Keyword(s): Alan J. Stein
The city of Auburn, located 20 miles south of Seattle, was home to some of the earliest non-Native settlers in King County. Nestled in a fertile river valley, it has been both a farm community and a c...
The company mill town of Barneston, located in King County 40 miles southeast of Seattle, manufactured 15 million to 25 million feet of timber annually for most of a quarter-century. Established in 18...
The Beacon Hill Branch, The Seattle Public Library, is located on Seattle's Beacon Hill at 2821 Beacon Avenue S in a building financed by the 1998 "Libraries for All" bond issue. The branch opened in ...
The City of Bellevue is a modern, metropolitan community dotted with skyscrapers. Although it didn't incorporate until 1953 and has experienced most of its rapid growth since then, its history goes ba...
The first Bellevue Library, located in a small room at the back of a cafe, opened in 1925 under the supervision of the Bellevue Women's Club. The library moved around to various locations over the yea...
The city of Black Diamond, located along the Cascade Mountain range, in King County, 25 miles southeast of Seattle, was built as a company town for the Black Diamond Coal Company in the late 1800s.
Bobo the gorilla entertained visitors to the Great Ape House at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle for 15 years. He was a mainstay attraction for both young and old. A somewhat grumpy gorilla, Bobo love...
The Boeing 747 was one of the most ambitious projects ever taken on by the aerospace company. More than twice as big as the Boeing 707, the four-engine jumbo-jet was originally able to carry more than...
Beginning in 1969, the Boeing Company, after a decade of rapid growth in air travel, began laying off employees due to oversaturation of the airplane market. As airplane sales continued to decline, th...
Jeremiah Borst is considered to be the father of the Snoqualmie Valley, located in north central King County. A soft-spoken man with a lisp, he was the first permanent non-Indian settler in the valley...
Kate Kanim Borst was a Native American woman who was the third wife of Snoqualmie Valley settler Jeremiah Borst. During her lifetime, she witnessed the transformation of the valley from prairies and I...
The Burke Museum, founded in 1885 by a group of teenage boys, is Washington's oldest museum. Since its inception, the museum has been part of the University of Washington, and has had various homes on...
Carnation (previously Tolt), a rural community along the Snoqualmie River in eastern King County, was founded early in the settlement of the county. The town was named after the world-famous Carnation...
Cedar Falls, originally a City Light company town, is located in the upper Cedar River watershed, 30 miles southeast of Seattle. The town's history also encompasses nearby communities that housed rail...
Approximately 5,600 years ago, a massive landslide removes .7 cubic miles of earth from the summit of Mount Rainier. The ensuing mudflow, which spreads as far as modern-day Kent, is called the Osceola...
In 1860, a government land survey names Mercer's Island for the first time. Later shortened to Mercer Island, the island is named for Thomas Mercer (1813-1898), an early pioneer who suggested the name...
On November 7, 1864, two Snohomish Indians kill William and Abigail Casto in their home in Squak Valley (now Issaquah.) Also killed is John Halstead, a housemate. The assailants are in turn killed by ...
On August 20, 1881, the Spring Hill Water Company is incorporated in Seattle, with a capital of $25,000. This privately owned water system is Seattle's first integrated distribution system, and later ...
On January 18, 1882, a mob of Seattleites lynches three men. Two of them, James Sullivan and William Howard, had robbed and fatally wounded businessman George B. Reynolds. A mob hangs Sullivan and How...
On February 8, 1886, former King County Commissioner James Manning Colman (1836-1886) is murdered after leaving his Kennydale home by rowboat. Suspicion falls on George Miller, whom Colman had accused...
On September 24, 1888, Seattle mayor Robert Moran addresses a letter to the Common Council suggesting a gravity water system with a source at Cedar River. Although the Cedar River had been considered ...
On December 24, 1888, the ferry City of Seattle makes its first run from Seattle to Duwamish Head at West Seattle. City of Seattle is the first regularly scheduled ferry on Puget Sound.
On July 8, 1889, Seattle voters approve creation of a city-owned water system, as proposed the previous fall by Mayor Robert Moran (1857-1943), and elect the mayor to a second one-year term. The vote ...
On October 17, 1889, the Seattle Fire Department is officially created, a few months after Seattle's devastating Great Fire of June 6, 1889. Gardner Kellogg, who had been a volunteer firefighter since...
On August 15, 1891, under Ordinance 1797, the City of Seattle acquires a pump station site on Queen Anne Hill. This is the first city-owned water pumping facility.
In the spring of 1892, a massive drydock -- a floating structure from which water can be removed to build or repair ships -- begins operations at Dockton on Maury Island. The drydock establishes Dockt...
On April 29, 1892, the town of Gilman incorporates. Originally named Squak, the community changes its name to Issaquah in 1899.
On October 1 1892, the Seattle Fire Department Relief Association is incorporated as a result of the death of Herman Larsen, Seattle's first firefighter killed in the line of duty. Larsen was injured ...