This was taken during the Worlds Fair in 1962 by an amateur photographer named Elmer J. Hike.
  • Walter Straley Century 21 Collection, MOHAI
  • This was taken during the World's Fair in 1962 by an amateur photographer named Elmer J. Hike.
The completely charming, dilapidated Undre Arms apartment building, as Dominic has written, is going to that big stick of deodorant in the sky.

In preparation for its demolition, the place is being emptied out. When a salvage crew from Second Use Building Materials went in recently, they discovered something unexpected: art supplies and notes by the man known as Seattle's first sculptor, James A. Wehn.

Wehn created the Chief Sealth sculptures in Pioneer Square and near Seattle Center. He designed—and it was a saga, involving dolphins and modernism!—the first Seal of the City of Seattle. And he was the first head of the newly created Sculpture Department at the University of Washington in 1919. (He taught there five years; the year before that, his wife was murdered in Seattle.) The lamp posts on Alaskan Way down by the waterfront still bear Wehn's twin-dolphin emblem.

At the Undre Arms, the crew found two milk crates with reference materials, two wire armatures on bases, one easel mount, four sculpture tables, and one table-top sculpture stand. An estate manager told them the things belonged to James Wehn—which tipped off someone at Second Use to call the Washington State Historical Society in Tacoma.

Wehns 1936 sketch for the Seattle seal. He loved his mythological dolphins and argued they were more modern than the proposed alternatives, including salmon.
  • Washington State Historical Society
  • Wehn's 1936 sketch for the Seattle seal. He loved his mythological dolphins and argued they were more modern than the proposed alternatives, including salmon.
The society, which has extensive Wehn collections, was able to verify the materials after a little sleuthing. One of the salvaged pedestals, for instance, appears in a photograph of Wehn with his sculpted bust of Chief Sealth. Articles and notes about sundials were among the materials salvaged; Wehn used those to design a sundial now located at the Evergreen Washelli Cemetery.

Nobody knows how the stuff got to the Undre Arms, says WSHS scholar Lynette Miller: "We’re guessing that Wehn or someone he knew either lived or had a studio there at some point. It’s going to take some further research to see if we can determine what the connection is."

The plaster mold for the original Seal of the City of Seattle, by James A. Wehn.
  • Washington State Historical Society
  • The plaster mold for the original Seal of the City of Seattle, by James A. Wehn.
Over the course of his lifetime, Wehn made more than 200 sculptures, focusing on people: Native American chiefs, presidents, sea captains, and the female pioneer Hannah Newman. His City of Seattle seal was originally intended to be placed as a cornerstone on the Carl Gould Seattle Art Museum building in Volunteer Park, which is now Seattle Asian Art Museum. Next time I visit, I need to check whether it's still there after all these years.