84-582: The Rector Hotel , later known as the St. Charles Hotel and during the 1930s the Governor Hotel , is a historic hotel building located at the Southwest corner of Third Avenue and Cherry Street in downtown Seattle, Washington . It was constructed in the latter half of 1911 by the estate of pioneer lumber baron Amos Brown. Designed by prominent Seattle architect John Graham, Sr. , the original plans were for
168-649: A clause in the JOA contract that three consecutive years of losses allowed it to pull out of the agreement. Hearst sued, arguing that a force majeure clause prevented the Times from claiming losses as reason to end the JOA when they result from extraordinary events (in this case, a seven-week strike by members of the Newspaper Guild). While a district judge ruled in Hearst's favor, the Times won on appeal, including
252-489: A state referendum to legalize same-sex marriage . The newspaper's management said the ads were aimed at "demonstrating how effective advertising with The Times can be." The advertisements in favor of McKenna represented an $ 80,000 independent expenditure, making the newspaper the third largest contributor to his campaign. More than 100 staffers signed a letter of protest sent to Seattle Times publisher Frank Blethen, calling it an "unprecedented act". From 1983 to 2009,
336-485: A NW section for the day, Sports, and any other sections listed below. Friday : NW Autos; Weekend Plus Saturday : NW Homes Sunday : Business; ShopNW; NW Jobs; NW Arts & Life; NW Traveler; Pacific NW Magazine Pacific NW is a glossy magazine published every week and inserted in the Sunday edition. For decades, the broadsheet page width of the Times was 13 + 1 ⁄ 2 inches (34 cm), printed from
420-554: A beer hall and one year after Brown's death built the Grand Opera House on the site. The remaining 35' X 120' sliver of property facing Third Avenue, made narrower after the widening of that street in the 1900s, was filled with a row of pre- fire wooden tenement houses anchored by the Rainier Lodging House, which had originally been the home of pioneer Ursula Wyckoff dating back to 1883. Originally built at
504-434: A fireproof hotel building for their lot. They had Graham make plans for both an 8-floor and 12-floor design that they would decide upon if the bids for the larger design met their budget or not. Graham's design was for a 3-part Beaux-Arts tower faced with limestone, brick and terra cotta over a reinforced concrete structure. They ultimately opted for the 12-floor design, costing an estimated $ 200,000, but chose to only complete
588-546: A gateway to Alaska during the Klondike Gold Rush . The city grew after World War II , partly due to the local company Boeing , which established Seattle as a center for its manufacturing of aircraft. Beginning in the 1980s, the Seattle area developed into a technology center ; Microsoft established its headquarters in the region. In 1994, Internet retailer Amazon was founded in Seattle, and Alaska Airlines
672-634: A great frenzy among the technology companies in Seattle but the bubble ended in early 2001. In 1999, the World Trade Organization held its conference in Seattle, which was met with protest activity . The protests and police reactions to them largely overshadowed the conference itself. In 2001, the city was impacted by the Mardi Gras Riots and then by the Nisqually earthquake the following day. Another boom began as
756-720: A local family (the Blethens). The Seattle Times Company, while owning and operating the Times , also owns three other papers in Washington , and formerly owned several newspapers in Maine that were later sold to MaineToday Media . The McClatchy Company owns 49.5% of voting common stock in the Seattle Times Company, formerly held by Knight Ridder until 2006. The Seattle Times has received 11 Pulitzer Prizes , most recently in 2020 for its national reporting of
840-441: A number of technology companies, including Amazon , F5 Networks , RealNetworks , Nintendo of America , and T-Mobile . This success brought an influx of new residents with a population increase within city limits of almost 50,000 between 1990 and 2000, and saw Seattle's real estate become some of the most expensive in the country. Seattle in this period attracted attention as home to the companies opened operations in or around
924-478: A number of theaters in the city exhibiting vaudeville acts and silent movies. He went on to become one of America's greatest theater and movie tycoons. Scottish-born architect B. Marcus Priteca designed several theaters for Pantages in Seattle, which were later demolished or converted to other uses. Seattle's surviving Paramount Theatre , on which he collaborated, was not a Pantages theater. War work again brought local prosperity during World War II , centered on
