Project 1 Introduction

In the textbook history of Seattle, the city’s origins can be traced back to November 13, 1851, when Arthur C. Denny and the “Denny party” landed at what is now called Alki Point, in West Seattle. These founding fathers, determined to build a new city, went on to plan the village that, by dint of hard work and savvy investments, became a lumber station, a trading post, a boom-town, a wonder of civil engineering and gradually a thriving metropolis.

There are a number of problems with this account. First of all, the members of the "Denny party" were not the first white settlers in the area. More importantly, the U.S. interest in “manifest destiny” (the belief that the United States should extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean) and the colonizing of the “New World” by Europeans in the first place (beginning with Columbus) ignored the fact that the land was already inhabited. Seattle’s history is complicated by relations between white settlers and original Native residents, as well as by competition within each of these two groups. Seattle is haunted by the legacy of these conflicts; even the names of certain city landscapes and landmarks testify to this unresolved past.

For this project, we’ll investigate some of the myths and histories that Seattle has created and destroyed. Specifically, we’ll focus on two geographic areas, their histories and their presents: the Duwamish River, particularly where it meets Elliott Bay, and Pioneer Square. One, named for the Seattle-area tribe that negotiated with the whites and then lost its treaty rights, is now an industrial waste-site. The other, now a commercially thriving historic district, celebrates the achievement of the settlers—although it really owes its neighborhood identity to the “gold rush” of 1897, the event that was the turning point in the city’s economic fortune. These two neighborhoods tell us a lot about the relationships between power, landscape and history in the city’s development and identity. They also point to the ways that the terms "natives" and "newcomers," as designations that can help or hurt their bearers, change depending on context...

PROJECT 1 SCHEDULE

1.14
Intro, wrap up from last quarter

1.16
“Detroit Arcadia” (Urban Inventions Course Reader)
“Mystery on Pearl Street” (hand-out)

1.18
PORTFOLIO REVISIONS DUE
Watch Alki: Birthplace of Seattle and Chief Seattle: A Biography

1.21
NO CLASS--MLK DAY

1.23
“Building on Disappearance” (Urban Inventions Course Reader)

1.25
“History of Seattle Before 1900” (wikipedia)
Museum History & Industry ($2.50)--bring your journal and take notes for timeline

1.28
“The Haunted City” (Urban Inventions Course Reader)

1.30
RESEARCH PLAN DUE
“Seattle Illahee” (Urban Adaptations Course Reader)

2.1
“A River Lost” (Urban Adaptations Course Reader)
Duwamish trip (busfare)--details TBA; bring journal and camera

2.4
“Hard Drive to Klondike” (Urban Adaptations Course Reader)

2.6
timeline updates

2.8
Pioneer Square tour and Gold Rush Museum (busfare)--bring journal and camera

2.11
library workshop 1 (in class)

2.13
readings on history.org TBA

2.15
Underground Tour (entrance $)

2.18
NO CLASS--PRESIDENTS DAY

2.20
historical biography and timeline drafts due

2.22
HISTORICAL BIOGRAPHY AND TIMELINE DUE