Email #24a - No, We Were Red

Professor Jerry Finrow knows a lot more about 1908 construction than I do. Here's his response to my previous email "Once We Were Orange."

            "...The orange color you are talking about is probably red lead paint.  All steel construction of that time was primed in red lead in order to keep it from rusting.  My guess is that the steel members were primed before being erected and then once erected, the connectors bolts and other parts were then primed.  Over the years the red lead probably oxidized to orange which is what we see today.  By the way, red lead is highly toxic and has not been used in over 20 years.  Just be sure you don't take a bite out of the columns!"- Jerry Finrow  Aug. 27, 2006

That must mean the steel structure looked red, not orange, on Aug. 27, 1908. But where is the evidence?

Of course this was before color photography was in general use. And it's not likely anyone made a color painting of the construction site. So the evidence of its redness, if it exists, would be in a written record somewhere. Does anyone know of photographs or paintings of this redness from the early 1900s? I assume it would be close to the red steel we see today (See #31).

John Stamets
Aug. 27, 2006

The historic photo by Frank Nowell is courtesy of UW Special Collections.

See also #24, #31 and #71