Hooverville from above, March 1, 1934<\/b><\/h2>\n
Because the federal government provided no unemployment insurance, many Seattleites who lost their jobs during the Great Depression also lost their homes and fell into\u00a0extreme poverty. As a result<\/span>, the moist, scrappy folk of Seattle began setting\u00a0up tent camps and shack towns<\/a>. One large encampment that residents called “Hooverville” \u2014 in honor of President Herbert Hoover, who they blamed for their troubles \u2014 grew in the mudflats south of downtown Seattle near Elliott Bay. Hooverville had\u00a0a population of up to 1,200 and even had its very own unofficial mayor.<\/span><\/p>\n The first white settlers in Seattle were dead set on\u00a0flattening the landscape<\/a>, and from\u00a0the 1890s to the\u00a0late 1920s used\u00a0pick axes, water cannons, steam shovels and conveyor belts to flatten Denny Hill.<\/span>\u00a0Two regrades took place during that time, with the second one finishing in 1930 just as the Great Depression was hitting the area.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Much of the displaced earth generated during regrading at Denny Hill was used for filling in tidal flats on the waterfront. One of the buildings demolished in the second regrade was\u00a0the Denny School, located on Battery Street between 5th Avenue and 6th Avenue. <\/span><\/p>\n The Denny School was an architecturally interesting school erected in 1884. Residents were sad to see it demolished in 1929 at the hands of ambitious city engineers.<\/span><\/p>\n Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected as US president in 1932, beating out Hoover, and one of his first initiatives was the\u00a0Public Works Administration; it funded large-scale construction projects and provided skilled workers with jobs. In Washington State, over\u00a054,000 people<\/a> were at work repainting county buildings, fixing roads, making clothes for the Red Cross and clearing land by the end of 1933.<\/p>\n The Aurora Bridge was designed by the Seattle engineering firm Jacobs and Ober, whose principal engineers were Major Joseph Jacobs and Captain Ralph Ober. According to\u00a0<\/span>HistoryLink<\/span><\/a>, Ober died on August 30, 1931 at Virginia Mason Hospital at the age of 60 from a brain hemorrhage. “Death came,” reported the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, “as the greatest monument to his engineering genius, the high bridge over Lake Union, is rapidly nearing completion.”<\/span><\/p>\n Not too much traffic on the Aurora Bridge back in 1932. <\/span><\/p>\n Another gorgeous creation to emerge during the Great Depression was the West Garfield Street Bridge. Now better known as the Magnolia Bridge, the structure was built in 1930. The bridge connects Seattle’s\u00a0Magnolia and Interbay neighborhoods over the filled-in tidelands of Smith Cove. It is one of only three road connections from Magnolia to the rest of Seattle.<\/span><\/p>\n According to\u00a0<\/span>KCTS<\/span><\/a>, the national New Deal Federal Theater Project (1935 to 1939) provided jobs for\u00a0unemployed individuals in the performing arts profession through various theater companies. Part of the project was called \u201c<\/span>Living Newspapers<\/span><\/a>,\u201d and it\u00a0featured local events acted out in front of an audience. The touring companies formed in Washington were some of the most beloved in the nation, and this new wave of arts in the Pacific Northwest is thought to have helped pave the way for Seattle\u2019s lasting identity as an arts-centric community.<\/span><\/p>\n The Hotel Butler began operating\u00a0in 1903. The hotel gained a\u00a0<\/span>reputation<\/span><\/a> during the Prohibition era for ignoring laws against alcohol. The Great Depression forced it to close its doors in 1933, and now all that remains are the lower two floors of the building, which were converted into a parking garage.<\/span><\/p>\n In the summer of 1927, the Seattle Board of Park Commissioners authorized funds to build two greenhouses to grow bedding plants for all of Seattle’s parks. The funds supported 60,000 plants a year at a total cost of $16,000. Magical Volunteer Park was one of the beneficiaries of this growth before the Great Depression\u00a0hit. <\/span><\/p>\n![\"great](\"https:\/\/www.livabl.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/great-depression-seattle-hooverville.jpg\")
<\/a>Photo: <\/span>Seattle King County Department of Health Photographs<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/p>\nConveyor belt to waterfront from 5th Avenue and Battery Street for second Denny Hill regrade, 1929<\/b><\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/b>Photo:<\/i>\u00a0<\/span>Seattle Municipal Archives\/Flickr<\/em><\/span><\/a><\/p>\nDenny Hill regrade work at 5th Avenue and\u00a0Battery Street, 1929<\/b><\/h2>\n
<\/a>Photo: <\/span>Seattle Municipal Archives\/Flickr<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/p>\nThe Denny School, 1929<\/b><\/h2>\n
<\/a>Photo:\u00a0<\/span>Seattle Municipal Archives\/Flickr<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\u00a0Worker loading dirt onto conveyor belt, 1930<\/h2>\n
Photo:\u00a0Seattle Municipal Archives\/Flickr<\/a><\/em><\/p>\nAurora Bridge under construction, 1931<\/b><\/h2>\n
<\/a>Photo:\u00a0<\/span>Seattle Municipal Archives\/Flickr<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/p>\nCar on Aurora Bridge, 1932<\/b><\/h2>\n
<\/a>Photo:\u00a0<\/span>Seattle Municipal Archives\/Flickr<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/p>\nWest Garfield Street Bridge, 1930<\/b><\/h2>\n
<\/a>Photo:\u00a0<\/span>Seattle Municipal Archives\/Flickr<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/p>\nLooking up Pike Street from First Avenue, 1930<\/b><\/h2>\n
<\/a>Photo: Seattle Municipal Archives\/Flickr<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/p>\nThe Hotel Butler, ca.\u00a01930<\/b><\/h2>\n
<\/a>Photo:\u00a0<\/span>Seattle Public Library Collection<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/p>\nVolunteer Park, 1934 <\/b><\/h2>\n
<\/a>Photo:\u00a0<\/span>Seattle Public Library Collection <\/span><\/a><\/em><\/p>\nSeattle Art Museum, 1933<\/b><\/h2>\n
<\/a>Photo:\u00a0<\/span>Seattle Public Library Collection <\/span><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n