November 2010

Van Buren was preeminent among the second generation of American politicians. As eighth President – the first born under the U.S. flag – he continued building the Democratic Party he helped organize. His administration faced daunting challenges: The nation suffered a severe and lingering economic depression. Crises with Great Britain, Spain, and the Republic of Texas taxed his diplomatic skills.

Most troubling throughout his political career was the issue of extending slavery into new states. Van Buren opposed extension while still trying to cultivate a coalition of northern and southern interests. The issue divided the nation and his party and foreshadowed the whirlpool of frustration, anger and violence which was to consume the country in the 1860's.

The 36-room mansion, containing original wallpaper and furnishings, has been restored to the Van Buren period. All different kinds of events and activities are offered on the grounds.

The Pioneer Square neighborhood was the hub of pioneer Seattle. The first industry, Yesler Sawmill, was built in here in 1852.

In 1889 local businessmen returned to Seattle from a trip to Alaska with a Tlingit totem pole and gave the Puget Sound it's first landmark.

The first buildings following the Great Fire of 1899 were built around Pioneer Square and in 1909 an iron pergola was built as a shelter over an underground restroom, known as "the finest underground restroom in the United States". The Pergola and the totem pole still stand, along with a bust of Chief Seattle. This tiny park is at the heart of Seattle's historical district.

(Excerpt from Enjoying Seattle's Parks by Brandt Morgan and the files of Don Sherwood, 1916-1981, Park Historian.)

The Stimson-Green House is a beautifully-preserved example of a fashionable turn-of-the-century Seattle home. Its first owner, Charles Stimson, moved to Seattle in 1889 and rapidly developed profitable timbering and real estate businesses in the nearby community of Ballard. He was also director of the Metropolitan Building Company, the Metropolitan Bank and the General Insurance Company of America as well as the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition of 1909. By 1899 he had acquired enough prestige and fortune to commission construction of a three-story house on First Hill, a neighborhood northeast of downtown characterized by substantial homes and well-shaded sidewalks. Its exterior illustrates many elements of the then-popular Tudor Revival style: steeply pitched roofs, decorative half-timbering, casement windows with diamond-shaped leaded panes and elaborate chimneys. The elegant interior included paneled wainscoting, a dining room frieze, and a library fireplace surround that featured a pair of hand-carved lions.

The museum works to honor and lend recognition to past achievements within the scope of advertising and design, foster public awareness of the influential role of advertising and design on society, and serve as an educational resource for advertising and design students and professionals and the community at large. With its unique emphasis on the social, historical and aesthetic implications of advertising and design, the Eisner Museum is an important center for research in and discussion of advertising and design.

Georgetown's saloon and brewery owners worried that the community's unincorporated status might allow the "war against saloonacy" to turn Georgetown into a "dry village." Prohibition was spreading through King County, and they pushed to create an independent municipality before it affected their community. Though some merchants who worried about potentially higher taxes opposed this movement, voters decided to incorporate Georgetown in 1904. The first city offices and fire department were located on Horton Street behind, appropriately enough, J. A. Ward's Exchange Saloon. In 1909, the growing community decided to build a new home for its government. A dark red brick two story building with white brick quoins and an unusual stone entablature, the Georgetown City Hall was the first building in Georgetown to have both hot and cold running water. The building housed the police department, the jail, the fire department, council chambers and city offices.

On February 6, 1898, a group of theater managers met to discuss some business matters. The men decided to take a walk along the tide flats, and upon reaching the shipyards, settled upon some pilings, where the conversation took a philosophical turn. Combining their ideas on democracy and brotherhood, it was decided that an organization should be formed to reflect this spirit, an organization called the "Seattle Order of Good Things." Later renamed the "Fraternal Order of Eagles," the society's constitution asked its members to "make human life more desirable by lessening its ills and promoting peace, prosperity, gladness, and hope." Within 10 years the Eagles had 1,800 lodges scattered throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico, boasting a membership roll that exceeded 350,000. Members received free medical attention (as did the individual's family), weekly payments in case of sickness and a funeral benefit--all valuable services before the widespread availability of medical, disability and life insurance. More importantly, they formed a powerful voice that advocated various types of reform that would benefit the average working person.

For more than a century Volunteer Park has been the center of Seattle's park system. Though the city began purchasing this site along the crown of Capitol Hill in 1876, more than 15 years passed before the municipal government began to clear the land. Improvements accelerated after the turn of the century, when Seattle joined many other American cities in creating extensive networks of parks. In 1903, the Olmsted Brothers, America's most famous landscape architects, issued a comprehensive plan for parks, boulevards and playgrounds throughout Seattle.

Still luxuriously furnished with the Koester belongings, including family portraits, clothing, toys and books, furniture and household items, the Koester House Museum is a rare gem, completed in 1876, renovated carefully since the 1970s, and opened to the public through the generosity of the Koester heirs, who made it a gift to the city of Marysville.

Surrounded by a brick wall and with cast iron lions and dogs guarding its gates, the grounds of the house are nearly as interesting as the interior. A summer kitchen, ice house, carriage house and statuary make a stroll through this family's yard an experience to remember.

A rare collection of white bronze (zinc) sculptures which the owner acquired to enhance his yard and gardens has been restored and is on display in the museum yard. The cast iron lions and dogs at the gates were noted by Laura Ingalls Wilder in "On the Way Home," a diary of her family's journey in 1894 from South Dakota to Missouri. These statues have also been restored, along with cast iron urns, yard furniture and a fountain.

The National Railroad Museum collects, preserves, exhibits and interprets artifacts related to the American rail experience. Our collection contains thousands of objects ranging from personal gear to some of the world’s rarest rolling stock. These items serve as visual reminders of America’s past and the role that rail played in forging our nation. It goes beyond a mere discussion of hardware but reveals that way in which rail shaped American culture through literature, music and historical events.