Community Corner

THEN AND NOW: Harry Denton Delivering Gas Around 1911

This great Ernest Fortescue shot now in the Kirkland Heritage Society archives was taken somewhere near the former Houghton post office on Lake Washington Boulevard.

We’re not sure exactly where on Lake Washington Boulevard this fabulous shot was taken around 1911, by longtime Kirkland photographer Ernest Fortescue.

But information that came with the picture, now part of the Kirkland Heritage Society archives, noted that it was in front of the former Houghton post office. That structure still stands today at 5914 Lake Washington Boulevard, now the office of a home construction company.

We wonder, however, since if you look closely at the then and now photos, the gables of the structure in the older shot and that of the former post office in the "now" shot taken last week don’t seem to match.

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It might have been close by, since information that came with the photo also indicated it was at 60th and the boulevard.

It is an incredibly revealing photo nonetheless, showing Harry Denton delivering Standard “Zerolene” gas on a horse-drawn tank wagon. Note the wooden sidewalks.

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Also, look closely at the horses’ hooves. Apparently they had cleats to provide traction in the often-muddy dirt streets of old Kirkland. So the story goes, the streets could get so muddy motorized trucks could not make deliveries. After this winter and spring, I believe it!

Incidentally, Harry Denton’s wife Cleone dated the photo and noted the horses’ names, Brownie and George. They were big animals; note the classic horse collars.

The old photo apparently was taken for the late great Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper, which touches my heartstrings a bit, having worked there for 24 years.

Today you don’t see horses on Lake Washington Boulevard, just cars whizzing by, the occupants living the fast pace of today’s Kirkland.

 

 

 


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