Category Archives: From the Vault

Visualizing King County: timber cruise reports from 1907-08

29 Friday Dec 2017

Posted by in From the Vault, maps

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New online! The King County Archives recently completed a project to image and rehouse 45 volumes of Assessor’s timber cruise reports dating from 1907-08. Valued by researchers for their detail and accuracy, the reports are a unique resource for this time period in King County. We are thrilled to make high-quality copies of these records easily accessible through our public search site.

Topography: natural and built

The imaged reports document natural topography like ridges, swamps, and waterways; vegetation and soil types; human impacts such as areas that have been burned or logged; and the built environment, including trails, houses, farms, roads, mines, mills, and railroads.

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Map from report for Section 18, Township 20, Range 11E, showing burnt-off areas, mill-worker housing, the Northern Pacific Railroad line and Morgan’s Mill railroad spur, Friday Creek, and the Green River.

 

What was here?

In identifying structures and landmarks, the reports provide information about land use in early 20th Century King County. When conducting research for our own Bytes and Boxes post about the Lake Wilderness Lodge, we were delighted to find reference to a summer cottage in the vicinity of what was to become Gaffney’s Resort.


 

Who was here?

Many of the reports note the names of landowners—and even the names of tenants—occupying a plot of land, along with inventories of equipment, livestock, orchards and other property. These lists can tell us about individuals, and they can help us picture day-to-day life in rural King County in the early 20th Century. Some reports provide a record of communities and property of Native Americans and people of color.

Detail from report for Section 7, Township 22, Range 5E, listing property on surveyed section.

What’s a timber cruise?

King County conducted timber cruises from 1907 through 1967 to estimate the taxable value of forested land. In creating the 1907-08 reports, timber cruisers surveyed potential timberlands, mapping and describing natural topography, and they noted human-made features, landmarks, and significant property. The surveys were conducted and documented using the Public Land Survey System, a geographic reference system that is the basis for legal land descriptions still used today. The earliest timber cruise reports are of particular interest not only because of their vintage and content, but also because of their beauty.

Aesthetic quality

The maps are beautiful!
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Map from report for Section 2, Township 20, Range 7E.

 

Imaging for access and preservation

While imaging and indexing projects are labor-intensive, providing high-quality digital copies of records online makes them widely accessible to historians, scientists, students, genealogists, and others interested in the history of our region’s natural environment, infrastructure, communities, and residents. Online access also serves to protect these unique records for posterity by minimizing the need to physically handle the original paper volumes.

Historic preservation

The King County Historic Preservation Program will be combining the timber cruise map data with other GIS data developed as part of a three-phase Cultural Resources Protection Project, which focuses on improving archaeological resource protection in the County.

Zoom in!

The high-resolution scans provide such detail that one archivist claimed to have had an out-of-body experience when zooming in on a map. Our goal is to encourage use of these wonderful records, and the quality of the images will enable reproduction in online and print publications.

Detail from map from report for Section 4, Township 22, Range 5E.

Thanks to…

Scanning was made possible by support from King County’s Archaeological Mitigation Grant Fund.

The Archives would like to thank volunteer Julia Alforde for the many hours she spent reformatting images and completing data entry to enable online access to the scanned records. Thanks also to conservator Lisa Duncan Goedeke and her intern Jenessa Lingard, who carefully rehoused the original timber cruise volumes into custom archival boxes after they were scanned.

Accessing the reports by geographic location

Following are instructions for retrieving a timber cruise report for a given location. Click on the below images to enlarge, or
download instructions in PDF format.

The reports cover most King County townships that were relatively undeveloped at the time of the survey, shown below. Not every section within each given township was surveyed.

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Use King County iMap to identify the Section, Township, and Range of the area of interest.

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Use the Township and Range information to locate the correct timber cruise volume by searching on the Archives search site.

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Navigate within the volume on the Archives search site to locate an individual section map, or download the entire report to view all maps and textual matter for the township.

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King County’s wharves, docks and ferry landings: starting a new century

26 Saturday Aug 2017

Posted by in Drawings and plans, From the Vault, Photographs

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The King County Archives recently updated one of its older record series, County Engineer wharf files 1899-1987 (Series 375). Staff and volunteers added more maps and drawings to the series and improved descriptions of new and existing record materials.