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#17327840372101008-431: A prominent 19th-century leader of the local Duwamish and Suquamish tribes. Seattle currently has high populations of Native Americans alongside Americans with strong Asian, African, European, and Scandinavian ancestry, and, as of 2015, hosts the fifth-largest LGBT community in the U.S. Logging was Seattle's first major industry, but by the late 19th century the city had become a commercial and shipbuilding center as
1092-536: A recommended painkiller in state-supported care. In April 2010, the Times staff won the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting for its coverage, in print and online, of the shooting deaths of four police officers in a Lakewood coffee house and the 40-hour manhunt for the suspect. A tenth Pulitzer Prize was awarded in 2015 for breaking news coverage of the Oso mudslide . Times photographer Jerry Gay won
1176-485: A second time at the site of present-day Pioneer Square , naming this new settlement Duwamps . Charles Terry and John Low remained at the original landing location, reestablished their old land claim and called it "New York", but renamed "New York Alki" in April 1853, from a Chinook word meaning, roughly, "by and by" or "someday". For the next few years, New York Alki and Duwamps competed for dominance, but in time Alki
1260-488: A similar incident that happened with an MSNBC article during the Winter games in 1998, which was reported on by Times . The newspaper's Executive Editor at the time of the controversy, Mike Fancher, issued an apology in the aftermath of the controversial headline. On October 17, 2012, the publishers of The Seattle Times launched advertising campaigns in support of Republican gubernatorial candidate Rob McKenna and
1344-604: A total area of 142.5 square miles (369 km ), 84 square miles (220 km ) of which is land and 58.1 square miles (150 km ) is water (41% of the total area). According to the Köppen climate classification system, Seattle has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate ( Csb ), while under the Trewartha system, it is labeled an oceanic climate ( Dobk ). It has cool, wet winters and mild, relatively dry summers, covering characteristics of both climate types. The climate
1428-558: A twelve-story building that would be built in two phases but the top 6 floors were never added. Originally a hotel serving the tourist trade, by the 1970s it was operating as a Single resident occupancy hotel. In 1986 it was renovated into low-income housing by the Plymouth Housing Group. In 2002 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places . It is located north of historic Pioneer Square , "in
1512-654: A unanimous decision from the Washington State Supreme Court on June 30, 2005. Hearst continued to argue that the Times fabricated its loss in 2002. The two papers announced an end to their dispute on April 16, 2007. The JOA was terminated when the Post-Intelligencer ceased publication; its final printed edition was March 17, 2009. The Times contains different sections every day. Each daily edition includes Main News & Business,
1596-618: Is an American daily newspaper based in Seattle , Washington . Founded in 1891, The Seattle Times has the largest circulation of any newspaper in the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region . The Seattle Times Company , which owns and publishes the paper, is mostly owned by the Blethen family, which holds 50.5% of the company; the other 49.5% is owned by The McClatchy Company . The Blethen family has owned and operated
1680-522: Is based in SeaTac, Washington , serving Seattle–Tacoma International Airport , Seattle's international airport. The stream of new software, biotechnology , and Internet companies led to an economic revival, which increased the city's population by almost 50,000 in the decade between 1990 and 2000. The culture of Seattle is heavily defined by its significant musical history . Between 1918 and 1951, nearly 24 jazz nightclubs existed along Jackson Street, from
1764-506: Is hilly in some places. Like Rome, the city is said to lie on seven hills ; the lists vary but typically include Capitol Hill , First Hill , West Seattle , Beacon Hill , Queen Anne , Magnolia, and the former Denny Hill . The Wallingford , Delridge , Mount Baker , Seward Park , Washington Park , Broadmoor , Madrona , Phinney Ridge , Sunset Hill , Blue Ridge , Broadview , Laurelhurst , Hawthorne Hills , Maple Leaf , and Crown Hill neighborhoods are all located on hills. Many of
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#17327840372101848-491: Is sometimes characterized as a "modified Mediterranean" climate because it is cooler and wetter than a "true" Mediterranean climate, but shares the characteristic dry summer (which has a strong influence on the region's vegetation). Temperature extremes are moderated by the adjacent Puget Sound , greater Pacific Ocean , and Lake Washington . Thus extreme heat waves are rare in the Seattle area, as are very cold temperatures (below about 15 °F; −9 °C). The Seattle area
