Boeing Bust
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

This is the main article of a series that covers the history of
Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...
,
Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...
, a
city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...
in the
Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (PNW; ) is a geographic region in Western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though no official boundary exists, the most common ...
region of the
United States of America The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguo ...
. Seattle is a major port city that has a history of
boom and bust Business cycles are intervals of general expansion followed by recession in economic performance. The changes in economic activity that characterize business cycles have important implications for the welfare of the general population, governmen ...
. Seattle has on several occasions been sent into severe decline, but has typically used those periods to successfully rebuild infrastructure. There have been at least five such cycles: * The
lumber Lumber is wood that has been processed into uniform and useful sizes (dimensional lumber), including beams and planks or boards. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, window frames). ...
-industry boom, followed by the construction of an
Olmsted Olmsted may refer to: People * Olmsted (name) Places * Olmsted Air Force Base, inactive since 1969 * Olmsted, Illinois * Olmsted County, Minnesota * Olmsted Falls, Ohio * Olmsted Point, a viewing area in Yosemite National Park * Olmsted To ...
-designed park system. * The Klondike gold rush started in 1896, but reached Seattle in July 1897. This constituted the largest boom for Seattle proportional to the city's size at the time, and ended the economic woes Seattle (and the nation) had been suffering since the
Panic of 1893 The Panic of 1893 was an economic depression in the United States. It began in February 1893 and officially ended eight months later. The Panic of 1896 followed. It was the most serious economic depression in history until the Great Depression of ...
. * The
shipbuilding Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other Watercraft, floating vessels. In modern times, it normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation th ...
boom, which peaked during
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
and crashed immediately thereafter, followed by the unused city development plan of
Virgil Bogue Virgil Gay Bogue (1846–1916) was an American civil engineer who worked initially in his home state of New York before taking jobs internationally and in the western and northwestern United States. He primarily worked for railroads, though also b ...
. * The
Boeing The Boeing Company, or simply Boeing (), is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product support s ...
boom, followed by general infrastructure building. * Most recently, the boom based on
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...
and other
software Software consists of computer programs that instruct the Execution (computing), execution of a computer. Software also includes design documents and specifications. The history of software is closely tied to the development of digital comput ...
,
web Web most often refers to: * Spider web, a silken structure created by the animal * World Wide Web or the Web, an Internet-based hypertext system Web, WEB, or the Web may also refer to: Computing * WEB, a literate programming system created by ...
, and
telecommunications Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communication technologies. These means of ...
companies, such as
Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...
,
AT&T Wireless AT&T Mobility, LLC, also known as AT&T Wireless and marketed as simply AT&T, is an American telecommunications company. Formed in April 2000 as Cingular Wireless LLC, It is a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T Inc. and provides wireless serv ...
, and
RealNetworks RealNetworks LLC is an American technology company and provider of Internet streaming media delivery software and services based in Seattle, Washington. The company also provides subscription-based online entertainment services and mobile enter ...
.