The old wharves themselves are mostly long gone, part of a past that seems increasingly far away. But the records that remain remind us that water-based transportation once was an important mode of travel to people throughout the Puget Sound region –– as it may be again.

Lunchpail-toting children at Northup Wharf on Yarrow Bay, c. 1912-1916. (Series 375, Box 5, Folder 32)

A Short History of King County’s Wharves

Construction and maintenance of about 100 wharves (also called docks) was a significant part of King County’s public works function during the first half of the twentieth century.

Vessels on Puget Sound and Lakes Union and Washington carried passengers and freight. So wharves became an extension of the county’s road system, connectors between water and land transportation.

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In this 1932 image, a branch of County Road 987 (now 76th Avenue SE) passes through this north Mercer Island neighborhood to connect with McGilvra Wharf no. 987 on Lake Washington. (Series 375, Box 5, Series 17.)

Most of the wharves were publicly accessible. A few wharves served private resorts or camps but were maintained by King County if they were at the end of public roads.

King County ferries and ferry docks

From about 1900 to 1939, King County also operated, or contracted for, ferry services across Lake Washington and to Vashon Island. County ferry docks were located in Seattle (Leschi and Madison Park), Kirkland, Bellevue, Medina, Des Moines and on Vashon Island.

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Foot passengers walk on the Seattle ferry at Wharf 287, Kirkland Ferry Dock, as automobiles wait to board, June 1918. Series 400, item 95-005-0526-P.

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Work crew removing “an old Vashon wharf” [probably at Lisabuela], 1967. Series 400, image file 629.

With the growth of land-based transportation in the 1930s, and construction of the first floating bridge across Lake Washington in 1941, water transportation became a lesser county priority.

Private companies, and then the state of Washington, took over Vashon car ferry service.

After World War II, King County worked to remove abandoned and unsafe wharves.

Future public parks

Other wharf sites became parks. Some of today’s municipal parks—such as Dumas Bay Wildlife Sanctuary in Federal Way; Meydenbauer Beach Park (under development) and Enatai Beach Park, both in Bellevue; and Kennydale Beach Park in Renton—had their start as county parks on the sites of former county wharves.

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Swimmers gather at the end of the dock at Enatai Beach Park, Bellevue, a King County park in the 1950s. (Series 375, Box 5, Folder 3)

King County’s present-day Dockton Beach Park on Maury Island provides a public boat launch and moorage structure situated on the former site of Dockton Wharf no. 542.

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Pile driving work at Dockton Wharf no. 542, probably in the 1920s. (Series 375, Box 5, Folder 7)

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This Parks Department photograph may have been taken in the mid-1960s to publicize the redeveloped Dockton Beach Park. (Series 467, Box 2, Folder 29)

 

Water taxis: an alternative to cars

At the end of the twentieth century, transportation planners faced increasing challenges with automobiles, including traffic gridlock, longer commute distances, and air pollution. To provide an alternative for some commuters, in 1997 King County initiated a new foot-ferry service, first to West Seattle and, in 2007, to Vashon Island.

King County also built new docks and waiting rooms to serve the new passenger ferries.

Foot traffic to West Seattle uses the new Seacrest terminal. (King County Department of Transportation photograph from Captain’s Blog, February 16, 2017, and brochure).

Documenting County Wharf and Dock History

Series 375, the County Engineer’s wharf files, is made up of different record types: paper textual materials, graphical materials, and black-and-white photographs.

Textual records

Textual materials include copies of letters and memoranda to and from the county Commissioners, engineers and inspectors, and the general public.

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Petition from the South End Community Club, Burton, Vashon Island, to the King County Commissioners, asking for “ordinary facilities” (restrooms) at the Tahlequah ferry terminal, 1931. (Series 375, Box 3, Folder 10)

 

Other types of textual materials include petitions, copies of Commissioner resolutions, inspection reports, specifications, and cost estimates.375-1-1 Case for postwar recreation

Inspector F.D. Sheffield’s notes (1946) on the postwar recreational potential of old wharf sites foreshadowed King County’s robust park expansion in the late 1940s and 1950s. (Series 375, Box 1, Folder 1)

 

Graphical records

Graphical material–drawings, plans and maps–are present both as individual encapsulated paper sheets and as aggregated groups of working drawings and blueprints. Record types can include site maps, elevations, sections, structural plans, piling plans, construction drawings, surveys, tide lines, detail drawings, shop drawings, and floor plans.

