In the early 1940s, City Engineer Charles Wartelle oversaw a project to remove streetcar rails from city streets after buses had replaced the old trolleys. In an article for Public Works Magazine describing the project, he wrote that about 27,500 tons of steel rails on 100 miles of streets were… [ Keep reading ]
The General Files collection (Record Series 1802-04) highlights the voices of Seattle residents and City officials as they struggled to address issues facing a city experiencing enormous growth and change. The series includes some of our oldest records, covering the last quarter of the 19th century and beginning of the… [ Keep reading ]
An establishment called the Madison Square Beer Garden opened at 15th and Madison in 1933, and it didn’t take long for complaints to follow. A widow who owned a residential building next door sent a complaint to City Council: My apartment house has always had a very splendid reputation and… [ Keep reading ]
SMA’s photograph holdings include over 1.5 million photographic images of City of Seattle projects and personnel. The images can be a real treasure trove for anyone doing historical research or investigating their family history, but would be even more useful if more of the people depicted were identified. Since City… [ Keep reading ]
The Bumbershoot arts event was first organized in 1971 and for its first two years was named simply “Festival ‘71” and “Festival ‘72.” By 1973, the event had grown much bigger and organizers felt that it needed a more distinctive name. Lists of handwritten words and phrases that seem to… [ Keep reading ]
SMA’s holdings include a set of issues of Seattle Municipal News, the newsletter of the Municipal League. The News covered local government at the city, county, and state levels, including observations of activity and policies in all departments on topics ranging from traffic to elections. SMA’s collection is not complete,… [ Keep reading ]
Textual records from a recent Police Department accession have been processed and many new collections are available for research! The largest series is the Subject Files (Record Series 6403-01), which cover a wide variety of subject matter, including DWI enforcement, precinct buildings, traffic management, drill teams, and the annual police… [ Keep reading ]
Regular complaints have been made over the years about the noise made by early morning garbage pickup. For example, in 1941, the manager of the Malloy Apartments in the University District relayed grumbles from his tenants that “the big trucks roar up the alley, the men talk loud and beat… [ Keep reading ]
Our volunteer Ilias Bowen-Sicalides recently finished processing a set of Engineering Department records that gives us a fascinating look at street vending carts in the 1970s and 1980s. The Board of Public Works authorized street vending carts in 1972, with a one-page document providing all of the regulations for cart… [ Keep reading ]
An unusual Department of Community Development report from 1971 was meant to incorporate ecological and urban design factors into Seattle’s city planning efforts. Titled “Determinants of City Form,” the document is more or less an atlas of stylized maps with accompanying narratives. A transmittal letter to the mayor declared the… [ Keep reading ]
