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This holiday be sure to make time to go to the Seattle Art Museum to see “Hokusai Inspiration and Influence” (to January 21) and “Calder: in Motion, The Shirley Family Collection” (to Aug 4, 2024.) Both expand our understanding of these two famous artists. In “Hokusai” we see the larger context of his work possible because this exhibition comes from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, a pioneer collector of Japanese woodblock prints. The Calder is a delightful exploration, the first in a series based on the wonderful gift of forty-five works by Calder by Jon and Kim Shirley. Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) is familiar to all of us for his Great Wave also known as “Under the Wave of Kanagama” part of his Thirty-Six Views of Mt Fuji . It depicts three fish delivery boats caught up in a huge wave (had you noticed there are three boats in the wave?) Thirty-Six Views of Mt Fuji (1830 -31) was immediately popular. The exhibition demonstrates that artists from then to now have been inspired by it. Hokusai moved beyond the traditional scope of ukiyo-e prints that present Kabuki actors and women dressed in beautiful clothes (his teacher Katsukawa Shunsho’s specialty). Ukiyo-e means “pictures of the floating world,” and that world was the well-off educated urban middle class of Edo, Japan (1615-1868). Hokusai expanded those subjects to include landscape, folk tales, history, and literature. The exhibition includes his teachers, his pupils and others who were inspired by Hokusai. Wave (2006), a seven foot intaglio print by Peter Soriano, suggests we are inside the wave with its vertical thrust of water that breaks at the top. One unusual series is One Hundred Ghost Stories (Hyaku monogatari) . The most famous, The Ghost of Oiwa (Oiwa-san) has a strange, distorted face on a lamp. According to the catalog: “A man killed his wife in order to marry the rich girl next door, using a poison that caused poor Oiwa to become disfigured before she died. Her ghost returned to torment the killer by possessing everyday objects, such as the lantern that takes on the distorted shape of her dying face.” “Calder: in Motion” ranges from large complex hanging mobiles to tiny wire sculptures of animals. I was amazed at the astonishing skill involved in putting these works together. How did Calder get them to balance? How did he decide how to attach the different parts, what colors work? But above all you see the playful humor of Calder, a perfect exhibition for these depressing times. My favorite work by Calder is still his wonderful circus. I saw it at the Whitney many years ago, along with a movie of Calder manipulating the tiny wire animals. It came out of 1920s Paris, that exuberant period of experimentation in all the arts. Calder set it up in living rooms and the celebrity artists of the time came for the evening watching him bring the little circus alive; he even had music. In this exhibition we see a set of seven prints of the circus performers that remind us of this playful, experimental era. I also loved the Bird , the Rat , and the Cow , created out of wire and found materials. Calder’s ability to capture the nuances of moving animal forms in just a few lines, or pieces of wire, is the result of making hundreds of quick linear drawings at the Bronx Zoo in the 1920s. Calder works from very small to very large. Space itself was a primary material for him, and we have to look up and down and sideways to fully experience his inventive work. Although using different media in different eras, both Hokusai and Calder are about motion, scale and perspective. Hokusai pioneered a landscape art that included great changes in scale (he was familiar with European linear perspective; although his overall image size was small, we perceive vast distances. His other focus was moving water of which he was a master. In the 1930s Calder began to create mobiles that are thought of as abstract. He also began to make monumental stabiles that shape space but touch the ground like Eagle in the Olympic Sculpture Park. Given this title, I like to think animals are lurking behind all the abstract forms. Expand your sense of space as you visit these two shows! ~Susan Platt, PhD www.artandpoliticsnow.com

