- The neighborhood of South Park, on the west bank of the Duwamish River, was once a small town of Italian and Japanese farmers who supplied fresh produce to Seattle’s Pike Place Market. South Park annexed to Seattle in 1907. After World War II, the tiny community struggled to keep from being overwhelmed by industrial development.
- Seattle — Thumbnail History (historylink.org)
Seattle is the largest city in Washington state and its economic capital. Settled in 1851, its deep harbor and acquisition of Puget Sound’s first steam-powered sawmill quickly established it as a center of trade and industry. It gained the Territorial University (now University of Washington) in 1861, but was snubbed by the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1874 when it picked Tacoma as its western terminus. Despite this, the town prospered thanks to independent railroad development fueled by local coal deposits…