Seattle Street Clocks in 1924, 1927, 1928

Three inventories of every clock in downtown Seattle. They were made in 1924, 1927, and 1928. I stumbled upon them a few years ago at the Seattle Department of Transportation while I was trying to look up street use permits. I never discovered how to see old permits, but after I left a city employee emailed me saying she had found a folder of old records. Pure gold. Only the 1927 inventory included clocks outside of downtown. They all included a clock at the Japanese Commercial Bank that hung off the side of the building, and ’27 and ’28 included a similar clock at People’s Bank. Possibly those two clocks required a permit to hang out over the public right-of-way, as did the street clocks in the sidewalk. Other clocks downtown (for example on Colman ferry dock; King Street Station; Union Station) were not included, hinting at restrictive criteria.

本数据集包含三份分别于1924年、1927年及1928年编制的西雅图市中心所有公共时钟的盘点清单。笔者数年前在查阅街道使用许可时，于西雅图交通局（Seattle Department of Transportation）偶然发现了这批档案；彼时未能找到查阅旧许可的途径，但在离开后收到一名市政雇员的邮件，告知其找到了一批旧记录文件夹，实为不可多得的珍贵史料。仅1927年的盘点清单收录了市中心范围以外的时钟，三份清单均包含悬挂于日本商业银行（Japanese Commercial Bank）楼体外侧的时钟，1927年与1928年的清单还额外收录了人民银行（People’s Bank）的同款外置时钟。这两款时钟或许与人行道上的街道时钟一样，需要办理占用公共道路用地的悬挂许可。西雅图市中心的其他时钟（例如科尔曼渡轮码头（Colman ferry dock）、国王街车站（King Street Station）、联合车站（Union Station）的时钟）均未被纳入该数据集，这暗示其采用了严格的筛选标准。