The century 21 Exposition, also known as the Seattle World’s Fair, was held between April 21 and October 21, 1926 and drew almost 10 million visitors. Though the fair was primarily administered by the non-profit private Century 21 Exposition, Inc., the government of Seattle was deeply involved in development and execution. The Mayor’s Office spearheaded a Downtown Beautification program, the Board of Public Works conducted oversight and licensing for building projects on municipal land, and the engineering Department improved the downtown transportation network and improved the water/sewer utility and provided underground lighting. Seattle City Light provided a key role in developing the Pavilion of Electric Power, an exhibit featuring a 40-foot tall depiction of a hydroelectric dam.

Further resources at the Seattle Municipal Archives:

• Century 21 World’s Fair
• Century 21 World’s Fair Bibliography

City Light stenographers

High unemployment during the Great Depression led to scrutiny of families with more than one wage earner, particularly if one of those employed was a woman. A 1930 letter to a local newspaper complained that the wife of a fireman of the writer’s acquaintance “works in a store and lets two children run wild. The husband gets good pay and has steady work. What can be done about this?” The newspaper’s Mr. Fixit suggested writing to the Fire Chief, George Mantor, to have him determine whether “the conditions justify action.”Two anonymous citizens did just that. One, who signed her letter “A Poor Working Girl,” complained of a fireman’s wife who had been working at a tea room for two years: “[T]hey have no children and have a good time besides, and keeps us girls who need work out.” She claimed such wives worked for selfish reasons like “swell clothes.” Another writer, signing as “Yours for Fair Play,”complained of a fireman who hadn’t missed a day’s pay in eight years, worked on his vacations as well, and had “no sickness or any trouble of any kind…to call for the wife’s working.” (She sold ties at the Bon Marche.) The letter continued, “I for one think it is high time that men living off the taxpayers should at least keep there [sic] wives from doing another tax payer out of a living.”

Chief Mantor was uncertain about how to reply to these complaints. In a letter to the Central Labor Council, he asked whether the unions had a policy on the issue or if it was considered a personal decision for each employee to make. Mantor stated, “[W]e have been hesitant to make any comment or take any action – even though we believe that it is not a matter of good policy for our personnel who are steadily employed to permit their wives to fill positions that should go to the unemployed.”

The Labor Council replied that they agreed this was a problem in principle; “however, there are extenuating circumstances that justifies some married women working… [D]uring the war, women were pressed into service, filling the places of men in many instances, and after the war was over they just remained undisturbed.” While the council had no fixed policy on the matter, the letter stated that it was “a big question that should have been given attention years ago, and for our negligence, we are all subject to criticism… [T]he time is not far distant when there will be a general awakening when something will be done.”

Earth Day is celebrated globally on April 22 to shine a spotlight on environmental issues with education and action.  Attitudes about recycling, composting, and solid waste have changed significantly since the first Earth Day in 1970.  Landfills were a primary means of disposal of solid waste in Seattle through the mid-1980s.

The University Dump, now a parking lot, closed in November 1954.

See the Archives’ online photo exhibit, The City at Work  for more images of waste management and environmental cleanup efforts in Seattle over the years.

Item 44896 Seattle Municipal Archives
 

 
Searching the Archives online indexes using keywords such as solid waste, environment, pollution, and recycling will lead to records in our collections outlining city environmental policy and how it has changed over the years.

Opening of Lincoln Park Swimming Pool, July 27, 1925

This pool was dug out of dirt with a retaining wall of rocks along the sides.

It filled with salt water from Puget Sound.

A muddy bottom and control valves that did not always contain the water eventually required a pool made of concrete and tile.

The Laurence Colman Pool, dedicated on July 4, 1941, is also filled with salt water from the Sound.

Item 28728, Department of Streets and Sewers Photographs (Record Series 2625-10), Seattle Municipal Archives.