Established in 1906, Frink Park, Leschi’s vast, rambling woods, lies in the neighborhood’s geographical heart. Yet even those who are well acquainted with its hillsides, trails, and creeks may not know its history, flora, and fauna, nor even where its unmarked boundaries are. In the coming months we’ll take a long stroll through the park and shed some light on these obscurities. The park originated as a land donation from John and Abbie Frink. Having obtained the approximately square parcel bounded by Main and King Streets, and 31st and 34th Avenues South, the couple promptly donated it to the city for park purposes. In 1908 and 1909, the city acquired a few small parcels along the edges and added them to the park. Frink Park, along with Colman Park, Mt. Baker Park, and the Dose Terrace Stairs, was added in 2020 to the National Register of Historic Places. Upon a visit to Seattle in 1903, the landscape designer John C. Olmsted conceptualized a parkway along 31st Avenue South, the top of Mt. Baker Ridge, from today’s Colman Park to Leschi. He was the nephew, and later the adopted son, of Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr., who is considered the father of landscape architecture in the US, having designed New York’s Central Park, along with numerous other significant public spaces. After the elder Olmsted’s brother died, he married the widow and adopted her three children, including John. When Frederick retired, John and his half-brother, Frederick Jr, continued his work, as Olmsted Brothers, of Brookline, Massachusetts. Historically the area below crest had been prone to landslides, most recently in the late 19th century, attributable to clearcutting. But there had been slides centuries before, held in the cultural memory of Native peoples and attributed to the resident earth-shaking spirit A’yahos (described in my January 2022 article). Olmsted thought that any development below 31st would only consist of cheap housing, and that the maintenance of streets and utilities in a slide zone would be a never-ending expense. Construction of foundations and trenching for utility services would only exacerbate the problem, he feared. So instead, he recommended that parkland be extended down to the lakeshore and all the way south to Colman Park. Olmsted’s concerns about landslides were reasonable, but probably worse than justified, due to observations he made within the future Frink Park itself. On the steep hillside, he noted disruptions in the surface that he ascribed to earth movement. He wrote that he had seen “sudden depressions which I thought were and recorded as numerous landslides.” But, on a later walk through the area, J. W. Thompson, the superintendent of parks, told Olmsted that the depressions were left “when the footings were set for a great trestle used by a cable railway years ago to get from the top of the hill down to Lake Washington.” Olmsted wrote, “After the street railway was taken away leaving no sign except these long trench-like holes, I saw at once that they were artificial as soon as their origin was stated.” This huge, rickety bridgeway (built with 330,000 board feet of lumber) had been the return pathway for the Mill Street (later Yesler Way) cable car, which began service in 1888. But the structure, at a 15% grade and rising to 140 feet above ground), was dangerous and scary. In 1890, due to high winds that swayed the trestle, a car derailed and lost its grip. Passengers leaped from the car and held onto the side railings of the bridge as the car rushed downhill. Fortunately, no one was killed or seriously hurt. The bridge was decommissioned not long after, leaving behind the scars that Olmsted observed. No trace of the trestle is to be found at this late date, except perhaps by the most eagle-eyed among us. (Watch for more on the Leschi cable car in a future article.) During a 1906 return visit, Olmsted proposed a viewpoint at the corner of 31st and Jackson. He described the view from there as “almost unobstructed and very fine.” It’s hard to visualize that now, after a century of tree growth, but we must recall that the trestle had been removed not long before, leaving a clearing along the Jackson Street corridor below. The good view to be had nowadays is from the upper part of 31st, above the retaining wall, at King Street. The park enlargement did not come to pass, partly because the city was under pressure to complete Lake Washington Boulevard in time for the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition of 1909, which attracted numerous visitors to Seattle. Thus, a less ambitious boulevard wound through Leschi’s parks, and the park did not reach Olmsted’s expansive vision. Thanks to Frink Park advocate Darrell Howe for his assistance with this series. Continued next month. ~Roger Lippman The author writes monthly about Leschi history and his experiences over his 47 years in the neighborhood.

