West Seattle Junction demolition update: After & before

What was left of the building on the southeast corner of California/Alaska in The Junction was gone by noon, midway through the third week of demolition/clearing work at the site of two future seven-story mixed-use buildings. We have a “before” photo shared a few hours earlier by King County Councilmember Joe McDermott:

In the accompanying e-mail, he shared a memory:

Foggy footage of the old People’s Bank building as the only thing left on the north end of the Junction’s southeast block. Just taken as I transferred to the Water Taxi shuttle to avoid the traffic this morning. Alyce Miller used to give me Husky bank deposits to walk over to the bank.

That’s a reference to McDermott’s days working for nearby Husky Deli. The corner building once held People’s Bank and West Seattle Hospital – and a second story, gone long before this final demolition.

Cleanup is now complete on the eastern side of the site at 42nd/Alaska and is to be finished on this side by Friday afternoon, so the debris is gone before the West Seattle Junction Harvest Festival on Sunday.

4 Replies to "West Seattle Junction demolition update: After & before"

  • Patricia October 24, 2013 (7:52 am)

    Most in WS may remember this corner as being a bank but my memory takes me back to when WS General Hospital was on this corner and my brother was there following an accident with a wringer washing machine back in the 50’s before being taken to Children’s Orthopedic Hospital!

  • BWD October 24, 2013 (9:00 am)

    My mom was born at that hospital.

  • WSMom October 24, 2013 (10:03 am)

    It was sad that all that lovely marble stone facade was just crushed up with the rest.

  • Darrell October 24, 2013 (9:59 pm)

    I was born at WS Hospital. August 43.

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