Local History - Seattle Style

Perhaps I enjoy history more than the next person; however, my tastes mostly lead me to the exotic, foreign and distant history of lands and peoples far away. The more foreign the place, the more I am interested in it.

Local history, on the other hand, is the stuff of boredom, forever associated with dull battles over water rights.

But this is Seattle! SEATTLE! Where the Wild West continued on through the 1930s, where the Gold Rush put us on the map, and our fair city has seen more than its fair share of ill repute! Lately, I can't get enough!

Thankfully, Hurst Library has some recent acquisitions to satisfy my new-found interest in all things local.

Here are my new favorites...

The House of Hope and Fear - Though more recent history, this is the real life story of a city hospital, Harborview to be exact, and the day-to-day struggles to keep up with the continuous flow of patients. This is the real-life Grey's Anatomy, in a real-life Seattle hospital.

A great read for nursing students!







Family of Strangers is a collection of newspaper clippings, birth records, and, most interestingly, photos of Washington's Jewish pioneers. Following the first settlers all of the way through WWII, this book is a time capsule lovingly written.

Did I mention the pictures?!?!







I credit PBS, more specifically their special on the Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition, for igniting my local history fever!

In this book, you are taken on a pictorial journey through the greatest unknown fair Seattle ever had. "World's Fair, Shmorld's Fair" is what you will say by the end of this book!

The Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition took place over a hundred years ago, saw hundreds of thousands of visitors, and left us a great legacy - all of the original UW buildings were created to house this fair.

My words fail to describe the beauty of this book!

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Hopefully it does not sound as though I have over hyped this local history stuff, but I just cannot get enough!

Scandal! Money! Double-Crossing! It is all here in our little town!