Town Hall’s Great Hall in full swing with Christopher Hitchins on stage
Photo by William Anthony

Anybody who thinks that historic preservation is exclusively an exercise in sifting through the dusty relics of the past would have been shocked by the thoroughly modern on-line duel that took place in the Puget Sound region’s recent Partners in Preservation funding competition. In this fifth and final year of the program there was an unprecedented last-minute contest for first place, which guaranteed a monetary award of $125,000. Read the rest of this article »

A major funding opportunity is in the works for heritage/preservation projects that have some connection to the surface transportation system in our region. On June 1, the Puget Sound Regional Council is scheduled to issue a call for projects to be funded by the PSRC Transportation Enhancements program. Such enhancements are defined as “transportation-related activities designed to strengthen the cultural, aesthetic, and environmental aspects of the nation’s transportation system.”

Preservation, heritage and archaeological communities in King, Kitsap, Pierce and Snohomish Counties will have the opportunity to compete for slabs of an $11 million pie. Read the rest of this article »

The King County Council has approved an ordinance creating a new account for tracking and disbursing historic preservation and historical programming funds collected through the county recorder’s office. The reform was recommended by the King County Historic Preservation and Historical Programs Advisory Task Force in March as a way to improve accountability for so-called “HB 1386″ funds, which are earmarked by state law to preservation, heritage programming, and document preservation. Read the rest of this article »

Norwegian grandmas, organic farmers, and photographer O.S. Van Olinda are the subjects of some of the 35 projects 4Culture has selected for funding in the 2010 Heritage Cultural Education and Special Projects programs. Faced with its largest applicant pool ever, Heritage 4Culture doled out $174,998 in awards for projects throughout King County. Read the rest of this article »

Photo of David Laskin by Jacqueline M. Koch, courtesy Harper

Ed. Note:  Heritage Advisor solicited this piece from David Laskin after Arizona Governor Jan Brewer recently signed a bill into law that outlaws ethnic studies courses from being taught in public schools.  Laskin’s new book, The Long Way Home, is based on the immigrant experience in America.  The Seattle Times also ran this piece, in slightly modified form, on Memorial Day.

A few days ago, Richard, one of my Facebook friends, sent me a message suggesting I fly the American flag on my Facebook profile — a nice touch for Memorial Day. A couple of days later Richard emailed again to thank me for including a soldier of Kashubian heritage in my book about the immigrant experience in the First World War. Kashubians, as I learned in the course of my research, are a Slavic ethnic group closely related to Poles but with their own language, culture, history and folk traditions. Richard has a particular interest in Kashubian soldiers because his uncle Alex was a Kashubian immigrant who came to the United States as a small boy in 1891 and died on November 1, 1918, fighting with the 354th Infantry in the Argonne Forest in France. Read the rest of this article »

A new law requires that even charities with annual revenues of $25,000 or less must file a Form 990-N, or “e-postcard,” with the Internal Revenue Service. But over 7,000 organizations in Washington State have not yet filed — is yours one of them? The IRS will help small charities keep their tax-exempt status even if they missed the recent deadline for filing a new online form. The IRS urges you to file now. Those failing to file for three consecutive years will lose their tax exempt status.

AKCHO Members – we need your help! The AKCHO Heritage Expo will be making an appearance at two historic King County events this summer: the Eastside Heritage Center’s Strawberry Festival in Bellevue on June 26-27 at Crossroads Park and the Lake Union Wooden Boat Festival on July 3-4. Read the rest of this article »

Photo by Henry Wend

The historic Seike Garden, along with five beautiful private gardens in Burien, SeaTac, and Normandy Park, will be featured on the 2010 Highline Garden Tour, which is the annual fundraiser for the Highline Historical Society. The tour takes place this year on June 12. Read the rest of this article »

The Pioneer Square Community Association, a 4Culture 2010 Heritage Special Projects recipient, last week released the draft concept plan for the Trail to Treasure at a public meeting. The plan is now posted at www.trail2treasure.org, and the Association invites public comment through June 25. Read the rest of this article »

Once a month, the Museum of Flight stays open late for free, courtesy of a sponsorship by Wells Fargo. The Museum’s Great Gallery, Personal Courage Wing, Airpark, Space: Exploring the New Frontier exhibit and more are open from 5 – 9 PM, and the Museum Store and Wings Café also remain open for the extended hours on this night. For the month of June 2010 only, The Museum of Flight’s free admission evening will be on the first Wednesday — June 2 Read the rest of this article »