SEATTLE’S FREEWAY REVOLT: A DIRECTORY OF HISTORICAL RESOURCES 1 This project was supported by a Heritage Program Grant from 4Culture/King County Lodging Tax Fund. Seattle ARCH is an Associated Program of ShunpiKe Acknowledgements This directory was initiated by Seattle ARCH (Activists Remembered, Celebrated and Honored), na ad hoc group dedicated to preserving and sharing the history of Seattle’s Freeway Revolt. Generous financial support from a 4Culture Heritage Program Grant/King County Lodging Tax Fund made it possible to hire two research archivists, Libby Hopfauf and Arielle Lavigne, who culled much of the information presented herein. We are grateful for th eir expertise and dedication. We wish to extend our thanks to other individuals who made significant contributions to this project. Anne Frantilla, City Archivist, and Ann Ferguson, Curator of the Seattle Collection, Seattle Public Library, provided consultation and guidance from the project’s inception through final review. Jod Fenton, SPL Special Collections managing librarian, was instrumental in formulating the overarching vision for this directory. Jennifer Ott, environmental historian, HistoryLink, provided valuable perspective and insights as an ee external reviewer. Archivists at the Washington State Archives, in particular Jewell Dunn, were extraordinarily helpful in facilitating on-site research. Additional assistance was provided by Virginia Wright, Executive Director, Rainier Valley Historical Society; Caroline Marr, librarian, MOHAI Resource Center; Lorraine McConaghy, public historian; author David Williams; and staff at the University of Washington Special Collections. We also wish to express our appreciation to King County Councilmember Larry Gossett for his endorsement of this project; to Frank Chopp, Speaker, Washington State House of Representatives, for his ongoing support of efforts to preserve this history; and to our Fiscal Sponsor, Shunpike, for providing essential administrative services. Priscilla Arsove and Anna Rudd Co-founders, Seattle ARCH October 2017 TABLE OF CONTENTS Historical Overview 1. Navigating the Directory 2. Key Resources 3. Additional Publications 4. Key Planning Reports 5. Newspaper and Periodical Articles 6. Primary Resources 7. Seattle Municipal Archives Washington State Archives Puget Sound Regional Archives University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections Washington State Department of Transportation Library Rainier Valley Historical Society Narrative TimelineMuseum of History and Industry 8. Organizations Involved in Freeway Revolt 9. Cover image: Comprehensive Plan of Seattle. Seattle Public Library, SEADOC P6.7, September 1956. 1. HISTORICAL OVERVIEW Seattle’s Freeway Revolt: A Citizen Movement that Shaped Seattle In the late 1960s and 1970s, a broad coalition of activists in Seattle challenged plans for a dense network of freeways traversing and girdling the city. Seattle’s freeway revolt was remarkable in its scope and diversity, uniting geographically, ethnically and socio- economically diverse groups across the city. Their collective actions over a multi-year period succeeded in halting two major freeways and significantly downsizing a third, saving parks, shoreline and thousands of homes and businesses. Proposed I-90/ R.H. Thomson Interchange1 Proposed R.H. Thomson Interchange at Evergreen Point Bridge2 It is difficult to imagine what Seattle might look like today had the citizens of that era not prevailed. ● The R.H. Thomson Expressway, roughly a mile from Interstate 5, would have cut a 15- mile swath from the Duwamish neighborhood in the south to Bothell in the north. As many as 3,000 homes would have been destroyed and up to 8,000 people displaced. ● The Bay Freeway, envisioned as a link between Interstate 5 (I-5) and the Seattle Center, would have created a giant viaduct walling off South Lake Union from the rest of the city. ● An expansive new I-90 Mercer Island bridge, adding 10 lanes to the existing 4-lane bridge (U.S. 10), would have connected to the R.H. Thomson via a massive interchange and cut an open trench through Mount Baker Ridge. Much of the surrounding community would have been obliterated. The above projects were rooted in transportation plans of the late 1950s and early 60s, but it was not until construction of I-5, initiated over this same timeframe, that Seattle residents witnessed the destructive impact of freeways on neighborhoods and homes. Subsequent “slumlording” of state highway department-owned homes in the R.H. Thomson and I-90 corridors was a galvanizing force in the freeway revolt. 1 [Article onHoward, Needles, plans fo Tammenr future RH & Bergendoff, Thomson Expressway], and Washington Argus, Department June 2, 1961 of . Highways. Design Report 1, Primary State Highway No. 2, 2Sign Route 90, Corwin Place to East Channel Bridge. Seattle, 1966. 