If this is Thursday it must be postcards, 202

Broadway High School, ca 1904

When it opened in 1902 Broadway High School on Capitol Hill was the first dedicated high school in Seattle and was called simply the Seattle High School.  Seven years later the name was changed to Broadway High School after the street that runs in front of the building and a second high school, Lincoln, had opened in the Wallingford neighborhood.   It was no longer used as a high school after 1946 but became instead of technical/vocational school for adults and still later in 1966 Seattle Community College purchased it for the central campus.  Today most of the original building is no longer standing, only the auditorium, Broadway Performance Hall, is used as a venue for arts and lectures and some large stones were also salvaged from the front entrance. 

The postcard above shows the building as it was sometime between 1902 and 1907 when it was still called The Seattle High School and when postcards had undivided backs.  The publisher is identified as The Puget Sound News Company, Seattle, Washington with the printer as A N C Excelsior of New York, Leipzig, Dresden, and Berlin, Germany.  The company logo is a three-leaf clover with an omega shaped border (see below).

Logo of A N C Excelsior

The architects for Broadway High School were William Boone (1830-1921) and James M. Corner.  Boone was a prominent pre-fire Seattle architect who had worked previously with George Meeker, William H. Willcox and finally J. M. Corner.  Many of the buildings he designed were destroyed during the fire.   Some of Seattle’s earliest brick buildings were designed by him some still standing in the Pioneer Square district others were destroyed during the Great Fire of 1889. 

Finding the card in a Pike Place Market shop was a delight since my father and his sister both attended and graduated from Broadway High School.  This yearbook picture of them as seniors in 1931, below found on Ancestry.com, added to the family history also.   It was touching and informative to see what was said about both Dad and Betty.   He always had an infectious ready laugh, was indeed generous and very good-natured, and liked and respected by many all of his life.   Mom used to tell us that Dad held the record for running the stairs at Broadway High that was unequaled for several years.  Both Dad and Betty enjoyed music, he played the violin in the school orchestra (one of his great-grandsons plays violin today) and had a good singing voice.  Betty was a year younger and had skipped a grade so they graduated the same year.  She played the piano and sang also.

Broadway High School Yearbook "Sealth" 1931

[source:  Ancestry.com]

For additional information, see:

http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=3204
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_E._Boone