the years, but examines many other aspects of Seattle culture that have gone away. This includes businesses, events, commercial products, and radio and television shows. The book is complete in its listing and is well detailed. I can't think of anything that is missing, or any way that it could be improved. I came into the world in the 60's and remember much of Seattle's unique character that has vanished. Those items that are before my time are described in detail and can easily be appreciated by anyone.

Great book about the city where I was born in 1943. So I could totally relate to the vanishing aspect of the city.

All of us boomes over 50 that grew up in Seattle loved this book. We took buses to downtown when we were in our early teens and visited the stores and resturants mentioned in the book. In our early 20's we went to the bars highlighted in the book. It was a great trip down memory lanes.

This is a book I leave out for the enjoyment of my tax clients. It always evokes a memory and a good story.

"Vanishing Seattle" is part of the "Images of America" series and contains many pictures, descriptions, and facts concerning Seattle history.

As stated on the book's back cover - "Though Seattle is still a young city, growing and changing, much of its short past is already lost- but not forgotten....Seattleites have fond memories of restaurants, local television shows, stores, [etc.]....that evoke a less sophisticated, more informal city. This book explores Seattle at a time when timber and fish were more lucrative than airplanes and computers, when the city was a place of kitschy architecture and homespun humor and...full of boundless hope for a brighter future..."

I realize the above basically repeats the product description - but I think it sums the book up well. As the title suggests, everything contained in this book is either no more, or has evolved or shrunk from what it once was. Separate chapters are devoted to the buildings, stores, bars, transportation, sports and entertainment, old shows/media/personalities of Seattle, and more. Covered here are everything from the rise and fall of Frederick's and Nelson, the "Kalakala," J.P. Patches, and the Kingdome...to the "dome" United Artist's movie theatre. Other historical tidbits include the Interurban, the "Coliseum" (the downtown Seattle building that may have been the nation's first true movie theatre) and one entire chapter is devoted to "The Seattle Center"- from it's creation for the World's fair to its current decline. (Along those lines a sample of interesting facts covered- Seattle Center's "Centerhouse" - which is a very large building when one think's about it - has been around since before the 60's world's fair and was formerly used as an armory). The book provides a lot of "fun facts" like these and also prompts childhood memories (such as growing up on the television show "Boomerang" with Marnie Nixon...this book prompted me to go on-line and find the show's themesong).

Further, the book doesn't include simply Seattle "institutions"....also included are some perhaps less well-known or important places but ones those who grew up in the Northwest will still remember (some, from fairly recently), such as "Pay-n-Pak," "Pizza Haven," the former version of "The Frontier Room" in Belltown and "the Sit-n-Spin." By covering some less important places, but ones many of us fondly remember (or possibly not-so-fondly...who can forget "the Blob" restaurant in Lower Queen Anne?) the book covers not only what Seattle may be famous for, but also the lost "culture" of Seattle.

The above is just a small sampling of what was included - the pages include many, many other buildings, stores, brands, Seattle personalities, and more. Further, as implied by the above top description, beyond merely listing place after place, or product after product, the book attempts to make a statement about the disappearing unique aspect of our city. The introduction includes quotes by such wise sages as Jon Keister (of Seattle tv's "Almost Live"), to paraphrase him: "how does a City disappear? One building at a time...many of the neighborhoods (once used as the punch lines to his show) have lost what made them once unique and all of them are more-or-less now the same homogenous yuppie neighborhoods."

In other words (and in my own words) this book harkens back to a time before where when whether you're in Seattle, Washington, or Wash DC, standing on any given street corner you're apt to see the same brew-pub, bookstore, and coffee shop.

Clark Humphrey loves his city. He notices the little things that make it his home, and he writes nicely about the places, things and people that make up his past. They make it mine, too. I drove by the Coon Chicken Inn, ate at the Twin Teepees, watched the Aqua Follies and fireworks at Greenlake, parked with a girlfriend under the Grandma's Cookies sign, and spent a lot of time at Longacres. This book ignites old memories into flames of recognition and insight. It's also a guide to understanding what Seattleites mean when they talk about The Bon, or "Almost Live", or who Ivar really was, or why Rainiers is plural and why Rainiers make people smile. This book will make you smile, with that sort of wistful look in your eyes.

Anyone that enjoys old photographs and nostalgia will love this book of the Seattle area.

Wonderful photos from Seattle's past. Brought back a lot of memories. We had great fun looking at the photo's and sharing our own memories and good times. This book gets a lot of attention from our visitors.

Although I have now been gone longer then the duration I lived there, Seattle will always be my "hometown." This book does a lot to make me wistfully recound the 'small town' city that I grew up outside of (M.I.) from 1972-1986 (yes, my father moved us there when the famous "...turn out the lights?" billboard was up). Anyhow, the book is also a great reminder that while I can go back (and often do), it will truly never be the same. It really is unfortunate that this series is page-limited; I'm certain that more photos of other "vanished" landmarks could have been included (and that is my only gripe).