Since before Seattle voters decided in 1902 to build their own lighting plant, City Light has been a source of fierce civic pride for its independence from "foreign" corporations, its impressive public works projects, and its consistently low electricity rates. It has also been a headache for competitors, managers, and politicians. In the first years of the electric age, when Seattle was still a hard-scrable frontier town, power was supplied by a revolving cast of small private utilities remembered mostly for frequent mergers with rivals and mediocre service at high cost. The failure of the privately owned water company to deliver enough of its product to quell Seattle's Great Fire of 18889 got city officials and residents thinking about an alternative utility model--municipal ownership. Voters quickly approved a municipal wter system, and within a decade had laid the groundwork for an electric utility. City Light quickly began a campaign of dam construction that for most of the twentieth century provided Seattle with the cheapest electricity of any major city in the country. This brisk history traces the utility's origins to 1889 and follows its story through the national energy crisis of 2000-2001 up to the present. It is a quintissentially Northwest story.

Power for the People: A History of Seattle City Light

Business & Money

Crowley, Walt

Wilma, David W.

Biography & History

History Link

In the spring of 1898, a 5-year-old Seattle boy named Willis Clise suffered and eventually died of what was called “inflammatory rheumatism.” There was no treatment,and no doctor west of Philadelphia who specialized in childhood ailments. Willis’s mother, Anna Clise, embarked on a mission to create an association dedicated to providing surgical and other hospital care to children, regardless of class, race, or ability to pay. She organized a board of like-minded Seattle women and in 1908 opened an eight-bed treatment and recovery facility. Today Seattle Children’s is a regional medical center, a leader in pediatric medicine research, and is consistently ranked among the top 10 children’s hospitals in the nation. This book recounts the history of a remarkable institution and its impact on Seattle and on the thousands of patients it has served. Seattle historian Walt Crowley was the author of more than a dozen books and a cofounder of HistoryLink.org. David W. Wilma, former HistoryLink.org deputy director, is a freelance writer.

Hope on the Hill: The First Century of Seattle Children's Hospital

History

Americas

Seattle Children's Hospital

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Books by Wilma, David W.