Sandbox at the Seattle Hotel

  • By Billie Dunne
  • Posted 10/25/2005
  • HistoryLink.org Essay 7509
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Bill Bonham managed hotels in the Northwest in the 1920s through the 1940s, including the Seattle Hotel at 1st Avenue and Yesler Way in Seattle and the Hotel Monticello in Longview. Bonham's daughter, Billie Bonham Dunne, of Portland offers these photos of a sandbox Bonham built on the top floor of the Seattle Hotel, a grand old hotel in Pioneer Square that was replaced in the early 1960s by the "sinking ship" parking garage.

Billie Dunne writes: "1st and James/Yesler Streets weren't exactly ideal playgrounds when we lived at the Seattle Hotel in the early 1930s. Our Dad, William Bonham, managed the hotel and was able to haul a sandbox AND sand up to the roof of the hotel so we could build some castles. We had to climb a ladder through a store room to get up there. It was very sooty fun. I was about 7 and my sister Pat was 3 years old. I can't remember where the heck they got the sand."


Sources:

Billie Bonham Dunne is the daughter of Bill Bonham, who managed hotels in the Northwest in the 1920s through the 1940s, including the Seattle Hotel at 1st Avenue and Yesler Way in Seattle and the Hotel Monticello in Longview.


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