1 Opposition to the R.H. Thomson, I-90 and the Bay Freeway overlapped over a roughly four- year period from 1968-72, the height of Seattle’s freeway revolt. The Bay Freeway and R.H. Thomson were defeated in 1972 referendums, but the anti-freeway movement continued through much of the decade with protracted legal battles, hearings, initiative drives and negotiations over I-90. 3 The freeway revolt was part of a unique period of activism and social change in Seattle, from the anti-war, environmental and Black Power movements to transformation of the Seattle City Council with a “new wave” of political leaders. The well-known “Save the Pike Place Market” initiative passed at the ballot only a few months before voters defeated the R.H. Thomson and Bay Freeways; leaders of the two movements were collaborators and colleagues. Organizations such as the Seattle Model Cities program, Central Seattle Community Council Federation, Choose an Effective City Council and the Forward Thrust campaign came into being around this time and intersected with the freeway revolt around issues of community empowerment, civic leadership and mass transit. A brief timeline highlighting milestone events over more than three decades is provided on the following page. 3 The above images depict materials from the “Seattle Freeway Revolt Collection” (see University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections). 2 TIMELINE OF KEY EVENTS 1960 Voters approve Bay Freeway, RH Thomson bonds City holds first RH Thomson hearing 1961 1962 RH Thomson corridor residents sue city State holds first I-90 hearing; 1963 Evergreen Point Bridge opens 1966 News stories depicting huge I-90/RH Thomson interchange stir public response City holds first Bay Freeway hearing; 1967 Seattle Freeway (I-5) opens 1968 Citizens Against the RH Thomson and Citizens Against Freeways form Citizens dispute RH Thomson funding; 1969 hold rallies to Save the Arboretum and Save Mt. Baker Ridge 1970 Citizens flood city, state I-90 hearings; file lawsuit challenging I-90 Citizen lawsuit sends Bay Freeway 1971 back to voters; Appeals Court halts I-90 construction Vote No Bay Freeway Committee forms; 1972 voters scrap Bay, RH Thomson Circuit Court orders new I-90 1973 EIS and hearings 1976 State holds new I-90 hearings State issues final EIS for scaled-back I-90 with capacity 1977 for future rapid transit Court lifts injunction; 1979 I-90 construction resumes 3 2. NAVIGATING THE DIRECTORY This directory will guide the user to a wide array of historical resources relating to Seattle’s freeway revolt. It is a searchable directory with hyperlinks (in blue) to outside sources, as well as to other sections/resources within the document (in green). Print copies of this directory are available at select local libraries. A digital copy of the directory is hosted on the Seattle Public Library’s website. Sections of the directory are briefly described below. Key Resources: This section comprises an annotated bibliography highlighting publications focused on freeway revolts in Seattle and beyond, as well as the public policy trends that shaped them. Most were written at the time of, or soon after, Seattle’s freeway revolt; some reflect activists’ own accounts of their involvement. Together these resources provide a good overview of what transpired. Additional Publications: This section comprises a bibliography with additional publications of interest. Key Planning Reports: Reports relating to transportation planning for the greater Seattle area ‒ including plans proposing an extensive freeway network ‒ are listed here. Significant legislation at the national level is also noted. Newspaper and Periodical Articles: Relevant media articles with source citations are listed in chronological order. Local newspapers and periodicals, abundant in the era of Seattle’s freeway revolt, provide a rich chronicle of the actions of citizen activists and the origin and evolution of proposed freeway plans. Primary Resources: This section describes materials available within archive collections, including original source documents, photographs, audio recordings, film and video recordings, and maps. Since the contested freeways in Seattle were largely funded and planned by the City of Seattle and State of Washington, the Seattle Municipal Archives and Washington State Archives provide a wealth of relevant information. Archival materials are sorted by the repository (archive, museum, or historical society) in which they are housed. Information provided for each repository includes a descriptive overview; tools and tips for navigating online and physical resources; list of related collections; and contextual information such as a date range,