Topic: Business
Gordon H. Sweany was a Seattle lawyer and the chairman of the board of SAFECO Corp. Under his leadership, SAFECO grew into one of the 20 largest diversified financial corporations in the United State...
Sidney Thal was one of Seattle's most beloved personalities. In 1948, he and his wife Berta Thal (1911-1996) purchased Fox's Gem Shop in downtown Seattle and transformed it into a leading retailer of ...
In the early morning of January 9, 2009, a raging fire burned down The Dutchman rehearsal and recording studio in Seattle's SoDo neighborhood. The rundown industrial warehouse had been a vibrant cente...
Thanks to Seattle's damp and soggy weather, coffee has always been a cherished commodity. The city's first commercial roasting operations began producing fresh-roasted coffee more than 100 years ago, ...
In 1954 three Klineburger brothers -- Gene (b.1920), Bert (b.1926), and Chris (b.1927) -- bought the Jonas Brothers taxidermy studio in Seattle and by the early 1960s turned it into one of the largest...
Harvey Vern Thomas (1920-1987) led an active and multi-faceted life as a musician, a machinist, a businessman -- and a notoriously fun-loving prankster. But it was his role as the luthier responsible ...
Roscoe Conkling Torrance, known as Torchy, was a Seattle printer and civic booster. Among his numerous civic causes he was best known as an unflagging sports fan, a tireless booster of the University ...
The San Juan Islands, an archipelago located in Salish Sea waters between Washington and Vancouver Island, B.C., have always held a strong attraction for visitors. From the first peoples who inhabited...
From the earliest settlement of the San Juan Islands, visitors traveled to the enchanting archipelago in the far Pacific Northwest Salish Sea to fish and hunt; explore rocky coasts and inland forests;...
The roots of Trager USA in Monroe, Snohomish County, trace back to Lloyd F. Nelson (1894?-1986) of Bremerton, Kitsap County. Nelson was working in Alaska in 1920 when he decided to enjoy a hike into t...
Imagine life without telephones or email; without automobiles, motorboats or airplanes; without floating bridges or paved roads over the Cascades. So it was in 1900. Seattle boasted some of the nation...
United Parcel Service (UPS), the international package delivery company, grew out of a messenger service established in Seattle in 1907 by an enterprising 19-year-old named James E. "Jim" Casey and hi...
In this People's History, Jim Douglas (1909-2005), the first chairman of Seattle's United Way, remembers the early challenges of organizing this charitable foundation which has served the area for alm...
Frederick Hart is co-owner of La Tienda Folk Art Gallery, an import shop that was located for many years in Seattle's University District. This is a transcript of an oral history that Hart gave in an ...
Leslie Grace founded La Tienda Folk Art Gallery in Seattle's University District in 1962. She is the daughter of attorney Cal McCune, late "Godfather" of the District, who wrote From Romance to Riot. ...
Lynn Huff is a longtime resident of Seattle's University District who worked for Safeco for 36 years. In this oral history transcript he describes growing up in the University District and his career ...
This is a transcript of an oral history by Stephen Herold. He is the former owner of the Id Bookstore, an anarchist bookstore in Seattle's University District during the late 1960s and early 1970s, an...
This reminiscence was written by Dorothea Nordstrand (1916-2011), who as a young woman worked as a teller at the Green Lake State Bank, located in Seattle's Green Lake neighborhood. In it she remember...
Vito's was a beloved Seattle restaurant for more than four decades, from its opening in 1953 until Vito Santoro's declining health forced him to sell the business in 1994. Situated close to First Hill...
He was known as "Mr. Tri-Cities," the "Man from Hanford," the "Godfather of the Tri-Cities," and, occasionally, by less-flattering terms. For more than 60 years, just about everyone at Hanford and in ...
Washington Mutual sprang into existence in Seattle in 1889 as a two-person operation and eventually became the largest savings-and-loan in the nation. It began as Washington National Building Loan and...
The Washington Water Power Company, now Avista, has been the main power utility for Spokane and much of eastern Washington since its incorporation in 1889. Washington Water Power (WWP) was founded by ...
Alex Golitzin (b. 1939) and son Paul Golitzin (b. 1970) have been central figures in bringing national and international recognition to Washington wines. They are owners and operators of Quilceda Cree...
Bob Betz (b. 1948) grew up in Seattle's Wallingford neighborhood with designs on becoming a doctor. When that didn't work out, he transitioned quickly to find his calling in the wine industry. He and ...