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June 2, 2008 at 4:30 pm #587099
flowerpetalMemberThis past weekend we celebrated the 50th birthday of a friend from Oregon. She told us she was born in West Seattle; and according to her parents it was West Seattle Hospital. They used to describe it as a store front hospital and that is stumping me! I was thinking perhaps Mount St. Vincent… but that doesn’t make sense.
Can someone with 50 or more years of WS experience tell me where this was? My friend would like a picture then and now (if possible).
June 2, 2008 at 4:33 pm #626064
shihtzuParticipantI “think” there used to be a hospital where the senior center is now…
I know two of my sister in laws were born in West Seattle.
June 2, 2008 at 4:51 pm #626065
StarskyParticipantHi, west seattle hosipital is where i was born many years ago :) and now its for folks with mental problems. I think after my birth they decided to change up :)) there also use to be west seattle hosiptal above right the senior center.
hope that helps
June 2, 2008 at 4:59 pm #626066
flowerpetalMemberSomewhat. I presume you are talking about Highline on Holden SW. I think, if my friend were born 50 years ago that the space above the senior center is more likely.
June 2, 2008 at 5:00 pm #626067
flowerpetalMemberMy apologies to Starsky and Shitzu… I forgot to say thank you! Thanks :~)
June 2, 2008 at 5:02 pm #626068
AnonymousInactiveAccording to this previous discussion of old businesses in WS, it was on California and Alaska. The Senior center is further north, so maybe memories are hazy.
June 2, 2008 at 5:26 pm #626069
flowerpetalMemberThanks JT. It was fun rereading that link. Seems that more than one person remembers the hospital being on one of the corners of California and Alaska. I wonder which corner.
June 2, 2008 at 6:11 pm #626070
GTMemberWest Seattle hospital was on California/Alaska on top floor of a bank, my brothers were all born there.
A new hospital was built on Holden St, and I was born at that one in ’64.
June 2, 2008 at 6:21 pm #626071
flowerpetalMemberThanks GT. Is that the corner where the KeyBank is now?
June 2, 2008 at 6:35 pm #626072
WSBKeymasterI have a copy of West Side Story handy, will consult that. There’s also been discussion that the doomed house at 4532 42nd SW was West Seattle’s first hospital. Speaking of history, stay tuned for an overdue writeup within the next couple days — a chance to share yours online, West Seattle-specific :) — TR
June 2, 2008 at 7:24 pm #626073
WSBKeymasterUpdate: Reading Chapter 13 of West Side Story about health care – the “West Seattle Hospital” most likely to have been operating at that time was at the southeast corner of California and Alaska. Earlier, several other locations sequentially were known as the WS Hospital — including one at California and Morgan — and the building I mentioned at 4532 42nd SW (described in WSS as 4530, but there’s a photo, and it’s the same house; design review for the project on that site is coming up a week from Thursday) — TR
June 2, 2008 at 7:27 pm #626074
RonMParticipantYou’re right. The old West Seattle Hospital building is gone now, but was on the 2nd floor of the building that was replaced by the Key Bank building. I had to go there to repair a broken arm in 1942. I don’t recall how long it lasted, but I think it was gone by the early 50’s. The new West Seattle Hospital was on Holden, but went bust with bad management, embezzlements and union threats.
June 2, 2008 at 8:09 pm #626075
JanSParticipantfunny, as long as I’ve been here I thought the old WS Hospital was in the building that now houses Super Supplements. There was a bank on that corner at one time, and I thought my ex-MIL said that the hospital was above it. My ex would know, but we don’t speak often – lol…
June 2, 2008 at 8:19 pm #626076
flowerpetalMemberThe SE corner would be where the supplement store is; the SW corner is where KeyBank is; unless I am directionally impaired.
June 2, 2008 at 8:20 pm #626077
WSBKeymasternope, that’s the southeast corner. we have to keep our mind fairly razor-sharp on directions for writeups on the site and SE corner is definitely Super Sup, etc.
June 2, 2008 at 8:27 pm #626078
miwsParticipantYes Jan, you’re correct.
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And TR, is correct too. A buddy of mine was born at WSH, in that location, in 1957.
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What’s funny for me, is I don’t remember that 2nd story being there, and thus not the hospital. Yet, I can remember A-Advanced TV being in the Sup Sup spotat what should have been around the same time.
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If you go into the alley, and look at the back of the building, right there at the bend of the “L”, apparently was the emergency entrance. I’ve actually been in the basement of the building, and that’s where the morgue was. :o So, watch out future residents of future condos! :P
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Flowerpetal, Happy Belated big 5-0 to your friend. I’ll be hitting that mark in late September, but I was born at Seattle General in Downtown Seattle. :)
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Mike
June 2, 2008 at 8:39 pm #626079
JanSParticipantmiws…it’ll be interesting when Connor Homes breaks ground and gets down to morgue level…who knows what or who might have been left behind….ack !!!!
