First Hill Publication
Tradition and Change on Seattle’s First Hill: Propriety, Profanity, Pills, and Preservation
In celebration of our 40th Anniversary, Historic Seattle will debut a beautifully illustrated history of Seattle’s First Hill, Downstairs at Town Hall on Thursday evening, December 4, 2014.
Tradition and Change on Seattle’s First Hill: Propriety, Profanity, Pills, and Preservation (Documentary Media, 2014) reveals First Hill’s origins, how and why it changed, and the potential that exists for future development that respects the neighborhood’s surviving historic buildings.
As editor of this volume, Lawrence Kreisman, Historic Seattle’s Program Director, has tapped the knowledge and talents of contributors Paul Dorpat, Jacqueline Williams, Dotty DeCoster, Dennis Alan Andersen, Luci J. Baker Johnson, and Brooke Best.
First Hill developed on a promontory east of downtown and became the location of important churches, clubs, hotels, schools, and residences for civic leaders and entrepreneurs from the 1890s until World War I. From Sixth Avenue to Broadway and from Pike Street to Yesler Way, streets were filled with stylish residences, boarding houses, and fraternal and ethnic community halls welcoming newcomers to the Northwest from America and abroad. Many of these early buildings have been demolished. Their losses accompanied the transition to a denser, larger-scale neighborhood of institutional and commercial buildings, apartment houses for every income level, and the center of Seattle’s health care industry.
Each chapter explores a different historical, cultural, or social dimension of First Hill, providing a marvelous starting point for urban understanding and exploration. We hope the book will encourage longtime and newly settled residents, workers, shoppers, concert and lecture attendees, and visitors to think about what makes First Hill special and worthy of preservation.
If you would like to pre-purchase a copy of Tradition and Change on Seattle’s First Hill (ISBN: 978-1-933245-38-6, softcover, 208 pages with 220 images), you may do so by contacting Brooke Best at 206-622-6952 ext. 221. The purchase price through Historic Seattle is $34.95 plus tax and shipping.
