Industrial Museum: The Georgetown Steam Plant, Seattle, Washington (Sea 13)

 

Georgetown Steam Plant, July 2019 (from Google® Maps)

Early in 2026, some Seattle-area film photographers posted an invitation on the Photrio forum to meet at the Georgetown Steam Plant. That was a nice idea to meet other photographers from the Puget Sound area.   

The Seattle Electric Company built the Georgetown Steam Plant in 1906-1907 to provide electricity for the city's electric streetcar system and for the interurban trolley. The plant was built near the Duwamish Waterway in the Georgetown area of Seattle. 

The Steam Plant is a National Historic Landmark, a National Mechanical Engineering Landmark, and a City of Seattle Landmark. According to the GEORGETOWN STEAM PLANT Community Development Authority (CDA), "We use SHTEAM (Science, History, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math) to inspire the Community to envision and create a future where we all belong, and this historic building  generates Community Power." HistoryLink has a detailed history. 

Six or seven of us wandered around in the fascinating setting of pipes, machines, valves, ladders, and catwalks. It was like time travel to another era. My friends had a variety of cameras, mostly medium format. I used Kodak Tri-X 400 film in my Hasselblad 501CM camera with 40mm, 50mm, and 80mm lenses. My compact Linhof ProfiPort tripod supported the camera for all interior exposures. The light was directional from high distant windows, so all my exposures were in the ½ to 2 second range.

 

The mid-level catwalk may be the best way to get a sense of the scale of the machinery and piping.

 

One of two vertical Curtis steam turbines (40mm Distagon lens)

Near the base of the Curtis turbine

Access gantry

Boilers (40mm Distagon lens)

Steam piping. Is that asbestos sheathing?

 

Steam piping with access ports (80mm ƒ/2.8 Planar-CB lens)

 

Dear Readers, maybe I showed you too many pictures. But I love the shapes, shadows, and textures of old industrial sites. And it is rare that you can enter a place like this legally. 

 

My 40mm ƒ/4 Distagon lens was very handy for this setting because of the tight spaces.  

 

Northeast Photographics in Bath, Maine, developed the film and scanned it. The files were very contrasty. Tri-X 400 should have handled the range of exposures with normal development, but I could have specified N-1 to reduce the contrast. Regardless, the TIFF files contain plenty of data to manipulate with a curves tool. 

 

When you visit Seattle, take time to see the Georgetown Steam Plant at 6605 13th Ave. South. The Steam Plant is open to the public every second Saturday.

A Jewel in the City: Lake Union, Seattle, Washington (Sea 12)

 

Lake Union in June, 1995, view northeast from the Space Needle (Kodachrome 25 slide)

 

Overview

 

Lake Union is a freshwater lake entirely within the city of Seattle. The lake is a glacial basin, scoured out by the Vashon Glacier about 12,000 years ago. It receives fresh water from Lake Washington to the east and discharges to Puget Sound via the Lake Washington Ship Canal that leads west. The Hiram M. Chittenden Locks (Ballard Locks) maintain the level of Lake Union and allow boat traffic to transit from salt water to fresh water. 

 

Lake Union view NW with Queen Anne Hill to the left.

(2004 panorama taken with Hasselblad XPan panoramic camera with 40mm lens)

Lake Union view west towards Queen Anne Hill

(2004 panorama taken with Hasselblad XPan panoramic camera with 40mm lens)

 

November on Lake Union, view west to Queen Anne Hill

(Kodak Ektar 100 film, 50mm ƒ/2 Summicron lens at ƒ/2.8)

East Side  

 

When I lived in Seattle in the early 1970s, much of the shore around Lake Union was industrial, with shipyards, warehouses, a power plant, and miscellaneous boat activities. Today, the area south of the lake has transformed into condos, hospitals, cafes, and tech worker office buildings. The west shore below Queen Anne Hill has condominiums and restaurants.  

The east side of Lake Union along Fairview Avenue East is still industrial and interesting. Let's concentrate on this area. We will start near the Silver Cloud Hotel and walk north.

Seattle Seaplanes with Queen Anne Hill in the background

Seattle Seaplanes (Kodak Tri-X film, Rolleiflex 3.5E Xenotar)

You can rent a seaplane for a tour. The office is on the old yacht. 

 

Shed (floating?) at 1501 Fairview Ave. E. (Fuji Acros II, 25mm ƒ/4 Snapshot Skopar lens)

Lake Union Drydock Company

It looks like a homeless person occupied this old camper.

Howe and East Blaine Stairs

 

Seattle is hilly. The glaciers left drumlins throughout the Puget lowland. Early in the 20th century and continuing to recently, the City built stairs on the edges of many bluffs and hills. Sometimes, a street stops, and the stairs ascend or descend to the continuation of the street at a different elevation. Seattleites in the know use the stairs for exercise. 

A handy book, SEATTLE STAIRWAY WALKS, An Up-And-Down Guide To City Neighborhoods by Jake & Cathy Jaramillo, lists 25 of the best neighborhood walks in the city. 

If you are exploring east Lake Union, take the Eastlake, North Capital Hill, and Portage Bay walk. You walk under the I-5 pilings and ascend the East Blaine steps. Then you walk to the top of Capital Hill, past magnificent early 20th century mansions, descend to Portage Bay, then reascend and finally descend to Eastlake via the Howe steps. 

 

Underneath I-5 below the Howe steps (25mm ƒ/4 Snapshot Skopar lens)

East Blaine steps at Lakeview Blvd. E., 

Garage on Broadway East (50mm ƒ/2 Summicron lens)

Après Exploring

 

 Exploring the shore and walking 3.2 miles and about 800 steps is tiring. What do you do? Well, of course, you go eat seafood at Duke's Seafood South Lake Union. And drink a pale ale or two. Ahhh...

