Icon

Reading Local

Choose Your City

Reading Local Seattle

Icon

Mar 4, 2010 0

Seattle, WA – 03/04/10 – Elliott Bay Book Company – Sidney S. Andrews

Who
Sidney S. Andrews
When
Thursday, March 4, 2010
7:00pm - All Ages
Where
Elliott Bay Book Company (map)
101 South Main Street
Seattle, WA, USA 98104

Located in the heart of the historic Pioneer Square District, Seattle's original business neighborhood, The Elliott Bay Book Company is home to over 150,000 titles, set on cedar shelves in a series of inviting, exposed-brick walled rooms.
Other Info
Pioneer Square’s Boren Block One, once home to the Seattle Hotel, is now best known as the plot of land on which the infamous “Sinking Ship” parking garage now sits. The hotel’s razing in 1961 helped spark the historic preservation movement in the city, a movement that would, within a decade, help save both the Pike Place Market and Pioneer Square from a similar fate. Sidney S. Andrews, author of Boren’s Block One: A Sinking Ship (Create Space), speaks tonight about the block’s history, which includes stories from Seattle’s earliest days – totem pole thefts, Japanese American hoteliers, the ill-fated (recent) monorail, and more. We can’t think of a better time to reminisce about Pioneer Square’s past and contemplate its future.

« Back to the calendar

  • Share/Bookmark

Dec 12, 2009 0

Seattle, WA – 12/12/09 – Seattle Room – William Wilson

Who
William Wilson
When
Saturday, December 12, 2009
2:00pm - All Ages
Where
Seattle Room (map)
Seattle Public Central Library
1000 Fourth Avenue
Seattle, WA, USA 98104

The Seattle Room on Level 10 houses the Seattle collection, which contains items about Seattle's history and includes published materials, Seattle city documents, newspaper clippings, maps and atlases, high school yearbooks, oral histories and more than 30,000 photographs, including photos of historic Seattle, Native Americans, streets, businesses and portraits.
Other Info
Most known as R.H. Thomson, Reginald Heber Thomson traveled to Seattle by steamer in 1881, and by 1892, had become the City's head engineer. Historian William H. Wilson speaks this afternoon about Thomson's seminal influence on the city's infrastructure, as Seattle grew from a small town of wood-framed building to a more modern city—with a working sewage system, re-graded hills (bigtime), a municipal power plant, and a clean, reliable water supply. Shaper of Seattle: Reginald Heber Thomson's Pacific Northwest (Washington State University Press) is William H. Wilson's account of both the man and his considerable accomplishments.

« Back to the calendar

  • Share/Bookmark

Dec 8, 2009 0

Seattle, WA – 12/08/09 – University Book Store – U District – Adam Woog

Who
Adam Woog
When
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
7:00pm - All Ages
Where
University Book Store - U District (map)
4326 University Way NE
Seattle, WA, USA 98105

The University Book Store is the largest bookstore in Washington state. It is one of few college bookstores organized as an independent, tax paying corporation with direct student involvement in management oversight. It feature an expansive Art/Architecture Department in their general bookstore with strong emphasis on graphic design, high quality art/photography monographs, contemporary architecture and esoteric gift ideas.

Other Info
The Hiram M. Chittenden Locks, known locally as the Ballard Locks, are an integral part of Seattle's extensive waterways. The busiest facility of their kind in America, the Ballard Locks form the heart of the channel connecting Puget Sound's saltwater with Seattle's main freshwater lakes. When completed in 1917, the locks were second only in size to the Panama Canal and the first of their kind on the West Coast. They function primarily to maintain the lakes' levels and allow the movement of vessels between them and the sea. The Ballard Locks are among Seattle's top tourist attractions; more than one million people visit annually. They watch salmon and other fish migrate through the fish ladder, visit the botanical gardens, and watch the nonstop parade of ships from working vessels to pleasure craft as they rise and fall in the locks.

« Back to the calendar

  • Share/Bookmark

Oct 4, 2009 0

Seattle, WA – 10/04/09 – Elliott Bay Book Company – Joann Green Byrd

Who
Joann Green Byrd
When
Sunday, October 4, 2009
2:00pm - All Ages
Where
Elliott Bay Book Company (map)
101 South Main Street
Seattle, WA, USA 98104

Located in the heart of the historic Pioneer Square District, Seattle's original business neighborhood, The Elliott Bay Book Company is home to over 150,000 titles, set on cedar shelves in a series of inviting, exposed-brick walled rooms.
Other Info
Now retired, journalist Joann Green Byrd worked on newspapers ranging from the East Oregonian in Pendleton to the Washington Post—with the late Seattle Post-Intelligencer in there along the way. She now—we're happy to report—joins the ranks of those writing some of the history that needs its stories told, as she is here with her debut book, Calamity: The Heppner Flood of 1903 (University of Washington Press). Set in her home country of northeast Oregon, Joann Byrd writes of a calamitous thunderstorm and its ensuing flood which killed over 200 of Heppner's 1300 inhabitants. "A riveting story abut a heart-breaking event." - Gerald Baldasty.

« Back to the calendar

  • Share/Bookmark

Oct 1, 2009 0

Review: The Good Times Are All Gone Now by Julie Whitesel Weston

9780806140759

[ The Good Times Are All Gone Now | Julie Whitesel Weston | University of Oklahoma Press | $19.95 ] It is ironic that a region like the Pacific Northwest, that prides itself on rustic individualism, is also a region that was largely created and remains dependent on the legacy of massive corporate and federal projects. Although a miner, farm hand, or lumberjack doesn’t work behind a desk, they are just as dependent on a paycheck as an office worker, and are at the mercy of the company and finally the market. In fact, in many ways work and the dependencies of labor are more pervasive for a lumberjack then, say, a paralegal. A paralegal may return home at night, but until the middle of the 20th century, the lumberjack lived in a camp in the middle of his work site. Many of our towns were intentionally founded as company towns, such as Renton, Spokane, Boise, and the mining town of Kellogg, Idaho. For many years the boom and bust of towns followed the boom and bust of the company towns (even those dependent on Boeing, Weyerhaeuser, or The Bunker Hill Mining Company).

Read the rest of this entry »

  • Share/Bookmark

Sep 30, 2009 0

Lake Forest Park, WA – 09/30/09 – Third Place Books – Alan Stein and Paula Becker

Who
Alan Stein and Paula Becker
When
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
7:00pm - All Ages
Where
Third Place Books (map)
17171 Bothell Way NE
Lake Forest Park, WA, USA 98155

Sociologist Ray Oldenberg's book The Great Good Place suggests that to lead a rewarding life, each of us needs three places. First is the home. Second is the workplace or school. Beyond lies the place where people from all walks of life and all social levels interact, experiencing and celebrating their commonality as well as their diversity. It is a third place. Third Place Books is the deliberate and intentional creation of a community of booklovers, a fun, comfortable and safe place to browse, linger, lounge, relax, read, eat, laugh, play, talk, listen and just watch the world go by.

We invite you to make Third Place Books your third place.

Other Info
Alan Stein & Paula Becker Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition: Washington's First World's Fair by Alan Stein & Paula Becker. Savor in rich detail the history of the fair that brought Seattle and Washington into the national spotlight. Seattle’s A-Y-P Exposition in 1909, on the future site of the UW, welcomed 3.7 million visitors and was the first world's fair to make a profit.

« Back to the calendar

Blog Widget by LinkWithin
  • Share/Bookmark

Archive

Reading Local Sponsors