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Movements, leaders, victories and the continuing fight for equality.
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Explore the people, places, events, achievements, struggles and stories that shaped our journey.
Movements, leaders, victories and the continuing fight for equality.
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Meet the people whose lives, choices and achievements shaped the journey.
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Moments that changed communities, movements, institutions and the nation.
Mansa Musa was the ruler of the Mali Empire in West Africa. Details recorded here should be sourced; unknown information is left blank.
MORE →Reflects the personal views, recollections, and perspective of the author, Mike Davis.
This is a personal recollection on the Move fire on May 13, 1985
 Space Needle and International Fountain, Seattle Center | |
 Interactive map of Seattle Center | |
| Address | 305 Harrison Street Seattle, Washington United States |
|---|---|
| Owner | City of Seattle |
| Acreage | 74 acres (30 ha) |
| Public transit |  Seattle Center Monorail |
| Construction | |
| Opened | 1962 |
| Tenants | |
| Academy of Interactive Entertainment The Center School Chihuly Garden and Glass Climate Pledge Arena Cornish College of the Arts KEXP KING-FM Museum of Pop Culture Northwest Folklife Pacific Northwest Ballet Pacific Science Center Seattle Children's Museum Seattle Children's Theatre SIFF Film Center Seattle Opera Seattle Repertory Theatre Space Needle The Vera Project | |
| Website | |
| seattlecenter.com | |
The Seattle Center is an entertainment, education, tourism and performing arts center located in the Lower Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, United States. Constructed for the 1962 World's Fair, the Seattle Center's landmark feature is the 605 ft (184 m) Space Needle, an official city landmark and globally recognized symbol of Seattle's skyline. Other notable attractions include Pacific Science Center, Climate Pledge Arena, and the Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP), as well as McCaw Hall, which hosts both Seattle Opera and Pacific Northwest Ballet. The Seattle Center Monorail provides regular public transit service between the Seattle Center and Westlake Center in downtown Seattle, and is itself considered a tourist attraction.
In 1886, Seattle founder David Denny donated the tract of land that would eventually host the Seattle Center, stipulating that it be of "public use forever".
Plans for the land took shape in 1928, when mayor Bertha Knight Landes dedicated the newly-constructed arena and auditorium on the site as the Civic Center complex.
The Seattle Field Artillery Armory was constructed in 1939.[1]
In 1958, the Civic Auditorium was chosen as the future location of the World's Fair, and demolition work began following a countdown ceremony initiated by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
In 1961, Japanese architects Hideki Shimizu and Kazuyuki Matsushita were chosen to design the International Fountain, and a contract with Alweg Rapid Transit Systems was signed for the construction of the monorail line. On April 21, 1962, President John F. Kennedy officially opened the World's Fair; the six-month event was attended by, among others, astronaut John Glenn, politician Robert F. Kennedy, and singer Elvis Presley, who arrived in September 1962 to shoot the film It Happened at the World's Fair.[2][3]
On June 1, 1963, ownership of the complex was returned to the City of Seattle, which has since maintained it as a hub for the city's performing arts and sporting events. Some of the facilities were leased to the Century 21 Center, a nonprofit corporation formed in 1962 to promote the Seattle Center complex.[3] In December 1964, City of Seattle announced its intent to take over management of the Century 21 Center from the corporation after it had incurred $300,000 in debts.[4] The corporation was dissolved in 1965 and promotion of the Seattle Center was transferred to Greater Seattle, Inc., the region's tourism organization.[5]
As of 1965, the Seattle Center Armory remained under the ownership of the Washington State Military Department but was leased to the city government for use as an events and museum space.[6]
The Seattle Center campus underwent a decline in attendance and importance after the World's Fair, which led to proposal to redevelop it for other uses.[3] The Seattle city government contracted Walt Disney Imagineering in 1987 to design a long-term campus plan; the Disney proposal included replacement of the International Fountain with a pond and Memorial Stadium with a parking garage topped by an artificial meadow. The proposals were rejected by the city government after public outcry at hearings.[3][7]
Several buildings and pieces of artwork at the Seattle Center have Japanese influences. These include the Pacific Science Center, designed by architect Minoru Yamasaki,[8] The Seattle Mural by artist Paul Horiuchi, and the Kobe Bell, a gift to Seattle from its sister city of Kobe, Japan.[9]
The Seattle Center hosts many cultural, music and arts festivals. Major attractions include:
The Bite of Seattle, an annual food festival at the Seattle Center, has been the site of several shootings and riots. The 1998 edition was interrupted by a riot with 1,000 people, while a 16-year-old boy was shot near the event in 2006. On July 26, 2026, a mass shooting occurred during the Bite of Seattle. Three people were killed and four people were injured; the festival was moved to the following day.[16]
In 2008, two people were injured during a shooting at the Northwest Folklife festival, which was also hosted at the Seattle Center.[16][17]
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Source: Wikipedia. Article content is retrieved live through the MediaWiki API.
