Remember the Culver family: my great-great grandfather’s sister, Jenny DeKorn Culver, and her daughters, Lela and Rhea, who moved from Kalamazoo to Seattle 100 years ago.
In the scrapbook which I received from a blog reader I found this photograph. Any ideas on the type of uniform? Since this would have been around the time of the end of WWI, does the uniform have to do with the war?
I don’t know who the man is. Most of the Culver photos are of women.
But the clues would leave me to believe the photo was taken in Seattle in or around 1918. But did Seattle have old elegant buildings like this at that time?
What about the building? My first inclination was a church, but I don’t see any crosses. Are those rosettes for ornamentation?
Related articles
- What Did Lela and Rhea Culver Do at the Orphanage? (thefamilykalamazoo.wordpress.com)
- Is This Jenny DeKorn Culver in A Velvet Coat? (thefamilykalamazoo.wordpress.com)
- Why Did Jennie Move to Seattle? (thefamilykalamazoo.wordpress.com)
The Family Kalamazoo 
I can’t help you with either, but the uniform does not look like a US military uniform, so if it was taken in Seattle—I’d say it looks like a doorman’s uniform. As for the building—-I would find someone from Seattle and ask if the building looks familiar. I have a college friend who lives there, and she’s an art history major, so perhaps she would know, if you’d like me to ask.
Amy, I hadn’t thought of a doorman, but that would make sense because the uniform is so bare of identifying clues. Even the insignia looks rather decorative, rather than meaningful. I would love if you ask your friend. Shall I email you the photo?
Sure—I’d be happy to!
The hat looks somewhat like for Salvation Army uniform, except lacking the band that says Salvation Army. Also the color is wrong? Perhpas some similar church org.? But the crest on the hat could be Salvation Army. http://salvos.org.au/about-us/our-story/salvos-101/our-symbols/
Haha, I thought of that, too, because of course it’s on our minds this week after last week’s post. I even looked up old Salvation Army uniforms. But the insignia on the hat doesn’t really look like SA to me.It’s definitely not the red crest. Do you think that this coat is gray or tan or is it another color?
Hard to tell in b & w. I’ll guess grey.
Yes, I thought the hat crest might be a clue. The building looks like a church – especially if the building to the right is part of same structure (I can’t tell). I don’t think it’s a military uniform except for the boots, and doorman or Salvation Army is a resonable guess. If building isn’t a church, it might be an elaborate Masonic Temple or similar org ??
I assumed it was a church at first, then I began to investigate why I thought that when there weren’t any Christian symbols that I could see. But maybe there is symbolism in the rosettes? And there are rosettes on some cathedrals, right? Masonic Temple is a super cool idea, too. I’m off to look that up. Thanks, Sammy.
I agree, Luanne, the rosettes have to mean something, so honing in on whether those are unique to churches orare used by other organizations is a goid use of research time.
A thought just occurred – might there be a Seattle Historical Society online who can help identify the building and/or the unuform??
That’s a great idea!
Keep us posted if you discover anything. I might search vintage uniforms for doormen, Masons, salvation Army and see if anything pops up.
Reblogged this on Janet’s thread and commented:
Can any Seattle people shed some light on this?
Ah thanks so much, Janet. I sure hope they can help!
I recently attended a seminar on ageing at the Ida Culver Home here in North Seattle.
Well, that is sure interesting. Ida Culver. Wow. I immediately starting thinking if there could be a connection, but Jennie, Lela, and Rhea all were Culvers when they traveled to Seattle, so I don’t see how. Unless one of them went by the name Ida, of course. Do you know anything about this Ida Culver?
I just looked her up. No connection, but fascinating anyway: http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=7222
From my own family photos of Seattle around 1918, the city did have some fairly ornate and interesting buildings. The coat/uniform almost looks like that of a hotel doorman in that era…or a chauffeur.
Martha, chauffeur is another fabulous idea! Thanks for that! Interesting that Seattle was that built up already. I hear about the wood planked sidewalks and all that and it doesn’t fit with some of these photographs I have!
I live in the Puget Sound south of Seattle. I can’t help with the naming of the building but Seattle most certainly had buildings like this in 1918. It was a modern city for it’s time.
