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Submitted by security_six on Sun, 06/15/2008 - 8:43pm.

Finished sorting the last of my pics today. I took these while I was thinking about condos in downtown. I honestly think I could live with them, but that is my take. Anyway I have to remind myself sometimes of the beauty that is Olympia. Having lived in the Puget Sound nearly all of my life it is so easy to get used to these views and the scenery around us.

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Capital lake

Capitol lake was built to displace a bunch of squatters in a shanty town called "Little Hollywood" Althouth the tide flats were always a low rent blight on the city, the depression swelled the ranks of the poor in these "Hooverviles, so as to make the city fathers take steps to stem the tide. So they razed Little Hollywood and put in the lake. About that same time the Unemployed Citizens League marched from Seatle to the capital. They did not make it. the state police and armed buisnessmen of the town surrounded them at Priest Point Park forcing them back north. Athough the march leader did get to see the gov for a few seconds the next day. Like jebus said "the poor will be with us always" eat the rich the poor are skinny
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Never heard that story

Can you point me to some sources for that?  I'm familiar with hoovervilles, just not the ones that may have been in Oly.  

"It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress." --Mark Twain

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google

I'm not good with links and such as of yet. But if you google " little hollywood Olympia" you will find some history on it. Also looking over one of the sites it says there were two marches and the second one was surrounded and not the "U.E.C.L. so blame bad memory on my part. eat the rich the poor are skinny
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for a link

 Write out a description such as "Little Hollywood" you want to have copied the link to your clipboard by double clicking on it in your browser window and right clicking over the highlighted text and left clicking on "copy"  After you have copied the link to your clipboard, highlight the text you want to have a link.  After you do that, you should see in the menu above your posting an image like a link of chain become active.  Click on that.  Another window will open, and you can right click and choose paste in the appropriate field.  Selecting "ok" will then create a link.

Barring that I figure you could just paste the link "as is" into your post and a docent may have the courtesy to clean it up for you.   

"It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress." --Mark Twain

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Ummm

 Hate to burst your bubble about oppression and everything, but according to wikipedia, Capitol Lake was built in 1951...

The Washington State General Administration Office says the same thing.   

So while it is established that a Hooverville once stood there, and that there were two marches on the city by the poor, and that both marches met with some resistance, Capitol Lake WAS NOT created to wipe out the Hooverville.

Easy enough to establish this fact.  I wonder what other "facts" are running around out there to support the "oppression" model.

"It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress." --Mark Twain

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Hollywood was there after 1928

But I forget when it was torn down. Capitol Lake was to be a reflecting pool for the Capitol building. Priorities. Here's a photo:

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It was....

condemmed and destroyed when the fifth avenue dam was built. Sorry to miss represent the history. But this still fits into my story line. and I think I will let my generalizations stand. mainly because I got the gist of it right. This condemnation and destruction was to get the folks out of there. I do this from memory as my skills are lacking. I post I don't minutely research and post, I will try to make sure I maintane pure scienctific and empiric evidence mode so as not to confuse anyone. still all in all I say htey were run out I guess not for the lake per say, but a lake improvement. eat the rich the poor are skinny
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Yargh

But you didn't get the gist right.  You claimed the lake was created to drive out a particular group of people.  However as you have been shown the lake was created in 1951 and as a reflecting pool for the Capital.  It was built as a beautification project, not a harassment project.  

In order to build it folks had to leave, but the project was not selected to remove or target a particular group.  

The words "intelectual dishonesty" come to mind... 

BTW, as someone who lives on the water, a mudflat is not the greatest place to be living.   

"It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress." --Mark Twain

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It was....

condemmed and destroyed when the fifth avenue dam was built. Sorry to miss represent the history. But this still fits into my story line. and I think I will let my generalizations stand. mainly because I got the gist of it right. This condemnation and destruction was to get the folks out of there. I do this from memory as my skills are lacking. I post ,I don't minutely research and post, I will try to make sure I maintane pure scienctific and empiric evidence mode so as not to confuse anyone. still all in all I say they were run out I guess not for the lake per say, but a lake improvement. sorry for the double post. still new to this. They had to build the dam to proceed with the lake I assume, so this was with their plan. eat the rich the poor are skinny
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Some additional information on Capitol Lake

This from the GA's website. (PDF Document)

Refering to the Wilder and White plan of the early 1910's...

 

Their Plan called for access to the capitol group from
the north, stating that the city should move toward
providing “...a fine boulevard...connecting the three
distinctive ridges contained in the city limits, and
giving access to the coast towns. On the axis of the
capitol a fine approach from this boulevard to the
foot of the steps would be made with a carriage
approach on either side, and a boulevard to
Tumwater along the water’s edge there connecting
without the proposed Pacific highway...A tide lock at
the Boulevard [to the west] would form a lake and the
whole effect would be visible from most parts of the
city as well as from the sound.”

So long before the Great Depression and before the term "Hooverville" was created, it was planned to build a lake there. Again, this does not fit with the claim that the lake was built to drive off a particular economic group.

In 1937 the first action was taken towards creating the lake, authorizing the state to acquire land as needed, as well build a dam. As we know the lake was not built until 1951. My guess is that the Depression, followed by the Second World War got in the way of things.

Again though, no evidence of economic oppression or an attempt to destroy Little Hollywood simply because it was a shantytown.

"It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress." --Mark Twain

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I was a time line event...

I still feel all these events were connected. The plans for the lake moved forward for more reasons than the public ones. The lake did get rid of an unsightly shanty town. Fait acompli ? And I guess the poor were driven to Lacey or some such. eat the rich the poor are skinny
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Here is the timeline

 1911- Initial plan for the Capitol Campus created, includes a "reflecting lake

1937- Approval for creation of lake and acquiring of land

1951- Completion of Lake

This means Little Hollywood survived the Depression, and the 1940's.  

Do you know what the population of that area was during or after WWII?  I don't think it was a full blown hooverville at that point.  It appears to have been mixed use business and substandard housing.

Why don't you quit guessing and posturing in an attempt to justify your increasingly unlikely scenario and find out what happened to the people of Little Hollywood?  

They just weren't evicted overnight.  The owners of the land (evil landlords? Rent is Theft right?) would have been given notice, and the tenants of the buildings would have had opportunity to move.  

Sounds like you have an interesting project on your hands if you care to try and prove your point, or will you just keep going "well, err, but I WANT IT to be this way."?

Dude you think the lake moved forward for reasons outside of the public one.  How?  The plan from the begining was to build a reflecting pool.  A reflecting pool was built.  

I hear that Harvey Danger song in my head now...

"Paranoia, Paranoia, everybody's comin' to get me..." 

"It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress." --Mark Twain

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Landlords?

I don't know if there were any or if anyone was paying rent. Just don't know if that was the case. It wouldn't be the first time in Puget Sound. And I have no idea how people were evicted or how. It's pretty sketchy. So I'm not sure we can say how events played out. We can all do well by guessing less I suppose. But nothing beats digging up some facts.
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Yeah

 Looking at that pic again, it could have been squatters.  Some pretty ratty places there. 

"It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress." --Mark Twain

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Never let the facts get in the way of a good story

or one's ideology.
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The picture I posted was taken around 1948.

nt
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