Early history of Seattle

What is now Seattle has been inhabited since the end of the last
glacial period A glacial period (alternatively glacial or glaciation) is an interval of time (thousands of years) within an ice age that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier advances. Interglacials, on the other hand, are periods of warmer climate betw ...
(c. 8,000 B.C.—10,000 years ago), for at least 4,000 years. In the mid-1850s the
Coast Salish people The Coast Salish peoples are a group of ethnically and linguistically related Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast, living in the Canadian province of British Columbia and the U.S. states of Washington and Oregon. They speak one o ...
of what is now called the
Duwamish Tribe The Duwamish (, ) are a Lushootseed-speaking Southern Coast Salish people in western Washington, and the Indigenous people of metropolitan Seattle. Prior to colonization, the center of Duwamish society was around the Black and Duwamish rivers ...
and
Suquamish The Suquamish () are a Lushootseed-speaking Native American people, located in present-day Washington in the United States. They are a southern Coast Salish people. Today, most Suquamish people are enrolled in the federally recognized Su ...
, as well as other associated groups and tribes, were living in some 13 villages within the present-day city limits of Seattle. Evidence of continuous human habitation of a village site within the current city limits of the city of Seattle dating back to the 6th century C.E. exists on the Port of Seattle Terminal 107 site, located on the Western bank of the Duwamish River. The site was abandoned in approximately 1800, for unknown reasons. Other notable village sites include the birthplace of
Chief Seattle Seattle ( – June 7, 1866; , ; usually styled as Chief Seattle) was a leader of the Duwamish and Suquamish peoples. A leading figure among his people, he pursued a path of accommodation to white settlers, forming a personal relationship wi ...
, which was located near the current footprint of the King Street Station.
George Vancouver Captain (Royal Navy), Captain George Vancouver (; 22 June 1757 – 10 May 1798) was a Royal Navy officer and explorer best known for leading the Vancouver Expedition, which explored and charted North America's northwestern West Coast of the Uni ...
was the first
Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
an to visit the Seattle area in May 1792 during his 1791-95 expedition to chart the
Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (PNW; ) is a geographic region in Western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though no official boundary exists, the most common ...
. The founding of Seattle is usually dated from the arrival of the
Denny Party The Denny Party was a group of American pioneers credited with founding Seattle, Washington. They settled at Alki Point on November 13, 1851. History On April 10, 1851, a wagon party headed by Arthur A. Denny left Cherry Grove, Illinois and he ...
scouts on September 25, 1851. However, Luther Collins, Henry Van Asselt, and the Maple family founded a farming settlement on what is currently the Seattle neighborhood of Georgetown on September 27, 1851. The Denny party's original site was an unfinished cabin, without roof, and a camp site, located at Alki Point, in West Seattle. The Collins party settlement was improved with permanent structures, and was soon producing produce and meat for sale and barter. In April, 1852,
Arthur A. Denny Arthur Armstrong Denny (June 20, 1822 – January 9, 1899) was an American politician and businessman who is regarded as one of the founders of Seattle, Washington., Special Collections, Washington State Historical Society (WSHS). Accessed online ...
abandoned the original site at Alki in favor of a better protected site on
Elliott Bay Elliott Bay is a part of the Central Basin region of Puget Sound. It is in the U.S. state of Washington, extending southeastward between West Point in the north and Alki Point in the south. Seattle was founded on this body of water in the 1850s ...
that is now part of
downtown Seattle Downtown is the central business district of Seattle, Washington. It is fairly compact compared with other city centers on the U.S. West Coast due to its geographical situation, being hemmed in on the north and east by hills, on the west by ...
.
Arthur A. Denny Arthur Armstrong Denny (June 20, 1822 – January 9, 1899) was an American politician and businessman who is regarded as one of the founders of Seattle, Washington., Special Collections, Washington State Historical Society (WSHS). Accessed online ...
and Luther Collins were the first commissioners of King County after its creation in 1852. Around the same time, David Swinson "Doc" Maynard began settling the land immediately south of Denny's. Seattle in its early decades relied on the timber industry, shipping logs (and later, milled timber) to
