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.三份涵盖西雅图市中心所有时钟的普查清单，分别编制于1924年、1927年及1928年。数年前我在查询街道使用许可时，于西雅图交通局（Seattle Department of Transportation）内偶然发现了这批清单。此前我始终未能找到查阅旧许可档案的途径，但在我离开后，一名市政雇员发来邮件告知其找到了一整档旧记录，可谓价值连城。 仅1927年的普查清单收录了市中心以外的时钟。三份清单均收录了悬挂于日本商业银行（Japanese Commercial Bank）楼体外侧的时钟，而1927年与1928年的清单还收录了人民银行（People’s Bank）内的同款外置时钟。上述两款外置时钟或许均需申请许可，方可悬挂于公共路权区域（public right-of-way）之上，正如人行道上的街道时钟那般。市中心其他时钟（例如科尔曼渡轮码头、国王街火车站、联合车站的时钟）均未被收录，这暗示该普查存在严格的筛选标准。