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 25-26 at Crossroads Park and the Lake Union Wooden Boat Festival on July 2-4. Read the rest of this article »

Last month Joe Follansbee, immediate past president of AKCHO, used our Sound Off column to voice his hope that the appointment of Vince Kitch as the new head of the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs would signal “a landmark change in Seattle’s attitude toward support of heritage work” and that “Kitch will recognize the equal role played by neighborhood museums and heritage groups in making Seattle a dynamic, interesting, and attractive city from a cultural perspective.” Read the rest of this article »

The Sammamish Landmarks Commission designated the Jacob and Emma Reard House as a City of Sammamish landmark at its meeting in May. The building is a rare surviving example on the Sammamish Plateau of a late 19th century vernacular farmhouse. Read the rest of this article »

Artist John Grade is creating a massive, 60-foot-tall wooden sculpture that will hang suspended from the high ceiling in the new Museum of History & Industry at South Lake Union Park. And he’s doing it with saltwater-seasoned old-growth planks and beams salvaged from the Wawona, the 1897 schooner that spent its later years waiting in Seattle for a restoration that never came. The Seattle Times carried this front-page report.

After viewing more than 40 entries, the winners of MOHAI’s first annual “History Is ___” film competition have been announced in five categories.  The contest’s steering committee, which included individuals from the Seattle International Film Festival, 911 Media Arts, Northwest Film Forum, The Office of Film + Music, Washington Filmworks, and KCTS 9, judged the entries. Read the rest of this article »

The Library of Congress and Sony Music Entertainment recently launched what they assert is the largest collection of historical recordings ever made publicly available online.  The website covers the first quarter of the 20th century and provides free access to over ten thousand historical recordings on a streaming-only basis. Read the rest of this article »

What’s the greenest building? A new, energy efficient building, or an existing building, which may have historical significance? PBS recently aired a new one-hour documentary by Oregon filmmaker & architect Jane Turville, which argues that conservation and re-use of our existing buildings is our single most effective recycling strategy. You can see clips and learn more here.