Queen Anne Yesterday & Today

The scale of the commercial block of 5th Avenue N. between Aloha and Valley streets has changed little since this photo was taken in March, 1917.  Streetcar tracks seen in the 1917 image have been paved over; but electrical lines are seen above in both images, as the city moved to “trackless trolley” buses powered by overhead wires in 1941. The buildings on the east side of the block do not survive, but the west side retains some of the buildings seen in the historic image; most notably the brick building occupying the northwest corner. The ca. 1900 commercial building, which was a meat market in 1917, remains nearly unchanged on the exterior and serves as restaurant space today. Its neighbor to the south was built in 1911 but has been significantly altered, including a second-story addition. Originally clad in brick, the building housed a bakery and a barber shop in 1917 and is now the location of a pizza parlor and a coffee shop with apartments above. The building that now separates them was constructed in 1920.

The blocks of 5th Avenue N. north of Aloha Street have changed significantly in scale. The single-family homes that occupied the residential blocks in 1917 were replaced by apartment and condominium buildings constructed from the mid-20th century onward. Although blocked by apartment buildings in today’s image, one of the houses visible on the east side of 5th Avenue N. in the historic image still stands: the second house up from Aloha Street on the right side of the 1917 image, with a gable roof punctuated by two dormers at its east end, was built in 1905 and remains a single-family home.