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This 1926 drawing shows how King County brought water to a drinking fountain at the Vashon Heights ferry terminal (predecessor of the present state facility at the same location). (Series 375, Box 8, Folder 8) (Click on image to view full drawing)

 

Photographic prints and negatives

Black-and-white photographic prints and negatives may show some or all of the following:

  • the wharf seen from various angles (shore and water, ground level, and elevated perspective)
  • approaches (road or rail)
  • ancillary structures (sheds, waiting rooms, retail businesses)
  • adjacent terrain; adjacent residential and commercial structures
  • construction, maintenance, repairing or rebuilding of the wharf
  • documentation of the wharf’s condition

375-5-19 1505 Tahlequah [4]

In the background of this 1936 image of the Tahlequah ferry terminal, Vashon Island, the Asarco copper smelter smokestack in Ruston (once the world’s tallest at 571 feet) emits its notoriously toxic pollutants. The stack was demolished in 1993. (Series 375, Box 5, Folder 19)

Connecting series

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Stone’s Landing, circa 1906.(Series 400, image no. 95-005-1191-N.)

Archives staff also identified photographs of wharves found in other record series, and cross-referenced them to Series 375.

For example, several images of Wharf no. 239 at Stone’s Landing (now Redondo) were found in a large series of general engineering photographs. The images show a party of King County inspectors at the wharf, possibly following the fatal collapse of part of the structure in 1906. The unidentified girl appears in several photographs.

Sorting out wharf names and numbers

During their active lives, wharves were identified by a county wharf number and by a name, or names. New archival work in 2016-2017 centered on accurately associating wharf numbers with wharf name(s) and establishing a standard name for each wharf.

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King County’s Wharf 3 on southeast Lake Union (seen here in 1937) was also known as Prospect Street Wharf, Howard Avenue Wharf, Lake Union Ferry Wharf, and the King County Dock. (Series 375, Box 5, Folder 21)

An authority cross-reference file of variant wharf names was created. The standard names and numbers were added to existing descriptions of record material and to graphical material (maps, plans, and drawings) that were described for the first time.

Cross-referencing drawings and related materials

About 250 professionally-conserved, hard-copy maps and drawings of wharves had previously been transferred to the Archives by the King County Road Services Division, as part of that agency’s Map Vault preservation program. Archives personnel revised existing descriptions of the drawings so that they matched with related materials in Series 375.

Digital images of these maps and drawings are currently available through the King County Road Services Map Vault.

Wharf and Dock History Records: A Resource for Many Researchers

Series 375 is an excellent source of evocative and nostalgic photographs of Puget Sound and Lakes Washington and Union. But these records can also be used in different ways for different types of research. Some examples follow.

375-5-25 116 Ellisport-Chautauqua [2]

The small steamer Daring approaches Wharf 116 at Ellisport-Chautauqua, Vashon Island, c. 1912. (Series 375, Box 5, Folder 25)

Marine historians can gain insights into water transportation in twentieth-century King County. The steamer Daring, pictured here, has been further documented in Mosquito Fleet of South Puget Sound (Jean Cammon Findlay and Robin Paterson, 2008).

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One of King County’s first parks (1938) was developed on Meydenbauer Bay at the site of a former ferry landing. Built with federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) funds, the park later fell into disrepair and was abandoned. It is now being redeveloped by the City of Bellevue. (Series 400, Item 95-005-2981)

Students of recreation and leisure activities can trace the development of county and municipal parks at former wharf sites.


DesMoinesWharf-medres

King County’s first ferry service to Vashon Island connected Des Moines and Portage. This drawing (c.1920) of the Des Moines ferry landing shows the location of deck and fender pilings (Series 375, Box 7, Folder 12)

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An older blueprint of Redondo Wharf 256 was used to indicate pilings for replacement in 1916 (Series 375, Box 7, Folder 14)

Marine biologists, scuba divers and social anthropologists may find interest in diagrams of old pilings at former wharf sites.