At our November Board meeting, John Barber’s letter to Parks was approved. He expresses concern about the proposed new pier. November 20, 2023 Superintendent A.P. Diaz Department of Parks and Recreation City of Seattle Email: parks_info@seattle.gov RE: Yesler (Leschi) Public Pier Dear Superintendent Diaz, The Leschi Community Council is concerned with the plan for replacing the Yesler Pier. The plan limits public access while changing the primary function of the Pier from public access use to power boat use. The Pier currently provides a public facility that is 47’ wide with wood surfacing (decking). It is used throughout the year as a place to gather and enjoy the views available from an over-the-water location and is especially heavily used by youth to socialize and sunbathe on summer weekends. The new design is only 16’ wide with steel grates. Is there a more user-friendly alternative? Shoes can get caught in grates. The lower floating dock attached to the Pier is used as a launching and landing platform for canoes and kayaks and, as we recall, under a grant from the Washington Wildlife and Recreation Program which requires permanence of function. The permission process appears to be ongoing and not yet finalized. We understand that a primary purpose of the Shoreline Management Act is to increase not decrease the public’s access to state waterways. Access to the water’s edge is a strong neighborhood value for us, as we demonstrated with the String of Pearls shoreline street ends. We request revision of the proposed plans for more inclusive public access like what currently exists. Please advise us of how we can best contribute to the community input process. Sincerely, Janice Merrill Brown, President (206) 679-4004 LCC Community Council janicemb@comcast.net Cc: Mayor Bruce Harrell, City Council of City of Seattle Members The Leschi CC Board would like to know the community thoughts on this issue; send your comments to Leschicouncil@gmail.com.

Mark your calendar for October 29 at 3pm. We are planning a memorial at the Officer Brenton memorial at 29th and Yesler. We are inviting the Mayor, East Precinct Captain, and other police officers, including Britt Sweeney who was injured in the attack the killed Officer Brenton. The community is invited. For more information about the history of this incident and memorial, please see this post on Behind the Badge . ~Diane Snell

Seattle Children’s has announced plans to build a new Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic in the Central District at the southwest corner of 18th Ave. S. and S. Jackson Street. The E. Yesler Way location has been closed for more than 12 months because the building is in disrepair. (A second Odessa Brown clinic is now open near the Othello light rail station.) The new clinic will, according to Dr. Shaquita Bell, OBCC’s senior medical director, “serve area patients and families with robust mental health and behavioral health services, nutrition, acute and well-child medical visits, labs, violence and injury prevention support and addiction related resources, which are unique to OBCC and not offered elsewhere.” A second Odessa Brown clinic has opened near the Othello light rail station. In an entry sponsored by the Roosevelt Alumni Race and Equity, the following profile of Odessa Brown by Mary Henry appeared on BlackPast.org . Odessa Brown, for whom the Children’s Clinic in Seattle is named, was born April 30, 1920, in Des Arc, Arkansas. She moved to Seattle in 1963 after receiving training as a licensed beautician at the C. J. Walker Beauty School in Chicago. A mother of four, she supported her family by working as Community Organizer for the Central Area Motivation Program beginning in 1965, and as a beautician. Brown was a staunch supporter of a health care facility for children in the Central Area. She worked tirelessly in this mostly African American neighborhood to make residents aware of the health needs of the area and to express these needs to the planners at Seattle Model Cities, a federally funded anti-poverty agency. Odessa Brown was a quiet, private person but when she spoke people listened, particularly when it concerned health care for children. Her efforts persuaded Seattle Model Cities to develop a children’s clinic to serve the city’s Central District. During her campaign for the clinic, few friends or associates were aware of her battle with leukemia which she had fought during her years as a CAMP community organizer. Brown died on October 15, 1969, at the age of 49. When the time came to name the children’s clinic after it opened its doors in 1970, there was never a question but that it be named the Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic. ~Submitted by Anne Depue

The plans for the last phase of the marina redevelopment, entitled “Wave Attenuation & Public Access Facility,” have suddenly come to light. The big takeaway from a review of the plans is that the existing 47-foot wide pier, which functions as a community gathering place, is eliminated, and is not replaced by any structure with any capacity for community gathering! The proposed “public access” consists of a gangway leading to a 16’ wide x 130 long float with a metal grated deck that leads to a series of connected 12-ft wide grated floats all along the east side of the boat basin. These floats function as breakwater, short term moorage for visiting boats, and access to and from the shore for the visiting boats. This begs the question, public access to what? Public access to the opportunity for a closeup view of the visitors’ yachts and other watercraft? What is the nature of public access