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Rise and fall of The Polynesia, Seattle WASH |
bigbrotiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 25, 2002
Posts: 10562
From: Tiki Island, above the Silverlake
|  Posted: 2008-06-28 9:29 pm Permalink
Well, what a perfect re-enactment of the historic happenings: The Bounty docks at the (island of) Polynesia, to have its crew replenished by island food and drink served by exotic beauties! Wonder if anyone thought of jumping ship...
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tikiyaki
Grand Member (5 years) 
Joined: May 18, 2004
Posts: 2677
From: The Exotic Port of REDONDO BEACH, CA
| Posted: 2008-06-29 08:43 am Permalink
MAn, thi was such a beautiful place. What a shame about it's demise. That place should have been kept as a museum piece for Mid Century Modern Architecture. It had so many amazing design elements.
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bigbrotiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 25, 2002
Posts: 10562
From: Tiki Island, above the Silverlake
| Posted: 2008-06-29 08:52 am Permalink
I know, I would love to see a full view of the bayside windows,
...it seems that they had New Guinea mask designs on glass!:
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Mo-Eye
Tiki Socialite
Joined: May 17, 2006
Posts: 600
From: Costa Mesa, CA
| Posted: 2009-11-04 02:59 am Permalink
Just found this view which includes the Seattle Polynesia from 1978.
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Tipsy McStagger
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Nov 21, 2004
Posts: 3388
From: HELL
| Posted: 2009-11-04 05:03 am Permalink
i was in seattle in 2006 at pier 51....isn't it the site of the seattle aquarium now??
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woofmutt
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 26, 2002
Posts: 2584
From: Seattilite Telstar
| Posted: 2009-11-04 09:29 am Permalink
This photo is looking east (actually sort of southeast) into the south part of downtown Seattle. (The pointy white building in the center of the picture is the Smith Tower. It was once Seattle's tallest building. It's also not far from the original "skid row.")
The Ferry Terminal, the chunky rusty brown structure in the left of the picture, is on Pier 52. The Polynesian was on pier 51.
The Seattle Aquarium is further north on Pier 59 and has been there since 1977.
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Sabu The Coconut Boy
Grand Member (8 years) 
Joined: Aug 20, 2002
Posts: 2784
From: Carson, California
| Posted: 2010-01-15 01:18 am Permalink
Some more images of the Polynesia in Seattle. I think I posted these first two a long time ago, before I had a decent scanner. Time to re-post them on this thread.
These next three are from Sept. 1964 issue of "Architectural Record" magazine:
SOUTH PACIFIC LONG HOUSE ON WATERFRONT
The Polynesia restaurant has a dramatic setting at the end of a 125-foot-wide pier which extends 800 feet from the Seattle waterfront into Puget Sound, and its unusual triple A-frame form - inspired by the "halau" or long house - accentuates the dramatic location. The structure is of heavy timber, with special precautions due to the building's location. The necessary sprinkler system is installed, however, so that only the sprinkler heads penetrate to the interior; supply lines are mounted on the outside and run 2 inches off the roof. Charcoal-colored asbestos shingles provide fire-resistant roofing. The red cedar siding, set on a slant to parallel one line of the A-frames, is stained dark brown. The two-level dining area looks out over the sound to a panoramic view of the Olympic Mountains. Most of the seating is built-in to resemble carved Polynesian benches. The cylindrical "fireplace" consists of 1-inch copper tube, bent into a spiral and drilled for gas gets, surrounded by a mesh screen. The architect no only designed the building but the menus as well, and selected the costumes for waiters and waitresses, using tangerine, gold, black and seal brown - the same basic colors used elsewhere in the building.
Finishing up with some photos of one of the huge Witco masks from the front of the Polynesia that Sophista-tiki spotted in West Seattle and documented in this thread:
http://www.tikiroom.com/tikicentral/bb/viewtopic.php?topic=68&forum=1&start=15
The owner of the house found the mask floating in Elliot Bay after the restaurant had been lifted by crane onto a barge and moved.
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[ This Message was edited by: Sabu The Coconut Boy 2010-01-15 01:21 ]
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beadtiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Aug 24, 2007
Posts: 929
From: Bothell, Washington
| Posted: 2010-01-15 12:44 pm Permalink
What a freaken' waste. I can't believe they didn't try to sell that giant mask - instead letting it slip off into the water like so much detritus. I'm sad I never had an opportunity to go even though I've lived here all my life. At least I've been to the Bali Hai. Wonder where the Goof will end up after the remodel - probably floating in the bay - maybe it will make it's way to the navy base across the way and become their mascot!
