NwVacationSpots.com
Featuring Quality Vacation Rental Homes around the Northwest
Plus Favorite Northwest Destinations
Featuring Quality Vacation Rental Homes around the Northwest
Plus Favorite Northwest Destinations
| SMITH TOWER Sunday, May 3, 2009 Continuing our Play-Tourist-in-Seattle project, we visited the Smith Tower on this sunny Sunday afternoon. We fell in with a pair of real lady tourists from Tennessee, while walking along 2nd Avenue, and we convinced them to visit the tower with us. The Smith Tower at the south end of downtown makes the perfect complement to the Space Needle at the north end of downtown. Each is set off some distance from the skyscrapers at the downtown core, giving you a different view of those as well as far out to the mountains, waterways, neighborhoods, and landmarks around Seattle. The two towers even have a view of each other down the narrow corridor of 2nd Avenue. The Smith Tower was built between 1910 and 1914 for one million dollars. It was deliberately placed in the far-off boondocks town of Seattle to gain publicity for the Smith brand of typewriters. At completion, the tower was among the tallest skyscrapers outside of New York City and remained the tallest building west of the Mississippi until 1931 and tallest on the West Coast until the Space Needle was constructed in 1962. The observation level at the base of the pyramid features a small gift shop with a very knowledgeable docent, historical photos and maps, and Chinese woodwork gifted to Mrs. Smith by the Empress of China. You can walk freely outside along all four sides of the building, safely enclosed behind iron bars. Photo Album Smith Tower http://www.SmithTower.com by Bob Kelly http://www.BobsPacificBeachHouse.com |
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