Knute Berger, legendary Seattle journalist and historian, reveals the secrets of the city in his popular history series for Crosscut.com & KCTS.
Bustling Seattle was building one freeway after another in the 1960s and 70s. One was going to slice right through the Washington Park Arboretum, until citizen activists stopped it in its tracks.
Seattle World's Fair organizers desperately wanted President John F. Kennedy to visit. He couldn’t, but he did glimpse the site. Proof lies in a recently discovered photograph taken in the shadow of the Space Needle.
Prospectors headed to the 1897 gold rush in Alaska had to bring tons of provisions with them. Some imagined the possibility of airships carrying freight and gold back and forth to the Klondike, and suddenly, airships were being "seen" all over the world.
Wealthy English aristocrat and musician sir Thomas Beecham came to Seattle during WWII to be the Seattle Symphony's conductor for two years. Outspoken and fiery in temperament, he made a statement about Seattle's artistic life that stings citizens even today. But did he actually say it?