375-5-11 768 Lisabuela

The village of Lisabuela, on the west side of Vashon Island, was the site of a popular resort from the 1920s to the 1950s. The steamer Virginia V (still sailing) and her four predecessors served the Lisabuela dock. (Series 375, Box 5, folder 1)

Vashon Islanders can learn more of island history, through records of public wharves, resort and camp wharves, and ferry terminals at Tahlequah and Vashon Heights (north Vashon Island).

Two recent Vashon community history projects have documented Camp Sealth, a Campfire Girls site with its own wharf; and Ellisport/Chatauqua. The latter project used records of Wharf 116 to help document Ellisport’s history.

Textual records associated with Newport Wharf no. 754 on Lake Washington describe the wharf’s use by logging companies as a dump site for logs being floated to sawmills. The second East Channel bridge to Mercer Island can be seen in the background of this 1932 image. (Series 375, Box 5, folder 10)

375-5-22 4 Stone Way

This 1937 view of Wharf no. 4 on North Lake Union at the foot of Stone Way also shows several adjacent businesses in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood. (Series 375, Box 5, Folder 22.)

Researchers of King County’s industrial and commercial history may find useful information in these records.

A New Era of Water Transportation?

King County, having re-established passenger ferry service to West Seattle and Vashon Island, has considered future expansion of water transportation to Seattle from Kenmore, Kirkland, Renton, Shilshole, and South Puget Sound (2007 King County Passenger-Only Ferry Project Briefing Paper). What once was, may be again. And documentation of new county ferries and facilities will create new records for future researchers.

Plans for Civil Defense

16 Tuesday May 2017

Posted by in From the Vault

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The recent tunnel failure at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation and the reconsideration of National Monument status for the Hanford Reach are reminders of the legacy of World War II and the Cold War in Washington State.

Earlier this month, one of our researchers discovered King County’s 1959 civil defense plans for mass evacuation/relocation and for radiation decontamination of people and vehicles.

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Seattle Target Area Dispersal Plan and plans for decontamination of people and vehicles.  Operation Plan for Civil Defense of Seattle Critical Target Area and King County, March 31, 1959.  Series 32, Department of Public Works Correspondence Files.

Established in 1957, the Seattle-King County Office of Civil Defense cooperated with federal, state, and other local agencies in preparing the region for nuclear attack. It managed civil defense program activities including fallout shelters; chemical, biological, and radiological warfare defense; emergency communications and warning systems; and preparedness planning. In 1974, the joint agreement between King County and Seattle was dissolved and responsibility of civil defense and other regional emergency planning remained with King County (for current information, see King County Emergency Management).

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Cover of “Home Fallout Shelter: snack bar – basement location, plan d,” United States Department of Defense, 1966. Series 1216, Civil defense guides, Department of Executive Services Office of Emergency Management.

These and other Civil Defense records in the Archives collection help document an era when the threat of nuclear war was ever-present in daily life, as illustrated above in the plans for a basement snack bar that could be converted into a bomb shelter.

100 Years Ago in King County

13 Thursday Apr 2017

Posted by in From the Vault

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World War I, Tilling the Soil, Criminal Justice, a Jewel Heist, and Lowering the Lake

 

In this post we look back 100 years, through a small sampling of records from the King County Commissioners in the Spring of 1917.

World War I

On April 6, 1917, the United States officially declared war against the Imperial German Government. On that date, the King County Commissioners passed Resolution 120 offering County resources for the war effort, encouraging County staff to enlist and guaranteeing their positions upon returning from the War, and promising conservation “to meet, if necessary, the greater and higher needs of the Country.”  They also passed Resolution 121, offering use of the old County Courthouse as a depot for medical supplies.

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Helping Till the Soil

Earth Day is April 22. Much has changed in farming since April, 1917, when the Commissioners, in Resolution 125, directed County crews to cease road work so that their horse teams could be used to till the soil of farmlands to support food production.

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Criminal Justice: Night Court

In March of the same year, Resolution 109 funded a night court. Judge Wright’s letter requesting the funds showed compassion: his stated intent in creating the night court was not only to minimize economic impact on individuals appearing in court, but also to prevent their embarrassment.

