July 4th in Redmond

A couple of images from Redmond this weekend. Friday was so lovely I snuck out early to sketch the old McRedmond Hotel, now an architect's office tucked next to a modern hotel. Built in the 19th century, it's seen a lot of change, and used to look across the tracks to the station and granery. Now the railroad doesn't run and cars are king. The road is being widened to handle the mass of traffic between Sammamish and, I guess, Microsoft. Some call it progress...


Another treasure tucked almost out of sight near the entrance to 520 is the Hida House, built by sculptor Dudley Carter about 20 years ago when he was very old. Dudley learned wood carving as a boy in the logging camps of BC and Alaska; Hida is a tribe in Alaska. The house was carved by Dudley and assembled by friends and teenage volunteers and was, for a time, an art center. After he died, vagrants broke in and endangered the building. It's in sorry shape, with grass on the roof and the front picture windows boarded over to protect the glass. The carvings are wonderful and the lower section of the center piece swings out as the main door. Gabi, you've checked out the clocks of Seattle, maybe we need to take in the totems tucked around town on a future sketchcrawl?