Of all the Pacific Northwest's pioneering record companies, it was Seafair Records that perhaps best embodied Seattle's innocent early days when a good honest effort would bring success. A true "mom ...
In this excerpt from his unpublished autobiography, Jim Douglas (1909-2005) recalls the many steps involved in coordinating Seafair. Jim Douglas was one of a group of local citizens called together by...
The City of SeaTac was incorporated in 1989 and named after the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, which it surrounds. Native Americans had occupied the region roughly midway between present-day Se...
The Seattle & Walla Walla was Seattle's first railroad. Seattleites built it in reaction to Northern Pacific's 1873 decision to locate its western terminus in Tacoma rather than in Seattle. The Se...
Seattle was founded by members of the Denny party, most of whom arrived at Alki Beach on November 13, 1851 and then, in April 1852, relocated to the eastern shore of Elliott Bay. With the filing of th...
Seattle is the largest city in Washington state and its economic capital. Settled in 1851, its deep harbor and acquisition of Puget Sound's first steam-powered sawmill quickly established it as a cent...
In 1907, the City of Seattle annexed the municipalities of West Seattle, Ballard, South Park, Southeast Seattle, and Columbia City as well as Ravenna Park and vicinity and unincorporated southeast nei...
This is a chronological list of milestones in Seattle and King County History.
In the vicinity of the Duwamish River and Elliott Bay where in 1851 the first U.S. settlers began building log cabins, the Duwamish tribe occupied at least 17 villages. The first non-Natives to settle...
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...
Creating an art museum in Seattle began with a modest gathering of like-minded art and cultural enthusiasts in the early years of the twentieth century. Through two predecessor organizations and the p...
Until the early 1970s, the Seattle Art Museum had been firmly led by one man, Richard Fuller, but things were about to change. Many people would lead the museum as directors and board members over the...
Seattle is home to myriad art galleries and art museums, but it wasn't always so. In this original essay, historian Vicki Halper surveys the city's burgeoning art community in the years following the ...
The Seattle Arts Commission was formed in 1971. The commission evolved out of the Municipal Arts Commission, founded in 1955 with the aim of integrating artistic experiences into Seattleites' daily li...
Seattle Bandstand was a televised teen-dance show modeled after Dick Clark's national program, American Bandstand and hosted by Ray Briem (b. 1930). The Northwest version is an instant favorite of Nor...
This is a People's History of the first 50 years of the Seattle Banjo Club, founded in 1962. It was written by John LaFond, who joined in 1973. He is the club's longest-serving member.
The Seattle Camera Club, a group of photography enthusiasts, was formed in 1924 and disbanded in 1929. Composed mostly of Issei (first-generation Japanese immigrant) men, the club also welcomed men of...
The Seattle Cemetery, located at the present (1999) site of Denny Park north of downtown, was Seattle's first official municipal cemetery. The first burials in 1861 (?) were bodies removed from other ...
The 74 acres that comprise Seattle Center have played a pivotal role in the region’s history. The defining moment came in 1962 when the Century 21 Exposition, also known as the Seattle World&rsq...
The following letter, written by Glenn Barney to the Seattle Landmark Preservation Board on March 17, 2003, is in the public domain files of the Seattle Landmark Preservation Board. In the letter Barn...
Coast Salish Indians fished, hunted, and gathered shellfish along Elliott Bay for millennia before May 1792, when European sailors first gazed at the site of present-day Seattle. Sixty years later, U....
The waterfront between Battery and Broad streets, beginning with Pier 69, is graced by the Edgewater Hotel, the Port of Seattle terminal for high-speed Victoria Clipper catamaran ferries, and Myrtle E...
Piers 46 and 47 are located south of Pioneer Square and Pier 48 is located directly west of Pioneer Square. Piers 46 and 47 serve as the Port of Seattle's vast loading apron for containers. Pier 48 is...
The waterfront at the foot of Yesler Way (piers 1 and 2 by pioneer arithmetic, later piers 50 and 51) serves as an auto staging area for the Washington State Ferries terminal. Yesler's Wharf (there is...