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A Diamond Brooch is Stolen in North Bend

A locked trunk! Paste diamonds! Blaming the constable! To create a replica of a brooch must have required some serious scheming, worthy of an Agatha Christie novel. (Resolution 140, relating to the bond of Constable Shrewsbury.)

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A Lower Lake Washington

In the Summer of 1916, Lake Washington was lowered by nine feet as the Lake Washington Ship Canal project moved toward completion. This left shoreline structures “high and dry,” as stated in Resolution 105, which was passed in March of 1917 to revoke a permit for a Mercer Island passenger dock rendered useless by the lowering of the lake. The resolution cover and petition are shown below.

 

About Commissioners’ Resolutions

The Board of County Commissioners served as King County’s main legislative and executive body until 1969, when the County Charter became effective, creating our current Council-Executive form of government. The adopted resolutions of the Commissioners document decisions such as approval of expenditure of public funds, calls for elections, execution of agreements, enactment of regulations, and creation or restructuring of County government agencies. Specific powers and duties of county commissioners were set out in state law. Resolutions could also be general statements of intent or recognition.

Series 124 contains Commissioners’ resolutions from the early 1900s into 1969. The titles of Commissioners’ resolutions for the years 1919-1969 are searchable through our online collection database. A representative box of resolutions is linked to here: Commissioners Resolutions, 1948.

As with other records in our collection, these records are available for the public to view in our research room by appointment. We are continually updating our series descriptions to improve online searching. Please feel free to contact us with questions. We are here to help!

 

…Speaking of the Ship Canal

In June and July, a new exhibit commemorating the centennial of the ship canal’s opening will be on display in the underground pedestrian tunnel between the King County Courthouse and the County Administration building in downtown Seattle. The exhibit will feature drawings, maps, and other records from the King County Archives and photographs from the Seattle Municipal Archives. It will focus on Ballard’s sawmills, which were impacted by the canal.

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Detail from one of the drawings to be featured in the June/July exhibit. (Cedar Mill Cross Section, Series 276, Salmon Bay Waterway Condemnation Survey No. 1255, 1915. King County Archives.)

Other Ship Canal Centennial Events and Resources

Across King County, local heritage organizations are recognizing this historic engineering project, which significantly modified our region’s geography. To learn about resources and events relating to Ship Canal Centennial, see Making the Cut.

Celebrating International Women’s Day: a look back at the King County Women’s Program

08 Wednesday Mar 2017

Posted by in Commemorative observances, From the Vault, International Women's Day

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Announcing a new online exhibit: The King County Women’s Program: The First Years (1978-1985)

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Clipping from a south King County newspaper covering the Women’s Program’s “Displaced Homemaker” job training program, 1979.  Women’s Program Coordinator Files, Series 1901, Box 2, Folder 10.

Archives staff recently completed processing a collection of records documenting the establishment and evolution of the King County Women’s Program. A new online exhibit, The King County Women’s Program: The First Years (1978-1985) highlights these records.

The exhibit begins with a timeline that places the Women’s Program in the context of the national and international women’s movement and second-wave feminism.

In the program records, we see both local support and local objection to the women’s movement. Yet the services provided by the program were more practical than political, and they addressed the needs of women throughout the County.

Earliest priorities centered on women’s self-image, confidence and assertiveness; jobs, training, and vocational planning; child care; dissemination of community resource information; and programs for women of color. Over time, priorities shifted to providing specific, targeted programs intended to increase the safety of women victims of domestic violence and/or sexual assault.

Today, the King County Women’s Advisory Board continues to make recommendations to the County Council and the County Executive to ensure that the needs, rights and well-being of women are taken into account by King County government.

About the Archives’ Online Exhibits

Online exhibits allow us to provide broad public access to the King County Archives collection. Relatively few people will ever visit an archives, but we can make these public assets, the County’s historical records, more widely accessible by sharing some of the collection online. We also encourage researchers to visit us and see the records in person.

Check out more exhibits on our Web site at www.kingcounty.gov/depts/records-licensing/archives/exhibits.

An executive transition in King County

20 Friday Jan 2017

Posted by in Events, From the Vault, Videos and film

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Tim Hill’s county identification card. Record Group 140, County Executive Tim Hill, King County Archives.