1932-495: Is the seat of King County , Washington . With a 2023 population of 755,078 it is the most populous city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region of North America , and the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The Seattle metropolitan area 's population is 4.02 million, making it the 15th-largest in the United States. Its growth rate of 21.1% between 2010 and 2020 made it one of
2016-568: Is the cloudiest region of the Continental United States , due in part to frequent storms and lows moving in from the adjacent Pacific Ocean. Seattle is cloudy 201 days out of the year and partly cloudy 93 days. With many more "rain days" than other major American cities, Seattle has a well-earned reputation for frequent rain: In an average year, there are 150 days in which at least 0.01 inches (0.25 mm) of precipitation falls, more days than in nearly all U.S. cities east of
2100-525: The 1962 World's Fair , for which the Space Needle was built. Another major local economic downturn was in the late 1960s and early 1970s, at a time when Boeing was heavily affected by the oil crises , loss of government contracts, and costs and delays associated with the Boeing 747 . Many people left the area to look for work elsewhere, and two local real estate agents put up a billboard reading "Will
2184-618: The Alaska–Yukon–Pacific Exposition of 1909, which is largely responsible for the layout of today's University of Washington campus. A shipbuilding boom in the early part of the 20th century became massive during World War I , making Seattle somewhat of a company town. The subsequent retrenchment led to the Seattle General Strike of 1919 , an early general strike in the country. A 1912 city development plan by Virgil Bogue went largely unused. Seattle
2268-478: The Boeing 737 MAX crashes by reporters Dominic Gates, Mike Baker, Steve Miletich and Lewis Kamb. It has an international reputation for its investigative journalism in particular. In April 2012, investigative reporters Michael Berens and Ken Armstrong won the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting for a series documenting more than 2,000 deaths caused by the state of Washington's use of methadone as
2352-569: The Duwamish , who had at least 17 villages around Elliot Bay) for at least 4,000 years before the first permanent European settlers. Arthur A. Denny and his group of travelers, subsequently known as the Denny Party , arrived from Illinois via Portland, Oregon , on the schooner Exact at Alki Point on November 13, 1851. The settlement was moved to the eastern shore of Elliott Bay in 1852 and named "Seattle" in honor of Chief Seattle ,
2436-663: The Lake Washington Ship Canal (consisting of two man-made canals, Lake Union , and the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks at Salmon Bay , ending in Shilshole Bay on Puget Sound). The sea, rivers, forests, lakes, and fields surrounding Seattle were once rich enough to support one of the world's few sedentary hunter-gatherer societies. In modern times the surrounding area lends itself well to sailing, skiing, bicycling, camping, and hiking year-round. The city
2520-790: The Pacific Ring of Fire , Seattle is in a major earthquake zone . On February 28, 2001, the magnitude 6.8 Nisqually earthquake did significant architectural damage, especially in the Pioneer Square area (built on reclaimed land , as are the Industrial District and part of the city center), and caused one fatality. Other strong earthquakes occurred on January 26, 1700 (estimated at 9 magnitude), December 14, 1872 (7.3 or 7.4), April 13, 1949 (7.1), and April 29, 1965 (6.5). The 1965 quake caused three deaths in Seattle directly and one more by heart failure. Although
2604-759: The Rocky Mountains . However, because it often has merely a light drizzle falling from the sky for many days, Seattle actually receives significantly less rainfall (or other precipitation) overall than many other major U.S. cities like New York City , Miami , or Houston . According to the 2012–2016 American Community Survey (ACS), the racial makeup of the city was 65.7% White Non-Hispanic , 16.9% Asian , 6.8% Black or African American , 6.6% Hispanic or Latino of any race, 0.4% Native American , 0.9% Pacific Islander , 0.2% other races, and 5.6% two or more races . Seattle's population historically has been predominantly white. The 2010 census showed that Seattle
