Topic: Firsts
Frances Owen served on the Seattle School Board, and on the boards of the Children's Orthopedic Hospital, the Ryther Child Center, and the National Child Welfare League. She chaired the women's divisi...
John Edmondson Prim was the first African American to serve as deputy prosecuting attorney for King County and the first African American judge in the state.
Railroading in the Pacific Northwest was born in July 1851 near present-day Stevenson, Washington, when Francis A. Chenoweth (1819-1899) built a portage railroad around the treacherous Cascades rapids...
The Reliance Hospital was the first and only hospital in Seattle built primarily to serve a Japanese immigrant clientele. It opened in 1913 at 416 1/2 12th Avenue S and continued in operation until 19...
In this People's History, Marie McCaffrey tells the story of how Seattle's Fat Tuesday -- the annual carnival-style celebration that takes place in Pioneer Square -- got started. The first Fat Tuesday...
In this excerpt from his unpublished autobiography, Jim Douglas (1909-2005) recalls the many steps involved in coordinating Seafair.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...
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...
The Seattle Renton & Southern Railway built King County's first true interurban railroad beginning in 1891, and spurred development of the then largely agricultural Rainier Valley. The line was be...
Paula Dahl (Jones) was just 6 years old when she became the nine-millionth visitor to Century 21, Seattle's 1962 World's Fair. She and her family were greeted at the gate and given prizes and a red-ca...
Seattle's first cemetery was located on what became the grounds of the Denny Hotel, downtown at 2nd Avenue and Stewart Street. The first burial took place in 1853 and the last probably in 1860. About ...
Christmas of 1851 found a great change at New York Alki, the place of the very beginning of our city of Seattle. Only six short weeks had passed since the Arthur Denny party had made their historic la...
Juan Perez (Juan Josef Perez Hernandez), sailing on the frigate Santiago with a crew made up mostly of Mexicans, was the first non-native to sight, examine, name, and record the islands near British C...
Lt. Charles Wilkes led the first U.S. Navy expedition to explore the Pacific Ocean in 1838. He surveyed Puget Sound and named dozens of bays, coves, rivers, islands, and land formations, including Ell...