Let’s remember the Twin T-Ps Restaurant, which opened on this day in 1937 (March 13)
For almost 65 years, the Twin T-Ps Restaurant was a popular roadside attraction on Aurora Avenue, near Greenlake, before being bulldozed with little fanfare in 2001.
An essay in HistoryLink, written by Walt Crowley, tells us:
On March 13, 1937, the Twin T-Ps (later Power’s Pancake House and Twin Teepees) opens at 7201 Aurora Ave. N, near Green Lake. The unusual building features two metal-clad conical pavilions, hence its name, intended to attract the attention of passing motorists, and becomes an instant, if unofficial, landmark. Such structures, now rare in Seattle, are classified as “vernacular architecture” because their idiosyncratic designs usually reflect individual quirks or promotional strategies rather than conventional standards.
The building was designed by Delland Harris and housed the main dining room was housed in the southern “teepee.” A pre-opening article in The Seattle Times described its dining room as featuring “a huge open-pit fireplace, covered with seashells” in a decor inspired by American Indian designs. The northern pavilion contained the kitchen and a cocktail lounge. Restrooms were located on the upper floor of a lobby structure bridging the two teepees.
It also contains this fascinating bit of trivia:
The Twin T-Ps was first operated by Herman E. Olson. It passed through several hands before being acquired in 1942 by Walter Clark (d. 1990), who went on to build a regional chain of 22 restaurants. Clark employed a former war buddy, Col. Harland Sanders, who worked on his famous “Kentucky fried chicken” recipe in the Teepee’s kitchen before establishing his own fast food empire.
For further reading:
