Despite Seattle's relative youth, its buildings and historic sites are reminders of a rich and colorful heritage. Made to Last describes exemplary preservation programs in Seattle and King County, how they developed, and the process of landmark designation and the extent of protection offered landmark properties. Descriptions and photographs provide a guide to individual buildings and landmark districts, demonstrating how each played a part in the remarkably swift development of the county and city. Some of the finest examples of the many rehabilitation and adaptive reuse projects accomplished through creative public and private financing are described and illustrated, as are the personal stories of commitment, perseverance, and labor that have spurred the renewal of properties - designated or not - and made them useful again. Made to Last celebrates buildings whose age is not a detriment, but rather a valuable and contributing force in the community.

Cities like Seattle are inevitably changing. In the process important connections to our past are lost. Seattle's First Hill certainly reflects this dynamic transformation. First Hill developed on a promontory east of downtown and became the location of important churches, clubs, hotels, schools, and residences for civic leaders and entrepreneurs from the 1890s until World War I. From Sixth Avenue to Broadway and from Pike Street to Yesler Way, streets were filled with stylish residences, boarding houses, and fraternal and ethnic community halls welcoming newcomers to the Northwest from America and abroad. Some buildings survive and others made way for a denser neighborhood of institutional and commercial buildings, apartment houses for every income level, and the center of Seattle's healthcare industry. Tradition and Change on Seattle's First Hill: Propriety, Profanity, Pills, and Preservation traces First Hill's origins, explains how and why changes occurred, and points to the potential that exists for future development that respects its surviving historic buildings. Editor Lawrence Kreisman, Historic Seattle's Program Director, taps the knowledge and talents of local and regional historians and authors Paul Dorpat, Jacqueline Williams, Dotty DeCoster, Dennis Alan Andersen, Luci J. Baker Johnson, and Brooke Best for a publication whose chapters make visible the historical, cultural, and social dimensions of First Hill. The book is a marvelous starting point for urban understanding and exploration. We hope it will encourage longtime and newly settled residents, office workers, shoppers, concert and lecture attendees, and visitors to think about what makes this place special and worthy of preservation. First Hill architecture and culture are waiting to be discovered.

Stroll through Larimer Square in Denver or through Pioneer Square in Seattle and you feel that you're stepping into history while browsing the expensive boutiques and tourist shops. But are you? In this intriguing study of some of America's favorite places, Judy Morley takes a fresh look at adaptive reuse efforts in cities of the former frontier. Focusing on urban preservation resulting from the competing interests of architectural preservationists, city planners, chambers of commerce, and boosters, she shows how developers have often taken artistic license to refashion the western past into shopping centers and tourist traps-in ways that privilege an imagined "heritage" over a more complex history. Examining Old Town Albuquerque, Larimer Square and LoDo in Denver, and Pioneer Square and Pike Place Market in Seattle, Morley describes the creation and marketing of western heritage under the guise of historic preservation. She draws on extensive interviews, city council proceedings, and historic plats and photographs to construct a detailed picture of how these districts originally looked and were used, how they were renovated, and to what ends they were marketed. This is the first book to systematically address issues of historic preservation and western urban growth, examining the interplay of identity, preservation, and tourism. It identifies the economic, political, and social issues that transformed each historic district into a place that resonated with the popular imagination. Along the way, Morley exposes the ironies that have attracted criticism to historic districts, such as Old Town Albuquerque's celebration of Hispanic heritage-even though Hispanic residents were displaced during the renovation-or Larimer Square's hiding of its actual skid-row past beneath a veneer of more tourist-friendly history. But while critics charge that historic preservation often celebrates a sanitized past, Morley suggests that these locales offer both residents and visitors a window on a shared romantic history and a sense of belonging, serving as vital locations for community festivals, holiday events, and even public gatherings in times of tragedy. Historic Preservation and the Imagined West argues that, although these districts did not so much preserve history as create mythic identities for their cities, they have in their way reconciled the past with the needs of the future.