Published on July 14, 2020
Just about every week in the Seattle area, it seems, there’s news of yet another iconic local theater or ornate apartment building threatened with demolition. It’s part of the deal for a booming region where people want to live and work, and where developers and investors are eager to capitalize on real estate transactions and new construction projects.
With the din of all this tearing down and building up as backdrop, some important work was recently completed to identify a specific subset of lesser-known or otherwise overlooked places where local history has unfolded over the decades.
A year-long survey of historic places in Seattle and King County was conducted last year by consultants working for the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation in cooperation with the Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation.
The goal of the survey was to identify structures and places important to Latino history, but which have largely gone overlooked compared to other more well-known and oft-told narratives of local people and places.
A total of 21 sites were identified and documented, including seven that had never before been listed in previous surveys of potential landmarks.
Protections for landmarks vary by jurisdiction, but landmark designation can often stop or delay a building from being demolished, or at least make it easier for a willing owner to restore and/or preserve it.
Dr. Erasmo Gamboa, Professor Emeritus of American Ethnic Studies at UW, is in his late 70s. He grew up in Sunnyside and came to Seattle to enroll at the University of Washington along with a group of other Mexican-American students in 1968. He is of Mexican ancestry, and he served as Project Historian for the survey.
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Originally written by Feliks Banel for MyNorthwest.