Just Landed: Alden x Blackbird
Slideshow: History by way of Blackbird. Here, Alden boots inspired by a ’30s-era creamery on Market Street, around the corner from where Blackbird sits today.
Note the sign for Christopherson’s Creamery, the inspiration for Blackbird’s new boots, in this 1939 photo of Market Street in Ballard.
Hayburner oxfords are named for the horses who pulled Frank Osgood’s streetcars. See the timeline below, courtesy Blackbird historians:
1884 – Frank Osgood, widely known as the father of Seattle’s public-transportation system, begins operating a horse-drawn trolley on Sept. 23. Passengers pay a nickel for a trip along steel tracks, laid in the mud of Second Avenue.
1887 – Osgood’s horses – known also as "hayburners" – have trouble with Seattle’s hills, so cars pulled by cables beneath the street are introduced. The Lake Washington Cable Railway, linking Leschi and Pioneer Square, is especially popular in the summer, when people ride along Yesler Way or Madison Street for a picnic at the lake.
1889 – Osgood unveils Seattle’s first electric streetcar, despite fears that the line would magnetize pocket watches and shock horses with stray bolts of electricity. On the first run, a car stalls, forcing passengers to push it to the end of the line.
From Blackbird: "Osgood’s contributions helped Seattle become a more modernized city and dramatically changed its street culture, helping Seattle’s working man keep his shoes clean on his daily way through town and making his gal’s Sunday afternoon picnics at Lake Washington as easy as hopping on a trolley."