San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
. A climax forest of trees up to 1,000–2,000 years old and towering as high as nearly 400 ft (122 m) covered much of what is now Seattle. Today, none of that size remain anywhere in the world. When
Henry Yesler Henry Leiter Yesler (December 2, 1810 – December 16, 1892) was an American entrepreneur and a politician, regarded as a founder of the city of Seattle. Yesler served two non-consecutive terms as Mayor of Seattle, and was the city's wealthiest ...
brought the first steam sawmill to the region, he chose a location on the waterfront where Maynard and Denny's plats met. Thereafter Seattle would dominate the lumber industry. Charlie Terry sold out Alki (which, after his departure barely held on as a settlement), moved to Seattle and began acquiring land. He either owned or partially owned Seattle's first timber ships. He eventually gave a land grant to the University of the Territory of Washington (later
University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...
), and was instrumental in the politics to establish an urban infrastructure. The logging town developed rapidly over decades into a small city. Despite being officially founded by the
Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...
s of the Denny Party, Seattle quickly developed a reputation as a wide-open town, a haven for
prostitution Prostitution is a type of sex work that involves engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, no ...
,
liquor Liquor ( , sometimes hard liquor), spirits, distilled spirits, or spiritous liquor are alcoholic drinks produced by the distillation of grains, fruits, vegetables, or sugar that have already gone through ethanol fermentation, alcoholic ferm ...
, and
gambling Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of Value (economics), value ("the stakes") on a Event (probability theory), random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy (ga ...
. Some attribute this, at least in part, to Maynard who realized that something was needed to bring the loggers and sailors, who formed the majority of the surrounding population, to town. Real estate records show that nearly all of the city's first 60 businesses were on, or immediately adjacent to, Maynard's plat. All of this occurred against a background of sometimes rocky relations with the local Native American population, including a nominally pitched battle, the Battle of Seattle, January 25, 1856. Seattle was incorporated as a town January 14, 1865. That charter was voided January 18, 1867, in response to questionable activities of the town's elected leaders. Seattle was re-incorporated December 2, 1869. At the times of incorporations, the population was approximately 350 and 1,000, respectively. In 1867, a young
French Canadian French Canadians, referred to as Canadiens mainly before the nineteenth century, are an ethnic group descended from French people, French colonists first arriving in Canada (New France), France's colony of Canada in 1608. The vast majority of ...
Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
priest named Francis X. Prefontaine arrived in Seattle and decided to establish a
parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...
there. At that time, Seattle had no Catholic church and few parishioners. Fr. Prefontaine counted only ten Catholics in the town and only three attended the first mass that he conducted. His bishop,
Augustin-Magloire Blanchet Augustin Magloire Alexandre Blanchet (22 August 1797 – 25 February 1887) was a French Canadian prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as the first bishop of the now-defunct Diocese of Walla Walla and of the Diocese of Nesqually in pr ...
, whose
cathedra A ''cathedra'' is the throne of a bishop in the early Christian  basilica. When used with this meaning, it may also be called the bishop's throne. With time, the related term ''cathedral'' became synonymous with the "seat", or principa ...
was in
Vancouver, Washington Vancouver ( ) is a city on the north bank of the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington, located in Clark County, Washington, Clark County. Founded in 1825 and incorporated in 1857, Vancouver had a population of 190, ...
, gave Fr. Prefontaine permission to build a church there, as long as the priest could raise the funds himself and it would cost the
diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, prov ...
nothing. Prefontaine raised the money by holding fairs around the Puget Sound area. During 1868–69 he built the church, doing much of the work himself, and in 1869 he opened Seattle's first Catholic church at Third Avenue and Washington Street, on the site where the present-day Prefontaine Building stands.


