Wow, so much stuff to comment on, where to start? The Clay St then-and-now, I mean...Alright, I'm not even gonna start. I'll just jump in with the posting of noir because...it's going to be a new week, and nothing starts you out fresh and peppy like
suicide! Especially that of the jumping variety, because it affords the best views of buildings. (Did I write that out loud?)
First I saw this:
And I was tickled because I love this building so much, it's the Pacific National at 9th & Hill (MW&C '25) -- if you've never been inside to see the crazy Spanish Renaissance lobby, you need to go right now. Even if it's closed. And you're in another state.
13 Feb 1932: Colorado Springs aerialist Rollie M. Lane was eager to demonstrate the confidence he had in his new type of parachute. His confidence was unwarranted, apparently. However, accounts are that he jumped into the parking lot at the
west side of the building and the wind drove the chute against the structure and prevented it from opening fully. He landed on his feet and was dead within an hour of arriving at Georgia Street Receiving.
Thus this is likely a representation of:
19 July 1934: Robert L————, 30, oil company salesman, plunged to the Hill Street pavement at noon, narrowly missing several persons. He wrote "I can't believe if my act is cowardly that it is a result of any earlier tendency or trend. Since I was a tender child of eleven years I have been obliged to battle for bread, education and every little measure of success that has come to me."
The building gets a lot of action:
11 June 1951.
Mrs. Jean L————, 40, of 18121/2 Bellevue Ave., leaped to her death from the 12th floor of the Pacific National Building. She landed in a parking lot at the rear of the building.
Det. Lt. Bill Cummings of the homicide squad reported the woman left two notes, one to her daughter, Miss Betty K————, and the other to doctors. In the note to her daughter, Mrs. L———— reaffirmed her love for her daughter and said that "I can't hold you down any more."
The note to the doctors urged that an examination be made to ascertain the cause of severe pains in her back and head.
She had a few final smokes at the window:
And then, post-cigarette:
All: USC