- Seattle’s University District, home of the University of Washington since 1895, is located in the northeast section of the city, north of the Portage Bay part of Lake Union. Its main spurs to development were the developer James Moore (1861-1929), the 1895 move of the Territorial University from downtown to what was then called Brooklyn, and the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition on the University of Washington campus in 1909. In the late twentieth century, the main challenges to this “city within a city” have been the development of nearby malls. It is a neighborhood of restaurants, cafes, a renowned street fair, a farmer’s market, and a few venerable institutions such as the University Book Store, University Inn, and the Meany Hotel.
- 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…