June 3, 2008 at 12:02 am #626080
RonMParticipantI think the hospital was on the SE corner of California and Alaska. The entrance was not on the corner, but on Alaska and the hospital was on the 2nd floor. Guess my memory is better for the past than for what’s there today (which corner is Key Bank?). I graduated in 54 and think it was gone by then.
June 3, 2008 at 12:24 am #626081
TammiWSMemberI’ve also been in the basement of the Key Bank/Super Sup building and there is a huge walk in bank vault down there too.
June 3, 2008 at 1:08 am #626082
GenHillOneParticipantTotally confused…KeyBank (SW) and Super Supplements (SE) are on different corners. But we’re saying that there used to be a bank on the SE corner too, with a vault? Under the hospital? Well, either way, when Conner gets down there to that morgue level, sounds like a cool video story, WSB. Someone on here likes the WS ghost stories – Shibaguyz maybe? Too morbid? I just like those weird corners that you don’t usually get to see!
June 3, 2008 at 1:24 am #626083
TammiWSMemberI recall there being a bank at one time where Super Sup is – (and a gym once as well). I thought it was Key but maybe it was a Peoples Bank or ??? That’s the vault I’m referring to, under Super Sup. They used to have metal drop boxes too outside the door if I recall?
June 3, 2008 at 4:35 am #626084
miwsParticipantYes, People’s Bank (evolved into US Bank) was in the Sup Sup corner spot for many years. Ironically, People’s Drug Store (unaffiliated, of course) was kitty corner in the Easy Street spot. They were maybe a bit of a Junction Landmark, not only because of their prime location, but their mortar and pestle sign, with the motorized pestle twirling around in the mortar. Sadly, the business came to an unhappy ending, when the longtime pharmacist (I believe he was also the owner) got into trouble for doing illegal stuff.
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I just checked my copy of the West Seattle Bible (Westside Story as TR mentioned above) and got more info.
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The Sup Sup building is known as the Junction Building. WSH vacated the second floor in 1961, hence why I wouldn’t remember it being there, being only 2 or 3 at the time, (but it seems I should still remember the second floor being there) and a photo from 1967 is in the book taken shortly before they removed the second floor. A-Advanced TV was there at the time. A-Advanced TV’s other Junction location was where, or near to where Easy Street Cafe is now. I can never remember which location was first, I think the ES Cafe one. I’ll have to make a trek to the downtown library some day to go through the old city directories. A-Advanced eventually moved down to the little buliding at California & Holly, in the Morgan Junction, where Pet Elements is today.
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Over on the SW corner where Key Bank is, a photo from 1961 in an ad for Morton’s Drugs, in WS Story, shows part of a buliding with a Singer Sewing Machine Shop abutting Mort’s on the north side. I vaguely remember the place, and seem to remember it being a small buliding, so I think there may have been another building north of Singer, which would have been the corner building. I seem to remember a building being there that extended out in the more tradtional way, than the setback the Key Bank Building has. The Key Bank Bldg, was born in 1976, and Puget Sound Mutual Savings Bank was the original tenant.
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I think I’ll shoot an e-mail to the West Seattle Herald, and see if they have any copies of Westside Story left. I’ll post the results here. They handed out free paperback copies to all of the newspaper subscribers (I was one!) back when it was released in 1987, and had a “Limited Amount” of hardback copies for sale at their office.
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My poor ol’ free paperback copy was falling apart enough that several years later, I stopped by the Herald office and Yay, they still had hardback copies. If they are still available, I would reccomend that every West Seattleite get a copy. Native/long timer/New Resident ;) whatever. It’s a very nicely put together coffee table book, with the history of West Seattle from 1851-1987, and some great photos.
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Not only great for bringing back memories, but is great for learning about what West Seattle, and even some of White Center was like “before your time”, whether that was before you were born here, or before you moved here.
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Last I bought a copy, was around 2002 I believe, because I seem to remember it being about
15 years after the release of the “Limited Amount” hardback. I bought a copy for a friend, who had moved out from Chicago a few years before.
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I recently went through my copy again, and nowadays half the fun is looking at the now 21 year old ads, and reminiscing about them too!
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Mike
June 3, 2008 at 5:09 am #626085
WSBKeymasterRe: West Side Story, when I corresponded with a WSH exec back when this site was more a small opinion blog, they had only a handful left – The gift shop at the Log House Museum offers them for sale (I saw with my own eyes when there to shoot the old Statue of Liberty in her new home there some weeks back); you can also find used copies online through eBay and whatnot (that’s how I got one of the 1 1/2 copies I have) .. there’s usually at least one copy on sale at the Antique Mall in The Junction too.
June 3, 2008 at 5:16 am #626086
BonnieParticipantI have an old copy of West Side Story. Love looking through it.
June 3, 2008 at 7:56 am #626087
JanSParticipantmiws…there was a tavern on the corner north of Morton’s Drugstore…I can never remember the name…umm…the Pickwick Pub…that’s it. When that corner was developed into a bank, etc. the Pickwick moved to Westwood Village, and hopefully it’s died a nice death…it always had a peculiar odor about it outside the door…stale beer and urine…just great for the main WS intersection…
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