History of Seattle Since 1940 - Counterculture

Counterculture

Starting in the late 1950s, Seattle was one of the centers of the emergence of the American counterculture and culture of protest. Before grunge there were beats, fringies (a local Seattle term), hippies, and batcavers. Opened in 1967, one counterculture haven in Seattle was the Last Exit on Brooklyn coffeehouse located near the University of Washington. At the University itself, Parrington Lawn became known as "Hippie Hill", due in part to UW President Charles Odegaard's "outstandingly tolerant attitude toward the hippie element on and near his jurisdiction’s campus, as well as his ongoing refusal to allow Seattle city police onto UW property."

The Seattle counterculture played a role in early urban environmentalism. In the early 1970s, the Northwest Tilth Association promoted alternative modes of production and consumption of food, laying the foundation for an organic food economy in the Pacific Northwest region.

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