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Trader Bob
Tiki Centralite
Joined: Nov 29, 2009
Posts: 75
From: Gold Coast, tropical paradise
| Posted: 2010-01-15 1:57 pm Permalink
Artifacts thrown in the bay! What gives. I would of thought in that era there would have been no shortage of takers for all that stuff! What a waste. I now have tears in my Mai Tai.
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Sabu The Coconut Boy
Grand Member (8 years)
Joined: Aug 20, 2002
Posts: 2784
From: Carson, California
| Posted: 2010-01-15 2:30 pm Permalink
You have to remember that it was 1982 when the restaurant was moved and that was the low-point of Polynesian Pop appreciation. The article Woofmutt posted says that the interior artifacts were removed by the owner, but the workers moving the structure wouldn't have had any reverence for any decor still attached to the outside.
The 80s were when Bosko and a few other fans of the genre were finding the entire contents of these restaurants in dumpsters, and salvaging what they could. It was considered tasteless junk by most.
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Dustycajun
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Nov 16, 2007
Posts: 3925
From: Santa Barbara, CA
| Posted: 2010-01-15 4:17 pm Permalink
Sabu,
Those are some great pics from the Architectural Mag, nice to see a complete shot of the triple A-Frame with the Witco mask out front. It looks like there was another mask on the A-Frame on the left side as well, wonder what happened to that one.
DC
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Sophista-tiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Sep 13, 2005
Posts: 1598
From: Seattle WA
| Posted: 2010-01-15 6:11 pm Permalink
From the first hand info I got about finding the giant Witco in Elliot Bay I'm assuming that the other one could be at the bottom. I'll keep looking just incase it was saved.
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woofmutt
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 26, 2002
Posts: 2584
From: Seattilite Telstar
| Posted: 2010-01-15 6:29 pm Permalink
The giant mask was flotsam, not jetsam. David Cohn fully intended to relocate the Polynesian somewhere else. I imagine it was not intended that the mask come off when the "Poly" was moved.
(EDIT:) I as just looking over Sophista-tiki's post on the mask. The current owner claimed "pieces of decor were being chucked in the water before they hauled the building away." But the restaurant was being moved, not torn down and this was right next to the ferry terminal where ferries come and go around the clock. And there's plenty of other marine traffic in the area. It would seem the authorities would frown on large pieces of wood and et cetera just being thrown in the water. And it seems unlikely that Cohn would want the Polynesian stripped of exterior decor if he planned to relocate it.
When I spoke with Cohn on the phone eight years ago it was obvious that he had really loved the Polynesian and was unhappy with the way things turned out. But, as I posted above, the city of Seattle wouldn't let him relocate it anywhere on the water.
[ This Message was edited by: woofmutt 2010-01-15 18:40 ]
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bigbrotiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 25, 2002
Posts: 10562
From: Tiki Island, above the Silverlake
| Posted: 2010-01-15 8:21 pm Permalink
He should have built a ramp, launched it into the bay, put a "Kon Tiki II" sail on top, and sailed it to Polynesia! 
Quote:
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On 2010-01-15 16:17, Dustycajun wrote:
It looks like there was another mask on the A-Frame on the left side as well, wonder what happened to that one.
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Yup, this one below left, page 249 Tiki Modern:
I got the B&W photo from Bill Westenhaver like you see it, so it appears the negative got flipped when they printed it, kinda confusing.
I also noticed what looked like Tiki flanking the entrance in the new B&W shot form Sabu's post, so I zoomed into the postcard, couldn't make out much though:
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Swanky
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Apr 03, 2002
Posts: 4806
From: Hapa Haole Hideaway, TN
| Posted: 2010-08-04 09:39 am Permalink
Quote:
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On 2008-06-28 20:45, Sweet Daddy Tiki wrote:
Here's some screen caps from the DVD of the 1962 Mutiny On The Bounty. They're from a bonus newsreel about a tour the replica of the Bounty made to various cities including Vancouver, Victoria and Seattle. Guess where the Bounty docked in Seattle?
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A side note. THe rigging in the Molkai Bar at the Mai-Kai was done by the crew that worked on this Bounty remake.
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