The Arthur Foss

 

The Arthur Foss, docked in Seattle, WA, is the oldest wooden-hulled, 19th century tugboat still afloat. She is 120 feet long with a 24-foot beam and draws 15 feet. She was built in 1889 in Portland, OR, and operated in the Puget Sound towing log rafts and then during the Alaska Gold Rush. In 1933, she was used in the film Tugboat Annie, starring Maureen O-Sullivan, and then in 1940's Tugboat Annie Sails Again, featuring Ronald Reagan.

In 1941, The Arthur Foss began towing barges from Pearl Harbor to Wake Island. She escaped the Japanese invasion by mere hours. After the war, she was returned to civilian service in Washington, and in 1970 she was donated to the Northwest Seaport Museum in Seattle. She was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1989.

Historical Sources:

Harbordays.com blog - Tug of the Month: Arthur Foss

Tugboatinformation.com

Pike Place Market

 

Pike Place Market, Seattle, Washington.

Space Needle, Seattle

 

The Space Needle in Seattle, Washington. This was actually the view from our hotel window!

San Francisco

I was in San Francisco for a few days in August, and did these two drawings. I could draw that city's architecture forever. 

Both in Nob Hill. The second building is the work of James Francis Dunn, a self-taught architect who designed numerous residential buildings in San Francisco in the "French Renaissance," Beaux-Arts style in the early part of the 20th century.

Prometheus Take 2

I rarely re-visit the same subject twice, but I was never really happy with the drawing I did of Paul Manship's Prometheus at Rockefeller Center I did before, so when I saw over the summer that there were seating risers in the area where the ice skating rink sits in the winter, I took the opportunity for a do-over.

Nom Wah Tea Parlor

 

Nom Wah Tea Parlor is the oldest continuously-running restaurant in New York's Chinatown. It opened at 13-15 Doyers Street in 1920, and moved to the space next door in 1968, where it remains. Originally, it was primarily a bakery, but it is now known for its Hong Kong-style dim sum. The original owners are unknown, but is was run by the Choy Family in the 1940s, and sold to one of its employees, Wally Tang, in 1974. It's now owned by Wally's nephew, Wilson, who has expanded the business to other locations.

Doyers Street has one of the most infamous reputations in New York City history. It was named after Hendrik Doyer, a Dutch immigrant who built a distillery and tavern there in 1791. In the late 19th century, the area transformed into Chinatown, with the first Chinese language theater located on Doyers. The short street also became infamous for its tenements, gambling parlors, and opium dens. It is only one block, about 200 yards (183 m) long, with a sharp bend in the middle. That bend earned the name "Bloody Angle," because the sharp turn made it a perfect spot for rival gangs to ambush one another. In his book "The Gangs of New York," Herbert Asbury wrote, "The police believe, and can prove it so far as such proof is possible, that more men have been murdered at the Bloody Angle than at any other place of like area in the world." Doyers Street remains at the heart of Manhattan's Chinatown, though it's been a long time since it's seen warring tongs. Bloody Angle is now just the spot where tourists and hipsters line up to get into Nom Wah.

348 West 23rd St.

 West 23rd St., between 8th and 9th Ave.

In the late 19th century, the area of Chelsea had become a fashionable residential neighborhood featuring brick and brownstone buildings. But a new concept was emerging for affluent people - the apartment house, or "French flats," as an alternative to single family homes. Termed "French flats" to distinguish them from the overcrowded, unhealthy tenements of the lower class, these apartments were gaining in popularity. In 1885, the owner of No. 348 West 23rd St. decided to alter the house into an apartment. He hired Charles Pierrepont Henry Gilbert, a 24-year old engineer and architect who had recently returned to New York from adventures in mining towns in the West. C.P.H. Gilbert would later gain fame as the designer of some of the most opulent mansions in the city. I drew one of his Brooklyn homes a while ago. This was one of his first commissions in the city.

The building was transformed into four apartments - one per floor - that were rented to affluent residents, including men prominent in business and politics. Gilbert's eclectic style is on display with the Queen Anne-style ornamental facade and stained glass windows.

In 1929, the stoops of all the brownstones on the streets were removed for a widening of the street, a project which never happened. Other alterations occurred, including dividing the apartments into smaller units, turning the lower floors into commercial space, removing the stained glass and covering the facade in paint.