Junius Rochester, whose family has shaped the city for many generations, is an award-winning Northwest historian and author of numerous books about Seattle and other places.
While Americans listened to a new invention called the radio, and watched another called moving pictures, Doc Hamilton and many others opened subterranean, out-of-the way, private night clubs called “speakeasies.”
The Centralia Massacre in 1919 and the Seattle General Strike the same year were examples of radical Wobbly activity in America and the timberland Northwest.
Big cities need the contrast and diversity of buildings with varying scale and design. Religious temples can offer such diversity and architectural appeal.
With an estate of more than $12 million after her husband’s death, Agnes Healy Anderson was a focal point of philanthropy, both traditional and off-beat.
Salmon canneries opened at Point Roberts in 1890s, and a paddlewheel steamer from Seattle made regular stops. The tiny area also became the end of the trail for Icelandic immigrants.
Alexander Pantages, an uneducated Greek-born impresario, who exhibited streaks of crudeness alongside his brilliance, gave audiences what they wanted – anything they wanted.
In October of 1892, Wister visited Harvard classmate George Waring, who kept a small general store on the Methow River. He stopped in Walla Walla, then Washington Territory’s largest city, which he described as “a town of dust and poplars.”