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2688-750: The Seattle Daily Times , it doubled its circulation within half a year. By 1915, circulation stood at 70,000. The newspaper moved to the Times Square Building at 5th Avenue and Olive Way in 1915. It built a new headquarters, the Seattle Times Building , north of Denny Way in 1930. The paper moved to its current headquarters at 1000 Denny Way in 2011. In 1966, the publication changed to its current name of The Seattle Times . The Seattle Times switched from afternoon delivery to mornings on March 6, 2000, citing that
2772-525: The Seattle Fault passes just south of the city center, neither it nor the Cascadia subduction zone has caused an earthquake since the city's founding. The Cascadia subduction zone poses the threat of an earthquake of magnitude 9.0 or greater, capable of seriously damaging the city and collapsing many buildings, especially in zones built on fill. According to the U.S. Census Bureau , the city has
2856-472: The Times and Seattle's other major paper, the Hearst -owned Seattle Post-Intelligencer , were run under a " Joint Operating Agreement " (JOA) whereby advertising, production, marketing, and circulation were controlled by the Times for both papers. The two papers maintained their own identities with separate news and editorial departments. The Times announced its intention to cancel the JOA in 2003, citing
2940-518: The University of Washington negatively. As schools across Washington lost funding and attendance, the university actually prospered during the time period as they focused on growing their student enrollment. While Seattle public schools were influenced by Washington's superintendent Worth McClure, they still struggled to pay teachers and maintain attendance. Seattle was the home base of impresario Alexander Pantages who, starting in 1902, opened
3024-609: The anti-Chinese riots of 1885–1886 . This violence originated with unemployed whites who were determined to drive the Chinese from Seattle; anti-Chinese riots also occurred in Tacoma . Seattle had achieved sufficient economic success when the Great Seattle Fire of 1889 destroyed the central business district. However, a far grander city center rapidly emerged in its place. Finance company Washington Mutual , for example,
3108-462: The 1975 Spot News Photography prize for " Lull in the Battle ", an image of firefighters resting after fighting a house fire. In 1982, reporter Paul Henderson won the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting for his coverage of the case of Steve Titus . Titus had been wrongfully convicted of rape, and in a series of articles Henderson challenged the circumstantial evidence in the case, convincing
3192-480: The 2 lots at the southwest corner of Cherry Street and Third Avenue were identified as the most valuable. Brown had purchased the two lots from Henry Yesler in 1890 in partnership with Jacob Furth and J.D. Lowman, of Lowman and Hanford but would later buy out their interests. 1 year prior to Brown's death, the Western 2/3rds of the property facing Cherry Street had been leased to theater operator John Cort who opened
3276-750: The Pacific Ocean) to the west and Lake Washington to the east. The city's chief harbor, Elliott Bay , is part of Puget Sound, making the city an oceanic port. To the west, beyond Puget Sound, are the Kitsap Peninsula and Olympic Mountains on the Olympic Peninsula ; to the east, beyond Lake Washington and the Eastside suburbs, are Lake Sammamish and the Cascade Range . Lake Washington's waters flow to Puget Sound through
3360-593: The Rector Hotel Company. Not long after the Rector name was retired, Levinson would open a New Rector Hotel at 1924 First Avenue. In April 1920 the St. Charles and Grand Opera House were sold to C.D. Clinton for $ 250,000. The hotel served a mix of tourists and long-term guests of various reputation. In November 1920 at the height of prohibition a guest was busted on the fifth floor with nine quarts of liquor. By
3444-683: The Seattle area and has been open to all residents of Washington since 2002. On March 20, 1970, twenty-eight people were killed when the Ozark Hotel was burned by an unknown arsonist. The Wah Mee massacre in 1983 resulted in the killing of 13 people in an illegal gambling club in the Seattle Chinatown-International District . Prosperity began to return in the 1980s beginning with Microsoft 's 1979 move from Albuquerque, New Mexico , to nearby Bellevue, Washington . Seattle and its suburbs became home to
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3528-485: The Seattle area for at least 4,000 years. By the time the first European settlers arrived, the Duwamish people occupied at least 17 villages in the areas around Elliott Bay . The name for the modern city of Seattle in Lushootseed , dᶻidᶻəlal̓ič , meaning "little crossing-over place", comes from one of these villages, which was located at the present-day King Street Station . In May 1792, George Vancouver
