Keyword(s): Patrick McRoberts
In 1980, eight women seeking to contribute to the community's civic dialogue got together to form the nucleus of CityClub in Seattle. At the time, many civic organizations, such as Rotary Internationa...
This is a reminiscence of Walt Crowley (1947-2007), founding president and executive director of HistoryLink.org, the online encyclopedia of Washington state history. Walt also worked as a journalist,...
Jennifer Dunn was the first woman to serve as Washington State Republican Party chair and went on to serve six terms as a U.S. Representative from the 8th Congressional District in east King County, i...
A fourth-generation Washington businessman and leading Eastside real-estate baron, Kemper Freeman Jr. directed redevelopment of his father's Bellevue Square into a first-class urban mall with 200 stor...
Patrick Gogerty became director of Seattle Day Nursery in 1973 and transformed the program, originally founded in 1909 as a daycare center, into a model program for abused children. The program was re...
Richard Hugo rose from an insecure childhood in White Center, a poor area just south of Seattle, to become one of the foremost American poets of his generation. His collected poems in Making Certain I...
Bruce C. Laing, a professional planner, was elected as a Republican to the King County Council in 1979 and spent 16 years on the Council. During his tenure, Laing, a moderate, exhibited an ability to ...
The deactivation of the Sand Point Naval Air Station on Lake Washington in Northeast Seattle set off a years-long, bitter debate over uses for the land. Eventually, 195.6 acres were transferred to the...
Norman Kim "Norm" Maleng was King County Prosecuting Attorney for 28 years, during which he implemented legal reforms, mentored future judges and politicians, and made national news while prosecuting ...
Karen Marchioro was a mover and shaker in the Washington State Democratic Party for more than four decades from the early 1970s to her death from an extended bout with cancer in 2007. She was, accordi...
Theodore Roethke, recognized by many as one of the greatest American poets of the twentieth century, taught at the University of Washington from 1947 until his death in 1963. There, he inspired a gene...
Seattle's waterfront is a natural location for an aquarium, and proposals to build one go back many years, though it wasn't until a Forward Thrust bond issue was approved in 1968 that funds were alloc...
The Seattle General Strike began at 10 a.m. on February 6, 1919, and paralyzed the city for five days. Never before had the nation seen a labor action of this kind. Many in Seattle were expecting revo...
Downtown Seattle is not just another neighborhood. After centuries of settlement by Indians, the first Europeans to call Seattle home established farms and a steam-powered sawmill in the area of Pione...
On May 26, 1840, early missionary Father Francis N. Blanchet (1795-1883) comes to Whidbey Island at the invitation of Chief Tslalakum.
On October 15, 1850, Col. Isaac N. Ebey (1818-1857) files a claim on Whidbey Island under the Donation Land Law, less than a month after its passage.
On April 4, 1853, the first Island County Commissioners' meeting takes place in Coveland, the newly designated county seat, located on Penn's Cove northwest of Coupeville on Whidbey Island's east coas...
On August 11, 1857, a group of North Coast Indians -- likely members of the Kake tribe of Tlingits who were led by a woman warrior -- behead Col. Isaac N. Ebey (1818-1857) at his home, "The Cabins," n...
In 1895, the University of Washington moves from a downtown Seattle site to its current site along the shores of Lake Washington and Lake Union.
On March 2, 1899, both houses of the United States Congress pass legislation creating Mount Rainier National Park, dominated by the glacier-capped, 14,411 foot mountain located in Pierce County. The p...
In September 1899, the first transport ship between Seattle and the Philippines, the Marion Chilcott, departs. Trade has opened following the Spanish American War and the subsequent Philippine-America...
On March 13, 1900, Thomas J. Humes (1847-1904), the Republican incumbent, wins re-election as mayor of Seattle. Humes is a player in the "open town" controversy, and in his first term, had opened Seat...
In May 1900, the Seattle Chamber of Commerce reports the departure of nine steamships laden with goods for the Philippines, intensifying the cross-Pacific trade, which has developed to support the mil...
On December 31, 1901, following a period of building on the waterfront to support the growing trade with Asia, the Seattle Chamber of Commerce reports: "Instead of the old irregular of wharfs and bunk...
On November 6, 1906, voters in the Town of Ballard approve annexation to Seattle by a majority of 996 to 874. The Ballard annexation, which becomes official on May 29, 1907, adds 17,000 people to Seat...
On May 29, 1907, the City of Ballard ceases to exist when it is annexed to Seattle, adding a new neighborhood to the northwest as well as 17,000 people to Seattle's population.
On July 17, 1913, two seemingly unrelated events during Seattle's Potlatch Days festival -- a fistfight and a speech -- kick off a chain of events that will lead to violent confrontations in downtown ...
On July 18, 1913, while thousands throng Seattle streets to watch the Potlatch Days festival parade, soldiers and sailors, aided by civilians, ransack the local headquarters of the Industrial Workers ...