Readers send photos

New wading pool for the neighborhood?

Several MPB readers have sent us photos that we thought should be shared.  The one above was taken from his iPhone and forwarded to us by our neighbor, Scott Wilson.  It shows the lakeside park at E. Lynn St. and 43rd Ave. E. on Tuesday afternoon this week.  He notes that the parks department, with significant effort and presumably not a little cost, recently replaced a sand base for the swing-set area with a supposedly superior wood-chip base.  Perhaps, he says, the City's intention was to create a dual-use facility for the neighborhood, a combination swing set/wading pool.  "I'd call it a swool," he comments, "but others might call it a stupid use of money."

Does anyone remember seeing the area in this shape when the "inferior" sand base was still in place?

This must have happened on a weekend

Glenn Ader, director of the BRIGHT! Preschool here in the Park sent us this photo showing area preschool directors and teachers as they took a recent "time out."  Many of us are aware of the Madison Park Cooperative Preschool, operating out of the bathhouse, but who knew there were that so many private preschools operating in close proximity?  (We didn't, at least).  The purpose of this gathering, says Ader, was to share ideas and build relationships in order to improve programs for the children each preschool serves.

Pictured:  Sally Straight (Nanny's Annex), Frani Carlson (Frani's Preschool), Darlene Kenney (Frani's Preschool), Tea Carlson (Frani's Preschool), Megan Scott (Little Feet Preschool), Waleska Leiva (Mary Lane's Preschool), Jenny Cummins (Epiphany Pre-K), Andrea Losh (Harvard Avenue), Jackie Hubenet (Jackie's Pre-K), Christine Carlson (Little Feet Preschool), Glenn Ader (BRIGHT! Preschool), Mary Lane (Mary Lane's Preschool), Nora Wheat (Jackie's Pre-K), Nan Stephens (Nannies).

The Pavilion from a different view

From Madison Park resident and historian/author David Chapman comes this intriguing stereoview image of a prosperous-looking woman standing in front of the Park's then-famous Pavilion, sometime around the turn of the 20th Century.  Stereoscopic photographs (aka stereoview cards), which were apparently popular in the late 1800s, were composed of two nearly identical images mounted side-by-side on a cardboard backing.  These images were then viewed on a stereoviewer, providing an early form of 3-D effect. These cards were often sold as souvenirs, and Chapman speculates that this may have been one produced and sold around at time of the Alaska-Yukon Exhibition in 1909.

By the way, Chapman's latest book, just published, is "Venus With Biceps: A Pictorial History of Muscular Women."  Chapman will be giving a talk and a slideshow on  the subject at Elliot Bay Book Company (1521 Tenth Avenue) on Wednesday, March 30.

Chapman reports that the book, co-authored with Patricia Vertinsky, is getting good reviews, including this one in the New Yorker.  The Seattle Times also featured the book earlier this week.