3612-560: The United States. According to the ACS 1-year estimates, in 2018, the median income of a city household was $ 93,481, and the median income for a family was $ 130,656. 11.0% of the population and 6.6% of families were below the poverty line. Of people living in poverty, 11.4% were under the age of 18 and 10.9% were 65 or older. According to a 2024 study by Henley & Partners , the city of Seattle has an estimated 54,200 millionaires and 11 billionaires. Seattle Times The Seattle Times
3696-634: The bigger West Coast city. Seattle had building contracts that rivaled New York City and Chicago , but also lost to Los Angeles. Seattle's eastern farm land faded due to Oregon 's and the Midwest 's, forcing people into town. Hooverville arose during the Depression, leading to Seattle's growing homeless population. Stationed outside Seattle, the Hooverville housed thousands of men but very few children and no women. With work projects close to
3780-470: The building inside and out. With a $ 637,000 loan from the city, workers installed a new elevator, a second exit, cooking units and laundry, bath and shower facilities. A grand re-opening, attended by mayor Charles Royer was held on September 27, 1987. Seattle, Washington Seattle ( / s i ˈ æ t əl / see- AT -əl ) is a city on the West Coast of the United States . It
3864-493: The city emerged from the Great Recession , commencing when Amazon moved its headquarters from North Beacon Hill to South Lake Union . The move initiated a historic construction boom which resulted in the completion of almost 10,000 apartments in Seattle in 2017, more than any previous year and nearly twice as many as were built in 2016. From 2010 to 2015, Seattle gained an average of 14,511 residents per year, with
3948-631: The city, Hooverville grew and the WPA settled into the city. A movement of women arose from Seattle during the Great Depression , fueled in part by Eleanor Roosevelt 's 1933 book It's Up to the Women ; women pushed for recognition, not just as housewives, but as the backbone to family. Using newspapers and journals Working Woman and The Woman Today , women pushed to be seen as equal and receive some recognition. The Great Depression did not impact
4032-546: The city. In 1990, the Goodwill Games were held in the city. Three years later, in 1993, the APEC leaders was hosted in Seattle. The 1990s also witnessed a growing popularity in grunge music, a sound that was largely developed in Seattle's independent music scene. In 1993, the movie Sleepless in Seattle brought the city further national attention, as did the television sitcom Frasier . The dot-com boom caused
4116-735: The country's fastest-growing large cities. Seattle is situated on an isthmus between Puget Sound , an inlet of the Pacific Ocean , and Lake Washington . It is the northernmost major city in the United States, located about 100 miles (160 km) south of the Canadian border . A gateway for trade with East Asia , the Port of Seattle is the fourth-largest port in North America in terms of container handling as of 2021 . The Seattle area has been inhabited by Native Americans (such as
4200-666: The current Chinatown/International District to the Central District . The jazz scene nurtured the early careers of Ernestine Anderson , Ray Charles , Quincy Jones , and others. In the late 20th and early 21st century, the city also was the origin of several rock bands, including Foo Fighters , Heart , and Jimi Hendrix , and the subgenre of grunge and its pioneering bands, including Alice in Chains , Nirvana , Pearl Jam , Soundgarden , and others. Archaeological excavations suggest that Native Americans have inhabited
4284-598: The early part of the 20th century, and funded many new Seattle companies and products. In 1907, 19-year-old James E. Casey borrowed $ 100 from a friend and founded the American Messenger Company (later UPS ). Other Seattle companies founded during this period include Nordstrom and Eddie Bauer . Seattle brought in the Olmsted Brothers landscape architecture firm to design a system of parks and boulevards. The Gold Rush era culminated in
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#17327840372104368-486: The early years of the city, rode on the lumber industry. During this period the road now known as Yesler Way won the nickname "Skid Road", supposedly after the timber skidding down the hill to Henry Yesler 's sawmill. The later dereliction of the area may be a possible origin for the term which later entered the wider American lexicon as Skid Row . Like much of the U.S. West , Seattle experienced conflicts between labor and management and ethnic tensions that culminated in
