Topic: People's Histories
The Southgate Roller Rink (now Southgate Event Center) is located in the center of White Center (at 9646 17th Ave SW), a neighborhood of South Seattle. It was originally built by Hiram Green (1863-193...
Two members of HistoryLink's staff, Alyssa Burrows and Chris Goodman, happened to be at the Speakeasy Cafe the night it burned down. This is Alyssa'a first-hand account of the confused scene as the bu...
The long career of John Spellman (1926-2018) in local and state politics began in 1967 when he was elected a King County Commissioner. His term overlapped the controversial Forward Thrust capital impr...
Though the Irish in Seattle have always celebrated St. Patrick's Day, there was no official St. Patrick's Day Parade in Seattle until 1972. Before (and after) that first official procession, the late ...
Before rail service reached the West Coast steamboats, stagecoaches, and wagons were the principal means of transportation to and from the inland areas of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho territories. Go...
Betty (Batchelor) Miles of Samish Island contributed this piece on Jack W. Stangle, who was a celebrated artist in Seattle from 1953 to his death in 1980. He was a member of the Northwest School and h...
This is an account by Stanley Willhight (b. 1914) of the Willhight family's journey to Vashon Island in 1883. Willhight also recalls the impressive sight of trains in Smith Cove carrying huge bales of...
Richard Hall of Coupeville offers this account of the business his grandfather, Stanton Hall, built in Everett. Stanton Hall later served as a member and as president of the Washington State Universit...
This file presents the statement of Alonzo Russell (1839-1926), Seattle pioneer, on his arrival to the region in 1852 as a boy of 14, and on the Indian War of 1856. His statement, provided by Liz Russ...
African American Seattleite Joseph Isom Staton (b. 1910) was born in Fort Lawton, Washington, on September 19, 1910. His mother originally came from Kentucky, his father from Missouri. This is an exce...
In this HistoryLink interview conducted by architectural historian Heather MacIntosh on September 18, 2000, native Seattleite and businesswoman Priscilla (Patsy) Collins (1920-2003) provides perspecti...
The author of this People's History, Barbara Fleischman Cochran, was a regional historian in Spokane, author of Exploring Spokane's Past, and a member of the faculty at Washington State University. Sh...
Robert E. Strahorn (1852-1944) and his wife Carrie Adell Green "Dell" Strahorn (1854-1925) had a significant impact on the Northwest in the 1880s and 1890s, through their writings that publicized the ...
Sultan is an incorporated town in Snohomish County, about 23 miles east of Everett at the confluence of the Skykomish and Sultan rivers. Highway 2, the road to Steven's Pass, runs through it. Sultan w...
Susan Edgerly is the youngest daughter of John G. von Herberg (1880-1947) and his third wife, M. E. Darling. Based in Seattle, von Herberg was a prominent motion picture exhibitor throughout the Pacif...
There have been about 75 teachers' strikes in the state of Washington since the first one, in Aberdeen, in 1972. The author of this People's History, Steve Kink, had a long career with the stateâ...
The year 1978 saw an unprecedented Washington primary campaign, one that pitted powerful pro-business incumbent State Senator August Mardesich against retired firefighter and pro-union newcomer Larry ...
A 1967 proposal to build a seven-story, 168-unit condominium on a 480-by-100-foot concrete platform to be constructed above the waters of Lake Union at the foot of East Roanoke Street in Seattle's Eas...
Dorothea (Pfister) Nordstrand (1916-2011) wrote this affectionate reminiscence about a sisterly altercation that took place in Seattle around 1928. Dorothea's older sister was Florence (Pfister) Burke...
In May 1970, Seattle (along with much of the nation) was in the midst of weeks of protests that erupted when U.S. forces entered Cambodia on May 1. Protests escalated after National Guardsmen fired on...
In this reminiscence, Dorothea (Pfister) Nordstrand (1916-2011) relates the story of how she learned to drive in Seattle. The year was 1936, just 36 years after the first auto arrived in Seattle in 19...
Eric Johnston (1895-1961) was a Spokane businessman, head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, President of the Motion Picture Association of America, and an appointed official in the Truman and Eisenhowe...
This is a contemporary report on the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, Washington's first world's fair. The exposition took place between June 1 and October 16, 1909, drawing more than three million pe...
This history of Harborview Medical Center and its predecessor hospitals by Josephine Ensign, who teaches health policy and health humanities at the University of Washington, is part of her larger work...