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.

西雅图市中心所有公共钟表的三份普查清单，分别完成于1924年、1927年与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）偶然发现了这批档案。我始终未能找到查阅旧许可文件的途径，但在我离开后，一名市政雇员通过邮件告知我，她找到了一整档旧时记录，可谓价值连城。仅1927年的清单收录了市中心以外区域的钟表。三份清单均收录了悬挂于日本商业银行（Japanese Commercial Bank）楼体外侧的钟表，1927年与1928年的清单还额外收录了悬挂于人民银行（People’s Bank）楼体的同款钟表。这两款悬挂于公共通行区域的钟表，或许同人行道上的街道钟表一样，需要申请悬挂许可。而市中心其他区域的钟表——例如科尔曼渡轮码头、国王街车站、联合车站的钟表——均未被收录，这暗示该普查存在严格的筛选标准。