4452-505: The end of August. Harry Brandt was awarded the general contract and the building's steel and concrete structure was finished by the end of the year. Although the building was completed by early 1912, the hotel itself wouldn't open for another year; the reason for this delay was never made clear. The Hotel Rector, operated by the Levinson Hotel Company, Inc., officially opened on May 5, 1913, touting its fireproof building and
4536-490: The estate and Brown was forced to declare bankruptcy. The Rector Hotel and adjoining Grand Opera House building were foreclosed upon and by 1920 all of Brown's real estate holdings had been sold off to settle their delinquent loans. During this legal turmoil the Rector Hotel underwent a massive 6 month interior remodeling in which all the furniture was sold and many of the interior room partitions were rebuilt. The intention
4620-638: The fact that it was completely furnished by Seattle labor. Doc Humphrey, previously of the Frye Hotel, was its first manager. A large neon sign spanning the building's top 5 floors could be seen up and down Cherry Street. Expansion of the hotel remained in limbo after A.L. Brown was removed as receiver from his father's estate by the rest of his family after he was found to have embezzled over $ 300,000 in funds for his own personal use and to pay off debts for various farming scams. The financial repercussions continued to multiply as more parties came forward against
4704-523: The first 6 floors for the time being. Graham's concept sketch was published in the July 9, 1911 edition of the Seattle Times , showing the building as it would have been with the top 2 floors forming the capital of the 3-part design with arched windows and a large dentiled cornice. Demolition of the old buildings by contractor Sherman G. Combs began in July 1911 and excavation of the lot was completed by
4788-513: The first plats for the village were filed. In 1855, nominal land settlements were established. On January 14, 1865, the Legislature of Territorial Washington incorporated the Town of Seattle with a board of trustees managing the city. The Town of Seattle was disincorporated on January 18, 1867, and remained a mere precinct of King County until late 1869, when a new petition was filed and the city
4872-490: The growing local lumber industry, landing at Port Gamble, Washington in 1859 where he went to work running logging camps for Cyrus Walker. He soon came into his own, opening logging camps and mills throughout Puget Sound and by the 1870s had become one of the most powerful lumber men in the region. The same year he had arrived in Port Gamble, he purchased the first of many pieces of Seattle real estate sight unseen, that by
4956-411: The growth strongly skewed toward the center of the city, and unemployment dropped from roughly 9 percent to 3.6 percent. The city has found itself "bursting at the seams", with over 45,000 households spending more than half their income on housing and at least 2,800 people homeless , and with the country's sixth-worst rush-hour traffic. Seattle is located between the saltwater Puget Sound (an arm of
5040-401: The hilliest areas are near the city center, with Capitol Hill, First Hill, and Beacon Hill collectively constituting something of a ridge along an isthmus between Elliott Bay and Lake Washington. The break in the ridge between First Hill and Beacon Hill is man-made, a result of two of the many regrading projects that reshaped the topography of the city center. The topography of the city center
5124-477: The judge to reverse Titus' conviction. In February 2002, The Seattle Times ran a subheadline "American outshines Kwan , Slutskaya in skating surprise" after Sarah Hughes won the gold medal at the 2002 Olympics . Many Asian Americans felt insulted by the headline because Michelle Kwan is also American. Asian American community leaders criticized the subheadline as perpetuating a stereotype that people of color can never be truly American. The incident echoed
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#17327840372105208-418: The last person leaving Seattle – Turn out the lights." Seattle remained the corporate headquarters of Boeing until 2001, when the company separated its headquarters from its major production facilities; the headquarters were moved to Chicago. The Seattle area is still home to Boeing's Renton narrow-body plant and Everett wide-body plant . The company's credit union for employees, BECU , remains based in
5292-425: The late 19th and early 20th centuries were almost entirely from Guangdong Province . The Seattle area is also home to a large Vietnamese population of more than 55,000 residents, as well as over 30,000 Somali immigrants. The Seattle-Tacoma area is also home to one of the largest Cambodian communities in the United States, numbering about 19,000 Cambodian Americans, and one of the largest Samoan communities in