In 1993 King County Executive Tim Hill was campaigning for a third term.  King County government was verging on a transition: the merger with the Municipality of Metropolitan Seattle (METRO), to start on January 1, 1994.  Tim Hill had put in much groundwork for this day.  He appealed to voters that he was the best person to continue overseeing the merger.

Excerpts from promotional video on the King County-METRO merger, Architects of Change, 1993. Series 1423 Office of Information Resource Management, photographs, audio/visual material, King County Archives.

 

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Gary Locke

On November 3, 1993, King County voters chose popular state legislator Gary Locke as County Executive; and Tim Hill found himself stepping down after eight years in office.

The Seattle Times and cartoonist Brian Bassett commented on the challenges facing the Executive-elect on the day after the election.

Gary Locke. Series 473, Box 3, Folder 1
Below: newspaper clippings, Series 1931, Box 2, Folder 3, King County Archives.

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Also on the day after the election, Gary Locke wrote to Tim Hill.

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Series 1880, Box 7, Folder 18

 

Gary Locke: from campaign to public office

Records of Joan Yoshitomi, transition manager for Gary Locke, provide insight into the democratic process of peacefully transferring elected authority. In the first days after the election, the Locke team had to:

  • Conclude business arrangements regarding its rented campaign office space
  • Arrange for the new executive to receive attorney-client briefings from Prosecuting Attorney Norm Maleng
  • Plan and cost inauguration
  • Raise funds for inauguration from donors
  • Hire a management consulting company
  • Develop a communication strategy for the Executive; solicit speechwriters/ assistant
  • Solicit input regarding Locke Administration priorities
  • Develop a “first 120 days” action plan that could be communicated to the public
  • Receive instructions for operating Executive Office computers
  • Solicit suggestions for new department directors and executive staff
  • Request resignations of the current administration’s Executive Office staff and department directors

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Letter of resignation by Parks, Planning and Resources Department Director Lois Scwennesen.  Series 1880, box 7, folder 13, King County Archives.

 

Tim Hill: from public office to private citizen

At the same time, Tim Hill and his Executive Office staff were:

  • Arranging transition materials from County executive departments
  • Arranging exit counseling, making vacation leave arrangements, and holding unemployment briefings for persons who were being asked to resign
  • Making arrangements with the Locke team for paying transition personnel

Tim Hill retired from elected politics but continued public service in the Seattle-King County area as a teacher and as a board member for various nonprofit organizations. He remains involved in politics as a private citizen.

Tim Hill’s records to the Archives

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Detail of handwritten notes, Series 435, Tim Hill management work papers, King County Archives.

On leaving public office Tim Hill also took care to make arrangements with University of Washington Libraries for the transfer of some of his executive working papers to its manuscript collections. The papers were returned to the King County Archives a few years later as Series 435, Management work papers, and Series 436, Project files.

 

Governor Locke

Gary Locke was sworn in as King County’s fifth county executive on January 3, 1994. After a year in office, Executive Locke addressed the Council about his vision for a new way of governing, challenges facing the County, and how to work through differences between governmental branches and political views. Below is the conclusion of that speech, in which he embraces the political cartoon with him as “Captain Locke” of the starship U.S.S. King County.

Conclusion of King County Executive Gary Locke’s State-of-the-County Address to the King County Council, (ca. 1995) Series 1423 Office of Information Resource Management, photographs, audio/visual material, King County Archives.

Locke served until 1996 when he was elected Washington State governor. He later served in the Obama Administration as Secretary of Commerce and ambassador to China.

County Executive Records, 1981-1996

The Locke transition records are a small part of a large collection of King County Executive records processed by King County Archives staff between 2008 and 2016. The twenty-three series, from the administrations of Executives Randy Revelle, Tim Hill and Gary Locke, include county agency files, board and commission files, chronological correspondence files, legislative files, news releases, proclamations, studies and reports, and Metro transition files. Taken together, the records document a wide range of important policy issues, including:

  • Expansion of the Farmlands Preservation Program
  • Construction of a new county detention facility in downtown Seattle, and a Regional Justice Center in Kent
  • Onset of AIDS in King County, and the county’s response to the epidemic
  • Ongoing discussions with the Seattle Mariners over their continued tenancy in the Kingdome stadium
  • Beginning of efforts to replace the Kingdome with new stadiums
  • Land use planning under the Growth Management Act
  • Approval of the Regional Transit Authority, later known as Sound Transit
  • Merger of the Municipality of Metropolitan Seattle with King County government

The King County Archives invites researchers to contact us regarding this significant collection.

