Topic: Business
John Doyle Bishop operated one of Seattle's most fashionable retail establishments for three decades and positioned himself as a style leader in the city. He provided his customers with luxury ready-t...
After the Puget Sound "Indian War" of 1855-1856, a number of high-status Coast Salish refugees relocated to Chimacum Prairie, south of Port Townsend at the northeast corner of the Olympic Peninsula. T...
On November 8, 1966, Washington state voters adopted Initiative 229, repealing the so-called "Blue Law," which had been enacted in 1909. This action legalized the operations of thousands of businesses...
Seattle's Blue Moon Tavern first opened its doors at 712 NE 45th Street near the University of Washington on or near April 15, 1934. Founded by Hank Reverman (1912-2009), the tavern was an instant hit...
Seattle residents saw their first flying machine on June 27, 1908, a balloon flown by L. Guy Mecklem (1882-1973) from West Seattle's Luna Park, and saw another flying machine, a dirigible, in 1909 dur...
The Boeing Airplane Company nearly collapsed following the end of World War I military orders. Pioneer pilot Eddie Hubbard (1889-1928) helped William E. Boeing (1881-1956) deliver the first bag of int...
The Boeing Company, founded in 1916, hit a low point in 1934 when it was forced out of the airline business and was forced to concentrate on its original airplane-manufacturing business. The company's...
Beginning in 1969, the Boeing Company, after a decade of rapid growth in air travel, began laying off employees due to oversaturation of the airplane market. As airplane sales continued to decline, th...
In 1890, Josephine Nordhoff (d. 1920) and her husband, Edward Nordhoff (1858-1899) arrived in Seattle and used their $1,200 savings to start a dry goods store. That tiny retail shop, which they called...
Paul Brainerd founded the Aldus software company, which produced the first desktop publishing program, Pagemaker. The product transformed printing and publishing almost as dramatically as had moveable...
The architectural firm of Carl Alfred Breitung (1868-?) and Theobald Buchinger (1866-1940), partners from only 1905 to 1907, provided Seattle with several buildings reflecting their German and Austria...
Jeffrey and Susan Brotman were long one of the most dynamic public-spirited couples contributing to the region’s well being, their efforts ranging over the arts, health care, education, and dive...
Danish immigrant Jens Bruun created the Scan Design furniture store chain in the 1960s with his wife Inger. They introduced countless Pacific Northwest families to mid-century modern ideals in chair d...
Dorothy Stimson Bullitt purchased a small Seattle radio station with almost no listeners in 1947. She expanded it into one of the finest broadcasting empires in the nation. She was a Seattle civic lea...
Second-generation Vancouver restaurateur George Propstra, the son of a Dutch immigrant, opened the first Burgerville USA on March 10, 1961. By 2008, the Vancouver-based fast-food chain had grown to 39...
Over its 65-year history, Bush Garden has been many things to many people -- the second Japanese restaurant in the state of Washington; the first American restaurant with a karaoke bar; a restaurant o...
A look at Seattle area businesses in 1900 indicates that the economy was simpler, life less complicated, labor harder, travel slower, and that opportunities to enhance one's quality of life were rarer...
Clinton C. Filson (1850-1919) moved to Washington in 1890, opened a series of general stores, and within a few years was selling clothing and work gear to gold prospectors flocking to the mines of Mon...
Easily one of Seattle’s all-time quirkiest and best-loved neighborhood dives, the Café Racer Espresso (5828 Roosevelt Way NE), has since 2005 offered up good coffee, simple food, cheep beer, and fu...
When Peter Canlis chose the south end of the Aurora Bridge as the site for his new Seattle restaurant, the location was considered "way out of town." The year was 1949, and Canlis had recently arrived...
The Central Tavern – located in the historic Skagit Building at 207 First Avenue South -- has been near the center of Seattle’s nightlife action for many decades. What began as a caf&eacut...
Chateau Ste. Michelle is a Woodinville-based winery that is Washington's largest fine-wine producer. The business was built upon the foundation of the state's most successful winemaking firm, Seattle'...
The first Washington state elected official to make national history in a crusade against cigarettes was not Attorney General Christine Gregoire, who brokered a settlement between the tobacco industry...
Norton Clapp, one of the five original investors in Seattle's Space Needle, was a businessman and philanthropist with a seemingly endless capacity for work. A former president of the Weyerhaeuser Corp...