Photos Show People of Color Working on the Space Needle

Last week, the Space Needle previewed a new permanent exhibition in its base along the spiral ramp that leads to the elevators to the Observation Deck.

It tells the story of the Needle’s conception and construction. Called “Building the Marvel,” it features large models and blow-up photographs running from the doodle Eddie Carlson drew when he hatched the idea for the tower in the late 1950s to the Needle’s completion for opening of the Seattle World’s Fair in 1962. Actual construction began 55 years ago this month.

I have been consulting on the exhibit for the last couple of years, and a cornerstone of it is a collection of spectacular images that document the construction from the collection of Bellevue photographer George Gulacsik who documented it all. His family donated his photographs and notes to the Seattle Public Library, which unveiled the collection online last week. It’s a treasure trove of images that add valuable information to the record of how Seattle’s icon came to be.

There are some amazing gems in the collection, such as the only known photograph of John F. Kennedy on the fair grounds (driving through during construction in November 1961) and the only known images of the Needle’s chief architect, John Graham, Jr., on the Needle. Unlike other photographers, Gulacsik visited the project every few days and captured the men who build the Needle—their faces, their tools, their courage.

When I say men who built the Needle, I do mean men. There were no women allowed to work on building the tower (though they played a huge role in running it later). But one thing Gulacsik’s photographs capture is that it wasn’t all white men. His pictures provide substantial documentary evidence of the role of people of color in the project. At least two of the Needle’s ironworkers were Native Americans, one from the Yakama tribe. But we can now also see African Americans who worked on the upper levels pouring concrete floors, and men—probably painters—dangling out over empty space as precariously as any ironworker. Building the marvel—and the future—was not an all-white affair in 1962. This is history I’d like to learn more about.

I’ll be giving a lecture about the gems of the Gulacsik collection on June 18 at the Seattle Public Library. In the meantime I highly recommend you browse the digital collection to see how Seattle’s “Eiffel Tower” was built. And next time you’re at the Needle, check out the new exhibit. You’ll see the Needle as you have never seen it before.