Railroad rivalry and encroaching civilization

On July 14, 1873, the
Northern Pacific Railway The Northern Pacific Railway was an important American transcontinental railroad that operated across the northern tier of the Western United States, from Minnesota to the Pacific Northwest between 1864 and 1970. It was approved and chartered b ...
announced that they had chosen the then-village of
Tacoma Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, southwest of Bellevue, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, northwest of Mount ...
over Seattle as the Western terminus of their transcontinental
railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...
. The railroad barons appear to have been gambling on the advantage they could gain from being able to buy up the land around their terminus cheaply instead of bringing the railroad into a more established Pacific port town. Seattle made several attempts to build a railroad of its own or to leverage one to come. The Great Northern Railway finally came to Seattle in 1884, winning Seattle a place in competition for freight, though it would be 1906 before Seattle finally acquired a major rail passenger terminal. Seattle in this era was a freebooting and often relatively lawless town. Although it boasted
newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as poli ...
s and
telephone A telephone, colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that enables two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most ...
s, lynch law often prevailed (there were at least four deaths by
lynching Lynching is an extrajudicial killing by a group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged or convicted transgressor or to intimidate others. It can also be an extreme form of i ...
in 1882),
school A school is the educational institution (and, in the case of in-person learning, the Educational architecture, building) designed to provide learning environments for the teaching of students, usually under the direction of teachers. Most co ...
s barely operated, and indoor
plumbing Plumbing is any system that conveys fluids for a wide range of applications. Plumbing uses piping, pipes, valves, piping and plumbing fitting, plumbing fixtures, Storage tank, tanks, and other apparatuses to convey fluids. HVAC, Heating and co ...
was a rare novelty. In the low
mudflat Mudflats or mud flats, also known as tidal flats or, in Ireland, slob or slobs, are coastal wetlands that form in intertidal areas where sediments have been deposited by tides or rivers. A global analysis published in 2019 suggested that tidal ...
s where much of the city was built,
sewage Sewage (or domestic sewage, domestic wastewater, municipal wastewater) is a type of wastewater that is produced by a community of people. It is typically transported through a sewerage, sewer system. Sewage consists of wastewater discharged fro ...
was almost as likely to come in on the
tide Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another. Tide tables ...
as to flow away. Union organizing first arrived in the form of a skilled craft union. In 1882, Seattle printers formed the Seattle Typographical Union Local 202. Dockworkers followed in 1886,
cigar A cigar is a rolled bundle of dried and Fermentation, fermented tobacco leaves made to be Tobacco smoking, smoked. Cigars are produced in a variety of sizes and shapes. Since the 20th century, almost all cigars are made of three distinct comp ...
makers in 1887, tailors in 1889, and both brewers and musicians in 1890. Even the newsboys unionized in 1892, followed by more organizing, mostly of craft unions. The history of labor in the American West in this period is inseparable from the issue of anti-Chinese vigilantism. In 1883 Chinese laborers played a key role in the first effort at digging the
Montlake Cut The Montlake Cut is the easternmost section of the Lake Washington Ship Canal, which passes through the city of Seattle, linking Lake Washington to Puget Sound. It opened in 1916 after 56 years of conversation and construction to create the ma ...
to connect
Lake Union Lake Union () is a freshwater lake located entirely within the city limits of Seattle, Washington, United States. It is a major part of the Lake Washington Ship Canal, which carries fresh water from the much larger Lake Washington on the east t ...
's
Portage Bay Portage Bay is a body of water, often thought of as the eastern arm of Lake Union, that forms a part of the Lake Washington Ship Canal in Seattle, Washington. To the east, Portage Bay is connected with Union Bay—a part of Lake Washington†...
to
Lake Washington Lake Washington () is a large freshwater lake adjacent to the city of Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the largest lake in King County, Washington, King County and the second largest natural lake in the state of Washington (state), Was ...
's Union Bay. In 1885–1886, whites—sometimes in combination with Indians—complaining of overly cheap labor competition, drove the Chinese settlers from Seattle, Tacoma, and other Northwest cities. In an era during which the Washington Territory was one of the first parts of the U.S. to (briefly) allow
women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the women's rights, right of women to Suffrage, vote in elections. Several instances occurred in recent centuries where women were selectively given, then stripped of, the right to vote. In Sweden, conditional women's suffra ...
, women played a significant part in "civilizing" Seattle. The first bathtub with plumbing was in 1870. In the 1880s, Seattle got its first
streetcar A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some include s ...
and
cable car Cable car most commonly refers to the following cable transportation systems: * Aerial lift, such as aerial tramways and gondola lifts, in which the vehicle is suspended in the air from a cable ** Aerial tramway ** Chairlift ** Gondola lift *** ...
,
ferry A ferry is a boat or ship that transports passengers, and occasionally vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A small passenger ferry with multiple stops, like those in Venice, Italy, is sometimes referred to as a water taxi or water bus ...
service, a
YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It has nearly 90,000 staff, some 920,000 volunteers and 12,000 branches w ...
gymnasium, and the exclusive
Rainier Club The Rainier Club is a private club in Seattle, Washington; it has been referred to as "Seattle's preeminent private club."Priscilla LongGentlemen organize Seattle's Rainier Club on February 23, 1888 HistoryLink.org, January 27, 2001. Accessed o ...
, and passed an ordinance requiring attached sewer lines for all new residences. It also began to develop a road system. The relative fortunes of Seattle and Tacoma clearly show the nature of Seattle's growth. Though both Seattle and Tacoma grew at a rapid rate from 1880 to 1890, based on the strength of their timber industries, Seattle's growth as an exporter of services and manufactured goods continued for another two decades, while Tacoma's growth dropped almost to zero. The reason for this lies in Tacoma's nature as a
company town A company town is a place where all or most of the stores and housing in the town are owned by the same company that is also the main employer. Company towns are often planned with a suite of amenities such as stores, houses of worship, schoo ...
and Seattle's successful avoidance of that condition.