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Thanks so much. I had read so much about Seattle still having wooden sidewalks, etc., at that time!
Definitely looks like a church. Have you tried contacting an historical society in Seatle to see if anyone recognizes the building?
No, but that’s a great idea. Thanks, Deborah!
Great photo! I tend to agree with the doorman/chauffeur suggestions. It definitely doesn’t look like a military uniform. Can you enlarge the cap badge? I think that could prove fruitful. The window design in the background is a bit unusual. It looks like a church “rose window” but the five circle design is unlike anything I’ve seen before. I wonder (if it is a church) whether it might be an orthodox church? I don’t think the building is a Masonic Lodge; there is no masonic imagery in the design. Not sure if this helps; good luck with your sleuthing.
Good ideas, Su! Interesting about the 5 circles. They do form a cross of sorts, so that is in keeping with the idea of this being a church. And I’ve now seen other churches of the era with rosette windows. But none of them have the 5 circles, a you say. The photo may be intended to be of the man and the church across the street might actually be incidental! He almost seems to be standing in a park . . . . I wonder if there was a park with churches circling it. Hmm.
The University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, has a “chapel”, which is actually more like a cathedral. It has an enormous round window similar to the one in your photo.
https://ruthrawls.wordpress.com/2014/04/11/onward-to-sewanee/
Thank you so much, Ruth. I do think it has to be a church because these rosette windows seem to be very much a part of church architecture of the era. It doesn’t seem very cathedral-ish, though, right? Don’t you think the church in my photo seems smaller? The entrance is not very grand. And it is an entrance as it’s on a main street.
I used to live near Seattle, and this building looks really familiar. I found a great website with historic information on Washington state that may be helpful to you. I knew a ton of people who moved to or from the Seattle area from Michigan and Minnesota. There were railway lines connecting closing the distance between the mid west and the west. Seattle was a growing city with a lot of opportunities for people, especially for women. (Seattle had one of the first female mayors) Seattle grew a lot due to the Alaskan gold rush. I think this building is a church. It looks a lot like this church. http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=185 There were a lot of Polish immigrants that settled in the Seattle area around the turn of the century http://www.polishhome.org/HistoryPHAEng.htm It may be a good idea to research the historic Queen Anne neighborhood as well. Good luck and I will let you know if I discover anything else!
I love hearing that about women in Seattle. People on both sides of my family traveled from the Great Lakes region to Seattle in those days. Thank you so much for your tips here. I compared this photo with the historic churches I found online, such as you showed me, and I am thinking that this is definitely a church, but a bit smaller than the historic churches still standing. The entrance seems more inviting, less grand, for instance. I will keep searching. Thank you so much, Jen!
http://www.krantenbankzeeland.nl/search?query=Kalamazoo&sort=issuedate%20ascending&f_issuedate%5B0%5D=1800-01-01T00:00:00Z–%2B100YEARS&f_periodicalcode%5B0%5D=gco
The “Goessche Courant” ( a Dutch Newspaper in Goes) published a lot articles about Kalamazoo.And you can find a lot advertisements from the Mulder family
Since sometimes I may be on a good lead I think this is a parish house. Across the back behind my apts. street there is a Catholic church (tall steeple, St. Mary’s catholic church) and it towers over its “neighbor,” a parish where the priest lives. I like your investigations on this blog, Luanne.
Oooh, I LIKE this idea!!! Thank you, Robin!
That building is the old First Congregational Church in Kalamazoo. It burned down in 1925. There is a colorized view of the building halfway down this page.
http://www.kpl.gov/local-history/religion/first-congregational.aspx
This is STUNNING news. It makes me have to rethink the entire photo album that a reader sent to me that belonged to the DeKorn-Culver family. Because of the age of the young women, it seemed clear that the photos were of Seattle, but now I wonder how MANY of them were actually Kalamazoo. I never dreamed that any were of Kalamazoo! Thank you so much! How did you find this photo and how did you put two and two together, may I ask?
You’re welcome. I was google image searching photos of Kalamazoo and came across your first post. Ended up browsing the whole blog.
You really opened up a lot more to me than a few photos. I am able to rethink everything about the photo album and identifying the photos!