A theater near you

28 Monday Nov 2016

Posted by in Discoveries, From the Vault, Photographs

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drive-in_noway

Advertisement from The Seattle Times, Friday, September 27, 1968.

The holiday season has begun, and November’s soggy weather inspires many to head to the movies with visiting relatives, ready to take in the latest blockbuster films.

In this post, we look at records from the archives that document perceptions of a once-popular venue, the drive-in theater.

Communities facing change

Records of land use applications, hearings, and appeals can provide a view of individuals and communities responding to growth and change. The King County Commissioners’ zoning files, dating from the 1950s and 1960s, document the public response to several proposed developments, including a golf course, an air strip, and a drive-in theater.

A quiet life

The rezone file that documents approval of a drive-in theater includes snapshots of the affected rural neighborhood, with its modest homes, small businesses, a trailer park, and a nursery.

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[Views of neighborhood around 86th Avenue South and the East Valley Highway, 1965. The first set of photos above was taken using a Polaroid camera, the second is on Kodak paper.]

 

In my back yard?

In 1965 when a new drive-in theater was proposed for this community, local residents objected. Petitions and letters expressed concern over traffic, diminished property values, noise, light, and litter that the theater might bring.

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One letter to County Commissioners recognized that new businesses would inevitably come to the neighborhood — just off the East Valley Highway between Kent and Auburn — but warned that a drive-in might define the area’s character and limit the type of commercial growth.

Moral character

Along with practical concerns came strong moral objection to the movies themselves and worry over their potential negative influence on local children and youth.  Some lamented that drive-ins had changed from being family-oriented venues to showing “unwholesome” films to an “unwholesome” audience.

Reports of alcohol consumption, fighting, and young couples behaving inappropriately at existing area drive-ins added to the concern.

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The Kent Police Chief responded that behavior at drive-ins was manageable.

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Planning and growth

kingcountyplanningdepartmentlogo_1965

The Planning Department’s logo represented a balance of industrial, agricultural, business, and residential uses, connected by highways and roads, seemingly pulled into an asymmetrical shape by the natural form of a waterway.

Facilitating development while maintaining quality of life is the perpetual challenge for local planners. And, in spite of the residents’ objections and appeal, the department recommended approval of the rezone.

resolution29839_valleytheaterdrawing

[Sketch of the proposed theater as it would appear from the road.]

The Valley Drive-In

The Valley Drive-In opened in 1966 and became a popular destination, expanding over time from a single, sixty-foot-high screen, to a six-screen multiplex.  It outlasted other drive-in theaters in King County, staying in business until 2012. Feliks Banel’s article from May of this year, “Auburn’s abandoned Valley Drive-In is a spooky ‘graveyard‘” provides a nostalgic view of the theater and drive-ins generally.

While researchers at the Archives most frequently use land use and zoning records to answer a specific technical or legal question, the records also document how neighborhoods change over time and how people respond to that change. The records of this rezone show a small community’s assertion of its values, which they felt were threatened by a new venue that might allow uncontrolled behavior and exposure to what were regarded as negative social influences. Parents today, concerned over youth’s access to the unlimited content of the Internet and unsupervised time, might relate to these fears. As with many archival records, this zoning file reminds us that what seem like new issues might in fact be perennial themes, reemerging in new forms.

Sources

King County Commissioners’ Zoning Files, Series 129 (129.20.2) (1965).

Valley Drive-In advertiesement from The Seattle Times, Friday, September 27, 1968, page 31.

“Fifty years: Adapting to change keeps drive-ins alive,” The Seattle Times, Sunday, June 5, 1983, page G-1.

“Auburn’s abandoned Valley Drive-In is a spooky ‘graveyard’,” MyNorthwest.com, May 12, 2016, (http://mynorthwest.com/291115/auburns-abandoned-valley-drive-in-spooky-graveyard)