now that there would be no pier or deck area that would be a magnet for people to congregate and hang out? Or to hold yoga classes? Who wants to sit on or sunbathe on a metal grate even if it provides enough room to stretch out, which it does not? This development is located within the Yesler Way right of way. The policy pursued by the Leschi Community Council has historically been to use the street ends at the lake shore for public access to enjoy the shore and the water. What they have accomplished within a half dozen street ends between here and the I-90 bridge is called “The String of Pearls.” That initiative has been very successful. This design clearly represents a missed public access opportunity. In sum, the proposal provides public access to the boat owning public but essentially no public access for the residents of the Leschi community or for the non-boat owning public at large. Indeed, it actually reduces public access for the community. There is an opportunity for the Parks Dept to do better if the Leschi Community gets together and forces it. That’s because the building permit for the last phase has expired and the Parks Department will need to repeat the public notice and review process in order to reinstate the building permit. Here’s a simple solution that could be offered up in the public review process: Widen the 16-ft floats at the bottom of the gangway to 30 feet and place them off-center with the 10-ft wide gangway (shifting them to the north) so that the circulation route does not bisect those floats as it does in the present design. The 135-ft long float is designed as a series of 16’x20’ linked floats. Not all of them need to be widened, however. Just the 3 floats at the very end that connect to the breakwater floats. That would provide a 20’x60’ area for community activity outside the 10-ft wide circulation path. The decking in that area could be spaced plastic lumber planks instead of open grates, which would articulate it as an activity area and provide a more appropriate surface for activity. Fixed benches could be provided there, as well. This would go a long way to restoring the historic community gathering function of the pier without making major changes to the plans. ~Randall Spaan

The legacy of John Newington Conna extends from Texas to Alaska, with a lasting impact in what is now the state of Washington, known then as Washington Territory when John arrived with his wife and family. The descendants of Conna gathered to celebrate his life as a African-American Northwest pioneer at a location near the homestead Conna and his wife purchased in what is now the City of Federal Way. A collaboration between Conna’s descendants and King County Metro was unveiled at the bus shelter celebration, which displayed a timeline of John Conna and his family. Great-granddaughters Maisha Barnett, Karen Jones and Beverly Kelly, and Great-Great granddaughter Ghanya C. Thomas helped unveil the photo display of Conna and his family. The display chronicles Conna’s life as well as his family’s trek west to a region where many of his descendants still call home. “We are excited to unveil the Conna Family Photo Mural and are forever grateful to King County Metro for making this a reality,” said Barnett. “As first landowners of a 157-acre Homestead in the City of Federal Way, John N. and Mary L. Conna were Northwest Black Pioneers helping to forge a community. With this installation, we acknowledge their extraordinary lives and contributions in the State of Washington and beyond.” “As a descendant of John N. and Mary L. Conna, it was deeply inspiring curating their lives for this mural project. My grandmother Beth P. Wilson didn't talk about her grandfather John Conna, so I really didn't know about him, said Thomas. “On many occasions it felt like their spirit was guiding me.” Conna was born into slavery in 1843 in San. Augustine County Texas and left Texas for New Orleans in 1859. Conna received his freedom when he enlisted in the First Louisiana colored infantry regiment when Union soldiers captured New Orleans in 1863. After the war, Conna worked on getting the education he was denied while a slave. He gained employment as a porter, an engineer, and an insurance agent while simultaneously advocating for the advancement of Black people. In 1883 John, his wife Mary Louise, and their children traveled west from Kansas City, Missouri via the Northern Pacific Railroad to the Washington Territory, becoming one of the first Black families in the city of Tacoma. Conna was a real estate broker hired by Allen C. Mason, and a landowner of Conna’s Addition, Conna’s Lake Tracts, and an owner of lots in the Park Boulevard Addition. He continued his political involvement, served as a leader within various civil rights organizations, and was unanimously appointed sergeant at arms by the inaugural state Legislature in 1889. The Connas used the Homestead Act to purchase a 157-acre farm in what is now Federal Way. Mary, who gave birth to 14 children, homeschooled her kids and managed the farm which included: a log cabin house, two wells, a chicken house, horses, fruit trees, vegetables, and over two and-a-half miles of road. Mary Louise Conna passed away in 1907, and is buried in Oakwood Hill Cemetery in Tacoma, WA. John Conna’s adventurous spirit led him to Alaska to be part of the gold rush, where he passed away in 1921. The bus shelter photo displays were designed by the Conna’s descendants, Barnett and Thomas, in collaboration with artist Juan Aguilera. King County Metro reached out to the Conna family in hopes of adding the Conna’s story to the Metro’s Bus Shelter