Seattle “The City of Clocks” By Mark Mendez Mayer It is because of my great-uncle, Joseph Mayer, that Seattle began to be called the “City of Clocks.” By 1935, he had made over 100 street clocks in Seattle. At least 40 of those stood at one point in or around… [ Keep reading ]
Flowers Need Sunlight by Cleopatra Cutler This is a love letter. The Seattle Histories project is about places, people, and events that have shaped the history of Seattle’s communities, with a particular focus on stories that have not been prioritized in mainstream media or have been left out of the… [ Keep reading ]
My Grandfather’s Queue By Elana Lim In the fall of 2005, when our oldest son was twelve, I took an afternoon off from the startup where I worked as an executive to chaperone his class, 50 raucous sixth graders from Seattle Academy, on an excursion to the Wing Luke Museum…. [ Keep reading ]
Somos Vecinos y El Maestro de Español by Paco Díaz English Siempre he visto a un maestro como una persona comprometida, con preparación y vocación, ya que tienen una gran responsabilidad. También con la gran oportunidad para construir puentes entre las personas con las que interactúa, conocer y compartir muchas historias… [ Keep reading ]
Minidoka is the First Camp Your Grandma is Incarcerated in, Crystal City is the Second By Troy Osaki You thumb through your grandma’s yearbook from when her middle school-self wore whatever dress her mother could conjure. Maybe it belonged to a neighbor girl from another barrack who grew out of… [ Keep reading ]
The CD By Princess Shareef My parents migrated to Seattle from Texas in 1948 along with many other African American families after WWII. My father, a veteran, used his VA loan and bought the house on Alder Street for $28,000. He and other Black men worked in the shipyards unloading… [ Keep reading ]
We All Have Different Memories by Clare Johnson 1. There’s a lot I don’t know I was born in Seattle just as the first signs of HIV were surfacing here. I could say I never knew a world without AIDS, but at the same time, I also don’t know exactly… [ Keep reading ]
Español // Tiếng Việt // Tagalog // 繁體中文 // af Soomali Seattle Department of Neighborhoods is looking to commission individual community members to participate in a storytelling project called Seattle Histories. This series features the stories of people and places that have shaped Seattle’s past and led us to the… [ Keep reading ]
In this latest entry for the Seattle Histories storytelling project, Timothy White Eagle tells the story of opening and running Seattle’s Coffee Messiah and all the beautiful connections he made with artists and friends. The Coffee Messiah appeared on Seattle’s queer scene in 1995 and found its community in outsider… [ Keep reading ]
by Beverly Aarons In The Before In the spring of 1785, earthy toned mudflats glistened in the moonlight during low tide in the place called Sdzidzilalitch (little crossing-over place)i. Pacific tree frogs sang their mating chorus (kreck-ek, kreck-ek) in the marshy forest which brimmed with fir, oak, cedar and other… [ Keep reading ]