5376-427: The mainland U.S., with over 15,000 people having Samoan ancestry. Additionally, the Seattle area had the highest percentage of self-identified mixed-race people of any large metropolitan area in the United States, according to the 2000 United States Census Bureau. According to a 2012 HistoryLink study, Seattle's 98118 ZIP code (in the Columbia City neighborhood) was one of the most diverse ZIP Code Tabulation Areas in
5460-445: The mid 1920s the building was managed for its owner by Henry Broderick who in 1926, planned to finally add the building's missing floors, though only 5 instead of the original 6, that would double the hotel's capacity but this too never came to pass. The lease and furnishings of the St. Charles were sold to J.A. Ragan of Olympia in May 1927 for $ 30,000 and the hotel underwent a second interior remodeling in September 1931 after which it
5544-457: The miners in Alaska and the Yukon . Few of those working men found lasting wealth. However, it was Seattle's business of clothing the miners and feeding them salmon that panned out in the long run. Along with Seattle, other cities like Everett , Tacoma , Port Townsend , Bremerton , and Olympia , all in the Puget Sound region, became competitors for exchange, rather than mother lodes for extraction, of precious metals. The boom lasted into
5628-419: The move would help them avoid the fate of other defunct afternoon newspapers. This placed the Times in direct competition with its Joint Operating Agreement (JOA) partner, the morning Seattle Post-Intelligencer . Nine years later, the Post-Intelligencer became an online-only publication. The Times is one of the few remaining major city dailies in the United States independently operated and owned by
5712-503: The newspaper since 1896. The Seattle Times had a longstanding rivalry with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer until the latter ceased physical publication in 2009. The Seattle Times has received 11 Pulitzer Prizes and is widely renowned for its investigative journalism . The Seattle Times originated as the Seattle Press-Times , a four-page newspaper founded in 1891 with a daily circulation of 3,500, which Maine teacher and attorney Alden J. Blethen bought in 1896. Renamed
5796-411: The population, Spanish was spoken by 4.5% of the population, speakers of other Indo-European languages made up 3.9%, and speakers of other languages made up 2.5%. Seattle's foreign-born population grew 40% between the 1990 and 2000 censuses. The Chinese population in the Seattle area has origins in mainland China , Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, and Taiwan . The earliest Chinese-Americans that came in
5880-404: The production of Boeing aircraft. The war dispersed the city's numerous Japanese-American businessmen due to the Japanese American internment . After the World War II, however, the local economy dipped. It rose again with Boeing's growing dominance in the commercial airliner market. Seattle celebrated its restored prosperity and made a bid for world recognition with the Century 21 Exposition ,
5964-447: The shadow of" the Smith Tower , and adjacent to the former Grand Opera House and the 1910-built Chicago School -style Lyon Building , also designed by John Graham. Amos Brown, a native of New Hampshire , was lured to the Northwest in the 1850s, like many, by the promise of riches during the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush but by the time he arrived in Victoria, B.C. the rush was all but over. Undaunted, he decided to throw his lot in with
6048-442: The site of the present Alaska Building , Amos Brown purchased the building and had it moved onto his lot in the 1890s. By 1910 it was the only corner of this intersection that hadn't been improved with larger more permanent structures. In 1911, Brown's estate under the direction of his son Alson L. Brown commissioned architect John Graham, Sr. (whose offices were located in the recently completed Lyon Building next door) to design
6132-554: The time of his death would be some of the most valuable property in the city. After his marriage to Annie Peoples, one of the famous Mercer Girls , in 1867, Brown would make Seattle his permanent home, joining the city council and building a stately residence on his property at First Avenue and Spring Streets in the early 1870s. Brown retired from logging in 1882 to focus on improving his real estate holdings. He passed away from complications from stomach cancer in 1899 with an estate valued at nearly $ 400,000. Of Brown's real estate holdings,
6216-531: The way to their claim passed three scouts of the Denny Party. Members of the Denny Party claimed land on Alki Point on September 28, 1851. The rest of the Denny Party set sail on the schooner Exact from Portland , Oregon, stopping in Astoria , and landed at Alki Point during a rainstorm on November 13, 1851. After a difficult winter, most of the Denny Party relocated across Elliott Bay and claimed land
