Snoqualmie Falls Postcard from 1906 by James Bert Barton in Seattle, WA

I continue my quest to document the many postcards from the Real Twin Peaks of  Snoqualmie Valley, Washington. This time, I found a postcard of Snoqualmie Falls from 1906 by James Bert Barton (also known as J.B. Barton). Despite exhaustive research, I found little information about this Seattle-based photographer from the early 1900s.

SNOQUALMIE FALLS POSTCARD FROM 1906 BY JAMES BERT BARTON

This postcard of Snoqualmie Falls is taken from a unique angle at the base of the 268-foot waterfall. The Snoqualmie Falls Lodge doesn’t appear in this shot as it would not be constructed until 10 years later. The caption reads, “Snoqualmie Falls, Seattle” and it has a copyright of 1906 / J.B. Barton.

I picked up this card at auction which still had a canceled stamp with a date of March 29, 1907.

The card was published by James Bert Barton who had a studio located at 35 Haller Building in downtown Seattle. This could explain why that city is listed on the front of the card as Snoqualmie Falls is about 35 minutes East of downtown in the small town of Snoqualmie.

During Seattle’s post-fire building boom, the Haller Building was built at the northwest corner of Second Avenue and Columbia Street between 1889-1890. In 1905, the building housed law offices, doctors’ offices, and the Seattle Tug Company on its upper floors. On the ground floor was a cigar store and the Bank of California. The building was demolished years later.

WHO IS JAMES BERT BARTON OR J. B. BARTON? 

According to Archives West, James B. Barton was a photographer living and working in Seattle from approximately 1900 until the late 1960s. He was born on March 23, 1881. He is listed in the Seattle directory as a “bookeeper, collector, photographer, salesman and insurance agent.” He married Vivian E, Murphy on November 12, 1913 in Everett, Washington.

At some point, he formed a photography studio with his brother Arthur. I found another Snoqualmie Falls postcard on Ebay that credited “Barton Bros.”

According to his Find A Grave entry, James Barton died on August 19, 1967 at the age of 86. He is buried in Lakeview Cemetery in Seattle along with his wife Vivian who died decades later on March 27, 1989 at the age of 99.

I’ve been unable to locate a photo of the Barton Brothers. In a photo archive at the University of Washington, it appears they took images of “natural landscapes, Seattle scenes, local events and people, as well as documentation of what was probably a trip to Alaska.” J.B. Barton’s Mirror Lake image at Mount Rainier was sold at auction.

Unfortunately, it appears their history has been washed away like the raging current of the Snoqualmie River. Only a handful of images like these postcards of Snoqualmie Falls remain.

Download a high-resolution image of this postcard and many other from my Flickr account: https://www.flickr.com/photos/aloha75/albums/72177720314797263/