Skip to content

Seattle’s Story Told in Flannel, Ferries and Flood Lines

A new book presents Seattle’s history through engaging infographics

By Gwendolyn Elliott October 14, 2018

1_74

This article originally appeared in the October 2018 issue of Seattle magazine.

This article appears in print in the October 2018 issue. Click here to subscribe.

In a region experiencing rapid growth and development, it’s beginning to feel like we need a central, handy storage place for the details of the city’s fast-changing story before we all forget them. 

Authors Tera Hatfield, Jenny Kempson and Natalie Ross are on it with Seattleness: A Cultural Atlas (Sasquatch, $24.95, released October 23), a collection of compelling data and creatively illustrated charts full of statistics about what makes our region special. Topics range from ferries and ferry traffic, the region’s seismic activity, indigenous histories and native foods to cultural cornerstones such as Seattle’s notable grunge music venues—told, of course, in flannel. Learn more when the authors visit the Rainier Arts Center on 11/8 to talk about the book. 

Seattle Grunge-Era Venues

1. Kurt Cobain Memorial at Viretta Park

2. MoPOP (Museum of Pop Culture)

3. Showbox at the Market

4. Motorsports International Garage

5. OK Hotel

6. Cyclops Cafe

7. Gorilla Gardens

8. Central Saloon

9. Moore Theatre

10. The Crocodile

11. Music Bank Studio

12. Blue Moon Tavern

13. Cornell Apartments

14. Gas Works Park

15. Comet Tavern

16. Terminal Sales Building

17. Metropolis

18. Black Dog Forge

19. Rainbow Tavern

20. Re-bar

21. Black Hole Sun at Volunteer Park

22. Neumos

23. The Vogue

 

Follow Us

AANHPI Month: Where to Celebrate, Eat, and Learn Around Seattle

AANHPI Month: Where to Celebrate, Eat, and Learn Around Seattle

From festivals and museum exhibits to food tours and historic neighborhoods, here are a few ways to mark the month across the region.

Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month—known as AANHPI Month—is observed in the U.S. each May. It began as a weeklong observance in 1978 and expanded to the full month in 1992. Asian, Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities in the United States extend back much further, including to the late 16th century, when…

Black Panther Park in Skyway Becomes First Black Panther Park in the World

Black Panther Park in Skyway Becomes First Black Panther Park in the World

The new community garden honors the Black Panther Party’s legacy of food justice and the Skyway neighbors who helped bring it to life. 

On a sunny Sunday earlier this month, at the corner of 75th Avenue and Renton Avenue South, the community gathered for the opening of Skyway’s Black Panther Park. Inspired by the Black Panther’s Free Breakfast for School Children program that compelled the federal government to provide breakfast in schools, Black Panther Park is a community…

Rearview Mirror: A Family Coming Apart, SIFF, and My First Fashion Show

Rearview Mirror: A Family Coming Apart, SIFF, and My First Fashion Show

Things I did, saw, ate, learned, or read in the past week (or so).

The Family House A house can hold a lot, and Seattle Rep’s Appropriate knows that. Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Tony-winning play, directed here by Timothy McCuen Piggee, drops the Lafayette siblings into their late father’s hoarded, falling-apart Arkansas plantation home for an estate sale, and lets the whole thing crack open from there. The sibling dynamics are…

Studio Sessions: Raili Jänese

Studio Sessions: Raili Jänese

The Kirkland painter brings a playful eye to daily life and the little rituals of being human.

Artist Raili Jänese pays close attention to the small stuff. It might be a goose on the move, a rabbit in the yard, or a person lost in the rituals of coffee or cooking. The Estonian-born artist, now based in Kirkland, makes colorful acrylic works that turn everyday behavior—human and animal alike—into something funny and…