Search All Items

Caption: "Smith Building -- Seattle." View of the neoclassical Smith Tower in Seattle, built by industrialist Lyman Cornelius Smith. At the time of its completion in 1914, the Smith Tower was the tallest building on the West Coast, until being superseded by the Space Needle in 1962. See also 96-07-08-alb05-177.

Date: 1914

Caption: "Battery Kinzie firing 'Trial Shots' Aug 1, 1912" and "No 10 Near Pt. Townsend, WA." Battery Kinzie was a coastal defense battery designed to include two 12-inch disappearing guns, installed at Fort Worden. Construction began in 1908. It was turned over to the U.S. Army's Coast Artillery Corps in 1912 for use in defending the entrance to Puget Sound. This postcard shows one of the 12-inch guns firing, with several unidentified men standing nearby holding their hands to their ears.

Date: 8/1/1912

Caption: "CHICAGO BOYS LANDING AT FORT ROSECRANS." View of US Navy sailors coming ashore at Fort Rosecrans. The flagship of the US fleet in the Pacific at the time, the USS Chicago was called to the fort after a boiler explosion on the USS Bennington killed sixty-six and wounded dozens more. A board of inquiry into the cause of the explosion was convened on board the Chicago. The board found that no error on the part of the Bennington's crew contributed to the explosion.

Date: 1905

Caption: "Fort Ward, Wash.," c. 1908-1912. View from Puget Sound of a wharf and other buildings of Fort Ward. Originally known as Bean Point, Fort Ward was established by the U.S. Army Coastal Artillery Corps in 1890. Re-named Fort Ward in 1903, the facility included four coastal batteries designed to assist in protecting Puget Sound and the nearby Naval Shipyard from enemy attack. Fort Ward was placed on inactive status in the 1920s, but was revived by the U.S. Navy during World War II. The Navy discovered the fort's location was ideal for listening to radio communications from Japan, and it subsequently became a top secret listening post with a link directly to Washington, D.C. The Navy continued the fort's use as a listening post until 1956, when it was again taken over by the U.S. Army. The Army subsequently stopped all activity in 1958, ultimately selling portions of the fort to the Washington State Park System in 1960. It is now a state park.

Date: 1908

Old Tom Gin

Date: 1899

The California Watch

Date: 1885

Chico Soda Works

Date: 1883

Diamond

Date: 1875

The Plant of Japan

Date: 1890

The Royal

Date: 1885