The Steinbrueck Files Pt 2: The Fight to Preserve Pioneer Square

In the ’60s, Seattle’s oldest neighbor was facing demolition. Newly discovered files show how Victor Steinbrueck helped stop the wrecking ball.

In the mid-1960s, Seattle wasn’t known for historic preservation. Many believed that in a city so young and so forward-looking — that had progressed from log cabins to the Space Age in its 100 years — there was nothing historic worth saving. Indigenous history was largely ignored, obliterated or acknowledged in “totem poles” that did not reflect cultures of the region's Coast Salish tribes.

Spurred by the federal government, cities across the country with more history were ripping up neighborhoods under the banner of "blight" and tearing down historic housing to make room for freeways. Seattle’s downtown business community was eager to join that trend.

One person who was interested preservation was architect Victor Steinbrueck. He grew up in Seattle and taught at the University of Washington where he had attended architecture school. He valued bustling urban areas with character and he had an egalitarian point of view.

That perspective is found in many of the half-century-old files that were recently discovered in Steinbrueck's former Eastlake home. Those files, which are the subject of this week’s episode of the Crosscut Reports podcast, also reveal in greater detail Steinbrueck’s fight against so-called urban renewal and the lengths he was willing to go to preserve the Seattle’s history.

For photos from The Steinbrueck Files and an accompanying essay by editor-at-large Knute Berger, go here.  

Stay tuned for the final episode of The Steinbrueck Files, detailing Steinbrueck's role in preserving Pike Place Market. It will be released next week. 

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Credits

Host/Producer: Sara Bernard

Reporter: Knute Berger

Editorial assistance: Brooklyn Jamerson-Flowers

Executive producer: Mark Baumgarten

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