A group of about forty Seattle businessmen petitioned the Mayor and City Council in 1895 to permit amusements (such as concerts, dances, shows, and the like) to be allowed in conjunction with saloons. They wrote that they believed “the best interests of the City of Seattle would be subserved by, and that large revenues could [...]

With spring comes baseball, and with baseball comes broken windows. Over the years, citizens and businesses have complained to the city about stray fly balls damaging their property and asked what could be done. In one example, three Mount Baker neighbors wrote a joint letter to the City Council in 1920 requesting an ordinance to [...]

Open Housing in Seattle Fair Housing Month is celebrated across the country in April.  Designated by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, it marks the date of April 11, 1968, when President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968.  The Act expanded previous legislation and prohibited discrimination concerning the sale, rental, [...]

Disposal of garbage was a problem in Seattle’s early days, as the city’s population was growing while needed infrastructure was still evolving. In 1897, citizens living near a dump at 6th and Lane sent a petition to the Council stating that the site was “an intolerable nuisance, which is incompatible with the health and comfort [...]

 Seattle’s first and (so far) only African American Mayor, Norman B. Rice   Mayor Norm Rice, April 27, 1993,  Item 72831, Seattle Municipal Archives Norm Rice first served on Seattle City Council from 1979 to1989, then served as Mayor from 1990 to 1997.  Norman B. Rice was born May 4, 1943 in Denver, Colorado. After [...]

From 1909 until 1912, the Seattle City Council appropriated $175 per month to the YWCA to fund the “protecting and caring for young women and girls.” Protection Secretary Mary Martin wrote to Mayor Hiram Gill on the last day of 1910 to give her report of the year’s activities. Martin said that she investigated 368 [...]

In June 1914, Seattle’s chief of police wrote to the mayor and city council urging passage of a gun control ordinance, attaching a recently passed Chicago law that he thought was a good model. The law required sellers to obtain a license and to report all sales, and required buyers to obtain permits, which could be [...]

Item #77386 Seattle Municipal Archives holdings contain historical materials documenting correspondence, visits, and campaign materials of US Presidents as early as Al Smith’s presidential run in 1928 to photos as recent as Congressman Barack Obama’s visit in 2008. Photos: The US Conference of Mayors Climate protection Summit, President Bill Clinton President Clinton with Mayor Norm [...]

In the midst of World War II, Seattle’s Civil Service Commission struggled with how to classify women who were serving in the WAAC (Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps), WAVE (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service, otherwise known as the Navy Women’s Reserve), and SPAR (Coast Guard Women’s Reserve). All three reserve units were meant to free [...]

For most of his life, activist and community leader Bernie Whitebear (1937-2000) of the Lakes Tribe (one of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation) worked for social change and justice for the native people of Seattle and the Pacific Northwest. Whitebear made many contributions to improving rights for Native Americans in Seattle and, in these [...]