The Great Fire

The early Seattle era came to a stunning halt with the Great Seattle Fire of June 6, 1889. Started by a glue pot, the fire burned 29 city blocks (almost entirely wooden buildings; about 10
brick A brick is a type of construction material used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a unit primarily composed of clay. But is now also used informally to denote building un ...
buildings also burned). It destroyed nearly the entire business district, all of the railroad terminals, and all but four of the
wharves A wharf ( or wharfs), quay ( , also ), staith, or staithe is a structure on the shore of a harbour or on the bank of a river or canal where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers. Such a structure includes one or more berths ( ...
. Major fires like this were common in Washington that summer: the center of
Ellensburg Ellensburg is a city in and the county seat of Kittitas County, Washington, United States. It is located just east of the Cascade Range near the junction of Interstate 90 and Interstate 82. The population was 18,666 at the 2020 census. and was ...
was destroyed by fire on July 4 and downtown
Spokane Spokane ( ) is the most populous city in eastern Washington and the county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It lies along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south ...
burned on August 4. Thanks in part to credit arranged by Jacob Furth, Seattle rebuilt from the ashes with astounding rapidity. A new
zoning In urban planning, zoning is a method in which a municipality or other tier of government divides land into land-use "zones", each of which has a set of regulations for new development that differs from other zones. Zones may be defined for ...
code resulted in a downtown of brick and
stone In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its Chemical compound, chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks ...
buildings, rather than
wood Wood is a structural tissue/material found as xylem in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulosic fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin t ...
. In the single year after the fire, the city grew from 25,000 to 40,000 inhabitants, largely because of the enormous number of
construction Construction are processes involved in delivering buildings, infrastructure, industrial facilities, and associated activities through to the end of their life. It typically starts with planning, financing, and design that continues until the a ...
jobs suddenly created. Still, south of Yesler Way, the open city atmosphere remained.


The Klondike Gold Rush

The greatest boom period for Seattle occurred during the Klondike gold rush. Seattle, as well as the rest of the nation, was suffering from the economic
panic of 1893 The Panic of 1893 was an economic depression in the United States. It began in February 1893 and officially ended eight months later. The Panic of 1896 followed. It was the most serious economic depression in history until the Great Depression of ...
, and to a lesser extent, the
panic of 1896 The Panic of 1896 was an acute economic depression in the United States that was less serious than other panics of the era, precipitated by a drop in silver reserves, and market concerns on the effects it would have on the gold standard. Deflation ...
. Gold was discovered in August 1896 in the Klondike region of Canada. Almost one year later, on July 17, 1897, the steamer ''Portland'' arrived at Schwabacher's Wharf in Seattle. A publicity campaign engineered largely by
Erastus Brainerd Erastus Brainerd (25 February 1855 – 25 December 1922) was an American journalist and art museum curator. During the Klondike Gold Rush, he was the publicist who "sold the idea that Seattle, Washington, Seattle was the Gateway to Alaska and the ' ...
told the world of the ''Portland's'' "ton of gold," started the Klondike gold rush, and established Seattle as its supply center and the jumping-off point for transportation to and from Alaska and the gold fields of the Yukon. The rush ended the depression overnight for Seattle.


Beginning of the 20th century


Leader of the Northwest: 1900–1915

The gold rush led to massive immigration. Many of Seattle's neighborhoods got their start around this time. Downtown Seattle was bustling with activity; as quickly as previous inhabitants moved out to newly created neighborhoods, new immigrants came in to take their place in the city core. Once the obvious extensions of downtown had been made along the flatlands to the north and south, streetcars began providing transportation to new outlying neighborhoods. Following the vision of city engineer R.H. Thomson, who had already played a key role in the development of municipal utilities, a massive effort was made to level the steep hills that rose south and north of the bustling city. A
seawall A seawall (or sea wall) is a form of coastal defense constructed where the sea, and associated coastal processes, impact directly upon the landforms of the coast. The purpose of a seawall is to protect areas of human habitation, conservation, ...
containing spoils (
dirt Dirt is any matter considered unclean, especially when in contact with a person's clothes, skin, or possessions. In such cases, they are said to become dirty. Common types of dirt include: * Debris: scattered pieces of waste or remains * Du ...
) sluiced from the Denny Regrade created the current waterfront. More spoils from the Denny Regrade went to build the industrial Harbor Island at the mouth of the
Duwamish River Much of the content of this page is from wikisource:Seattle: Booms and Busts, "Seattle: Booms and Busts", by Emmett Shear, who has granted blanket permission for material from that paper to be reused in Wikipedia.


