- Rainier Valley — Thumbnail History (historylink.org)
Seattle’s Rainier Valley is both a neighborhood and a geographical feature. The valley, which is not a watercourse but the low land between two ridges, extends some seven miles southeast from downtown Seattle to Lake Washington. As a neighborhood, “Rainier Valley” most frequently refers to the northern and central portions of the valley, but the name is sometimes used for the entire length of the valley including neighborhoods such as Columbia City and Rainier Beach.
Tom Paine has almost no influence on present-day thinking in the United States because he is unknown to the average citizen. Perhaps I might say right here that this is a national loss and a deplorable lack of understanding concerning the man who first proposed and first wrote those impressive words, ’the United States of America.’ But it is hardly strange. Paine’s teachings have been debarred from schools everywhere and his views of life misrepresented until his memory is hidden in shadows, or he is looked upon as of unsound mind.
Thomas Edison, Essay in The Diary and Sundry Observations (1948) edited by Dagobert D. Runes
- Rainier Valley, Seattle (Wikipedia)
The Rainier Valley (/reɪˈnɪər/ ray-NEER) is a district in southeast Seattle. It is located east of Beacon Hill; west of Mount Baker, Seward Park, and Leschi; south of the Central District and north of Rainier Beach. It is part of Seattle’s South End.