Topic: Business
In 1909, the island residents of San Juan County in Northwest Washington relied on their two newspapers, the San Juan Islander and the Friday Harbor Journal, to keep them apprised not only of local, r...
In Washington, a national leader in both farm production and international trade, agricultural exports played a key role in development from the early years of non-Indian settlement. As steamboats car...
Washington's soils and climate make it one of the most productive agricultural states in the union. When explorers and fur traders from the East Coast and Europe reached the Northwest in the late 1700...
At the turn of the twentieth century, Washington farmers and ranchers realized they still had much to learn about the land. Washington State College (later University) in Pullman became the center of ...
The 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition was held in Seattle on the University of Washington campus from June 1 to October 16. This was Washington's first world's fair and it celebrated 12 years of pr...
Despite having made billions of dollars as a result of his computer programming skills, Paul Gardner Allen insisted that he was not a geek. "I wasn’t a nerd," Allen writes in his 2012 auto...
The Ballard Boat Works was started as one of 20 maritime shipyards operating in the Ballard area of Seattle in the early 20th century. Sivert Sagstad, the shipyard's founder, built a variety of fishin...
Jean Bartell Barber currently (2013) serves as vice chairman and treasurer of the Bartell Drug Company, which was founded in 1890 by her grandfather George Bartell Sr. (1868-1956). She spent the early...
Barker's Store was a small family-owned grocery located on the Sammamish Plateau in King County from the 1940s until the 1970s. This account, prepared by Sammamish Heritage Society historian Phil Doug...
The Bartell Candy Kitchen, located at 1906 Boren Avenue in Seattle, served many a sweet tooth for about 25 years during the early twentieth century. By the late 1920s, it churned out an average of a ...
George Bartell Sr. (1868-1956) opened his first drugstore in 1890 in Seattle, and grew his business from a small fledgling enterprise to a thriving chain of pharmacies that by the 1920s were scattered...
From small beginnings as a single drug store on Seattle's Jackson Street in 1890, Bartell Drugs has grown to 58 stores serving the Puget Sound region in 2011. Its longevity has earned the company the ...
George D. Bartell is the third Bartell to manage the Bartell Drug Company, which was founded in 1890 by his grandfather, George Bartell Sr. (1868-1956). He first began meaningful work for the company ...
George Bartell started his pharmacy career as a teenager while living in Kansas. He relocated to Seattle in the summer of 1887, and in 1890 opened his first drugstore in the city. He took a breather i...
George Bartell Jr. assumed the presidency of the Seattle-based Bartell Drug Company in 1939, but maintained the status quo until his father, George Bartell Sr. (1868-1956), passed away in 1956. Faced ...
Eddie Bauer, inventor of the down parka, made his name synonymous with high-quality outdoor clothing and sporting goods. An avid outdoorsman, Bauer opened a small sporting goods store in downtown Seat...
Several of Seattle's distinct neighborhoods are closely associated with their rich musical histories, including the Jackson Street area's early jazz scene, E Madison Street's funky R&B past, and d...
C. M. "Mike" Berry was president of the Seattle First National Bank. His service to the community included volunteer work with Seafair and involvement with the Salvation Army, the Mother Joseph Founda...
Best's Apparel was a women's clothing store founded in Seattle by Dorothy Cabot Best (1888-1958) and Ivan Lovich Best (1887-1979). The business opened in 1925 at 1520 3rd Avenue and then moved to a la...
Bob Betz (b. 1948) is a leader and pioneer in the Washington wine industry. After growing up in Seattle, he took several trips to Europe and fell in love with the culture of winemaking. He abandoned h...
World War II army veterans M. Leo Bradshaw (1916-1993) and Earl Leonard Irwin (1909-1973) opened the B&I Sales Company, an army surplus store located in Lakewood in southern Pierce County, in 1945...
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...