Junius Rochester

Junius Rochester, whose family has shaped the city for many generations, is an award-winning Northwest historian and author of numerous books about Seattle and other places.

Much of What We Know of Seattle History We Owe to One Man

Rich Berner served as the first head of the University of Washington Archives and Manuscripts Division.

Central Player: How the Timber Economy Made Washington State

An 1853 edition of the Columbian, the newspaper of record at that time, reported that "fourteen sawmills" were in operation on Puget Sound, most of them run by waterpower from nearby streams and rivers.

The Sculptor who made Seattle Center’s Controversial “Doughboy”

By the early 1920s Alonzo Victor Lewis's fame was recognized throughout the Pacific Northwest and beyond.  His mostly somber herculean statues loomed in many parks, nooks and street-corners. 

The Aspirational Birth of Washington’s University

The Denny-Terry-Lander deeds stipulated that the 10-acre site downtown on Universty Street was to be dedicated forever to educational purposes.  That stipulation was met.

Mary McCarthy’s Unfond Memories of Growing up in Seattle

McCarthy's autobiographical book, "Memories of a Catholic Girlhood," tartly describes a convent upbringing in Seattle in a barbed and entertaining memoir.

Passing Through: Some Writers Who Stopped Here

Carl Sandburg was called upon to give a talk and play his guitar at the 1962 Seattle World's Fair. His talk was a success, but he left the stage without touching the lonely guitar.

George Vanderveer, Two-fisted Attorney for Underdogs

As a Deputy King County Prosecuting Attorney, George Vanderveer stepped into one courtroom fracas after another.  His legal life was a baptism in the world of radicals, pickpockets, and their neighbors.

How Harold L. Ickes Saved Olympic Peninsula Forests

The Olympic Peninsula was once set aside for hunting elk and mining manganese. Thanks to Ickes and Gov Wallgren, those lands are now protected for recreation.

When Alice B. Toklas Lived in Seattle

Alice attended the University of Washington, which was then at the downtown site of the present Four Seasons-Olympic Hotel. She described her only year at the University as "lively."

The Sad-Happy Story of Horace Cayton

A world of trouble, travel, sexual adventures, and struggles for an education became Horace Cayton's life.

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