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.

三份西雅图市中心所有时钟的普查台账，分别编制于1924年、1927年及1928年。数年前我在查阅街道使用许可文件时，于西雅图交通局（Seattle Department of Transportation）偶然发现了这批台账。我始终未能找到查阅旧许可档案的途径，但在我离开后，一名市政雇员通过邮件告知我，她找到了一整夹旧记录——这可谓无价之宝。仅1927年的台账涵盖了西雅图市中心以外的时钟。三份台账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年的台账还额外收录了人民银行（People’s Bank）同款外置时钟。这两处外置时钟或许与人行道上的街道时钟一样，均需申请占用公共道路用地的许可。但西雅图市中心其他点位的时钟——例如科尔曼渡轮码头、国王街车站、联合车站的时钟——均未被收录，这暗示本次台账的收录标准存在严格限制。