Old Seattle: Fascinating Historical Photos Show What Seattle Looked Like In 1930s

In the 1930s, the population of Seattle was around 350,000 and the economy of the city was largely dependent on harvesting its trees and fish and Eastern Washington wheat and shipping them off to distant places.

Like most cities, Seattle was hit hard by the stock-market crash in 1929. By late 1931, wages had fallen 35 percent and as many as 20,000 were out of work. Seattle issued 2,538 permits for housing construction in 1930, but only 361 in 1932 Retail sales were off by 17 percent, construction down by 70 percent. The official unemployment rate was 7 percent. Shipping and shipbuilding ground to a halt. Forty Northwest lumber mills closed. Hundreds of men lived in a shantytown known as “Hooverville,” a few blocks south of Pioneer Square, where the unemployed picked their own mayor, enforced their own rules, and tweaked the establishment.

Things began to change as the government launched several developments and special aid programs across the country in the late-1930s. Here below are some stunning historical photos that show what Seattle looked like in the 1930s.

#1 8th and Olive, Seattle, 1932

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#2 Chief Seattle statue at Fifth and Denny, 1936

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#3 General View of Seattle, circa 1930.

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#4 A hall of Boeing Airplane Company in Seattl with big three-motor transport aeroplanes, 1931.

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#5 Neon sign and parked cars along 4th Avenue Seattle, 1934.

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#6 View from hilltop looking towards water of Seattle, 1939.

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#7 View of Seattle, 1939.

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#8 Man sweeping the lumberyard of Seattle, 1939.

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#9 West Point Lighthouse, Seattle, 1938

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#10 Lenora Street viaduct, Seattle, 1931

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#11 Alaskan Way, 1939

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#12 Lifeguard class at Green Lake, Seattle, 1936

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#13 Alaskan Way, Seattle, 1939

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#14 Third Avenue looking north from Cherry Street, 1930

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#15 Unloading in the Harbour of Seattle, in the State of Washington, circa 1930.

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#16 Lake Washington, Seattle 1934

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#17 Bill Maddock tracks fish for sale on a blackboard at the Seattle Fish Exchange.

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#18 Three people standing with a giant Douglas fir log converted to a structure and mounted on a truck, ‘Barker Lumber & Fuel Co., Seattle, 1930s.

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#19 Passengers boarding a Boeing 247 at Boeing Field in Seattle in the early 1930’s.

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#20 Thousands Greet Roosevelt in Seattle, 1932.

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#21 Unemployed Crowd protesting in Front Of the King County Courthouse at Seattle, 1933.

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#22 Mrs Roosevelt with his Daughter, her Son in Law and his Grand Children in Seattle, May 1937.

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#23 Sick’s Seattle Stadium, 1938.

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#25 3rd and Pike, Seattle, 1936

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#26 Looking up Pike Street from First Avenue, 1930

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#27 Bell Street viaduct under construction, 1931

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#28 Broadway and John St., Seattle, 1934

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#29 Broadway Market, Harrison and Broadway, 1937

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#30 Broadway Safeway, Broadway at Mercer, 1937

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#31 Fourth Avenue, 1937

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#32 Safety island at Westlake and Olive, 1938

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#33 Second and Pike, 1934

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#34 Second Ave. south from Union St., Seattle, 1930

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#35 Second Avenue decorated for Potlatch celebration, 1934

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#36 Hardware store display items confiscated for alcohol still during the Prohibition era, Seattle, 1930s.

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#37 The Seattle Harbour in Washington, circa 1930.

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#38 The United States Coast Guard cutter “Northland” broadcasts CBS Radio messages from on board, in Seattle harbor, 1930s.

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#39 Coastguard radio officials aboard the “Northland”, 1934.

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#40 Vehicles parking in front of the Seattle Cedar Lumber Manufacturing Company, Salmon Bay, Seattle,1939

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#41 Hooverville, a section of Seattle, 1934.

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