6300-484: Was abandoned and its residents moved across the bay to join the rest of the settlers. David Swinson "Doc" Maynard , one of the founders of Duwamps, was the primary advocate to name the settlement Seattle after Chief Seattle ( Lushootseed : siʔaɫ , anglicized as "Seattle"), chief of the Duwamish and Suquamish tribes. The name "Seattle" appears on official Washington Territory papers dated May 23, 1853, when
6384-754: Was also changed by the construction of a seawall and the artificial Harbor Island (completed 1909) at the mouth of the city's industrial Duwamish Waterway , the terminus of the Green River . The highest point within city limits is at High Point in West Seattle, which is located near 35th Ave SW and SW Myrtle St. North of the city center, the Lake Washington Ship Canal connects Puget Sound to Lake Washington. It incorporates four natural bodies of water: Lake Union , Salmon Bay , Portage Bay , and Union Bay . Due to its location in
6468-478: Was founded in the immediate wake of the fire. The Panic of 1893 hit Seattle hard. The second and most dramatic boom resulted from the Klondike Gold Rush , which ended the depression that had begun with the Panic of 1893 . In a short time, Seattle became a major transportation center. On July 14, 1897, the S.S. Portland docked with its famed "ton of gold", and Seattle became the main transport and supply point for
6552-524: Was known as the Governor Hotel for about ten years before reverting to the St. Charles and would continue to serve guests for decades. In March 1985 the St. Charles was purchased for $ 520,000 by Plymouth Housing Group, a Seattle-based non-profit organization, with plans to convert the hotel into low-income rental housing to serve the increasing amounts of homeless in Seattle. Over the next two years over 1600 hours of volunteer labor went into restoring
6636-730: Was mildly prosperous in the 1920s but was particularly hard hit in the Great Depression, experiencing some of the country's harshest labor strife in that era. Violence during the Maritime Strike of 1934 cost Seattle much of its maritime traffic, which was rerouted to the Port of Los Angeles . The Great Depression in Seattle affected many minority groups, one being the Asian Pacific Americans; they were subject to racism, loss of property, and failed claims of unemployment due to citizenship status. Seattle
6720-497: Was one of the major cities that benefited from programs such as the Works Progress Administration , CCC , Public Works Administration , and others. The workers, mostly men, built roads, parks, dams, schools, railroads, bridges, docks, and even historical and archival record sites and buildings. Seattle faced significant unemployment, loss of lumber and construction industries as Los Angeles prevailed as
6804-448: Was one of the whitest big cities in the country, although its proportion of white residents has been gradually declining. In 1960, whites constituted 91.6% of the city's population, while in 2010 they constituted 69.5%. According to the 2006–2008 American Community Survey , approximately 78.9% of residents over the age of five spoke only English at home. Those who spoke Asian languages other than Indo-European languages made up 10.2% of
6888-687: Was re-incorporated December 2, 1869, with a mayor–council government . The corporate seal of the City of Seattle carries the date "1869" and a likeness of Chief Seattle in left profile. That same year, Seattle acquired the epithet of the "Queen City", a designation officially changed in 1982 to the "Emerald City". Seattle has a history of boom-and-bust cycles, like many other cities near areas of extensive natural and mineral resources. Seattle has risen several times economically, then gone into precipitous decline, but it has typically used those periods to rebuild solid infrastructure. The first such boom, covering
6972-641: Was the first European to visit the Seattle area during his 1791–1795 expedition for the Royal Navy , which sought to chart the Pacific Northwest for the British. In 1851, a large party of American pioneers led by Luther Collins made a location on land at the mouth of the Duwamish River ; they formally claimed it on September 14, 1851. Thirteen days later, members of the Collins Party on
7056-543: Was to connect the hotel to the adjacent Opera House building, which had recently been gutted by fire, and add more rooms, but this was never done. The St. Charles Hotel Company was incorporated in August 1917 by the hotel's new managers John and Josephine Farnham and C.A. Spirk and by the end of 1917 the Rector had reopened as the St. Charles Hotel, though still under the operation of the Levinson Company, now known as
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