Mural Program, a program designed to beautify neighborhoods and connect communities to public art. “We are honored that the Conna Family Legacy Project has brought such a beautiful telling of John and Mary Louise Conna’s story to a Metro Bus Shelter,” said Metro Project Coordinator Dale Cummings. “Despite the immense challenges that John faced in his life, he rose to become a leader in the post- slavery era, creating a life of hope and inspiration for all of us in our quest for a more equitable world.” For Ghanya Thomas, the photo display is the start of informing the people of this region of the proud legacy of this Northwest Black pioneer family. “We, The Conna Family Legacy Project did our best to capture the highlights, but honestly, there is so much MORE of their story to tell. Historically the mural offers a fresh look at their journey before they arrived in Tacoma,” said Thomas. “At each location you see John’s footprint politically and socially, directly confronting racism and discrimination toward the advancement of Black people. His transition from slavery to becoming Washington State’s first Black political appointee, and successfully lobbying for the state’s first public accommodations act is truly remarkable. I hope this mural lends itself to more dedicated spaces in honor of John N. and Mary L. Conna; it’s long overdue." ~Maisha Barnett

We are excited for our city council candidate forum on October 4 with Joy Hollingsworth and Alex Hudson. The city council approves and influences the mayor’s budget, think parks and road maintenance or health and safety efforts, and develops or approves laws and regulations, such as zoning and building codes, which directly affect our neighborhood. This is your opportunity to hear directly from the candidates on issues you care about. While we will have questions for them on topics most Seattle residents care about, we will ask them through a Leschi lens. We plan on addressing homelessness, affordable housing development and gentrification, public safety, and parks maintenance, and explore the candidates’ stance on how to raise revenue to fund all these efforts. We will also entertain follow-up questions from the audience. If you want to make sure to get your specific questions addressed, please send them to leschicouncil@gmail.com . October 4, 7pm at Grace United Methodist Church, 722 30th Ave S in lower hall. ~Matthias Linnenkamp

The Leschi Community Council invited key staff members of the Parks Department to answer questions at the September 6 General Meeting. The primary issues involved the falling back on landscape maintenance of Leschi Park and the natural area woods, and about the design for the replacement of the Yesler Pier which is next to Bluwater Bistro. Parks Issues: Jordan Merriam, Manager of the North Division, spoke to why maintenance has fallen behind. He reported that staffing has been reduced due to slow hiring of new staff but does not expect much improvement in adding staff. Especially lacking is replacement of vegetation. The Parks Department has been clearing out invasive weeds with mechanical equipment taking out the landscape shrubs and ground cover plants along with the weeds. Mr. Merriam recognized Parks’ responsibility but cited lack of resources for the slowness (editorial note: passage of years) of the process. One area of hope is a new program that allows for hiring and training of gardeners and landscape crews, still in an early stage of evaluation. Some neighbors have been disappointed by poor responses to the Find It-Fix it app which pertains to reporting graffiti and landscape problems. There is also another option: the Parks Work Order Line—phone 206.684.7250. Tree replacement is years behind, but scheduled for planting this year are 6 trees for Flo Ware Park, 13 trees for Powell Barnett Park, and 3 for Leschi Park. Natural Areas Issues: Restoration of the woods of Leschi’s natural areas is apparently stalled along with most of the natural areas of Seattle. There is a re-focusing of the commitment of the 2005 goals of the Green Seattle Partnership to restore the natural areas by 2025, setting back the goals. Lisa Ciecko, Manager of the Ecology Team addressed the concerns, but not only is there lack of staffing to assist volunteer efforts, but also lack of training for new volunteers, and priorities of staff work have shifted away from the Leschi Neighborhood to other areas. Shoreline Park Issues: Parks is working on re-landscaping the area by the fishing pier that is north of the North Leschi Marina. Leschi Gateway Project: (Lake Washington Boulevard between Erie Avenue and the historic cable car bridge). A re-landscaping project is underway. Large areas have been cleared, covered with wood chips, and scheduled for new plants this fall. A 3-year maintenance is included in the contract work. Replacement of the Yesler Pier: The Parks Department will demolish the Yesler Pier and remove the small floating pier next to it. Then, there will be a new “walking pier” constructed to replace it and cover a breakwater. The new walking pier will be substantially narrower than Yesler Pier, but longer—a long ramp down to a 130-feet long, 16 feet wide dock into the Lake that makes a right turn to the South to a 550 feet by 10-feet wide pier for short-term moorage, covering a breakwater. Sai Fang, Capital Projects Coordinator, reported and fielded questions. Currently, there are no good graphical depictions of this, only architectural plans which are found on the web as the “South Leschi Marina Wave Attenuation & Public Access Facility.” Please call John Barber at 206.954.4458 if you have questions.

