Seattle’s Space Needle at 60: built (at warp speed) to last
Sixty years ago, ground was broken for the Space Needle. A year later, the Seattle World’s Fair opened, and so did the Needle. Today’s warp-speed...
Now & Then
Clay Eals and Jean Sherrard dig into our rich local history, sharing images and stories from Seattle’s past.
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From early switchboards to modern meetups, Fall City’s Prescott-Harshman House celebrates connections
Landline phones were once a big deal. More than a century before so-called smartphones and other technology, telephones were tethered to other phones through switchboards...
A treaty monument in Mukilteo has lost its plaque — perhaps forever VIEW
A plaque commemorating an accord signed by key Puget Sound tribal leaders that ceded acres of land to European newcomers has been gone since fall,...
This quiz will reveal how much you know about Seattle via Smith Tower | Now & Then
Several telling discoveries — of alteration, misinformation and exaggeration — are ideal for an April Fools' multiple-choice challenge in which we peel back a layer...
Baseball’s ‘Western Wonder’ lefty pitcher knew how to fuel a local comeback
Chehalis native Vean Gregg dazzled in 1911 as a Cleveland Naps rookie. He topped the American League with a 1.80 earned-run average and was the...
Bartell’s founder and other commercial visionaries meet for a towering talk in 1909 | Now & Then
This vignette imagines a 1909 conversation, drawing from factual historical details, between George Bartell, who founded what was the nation’s oldest family owned drugstore, and...
This tricky ‘exaggeration postcard’ shows Mount Rainier from Yakima | Now & Then
Mass-produced "exaggeration postcards" often superimposed outrageously enormous vegetables or fake animals to promote fertile farming or abundant hunting. The cards fed tourism during the Great...
The fate of this 100-year-old U District church remains unknown VIEW
The former Third Church of Christ, Scientist, was completed in 1922. It was sold in 2006, the congregation trusting that the new owner would keep...
Firland Sanitorium in Shoreline offers up an unlikely example of love
The 44-acre Firland Sanatorium in Shoreline served as an institution for treatment of TB. Its most famous survivor was author Betty MacDonald, who wrote "The...
Hope continues to flower at the Volunteer Park Conservatory, despite closure for pandemic VIEW
The Pacific Northwest benefited greatly from Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal programs, including the hiring of 10 unemployed women to assist at Seattle's Volunteer Park...
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