Bibliography

* Blackford, Mansel G. "Reform Politics in Seattle During the Progressive Era, 1902-1916." ''Pacific Northwest Quarterly'' 59.4 (1968): 177-18
online
* Brown, Frederick L.  "Cows in the Commons, Dogs on the Lawn: A History of Animals in Seattle" (PhD dissertation, University of Washington ProQuest Dissertations Publishing,  2010. 3431517). * Cockburn, Alexander, and Jeffrey St Clair. ''Five days that shook the world: Seattle and beyond'' (Verso, 2000). in 1999 * * * * Friedheim, Robert L. ''The Seattle general strike'' (University of Washington Press, 2018.) on 1919 * * Kim, Jae Yeon. "Racism is not enough: Minority coalition building in San Francisco, Seattle, and Vancouver." ''Studies in American Political Development'' 34.2 (2020): 195-215
online
* Klingle, Matthew W. ''Emerald City: an Environmental History of Seattle'' (Yale University Press, 2008). * * Levi, Margaret, and David Olson. "The battles in Seattle." ''Politics & Society'' 28.3 (2000): 309-329. In 1999. * MacDonald, Norbert. "Population Growth and Change in Seattle and Vancouver, 1880-1960." ''Pacific Historical Review'' 39.3 (1970): 297-321
online
* Mullins, William H. ''The Depression and the Urban West Coast, 1929-1933: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and Portland'' (2000) * Ochsner, Jeffrey Karl, ed. ''Shaping Seattle architecture: a historical guide to the architects'' (University of Washington Press, 2017). * * Ott, Jennifer. ''Olmsted in Seattle: Creating a Park System for a Modern City'' ( Seattle: History Link and Documentary Media, 2019
online review
* Reiff, Janice L. "Urbanization and the Social Structure: Seattle, Washington, 1852-1910" (PhD dissertation, University of Washington; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses,  1981. 8113474). * Rony, Dorothy B. Fujita. ''American workers, colonial power: Philippine Seattle and the Transpacific West, 1919-1941'' (Univ of California Press, 2003). * ; a standard scholarly history * Sell, Terry M . ''Wings of Power: Boeing and the Politics of Growth in the Northwest'' (U of Washington Press, 2015) * Smith, Jackie. "Globalizing resistance: The battle of Seattle and the future of social movements." ''Mobilization: An International Quarterly'' 6.1 (2001): 1-19. On 199
online
*
Speidel provides a substantial bibliography with extensive primary sources. *
Speidel provides a substantial bibliography with extensive primary sources. * Taylor, Quintard. "Blacks and Asians in a white city: Japanese Americans and African Americans in Seattle, 1890-1940." ''Western Historical Quarterly'' (1991): 401–429
in JSTOR
* Taylor, Quintard. "Black Urban Development: Another View: Seattle's Central District, 1910-1940." ''Pacific Historical Review'' (1989): 429-44
in JSTOR
* Taylor, Quintard. "The Civil Rights Movement in the American West: Black Protest in Seattle, 1960-1970." ''Journal of Negro History'' (1995): 1-14
in JSTOR
* * Webster, Janice Reiff. "Domestication and Americanization: Scandinavian women in Seattle, 1888 to 1900." ''Journal of Urban History'' 4.3 (1978): 275-290.


External links


HistoryLink.org
''Encyclopedia of Washington State History'' provides a collection of articles on Seattle and Washington State history, unparalleled in its niche.

* Seattl
Museum of History and Industry
With the Seattle Room at the Seattle Public Library, hosts the most extensive archives about Seattle. Both have references to other archives.
Washington State History Museum
Washington State Historical Society *

An extensive project directed by
University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...
professor James Gregory
University of Washington Libraries: Digital Collections
*
Vintage Seattle
Blog featuring collections of high resolution images from Seattle's past.
''The Seattle Times'': Seattle History
a collection of articles and resources commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Denny Party's arrival {{DEFAULTSORT:History Of Seattle History of Seattle,