Cascadia Art Museum , 190 Sunset Ave. S., #E, Edmonds, WA 98020, ph: 425.336.4809, Runs until October 29. Hours: Monday–Tuesday Closed; Wednesday–Sunday 11am–5pm. For decades David Martin has been our Northwest expert on female, gay and Asian artists of the twentieth century. In 2023, he received a lifetime achievement award from the Pacific Northwest Historians Guild. His memorable projects focus on understudied artists such as Pictorialist Japanese photographers of the 1920s, pioneering women photographers such as Virna Haffer, color printmaking and watercolors of the Northwest, particularly by women, and gay culture of Washington State. The current exhibition “Native American Modern, Shared Expressions in Northwest Art” gives a subtle and fascinating view of intersections and shared ideas between Native and non-Native artists primarily in the 1930s and 1940s. During this time, the government art projects were acknowledging Native artists and supporting them, an abrupt turnaround from decades of suppression and efforts to “civilize” Native Americans with brutal boarding schools and cultural bans. One of the leaders in this re-evaluation of Native cultures was Erna Gunther, a student of Franz Boas, who created the first anthropology department at the University of Washington as well as being the first director, in 1930, of the Washington State Museum, now the Burke. In the third room of the exhibition are some video clips from a series of television shows she created “Western Washington Indians Then and Now” between 1965 and 1966. She explains Native dancing, music, singing, clothing, all with great respect and knowledge. Professor Gunther was a major catalyst for many of the artists in the exhibition both Native and non-Native. The star artist is Julius “Land Elk” Twohy ( 1902–1986). The first room of this three-part exhibition is devoted to his work. Julius Twohy created a 72 foot mural The Flight of the Thunderbird , as a WPA commission in the Cushman Hospital (Tacoma Indian Hospital). The exhibition includes photographs documenting the artist painting the mural, a study, and a detailed explanation. Unfortunately, the mural was first painted over and then destroyed when the building was torn down in 2003. Much of Twohy’s work was lost as a result of arson in his studio, but the exhibition brings together a group of WPA lithographs from the Henry Art Gallery and private collections, as well as a few paintings and studies. We see the thesis of the exhibition clearly in Twohy’s art. His prints combine modernist cubist fragmentation and abstract forms with Native subjects in works such as Tom Toms and Drum : the round drums convey sound, movement and rhythm. Each lithograph has a different interpretation of abstract form. In the second room we have the Klee Wyk Studio (1951–1961), comprised of Delbert McBride, his brother Albert with his life partner Richard Shneider as well as painter Oliver Tiedman. A type of Bloomsbury approach, they created decorative items such as tiles and bowls based on their study of Northwest Coast art and culture. Martin distinguishes their work as inspired by Native motifs, rather than appropriating them, as here again we see the intermixing of modernism with, for example, Haida designs. In the second room Bruce Inverarity created carpets with abstracted motifs inspired by Native designs. Inverarity is best known as administrator of the Washington State WPA. The third room features a selection from Worth Griffins’ series of sixty portraits of Native leaders. Griffins paints in the traditional realist, academic style, but respectfully includes detailed observations and emotional insight into these proud people at a time when they were under enormous stress. In this room also is African American/ Indigenous artist Milt Simons who creates abstracted Native related imagery in an expressionist style. David Martin’s theme is that these artists knew one another through Erna Gunther and the government art programs. As Indigenous artists absorbed modernism and White artists explored Native design, the exchange was respectful and complex. Hopefully the exhibition will lead to more research on this fascinating era, when the NW art world was small, and artists of diverse backgrounds came together. -- Don’t miss Hokusai, Inspiration and Influence , traveling from Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and opening at the Seattle Art Museum on October 19. At the Asian Art Museum, Xiaojin Wu, our wonderful, regretfully former, curator of Japanese Art curated Renegade Edo and Paris, Japanese Prints and Toulouse-Lautrec (until December 3). Xiaojin examines the subtle ways in which these Edo and Fin de Siecle Paris resemble each other, as well as how Toulouse-Lautrec transformed his sources from the Edo era. ~Susan Platt, PhD www.artandpoliticsnow.com