In March 1907, Seattle’s Unitarian Club investigated the conditions at the city jail and sent a letter to the City Council outlining their findings. While the visitors approved of the building’s cleanliness and the prisoners’ food, they did emphatically state that “the male prisoners working on the chain gang…should not be compelled to sleep on the cement floors and without blankets.” The letter continued, “It seems to us that it is far from humanitarian to compel these men, many of whom are not especially bad characters, to work for the municipality, and then give them no place to sleep, other than a damp cement floor.”

The Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds concurred with the club’s opinion and recommended that cots be provided to the men. However, this suggestion was apparently not followed, at least not right away. A clerk file from November 1907 – eight months after the committee’s recommendation – contains a letter from Charles James, a representative of the International Prison Commission from New York, who once again found the prisoners sleeping on the floor.

In his letter, James noted that it was “the first instance in which I have found the above described condition, altho [sic]…I have visited jails and kindred institutions in all parts of the country.” He continued, “[H]umanity, nay common decency, commands that such degrading conditions should be ameliorated…at once.”

It is possible that improvements were already in the works when James wrote his letter. Ordinance 17219, passed shortly before his visit, authorized the purchase of “necessary furniture” for the jail, although it does not specify what that furniture was to be. Meanwhile, an agreement in another clerk file outlines what the prisoners were to be fed: steak, potatoes, bread, and coffee for breakfast; roast meat, potatoes, gravy, vegetables (carrots beans, peas, or corn), bread, and coffee for supper; and a repeat of either breakfast or supper for dinner. The city paid fifteen cents for each meal.

Seattle’s first and only dance marathon began on July 23, 1928, at the city’s armory. At these events, contestants competed for cash prizes by dancing for days at a time, with only short rest breaks each hour. As the days went on and the contestants became more and more exhausted, they struggled simply to stay on their feet, and often suffered hallucinations and other symptoms of severe sleep deprivation.

An ad recruiting contestants for the Seattle event called attention to the $2000 in prize money and encouraged, “If you are out of work why not enter? …No entry fees, no expense to you whatever.” Another ad highlighted the fact that a waitress had won first prize in Minneapolis. Publicity for the event noted that “physicians’ services will be available throughout the marathon.”

Thirty couples entered the contest, and while one dropped out after the first day, the rest carried on. Organizers placed ads in the Seattle Times publicizing the ongoing event and encouraging spectators: “They have danced over 112 hours and are still going strong – Come any time, day or night”; “215 hours of dancing and the hoofers are still plodding away.”

As the condition of the dancers deteriorated, complaints increased from women’s clubs and city officials, who demanded that the contest be ended. Finally, on August 13, the National Guard forcibly removed the three remaining contestants from the floor, saying that the armory was needed for military drills. The city’s health officer had also declared he would shut down the contest that day because of the garbage that had piled up on the dance floor. The Times reported that “to prevent any of their number being adjudged winner by reason of leaving the floor last, the dancers linked arms and limped away together.”

Many in the city were appalled by the whole thing and lobbied for City Council to pass an ordinance outlawing future dance marathons. A Times editorial opined, “That witless contest against fatigue should never have been permitted. As a spectacle it takes rank somewhat below that of flag-pole sitting or coffee-drinking contests. It appeals to morbid tastes which find pleasure in human suffering or in side-show freaks… Before Seattle forgets the repugnant affair entirely, it should take what steps may be necessary to prevent a repetition of the spectacle.”

Council obliged by passing Ordinance 55985, which required anyone wishing to hold a physical endurance contest to first obtain a permit from the Chief of Police. The ordinance also specified that any such contest “shall terminate at or before midnight of the day on which it begins,” thereby outlawing dance marathons in one fell swoop. The ordinance was amended in 1931 to note that the law “shall not be construed as related to or prohibiting the holding of six (6) day bicycle races.”

See other Archives Finds of the Month here:

http://seattle.gov/CityArchives/Exhibits/finds.htm

For other interesting images and textual items, check out the Seattle Municipal Archives’ photostream on flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/seattlemunicipalarchives/