The Seattle Center is an entertainment, education, tourism and performing arts center located in the Lower Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, United States. Constructed for the 1962 World's Fair, the Seattle Center's landmark feature is the 605 ft (184 m) Space Needle, an official city landmark and globally recognized symbol of Seattle's skyline. Other notable attractions include Pacific Science Center, Climate Pledge Arena, and the Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP), as well as McCaw Hall, which hosts both Seattle Opera and Pacific Northwest Ballet. The Seattle Center Monorail provides regular public transit service between the Seattle Center and Westlake Center in downtown Seattle, and is itself considered a tourist attraction.
The Seattle Center Monorail is an elevated straddle-beam monorail line in Seattle, Washington, United States. The 0.9-mile (1.4 km) monorail runs along 5th Avenue between the Seattle Center and Westlake Center in Downtown Seattle, making no intermediate stops. The monorail is a major tourist attraction but also operates as a regular public transit service with trains every ten minutes running for up to 16 hours per day. It usually operates with one train per track, and the entire trip takes approximately two minutes. In 2024, the monorail carried 2.16 million total passengers; it regularly earns a profit that is split between the contractor and the city government. The monorail was constructed in eight months at a cost of $4.2 million for the 1962 Century 21 Exposition, a world's fair hosted at the Seattle Center. It underwent major renovations in 1988 after the southern terminal was moved from its location over Pine Street to inside the Westlake Center shopping mall. The system retains its original fleet of two Alweg trains from the world's fair; each carries up to 450 people. It was the second daily operating monorail in the United States, preceded by the Disneyland Monorail in 1959, also developed by Alweg. It is owned by the city government, which designated the tracks and trains as a historic landmark in 2003. A private contractor has operated the system since 1994, when it replaced King County Metro, the county's public transit system. Several government agencies and private companies have proposed expansions to the monorail system since its inception in the 1960s. The most prominent was the Seattle Monorail Project, founded by a 1997 ballot initiative to build a citywide network that would expand coverage beyond the planned Link light rail system. The project ran into financial difficulties, including cost estimates rising to $11 billion, before being cancelled by a city vote in 2005. Several major accidents have occurred during the system's half-century in service, including a train-to-train collision in 2005 on a gauntlet track near the Westlake Center terminal.
The Seattle Center Armory is a building in the Seattle Center in Washington. The building has housed the Center House Theater, the Center High School, and the Seattle Children's Museum.
On July 26, 2026, a deadly shootout occurred during the Bite of Seattle festival at Seattle Center in Seattle, Washington, United States. Three people were killed and four others were wounded. The shooting involved an exchange of gunfire between at least two groups. Two suspects have been identified: an unnamed 15-year-old who was arrested at the scene and 19-year-old Junior Cee Niko Semo, who was killed during the gunfight. As of August 2026, at least one additional suspect remains unidentified and at large.
Before the 1921 destruction of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, Black residents had created a remarkable center of business and community life. The district included stores, professional offices, entertainment venues and homes owned by Black citizens. Understanding Greenwood means learning what was built—not only what was burned.
MORE →Mae Jemison, aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1992.
