Kalakala, The Queen of Puget Sound, Joins Kingen’s Urban Reef at Salty’s on Alki.
(Article originally posted March 2015)
This is a love story. It’s the story of the Queen of Puget Sound — the Kalakala — and the men who were smitten by her Art Deco glory and wouldn’t let her be forgotten.
Salty’s owner Gerald Robert Kingen already showed a penchant for keeping the history of old Seattle alive with his seaside “Urban Reef.” Keepsakes of the old West Seattle bridge adorn the landscaping at Salty’s on Alki in West Seattle. The Urban Reef became even more lovely the week of Valentine’s Day 2014 with the arrival of pieces of the beloved Queen of Puget Sound, the Art Deco icon Kalakala.
At her launch in 1926, the Kalakala was the largest ferry on the West Coast. She was considered one of the most elegant and modern steam turboelectric passenger ferries plying the waters of San Francisco Bay. Her journey and lifetime is documented with both detail and devotion on the Puget Sound Navigation/Black Ball Line’s wiki site at the Kalakala wiki. They purchased the ferry during the Depression as a workhorse (Seattle to Bremerton) and social boat taking revelers on “Moonlight Cruises” where its very own band “The Flying Bird Orchestra” played live tunes for dancing guests. In 1951 the Washington State Ferry system took over, and by the 1962 World’s Fair the ferry was so loved it had become a main icon of Seattle, second only to the Space Needle.
After moving to Alaska in 1968 the Kalakala became a floating processing vessel and later was moved onshore as a cannery. Over time she deteriorated and fell into disuse and was rediscovered in 1984 by Seattle sculptor Peter Bevis who was smitten by her Art Deco spell. Overcoming great obstacles, in 1977 he brought her back to Seattle to great fanfare where she floated on the waterfront at Pier 66 allowing former commuters to relive fond memories until 1998.* Then she was moored in Tacoma, Washington, where she languished until Gerry Kingen became smitten too and bought her as a Valentine’s gift for his wife Kathryn Hilger Kingen, co-owner of Salty’s. (Yes, Kathy was tickled pink.)
Today the Kalakala’s silver form no longer glides over the waters of Puget Sound in Moonlight Cruises, but it is partially resurrected and housed in West Seattle at Salty’s. Kingen’s vision includes landscaping and storyboard plaques to dress up the Kalakala’s rusted remains which include the wheelhouse, the massive rudder and crank, a piston and rod and a hatch. He wants to tie the exhibit to a hotel planned for adjacent land which fittingly will have some Art Deco features itself.
Kingen’s Urban Reef now tells more than one sea story in its visual and historical displays. The West Seattle bridge pieces seem to welcome the arrival of the Queen of Puget Sound as their history will be lovingly cherished together on the shores of Elliott Bay. Come to Salty’s and stand in the historic wheelhouse and watch moonrises over Seattle’s modern skyscrapers through the small portals and understand what it was like to be her captain and pilot. When you are there, be sure to look for the steel sculpture “The Luna Girls” just west of Salty’s; they now seem to be dancing with joy at the arrival of the Queen of Puget Sound.