 

Health food Seattle style

 

The 2004 panoramas are from a Hasselblad XPan camera with 40mm lens. I had rented it at Glazers Camera for a project. I should have kept it longer and taken more panoramas around the city. The 2024 and 2025 photographs are from Rolleiflex, Pentax MX, and Leica M2 cameras with Tri-X and Fuji Acros film.

 

Ai Statement

 

The photographs and text above are mine, complete with flaws and strange syntax. I am not using Ai for any verbage. And all photos are from some place on earth with no Ai manipulation or removal/addition of "features." I consider that intellectual fraud. Here on Urban Decay, you will see the setting with all its warts and excess power lines and trash. I sometimes clean lint and chemical blobs from scans due to processing errors, and, of course, I crop frames as needed. But the scene in the frame is genuine, the photons that fell on some place at some time.

 

Dear Readers, thanks for your support. All comments/criticisms/scorn welcome. 

 

 

 

 

From the Archives: Karachi, Pakistan, 1961-1962

In 1961, my parents and I lived in Karachi, West Pakistan. I added "West" because that was before East and West Pakistan split into two separate countries (Pakistan and Bangladesh). My dad was working for an engineering company that was designing drinking water supply for the Karachi area. 

Karachi was a difficult time for the family. The city was primitive and dirty. Food standards were low. Prices for a western lifestyle were unexpectedly high. My dad rented an apartment, but the price was well above the housing allowance provided by the company. I recall the apartment and yard were OK, but the municipal electricity was sporadic. We could not drink tap water. 

I attended part of third grade at the Karachi American School (it had a different name then). The school is still in business with an international faculty. We sang the Pakistan national anthem every morning.

The expatriate (expat) community was active, and we associated with other Americans and Europeans. As was common among expat communities, we bought furniture and household goods from other foreigners who were leaving for other assignments. That included buying and selling LP records (that seemed to be a big deal, according to my dad's diary). The American ambassador projected movies on a screen on his rooftop. We used to visit our friends, who lived in an adjacent house, and sit on their roof to watch the ambassador's films. The sound was a bit muted, but we could hear. 

Here are some street scenes from the city. Unfortunately, my dad did not label the slide mounts with date or exact location. Please click any picture to see it enlarged.

 

Home 

 

Couch transportation device, Feb. 2, 1962

Moving day, Jan. 22, 1962

The black Chevrolet was a company car. A black car without air conditioning in Karachi? It might have been a bit more convenient than the camel. 

 Unfortunately, I could not find any photos from inside the apartment.  

 

Downtown 

 

Kandawala Building, Bunder Road, Karachi. It housed offices of the US Embassy and US AID.

Professional letter or document writers

I have seen letter writers like this in other countries. For people who could not write or did not have paper or a writing situation where they lived, the professional scribes provided a vital service. 

 

Vital shaving service

Saddar District 

Jahangir Park (possibly) with the Empress Market in the background

 According to the current internet, Jahangir Park is now walled and has dinosaurs in it. 

 

Empress Market, Saddar district

The bustling Empress Market in the Saddar area was built between 1884 and 1889 during the British Raj. I do not remember visiting markets, but I assume we explored. This may have been similar to Scott Market in Rangoon, also a major mrket from the era of the British Raj.  

 

My dad and I liked busy markets like this, my mom less so. But this looks pretty clean, so maybe she would have been reasonably comfortable looking around.  

 

City Outskirts 

 

The outskirts of the city had miles of shanties and huts. Local people, often children, collected camel and cow dung to dry in the sun. They sold these patties for fuel. 

End of the road - somewhere

Sailing boat excursion somewhere on Hawke's Bay

Looking at these slides brought back memories of another time, another life. I would love to go back and explore, but the political and security situation of the 2026 world makes a trip to Karachi unlikely, especially for US citizens.  

My dad took these pictures on Ektachrome slide film with his Leica IIIC camera with 5cm ƒ/2 Summitar lens. I scanned the slides with a Nikon Coolscan 5000ED film scanner controlled by NikonScan 4.03 software. The slides had changed color to red, but the auto color function in Photoshop Elements 2024 did a remarkable job at retrieving some original color. 

 

Karachi and the Indus River valley (from Google Maps)

A Real Camera Store in Troy, New York

 

The Troy Photo Center

It's a museum, it's Aladdin's cave, it's a junk yard, it's Photo Center of Troy, New York. What a treasure trove. The helpful employee found some 48mm filters for my Canonet camera. Nikon Nick is an encyclopedia of photo stuff. 

The Leicas in a glass case were rough (user grade), and I did not have time to look at the lenses. And I saw some Rolleiflexes. Regardless, I do not need any more photo equipment (right??).

Nikon Nick compiling his archives

Want a clock or a naked Greek statue?

ET is at the camera store?

Is that Ulysses S. Grant wearing a fedora?

Photo Center would be a fun place to explore at leisure and talk to Nikon Nick. For more information:

Telephone: +1 518 - 273 - 0100

E-mail: info@photocentertroy.org

Address: 404 River St Troy, NY 12180-2821

 

Bonus: Carrboro, North Carolina 

 

Southeastern Camera in Carrboro, North Carolina, is another great store with bins of equipment. The best equipment is in the glass cases; the rougher stuff in tubs. They have medium format equipment and Leica lenses.

 

Bonus No. 2: Bergen, Norway

 

My sister sent me these frames of a film-oriented camera store in Bergen. Yes, enthusiastic Norwegians support film!