November 1 at 7pm Meet Tom Fay, the Director of the Seattle Public Libraries. Learn about his background and the versatile system he leads. There are programs for all ages and special programs for those with special needs. What does this impressive system need? And how do we protect it against calls for banning books? Grace United Methodist Church (lower level hall) 722 30th Ave S, Seattle, WA 98144

When we left off last month, the redoubtable Lake Washington ferry Dawn had mostly sunk at the Leschi dock in a ferocious 1923 storm. Enter some early Leschi residents. Harry McElhaney Sr, along with his nine-year-old son, Harry Jr, went down to have a look the next morning. Finding a way onboard, they clambered up to the nice wooden sign displaying the ship’s name. (See arrow on the photo above.) When they left, the fine old Dawn sign left with them. It stayed in the family for what is now 100 years, and counting. The younger Harry’s daughter interviewed her father 70-some years later for an article in the Leschi News of May 1996. She now displays the sign by her Leschi window that looks out upon the ferry’s long-ago pathway to Mercer Island. Photos of the boat from before the sinking show the sign atop the boat, but it is definitely missing in subsequent pictures. The McElhaney family left another lasting mark on the neighborhood. On the 1100 block of 32nd Avenue South is a tall redwood tree planted in 1923 by the senior McElhaney’s wife, Kathy. Missing sign or no, the Dawn was repaired and back in service the following April, continuing the run, without further catastrophe, until October 1938, when it was retired. By that time, according to Captain Gilbert, the boat was “so patched up you can’t hardly find any of the original ship left.” (It would have been out of work by 1940 anyway, when the opening of the Floating Bridge brought an end to ferry service from Leschi.) It may have been used as a party boat over the next few years. Subsequently, with the engine and boiler removed, it was moored at the Atlantic City Boatyard, not far from Rainier Beach High School. The ferry remained at Atlantic City, later partially sunken, until September 1946. Authorities considered it a nuisance because children were able to get aboard and could be injured. King County Sheriff’s deputies and Harbor Patrol officers refloated the boat and towed it out to deeper water, where it was sunk. Exploration divers report that numerous other scuttled boats are to be found on the lake bottom in that vicinity. Captain Gilbert, after the Dawn was beached, took over the helm of the ferry Leschi, on the Madison Park-to-Kirkland run, from 1940 to 1950, when service from the Leschi dock ended. (Faithful readers will recall that it’s the boat I rode shortly before I was born.) Gilbert was later memorialized with a bronze statue at the old Leschi LakeCafe (now BluWater). He lived across the street from the ferry dock and drank at Benson’s Café, which preceded the LakeCafe by many years. He reportedly ate apples to sober up before taking the helm. The Times noted that, like its real-life predecessor, the statue had a hollow leg. Unfortunately, the 350-pound statue, mounted to a concrete base, was stolen from outside BluWater and has not been found since. This publication would be interested to hear from any readers who have a clue about the statue’s later whereabouts. Did it end up in some family’s rec room? If so, are they tired of it and would they like to give it back? Or was it perhaps melted down for the cold cash, never to be recovered? ~Roger Lippman The author writes monthly about Leschi history and his experiences over his 47 years in the neighborhood.