I was on a job in Seattle recently, being driven home by a set PA, when I looked up into the wet city night, randomly glancing upon the facade of a beautiful old building...and blurted out something like, "OH MY GOD, WALRUS GARGOYLES!!" The PA was a bit taken aback until I explained, "No, seriously, look up there...I think those are walruses." She had never seen them before, and we sat at the stoplight, speechless at the sight of such magnificence.
(check out more flickr-searching-goodness
here.)
SERIOUSLY, IS THAT NOT THE DEFINITION OF MIND-BLOWING AWESOMENESS? Or at least really really neat?
A little searching on Google turned up a few facts: The Arctic Building was built in 1916 and besides the distinctive walrus carvings, it used liberal amounts of submarine blue and orange-brown colored tiles (a fantabulous color combination if you ask me). The 8 story building housed, among other fineries, a ladies' tea room, bowling alley (!) and billards hall. Basically, it was a posh clubhouse for rich people who loved all things cold and northern or, as T
he National Park Service webpage says,
The Arctic Club...provided an exclusive social community for those Seattlites who had returned from the Alaska Gold Rush with money in their pockets and a repertoire of stories to tell about their adventures in the Yukon.
That was a different time, no?
